時をかける少女

Good choice as a first book

I’m a big fan of Mamoru Hosoda’s 2006 animation film of the same name so it was really good to have read some reviews of this book before reading it. If I hadn’t read those reviews, I would have been really disappointed, but knowing now that the 2006 film really uses the book as a kind of springboard to create an independent work, meant that I didn’t have to keep comparing the novel unfavourably with the film and could just appreciate the book on its own terms.

So, first up, I want to say it would be a great first book - the version I read (角川つばさ文庫) is fully furigana’d; the vocabulary and grammar are not difficult; and the story is interesting. It was written back in 1967 and the language, setting, and some of the cultural expectations reflect this. It is also obviously aimed at a younger adolescent audience whereas the 2006 film has, I think, more appeal to a wider range of ages.

Good reading practice and an interesting story

This was my first full book and it was a very good choice. I have not seen any of the film adaptations so went in completely blind, which worked out fine. The language and grammar is not too complex, and introduces a lot of useful vocabulary. There is some sci-fi vocab near the end which did make the last 40 pages more challenging. Sentence length is actually surprisingly long sometimes - at first I would get lost, but by the end I was able to understand them much better, so it's very good practice for comprehending longer sentences.

The story is great until the 2/3 mark, when the "big reveal" happens. Then it gets a bit weird and slightly disappointing, but actually in retrospect it wasn't so bad and the final few pages are somewhat redemptive of the weird twist. There are also a lot of long passages of back-and-forth interior monologue inside the protagonist's head, which does often slow down the pacing and make me think, "Why do I care about this?" I'm not well-versed enough in Japanese literature to know whether this is normal or just the author's writing style.

Some people have commented about the character acting archaically. I completely disagree, she was perfectly normal throughout. As soon as she thought, "What day is it?" but didn't turn to a mobile phone or television, I just assumed it was set several decades ago, and sure enough the story was published in 1967, but even if you don't notice this her actions and speech are in no way old-fashioned. The language is also not old, although some words are always spelled with kana for some reason (かの女 for 彼女, and たずねる for 尋ねる are the worst offenders) but this isn't a big deal.

The story is actually only 130 pages, there are three extra short stories at the back that I haven't read - 時の女神、姉弟 and きつね. I read the Tsubasa Bunko version which has furigana.

I don't know why I'm reviewing a book with so many reviews already, but I feel like I wanted to add a little nuance to the reviews for people to decide if it's for them.

I bought the book a long time ago and finally decided to get around to reading it now that it's an easy read for me. I don't think I'd recommend it as a first novel because as others have mentioned, the story deflates as soon as it reveals the plot. The ending is pretty disappointing, and would be even more so if I had been struggling through this for a month like I would have a year ago.

I think the pacing in the first 2/3 of the book is fantastic, and that's part of what is so painful about the late info dump. There was also no setup for the plot resolution, so it feels very bolted on. Another unfortunate consequence is that the plot resolution takes away any agency that Kazuko (the leaper) had in her own story. The ending falls flat, not simply because it's uninspired, but because it takes away from what was up to then a really exciting story. In all fairness, this may have been a more impactful ending when it was written, but in the decades since then, I think people demand more from speculative fiction.

Should you read it? I don't actually regret my decision to read the story, but I went in eyes wide open. I think if this is an easy read for you, it might be worth a read. The audiobook is also quite well produced, so listening to it is also a great option.

Not a deep plot but nice easy read

First of all, at the beginning I didn't know that the book was written in the 60s so I got surprised by a few things (there's a character not knowing today's date, why don't they look at their smartphone or turn on a TV or something like that?). Then it made more sense when I found out.

Despite the age of the book, the language is not too old (maybe a couple of expressions), just a bit surprising how sometimes words are spelled in hiragana: ことば、へや、かの女, but you get used to it.

I liked the story okay, I wouldn't say it's for adults, but I'm thirty something and I was reading a lot as a kid, and I think kid-me would have liked this book, so I liked it!

Regret to say this is skippable

If you're not already a fan of the film and you're easily reading material at this level, you can skip this as in the big big picture of things the SF here is just not that good and the characters are told rather than shown.

I really hate to say this but I was glad I read fast enough I could easily get through this in a couple sittings in a day.

If you enjoyed the film and are looking for level appropriate reading, absolutely this could be a good first book. If you can, say, comfortably read the news or books targeted at older teens or adults? Ehhhhh.

Not a great story, good as first novel

Read this looking for a good first novel. As others have noted, the story really falls apart at the end. It really reminded me of another sci-do book I read in Chinese, from the Wisely Series, the Blue Blooded Being, where the end is just straight exposition of some other sci-fi world. I wonder if that was the style of the era.

