I hated the last 1/3 of the movie so much...

It was just so incredibly disappointing for me. The first hour was an absolute work of art... time travel isn't a brand new idea but this was such a fresh take on it, with a unique story told in such a skillful way... it's just an absolute work of art.

And then- it's like the writer just ran out of creativity. Inexplicably, Chiaki can stop time. Somehow (and the audience is left only to guess about it), he sends Makoto back in time with her memory intact. For no clear reason this allows her to have one of her leaps back, and for no clear reason Chiaki does not have any memory of any of this taking place.

Really? After that absolute work of art in the first hour, we're given nonsense like this, without even the courtesy of Chiaki explaining to Makoto what he's doing and how it works? What a cop-out... even a bad Star Trek episode will at least come up for a reason for why they were able to save the day.

And during this section, we also get a pretty silly reason for why Chiaki first went back in time... to see a painting? I love the idea that he went back in time and then used up his charges to spend more time being with his friends, don't get me wrong. But the original trip was just for a painting? This really distracted me from the movie and made me think "what was the writer thinking, that's such a weird reason".

So anyway, after we swallow those bitter pills, we get a few nice moments of Makoto doing good deeds, and then the final scene.

Does Chiaki finally get to see the painting? Do we get a heartfelt goodbye and farewell? Do we get a conversation like "we could have had a great relationship together, but it just wasn't destined to be?"

Nope. We get Chiaki returning to the future (and it sounds like a distant future), promising to meet her there. Ummm... what? That makes no sense, and completely ruined the moment. What does this even mean? When Makoto is 50+, she's going to meet a 17 year old Chiaki?

I wish the movie had just ended with Kousuke getting hit by the train and dying. Everything was perfect up to that point.

It was just so disappointing to see something so great get ruined like that. It's as bad as the sequels to the Matrix. But at least the Matrix can stand alone by itself as a movie... but The Girl Who Leapt Through Time can't.