If we possessed the power to travel through time, life would be infinitely easier: imagine the hangovers we'd prevent if we could go back and stop one drink sooner, the awkward dates we'd avoid if we could rewind and take the time to run a background check (or, at least, a Google search) on those people with the supposedly “sparkling" personalities our friends decide to set us up with. But in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, an award-winning anime movie receiving a rare stateside screening tonight at the MFA (465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, 617.267.9300), one young protagonist discovers her newly endowed time-warping talents bring with them weighty responsibility. Anime may have a reputation as a genre for nerdy fan-boys (we know you were thinking it), but this flick was critically lauded upon its Japanese release in 2006, sweeping film festival awards and proving the legitimate power of animated art. In addition to the screening, tonight’s event, which runs from 7 to 9 p.m., also includes a discussion with Ian Condry, MIT professor and author of Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization, and Susan Napier, Tufts University professor and author of Anime: From Akira to Howl's Moving Castle. Tickets ($13, $10 for members and students) are available here or at the door.
