There's two short stories in this book and i'll review each of them separately below.

The Girl who Leapt Through Time

A short while ago i read The Maid, which was my first trip into the writing of Yasutaka, and i thoroughly enjoyed it: so much that i decided to collect every book of his i could find and read them in published order.   And so i began with The Girl who Leapt Through Time from 1967.

What doesn't get a mention when approaching this book is that it's a children's book, i would perhaps place it around 11-12 year old level, so that's something to bear in mind if you do decide to read it.

So it's very simple writing and a rather simple story about some children having a bit of a crazy time with time travel and teleportation.   I felt the best thing about this was it's simplicity in it's writing because as an adult you don't have to think about anything and can just breeze along with the story itself, and it's quite a good little story.

So yeah, i'm more than happy to have come back to Yasutaka's earliest book that's so far been translated into English.   Definitely worth a read if you're a fan of his writing, or if you just want a quick and easy read of some temporal sci-fi.

The Stuff that Nightmares Are Made of

This is quite a different story to the previous one.   Once again, it's another children's book, but this time dealing with the theme of repressed trauma manifesting as unexplained fears.

Although it's a book for children, i do feel that there's a few things for most adults to learn here as well, especially parents, whose words and actions can create all kinds of unintended consequences for children.

And that's me done with this book.   The Maid was next in the original publishing time line of Yasutaka's translated books, but i already read that, so next up will be Paprika, which i hope to get around to reading some time soon as i'm really enjoying Yasutaka's writing. ( )

I watched the anime film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and found out that it was based on a book by Yasutaka Tsutsui. I looked everywhere to find this book but resulted to no avail. Fortunately, my friend Joy here in goodreads had an ebook and gave me a copy. Thank you :)

If you're an anime, manga or Japanese drama enthusiast, you would agree with me that the story is a typical one. It's one of the stories with magic or supernatural things occur plus the erasing of memories with a hint of love story. What I love is the idea of how the future will look like & it makes the readers cherish the present.

The story was about a girl named Kazuko who acquired a power of teleportation through time leap. She went to past and prevented accidents from happening but it caused more disastrous results to other people. She wanted to lose her power and learn about it. So she went back to past and meet someone who concocted it. To her surprise, it was someone she knew.

It has an extra story titled, "The Stuff that Nightmares are made of". It's like omake in mangas. :) It's about Masako facing her unusual phobia, finding out how it originate & how to overcome it.

The anime film was a sequel of this book but I still want to:
compare the book with the anime film
Beware: spoilers will pop once in a while

There are several adaptations but I think the anime film was the most popular one. Bucket of tears I've shed, it became one of my favorites.
Time waits for no one

I can't believe I'm going to say this but I really love how the movie did not become faithful to the book. Makoto experienced what her aunt went through (which this book was all about). They both had the same situation, two guy friends, acquisition of unexpected power & bittersweet endings but the anime film delve deeper in terms of responsibilty of the acquired power as Makoto used to time leap several times. The anime was more heart breaking because their memories weren't erased & Chiaki left her a promise.



And she said, "I’ll come running". But you know it will be impossible as Chiaki's from decades of future. :'(

Chiaki [anime] & Kazuo [book version] both wanted the slower & peaceful pace of the present life. However, Chiaki really wanted to stay & he can't do anything about it while Kazuo have to go back to his research as he said it was his main purpose in life.


LOL look at the crossover I saw:
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Quería leer este libro desde el momento en el que vi la película, la cual me encantó, ya que tengo la firme convicción de que los libros siempre son mejores que su adaptación fílmica. Sin embargo, La Chica Que Que Saltaba A Traves del Tiempo resulto ser la excepción de la regla.

La película trata de Makoto, sobrina de Kazuko quien es la protagonista en la novela, quien adquiere también de manera similar el poder de saltar hacia atrás en el tiempo. La historia es contada de una manera hermosa, con matices que varían de lo divertido a lo sentimental, y nos muestran, en un momento, a una Kazuko solitaria, luego de que el amor de su vida desapareciera. Eso fue lo que me impulso a leer el libro. Quería saber como había terminado sola, como había sido su relación con el que era el amor de su vida, como había sido su experiencia viajando en el tiempo. Pero: decepción.

En la novela se nos muestra como una joven Kazuko adquiere la habilidad de retroceder en el tiempo, sin embargo la historia es demasiado corta y los detalles inexistentes, tratándose todo el tema de manera demasiado superficial, lo que no permite la conexión con los personajes, ni la trama si vamos al caso.