Overall it was useful, but the lack of kanji made it difficult at first to get used to, especially since I’m more kanji dominant. I ended up listening alongside an audiobook (and pausing frequently to do lookups) and that helped a ton.

I watched the movie first not realizing that they are different stories, but they are basically the same story, so I would recommend that as well.

Good first book, but kind of boring

This was the first book I ever (tried to) read in Japanese. As a ressource, it was really great, it showed me I could actually read (painfully of course, but that can't really be helped)
However, on the entertainment part, I really felt bored. So much that I'd just ditch it for another book. The story was getting lengthy without keeping my interest, and I couldn't take pleasure reading it anymore.

Overall, I'd say that if it's your first book, you can try, because it's quite readable (presence of furigana and use of overall standard vocabulary). If you've already read and think about a pleasure read, I wouldn't suggest it.

Bit of a drag towards the end. Just when you think thr climax is about to happen it was over. The short stories at the end were interesting.

It's doable at N3 level, the grammar is not that difficult, not too many complicated words.

Fairly Simple Story, Cut Too Short

The story of 時をかける少女 reads like an overscoped short film that had to be cut short and sloppily wrapped up with stageplay exposition. A pity with how well everything is set up.

I got the non-furigana Kadokawa version, which came with 2 other short stories from the same author, and I enjoyed these stories much more than the first.

At first, the usage of only hiragana for words that aren't usually kana-only was offputting and difficult, but after half the book, I was able to get used to the author's style and it became very readable.

• Entertainment: A highschool girl gains the ability to jump through time and space. This book is very short and there is only so much one can do on so few pages, so don't expect any major plot developments. The book's main question is how she gained this ability and the conclusion is reasonably satisfying to read. It is not riveting but it is entertaining enough to not get boring.

• Language Learning: There is so much kana instead of kanji. This book could have been really easy to read and a great recommendation for beginners, but instead it was surprisingly difficult at times. Ok, not really difficult, but a lot harder than it would have been otherwise. Besides that, the vocab is still easy enough to make this book useful for language learning. It is mostly general purpose vocab and only a tiny amount of time travel-related terminology. However, for word-mining it can be really difficult to decide if you want to learn the kana-version from the book or if you should rather learn the kanjified vocab. I recommend using a dictionary that tells you which one is more common.

Total: 3.5/5 stars

A classic teen novel about time travel

時をかける少女 is a short sci-fi novel about a middle school student who accidentally becomes able to jump through time and space, and ends up living the same day over again. It was originally serialized in young adult magazines in the 1960s, and has been adapted many times for TV and film, most notably as an anime film in 2006.

It's not too difficult for a language learner, but I would say it's too tough for someone at an N5 or N4 level. The green 角川つばさ文庫 edition has full furigana. The chapters are easily digestible at only 5 pages each. There are a couple of chapters near the end that dump a lot of new vocab on you, because it's explaining the sci-fi shenanigans that have been going on, but if you brace yourself and keep a dictionary handy you'll get through it. I found some sentences a bit tough to grok at first glance, typically due to a grammar point I didn't immediately identify, so checking the WaniKani book club threads was very useful and highly recommended.

The story isn't bad, but if you go in with high expectations you're bound to be disappointed. It's more of a mystery than a thriller, it's too short to have much room for character development, and the denouement is somewhat underwhelming; despite that, I really like the last chapter. It's a popular story not because it's the greatest book written, but because it has a fundamentally interesting premise that is easily adapted to other media, and has been widely influential on the genre over the past 50+ years (in Japan, at least).

Even though I liked it well enough and don't regret reading it, I'm not sure who I would recommend this book to. It's not quite easy enough for me to recommend it to absolute beginners, and it's not compelling enough to recommend to most other readers, unless you're super into time travel stories I suppose.

If you're reading the green 角川つばさ文庫 version, the book includes three extra short stories by the author, which I enjoyed and think are worth reading. They are:

• 時の女神
• 姉弟
• きつね

If you're looking for a book as exciting as the movie then you might be disappointed.

But this is a GREAT book for N3 level Japanese with a splattering of N2 vocabulary and kanji.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is the first short story of two. And is a quick read at around 100 pages.

The easiest Japanese novel I know. There's also an audiobook version.

The green border around the book means that it has furigana. It's called the 角川つばさ文庫 (Tsubasabunko) version

Updated review since I reviewed this when the site was very, very new. I think I read this much later than I should have because my impression of it was that was quite easy (much easier than other reviewers have graded) - and had I read it when it was appropriate for my level I would have enjoyed it more and felt more the grammar/vocab challenge.

I think this story is cute, easily digestible, and a good touchstone to understand the difficulty ratings of other books. For a kids book this is definitely one of the more enjoyable stories I've come across.