Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Year: 2010

Runtime: 122 mins

Language: Japanese

Director: Masaaki Taniguchi

Adventure

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.

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline – Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2010)

Trace every key event in Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2010) with our detailed, chronological timeline. Perfect for unpacking nonlinear stories, spotting hidden connections, and understanding how each scene builds toward the film’s climax. Whether you're revisiting or decoding for the first time, this timeline gives you the full picture.

1

Kazuko begins time travel research

In 2010, Kazuko Yoshiyama, a pharmaceutical researcher, secretly works on a formula for time travel. She pursues breakthroughs in a laboratory, pushing the boundaries of what science can achieve. Her obsessive research lays the groundwork for everything that follows.

2010 laboratory
2

Car accident leaves Kazuko comatose

A car accident leaves Kazuko comatose and halts her ongoing work. The sudden crisis threatens both her life and the secret project she is pursuing. The event acts as a catalyst for the journey that unfolds through her daughter.

2010 hospital
3

Kazuko asks Akari to travel back in time

While briefly regaining consciousness, Kazuko asks her daughter Akari to travel back in time to deliver a message to her first love, Kazuo Fukamachi, in 1972. Akari is entrusted with finding a way to reach the past and return to her own time. The request binds their fates across years and generations.

2010 hospital
4

Akari travels to the past by mistake

Akari attempts to travel to 1972 but ends up in 1974 instead. She begins navigating a new era and seeks a path back to her own time. The unintended shift launches her encounter with Ryota Mizoroki and a life she never expected.

1974 Ryota Mizoroki's apartment
5

Akari befriends Ryota Mizoroki

In 1974, Akari is welcomed into Ryota Mizoroki’s world as he adjusts to a new life abroad. He and his circles show her kindness while she hides her true purpose in the past. Their growing friendship provides emotional support in an unfamiliar time.

1974 Ryota Mizoroki's apartment
6

Akari helps with Ryota's film dream

Ryota pursues a dream of becoming a renowned director, and Akari aids in filming a movie with him. Their collaboration deepens their bond and gives Akari a sense of belonging in the past. The project also becomes a bridge between their lives across time.

1974 various locations around 1974
7

Akari meets her father in the past

During their stay in the past, Akari meets her father and they begin to build a fragile connection across generations. The encounter adds another layer to the time-crossed narrative. This meeting helps Akari understand how past choices echo into the present.

1974 past setting
8

They post a personal ad for Kazuo Fukamachi

Akari and Ryota place a personal ad for Kazuo Fukamachi to meet them in the lab where Akari first appeared. The plan is to re-insert Kazuo into the timeline to repair what has been broken. The ad marks a pivotal attempt to converge past and present.

1974 lab where Akari first appeared
9

Ryota cannot attend the meeting

The scheduled meeting arrives, but Ryota is overwhelmed by grief over his father's sudden death and cannot appear. Akari waits in the lab, unsure of what will come next. The absence unsettles the fragile plan to mend time’s rift.

1974 lab
10

Akari delivers the message to Kazuo

Akari hands Kazuo the message and explains that Kazuko still remembers his promise to visit the future. The exchange reveals the long, tangled history between Kazuko, Kazuo, and Akari. The moment shifts the dynamic of who remembers whom and when.

1974 lab
11

Kazuo reveals his past with Kazuko

Kazuo shares the history with Kazuko: they met in a middle-school science lab, and breathing in the fumes of his time-travel formula granted her brief jumps through time. He admits that he erased her memory and may erase Akari as well. The revelation raises the stakes for everyone involved.

1974 lab
12

Akari says goodbye to Ryota

Akari asks to say goodbye to Ryota, who does not know when she will return to her own time. He offers her a silent movie film to keep as a reminder of their bond. The farewell underscores the personal costs of time travel.

1974 lab
13

Memory erasure and the bus tragedy

As the moment that could alter the past approaches, Ryota boards a bus bound for disaster. Kazuo stops Akari from altering the timeline and, in the process, erases her memory of both him and Ryota. The past remains intact, but personal memories are sacrificed.

1974 bus stop / lab
14

Return home to a restored mother and a discovered film

Returning to 2010, Akari finds her mother awake and well, and she discovers a silent film she never consciously remembered receiving. Watching it moves her to tears, even though she cannot name the reason. The moment ties the present to a remembered past.

2010 home
15

A quiet, memory-laden future

Akari walks into the cherry blossoms, a scene that echoes from Ryota’s film, and steps toward a future filled with memories she cannot fully name. The ending suggests a hopeful horizon shaped by the moments that slipped through time. She steps forward into what comes next, carrying a delicate repertoire of remembered connections.

future cherry blossoms / future

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:56

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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.

melancholicnostalgicthoughtfultenderyearningpoignantregretful

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.

melancholicwistfultendernostalgicyearningromanticthoughtfulpoignant

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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Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Summary

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Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Summary

Characters, Settings & Themes in Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

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Characters, Settings & Themes in Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

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