A pesar de todo el tema tiene muchísimo potencial y la escritura es buena. Adicionalmente en el libro también hay otra historia que se llama "De lo que están hechas las pesadillas", en el cual vemos como una joven lucha contra sus miedos mas profundos.

Entretenido, ligero y de esos libros, que a pesar de todo, te dejan un sentimiento de paz.
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One of my favorite animated films is Mamoru Hosoda's 2006 The Girl Who Leapt Through Time which was inspired by Yasutaka Tsutsui's short novel The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, originally released in Japan in 1967. Tsutsui is an award-winning and extremely well-known author of Japanese science fiction, though Western audiences are probably more familiar with the various anime and live-action adaptations of his works. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is one of Tsutsui's most beloved and popular stories. It has been the basis for several television series, films, and manga in addition to Hosoda's anime. The novel, translated by David Karashima, was released in English by UK-based publisher Alma Books in 2011. The English edition of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is based on the 2009 republication of the volume which collects Tsutsui's story The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of as well as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was originally serialized between 1965 and 1966 before being collected in 1967. The titular girl, Kazuko, discovers that she has gained the ability to slip through time and space after fainting in her high school's science lab. Although the power has its advantages, it's not one that she wants. She wishes that her life would go back to normal and that her two closest friends and classmates, Goro and Kazuo, would be able to treat her in the same way that they always have. Initially Goro is skeptical of Kazuko's newfound ability, at least until she is able to offer him proof. The more laid back Kazuo on the other hand takes the whole situation in stride; at first he doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a charming story, but I will admit that I largely prefer the anime's version of the tale. Many of the scenes are similar between the two, but the novel is much simpler and more direct. Even so, I can understand why Tsutsui's original has inspired so many other creators--it's imaginative science fiction with just the right touch of romance.

Whereas The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is science fiction, The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of leans more towards realistic psychological horror. The story follows Masako, a young woman who has started to avoid visiting her friend Bunichi's household, though she can't quite recall the reason why she has been staying away. After helping to dispel some of the fears of her younger brother--showing that his wild imaginings are rooted in real world happenings--she decides to face and investigate the causes of her own. Initially Bunichi teases Masako, but realizing that she really is frightened he agrees to accompany her on her mission, getting quite a scare in the process. Considering the short length of The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of, Tsutsui is able to incorporate an impressive number of story twists. Masako is an appealing lead--smart and clever, though perhaps a little reckless and with room to grow and mature. Her willingness to confront her fears and to improve herself is admirable, but it can also cause some problems for her and the people around her, too.

Although The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of are two, unrelated stories, they do share some similarities. The protagonists are both intelligent, likeable young women, for one. Tsutsui's style has a subtle, understated humor to it and the writing is simple and straightforward, making both stories approachable for younger readers. Each of the tales has a bit of romance in addition to a quickly paced plot. (The entire volume can fairly easily be read in one or two sittings.) But what I found to be the most striking commonality and difference between The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of was Tsutsui's use of and approach to the themes of memory and truth. Both are important elements in the two stories, but are handled oppositely: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time carries a sense of nostalgia over the loss of memory, the truth ultimately being hidden while in The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of it is only after a particular memory is regained that the truth is completely revealed.

Experiments in Manga ( )

Quería leer este libro desde el momento en el que vi la película, la cual me encantó, ya que tengo la firme convicción de que los libros siempre son mejores que su adaptación fílmica. Sin embargo, La Chica Que Que Saltaba A Traves del Tiempo resulto ser la excepción de la regla.

La película trata de Makoto, sobrina de Kazuko quien es la protagonista en la novela, quien adquiere también de manera similar el poder de saltar hacia atrás en el tiempo. La historia es contada de una manera hermosa, con matices que varían de lo divertido a lo sentimental, y nos muestran, en un momento, a una Kazuko solitaria, luego de que el amor de su vida desapareciera. Eso fue lo que me impulso a leer el libro. Quería saber como había terminado sola, como había sido su relación con el que era el amor de su vida, como había sido su experiencia viajando en el tiempo. Pero: decepción.

En la novela se nos muestra como una joven Kazuko adquiere la habilidad de retroceder en el tiempo, sin embargo la historia es demasiado corta y los detalles inexistentes, tratándose todo el tema de manera demasiado superficial, lo que no permite la conexión con los personajes, ni la trama si vamos al caso.

A pesar de todo el tema tiene muchísimo potencial y la escritura es buena. Adicionalmente en el libro también hay otra historia que se llama "De lo que están hechas las pesadillas", en el cual vemos como una joven lucha contra sus miedos mas profundos.

Entretenido, ligero y de esos libros, que a pesar de todo, te dejan un sentimiento de paz.
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