Note: At the time of writing this, I have yet to see the anime movie or any of the other media (it started with a novel and there have been a number of adaptations). Story: At first, the story is very disjointed - and not because of the time leaps! The beginning covers a series of minor, unconnected incidents in the main character's life, which gives you a sense of the type of person she is, but can be hard to follow. Maybe because I'm such a science fiction and fantasy fan, I didn't expect the story to go as it does - to basically be a romance/sliceof life. It's sort of a coming of age story. Nonetheless, it is well-handled, and becomes increasingly gripping as it goes on and things become more difficult for the main character.

Art:
The art is nice. In the black-and-white sections, it's clean and dynamic, showing movement well, while the color pages (which are few) use a coloring style that's unusual in manga, and it turned out quite well.

Characters:
The main character starts out pretty immature, but thankfully she grows over the course of the story. The other characters, though not numerous (it is after all quite a short manga) are realistically portrayed and easy to relate to.

Overall:
This manga is fun from the start, and gets better. I wouldn't say it's a must-read, but it does make me want to check out the earlier versions as well as the movie - there are several references to the other story (this is a sequel of sorts) which I enjoyed, even though I haven't seen what they're referencing! It's also a fast and easy read, even in the original Japanese.