Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Year: 2010
Runtime: 122 mins
Language: Japanese
Director: Masaaki Taniguchi
As Akari Yoshiyama prepares to graduate and start university, her mother—who works as a pharmacologist—suffers a car accident that upends their plans. Determined to honor her mother’s dream, Akari finds a way to travel back to 1972, hoping to change the past and fulfill that wish.
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Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2010) – Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained
Read the complete plot breakdown of Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2010), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.
In 2010,
< Ryota Mizoroki > pursues a dream of becoming a renowned director, and Akari aids in filming a movie with him during their time together. She also meets her father in the past, and the two of them begin to piece together a fragile connection across time. Akari and Ryota place a personal ad for
Yet when the scheduled meeting arrives, Ryota is overwhelmed by grief over his father’s sudden death and cannot appear. Akari delivers the message to
Akari asks to say goodbye to Ryota, who does not know when she will return to her own time. He bids her farewell in confusion as he heads out on a day trip, and he gives her a silent movie film to keep. Akari soon realizes too late that Ryota is about to board a bus that will crash off a cliff and claim the lives of all aboard. She rushes to intervene, but Kazuo stops her from altering the past and erases her memory of both himself and Ryota.
Returning home, she finds her mother awake and well, and discovers the film she never consciously remembers receiving. Watching it, Akari is moved to tears, even though she cannot name the reason. She then walks into the cherry blossoms, the same scene that appeared in Ryota’s film, stepping forward into a quiet, memory-laden future.
Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:56
Explore Movie Threads
Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.
Bittersweet Time Travel Movies like Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Characters use time travel to fix the past, but find solace comes with sacrifice.If you liked the gentle melancholy and personal stakes of Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, explore more movies where time travel is used to heal emotional wounds. These stories focus on the bittersweet cost of changing the past, blending sci-fi concepts with deeply human dramas about love, loss, and acceptance.
Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
2010
Needle in a Timestack
2021
From Time to Time
2009
Beyond the Time Barrier
1960
The Greatest Hits
2024
Walking Distance
2015
Secret
2007
The Future
2011
Intermezzo: A Love Story
1939
Sentimental Destinies
2000
What’s the Time In Your World?
2014
A Matter of Time
1976
Love Me
2025
Galaxy Express 999: The Movie
1979
The Fare
2018
Narrative Summary
These narratives follow a character motivated by grief or regret to alter a specific event. The journey through time is driven by love and a desire to save someone, but the mechanics of time ensure a trade-off. The resolution is rarely a clean victory; instead, it's a quiet acceptance of a new, altered reality where something gained is balanced by something lost.
Why These Movies?
Movies in this thread share a specific emotional arc: they use the sci-fi premise of time travel to explore profound human themes like grief and memory. The tone is consistently melancholic and thoughtful, with a steady pace that allows for character reflection. The endings are almost always bittersweet, prioritizing emotional truth over tidy solutions.
Movies with a Gentle Melancholy Vibe like Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Stories steeped in tender sadness, where love is remembered more than lived.Fans of the wistful, tender atmosphere of Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time will find more evocative stories here. These films share a similar mood of nostalgic yearning and thoughtful reflection, often exploring themes of unfulfilled love and the poignant beauty of memories, all wrapped in a steady, character-driven pace.
Intermezzo: A Love Story
1939
Young Goethe in Love
2011
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
2009
From the Terrace
1960
Needle in a Timestack
2021
Passion of Mind
2000
The Greatest Hits
2024
Message in a Bottle
1999
Eternal Summer
2006
Darling
1965
Last Letter from Your Lover
2021
Trouble with Sex
2005
Chungking Express
1996
A Man in Love
1987
Those People
2016
Narrative Summary
The narrative pattern involves characters grappling with a subtle but persistent sense of loss—be it a person, a past self, or a possibility. The conflict is internal and emotional, driven by remembrance and 'what ifs.' The story unfolds at a measured pace, prioritizing quiet, character-driven moments over high drama, and resolves with a feeling of quiet acceptance rather than dramatic closure.
Why These Movies?
These films are grouped by their dominant mood: a gentle, romanticized sadness. They share a similar tone (melancholic), pacing (steady), and emotional weight (medium). The central theme often revolves around the bittersweet nature of memory and love that is felt as an absence or an echo, creating a coherent and deeply atmospheric viewing experience.
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Characters, Settings & Themes in Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
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More About Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
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