For viewers familiar with Jing Yu's body of work, 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' carried an intense sense of déjà vu by this point.
In general, stories involving time travel follow similar frameworks. The core concepts stay the same — just like in xianxia or gods-and-demons novels: same foundation, but some create a masterpiece like Journey to the West, while others are just self-indulgent fluff.
So ultimately, the setting isn't what matters most — it's how you build the story on top of it.
After briefly showing how the heroine Makoto Konno used time travel to avoid a minor incident in home ec class and ace a pop quiz…
She began abusing her ability to travel through time.
Didn't get enough sleep in the morning?
No problem — just sleep in, then rewind and go to school on time.
Something unpleasant happened?
Jump back and redo the day to avoid it.
Had a blast singing karaoke with friends, but felt the time flew by?
Easy fix — rewind and repeat the same two-hour session again and again. After ten hours of continuous KTV, she could call it a night.
Fang Qing frowned and sipped her juice.
Could such a convenient ability really exist?
It was an infinite redo button, unlimited chances to regret and retry.
If it had zero side effects, couldn't Makoto use it to become the richest person in the world, or even a world leader?
All she'd have to do is brute-force every outcome, eliminating all failure. With infinite attempts, as long as something isn't completely impossible, its probability becomes 100%.
And yet—
"Is this how that power should be used?"
"What a waste…"
"If it were me, I'd have won the lottery several times by now."
"Yeah, right. You think too much. The moment you go back and buy the jackpot ticket, the winning number will probably have changed. You might get second or third prize at best."
"So why does she even have this time travel power in the first place?"
"It probably has something to do with that metal orb she found in the science lab… and that shadowy figure whose face we never saw."
"Also, isn't this supposed to be a romance movie? Why is there still no real romance happening?"
As the movie transitioned between scenes, murmurs broke out among the couples in the audience.
But soon, the plot began to move forward.
One afternoon, the male lead, Chiaki, suddenly confessed his feelings to Makoto.
Caught off guard, she panicked — and rewound time to undo the confession.
Then… he confessed again.
So she rewound.
He confessed again.
After a few more back-and-forths, she finally managed to prevent Chiaki from confessing at all.
But the next day, one of her close friends suddenly began asking her questions about Chiaki.
Any observant viewer immediately realized:
Uh-oh. The love triangle setup has arrived.
He confessed to you multiple times, and each time you didn't respond — instead, you rewound time to make it so the confession "never happened."
Now what? Is Chiaki about to end up with your best friend?
Makoto didn't keep her time-traveling a secret. She told her aunt, who, as fans knew, was Kazuko Yoshiyama, the original protagonist from the novel.
"Chiaki's so pitiful," she said. "He finally confessed… and doesn't even know it."
Her aunt sighed — and those words stirred Makoto's guilt.
And for viewers like Fang Qing, this was when the real nature of Makoto's power finally became clear.
Doing this to someone you care about?
That was crossing the line.
From that point on, the plot seemed to unleash the law of karma.
Misfortunes that should have happened to Makoto — now started happening to others instead, thanks to her repeated time jumps.
"While you're enjoying the fortune brought by time travel, someone else out there is bearing the misfortune that was meant for you."
Her aunt's words echoed ominously.
Meanwhile, Chiaki and Makoto's best friend appeared to be growing closer.
Strange, unfamiliar emotions began stirring inside her.
She hadn't accepted Chiaki's confession — instead, she'd used time travel to avoid it.
But not once… did she ever reject him.
At her aunt's art exhibit, Makoto finally displayed a painting she had spent a long time restoring.
And another friend, Kosuke, was having romantic troubles of his own. So Makoto began using her power again — this time to help Kosuke with his love life.
By this point, Fang Qing was genuinely confused.
Makoto's personality… it wasn't exactly bad. She clearly cared about her friends. But her decision-making? Inconsistent and often strange.
Then came the turning point.
Makoto realized her power wasn't unlimited.
On her arm, faint numerical markings had appeared — and each time she time-traveled, the number decreased. When she finally understood this might represent her remaining uses, the number had dropped to 1.
And that's when…
Kosuke, having just started dating a girl, borrowed Makoto's bike to take her home — and texted her to let her know.
It was only then that Makoto realized—
Because of all her time traveling, she had been reliving past days again and again.
And today… was the day of her very first time jump — the day she had almost been hit by a train due to her malfunctioning bike brakes.
Back then, her power had saved her.
But now that Kosuke had borrowed her bike — and was about to head down that same slope—
She panicked.
Dramatic music rose as she ran madly toward the hill. Her calls to Kosuke went unanswered — his line was busy.
She ran with everything she had, the oncoming train's warning bell echoing like a death knell.
When she reached the slope—
Nothing had happened yet.
Relieved, she assumed she'd made it in time.
She relaxed and casually called Chiaki to chat.
But during the call, while trying to dodge one of Chiaki's questions, she accidentally used her last time jump.
A second later—she was back on the slope again.
Kosuke rode by on the bike with his new girlfriend.
The sound of the approaching train returned.
But this time…
She was early.
The train hadn't come yet.
The horn's blare rang out like a grim reaper's cry. Makoto ran, stumbled, and tumbled down the slope. When she got back up, her arm was bleeding.
All she could do was watch—
Kosuke, on her faulty bike — the one she knew had defective brakes and had never been repaired due to all her time jumps —
was now heading straight for the train.
"Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop!"
"STOP!!"
Makoto screamed in desperation.
And just like that — the world changed.
Fang Qing froze in her seat.
Hadn't Makoto used her final time jump?
How could she still time-travel?
Wait—
This wasn't a time jump.
Time had stopped.
The light, the people, the birds, the dust, the world — everything had come to a halt.
Only she… and one other person could move.
"I knew it was you."
Behind her, Chiaki's voice echoed.
"You can time, too?" Makoto asked in disbelief.
"If I told you I came from the future… would you laugh at me?"
Gone was Chiaki's usual cheeky grin.
In its place was a solemn gaze, meeting Makoto's eyes with sincerity.