Summer Wars

I'm sure most of you had those times that you felt a bit bored or tired and weren't in the mood to catch up with any series, so you were in need to watch a good movie or even a good short series. Not something to change your life or anything of the sort, just something entertaining that would keep you fully interested. Well, this kind of thing happened to me today and I was free, so I looked on my plan to watch list for a movie. I came across Summer Wars, which I had intended to watch so long ago, but never really had the time and its ratings were good too. So, I thought, why not? Story: (9/10) High school student and math genius Kenji is invited by his secret crush, a senior girl named Natsuki, to join her in her great-grandmother's birthday celebration, which is a big family occasion and many of her relatives will be there as well. The reason she took him with her though is to pretend to be her boyfriend and it caughts him a bit of guard, but he goes along with it. Meanwhile, the internet is a bit more capable than we know it and there is a program, named Oz, that is actually able to affect the real world in the case that it is hacked. That happens in the movie and thus real world collides with the digital one in a dangerous way, leaving Kenji and Natsuki's family to figure it out. The story is quite simple and easy to follow. It has a few emotional moments, comedy and a lot of action, but the latter one applies mostly to the last part of the film. However, the plot isn't the movie's strongest point and that's not a bad thing, since to me it appears that this wasn't really made for the purpose of providing a mind-blowing story, but rather to transfer certain messages to the viewer THROUGH the story. Yes, maybe most of the times that's the purpose; messages that will affect your life and way of thinking. In this movie, this aspect is really strong. To me the purpose of this simple movie was to move me and to remind me that, no matter what the members' differences are or whatever bad happens, a family always comes together to back up and support its members. Even if it's the end of the world, staying together and cooperating to figure things out is more important than anything for a family. Realising that towards the end made me tear up a bit and that means a lot. So, don't expect any kind of deep original plot, but rather a simple and moving one with many, prominent or not, messages. Art: (10/10) The animation and artwork is a collaboration of many studios, with perhaps Madhouse being the lead one, and God, it was amazing! To be honest, I thought that Studio Ghibli had helped with that a little bit, but I was surprised to find out it didn't. So, yeah, I watched it in high definition and everything was so clear, I could see every little detail. I personally loved the realistic movements of the characters, their expressions, everything was animated so oh so well. Pure eye candy. Sound: (9/10) I can't say much about the soundtrack other than it was simply brilliant. It has tracks that divide in two categories: calm, melodic ones and action/battle ones. The calm ones gave off a kind of 'summer' feeling, they fitted the atmosphere of family gathering and such, while the action/battle ones, well, were used in the scenes where agony was reaching its climax and in the network's fights. A great soundtrack for the movie. Character: (10/10) Ah, here we go. When you have a humble, kind, math genious boy and a normal girl with her huge family being the characters of a story, then it's natural that types of character vary. Of course, not all members of the Jinnouchi family are shown into depth, but there are sure some that stand out and are pretty interesting to watch. We see Kazuma, one of Natsuki's cousins, who prefers to stay in his room with his laptop, going on Oz and participate in the Martial Arts Championship there. We also have Sakae, Natsuki's 90-year-old great-grandmother, who is a very fierce woman, gets things done, she's the absolute boss of the family. She's a very strict person, but she's respected and she actually has more soft spots in her heart than you might initially think. A fierce, lovely old woman. And the last to stand out, Natsuki's uncle, Wabisuke. He's very distant from the other family members and no one seems to like him. The rest of the family members are really fun to watch and my best guess is that they serve mostly as comic relief and, well, to live up to the 'united family' message I mentioned. But yeah, it's heartwarming to see those little children running around the house and having fun with bubble baths, the mothers cooking in the kitchen, the dads watching TV and doing stuff together and the family dinners. They all give off a nice feeling that will make you smile. Enjoyment: (10/10) I was so into it, really! I laughed at the funny parts, I cried at the emotional or sad parts, I was at the edge of my seat when there were action scenes, the network fights, the anxiety if someone would make it or not... Truly enjoyable! Overall: (9/10) This is a really great movie that will make you smile and probably remember all those amazing moments you had with your family as a child or as a grown up. And there is action, comedy and great characters. An awesome summer movie that I totally recommend! Thanks for reading my review, I apologise for any grammatical mistakes and I hope I helped you if you had any doubts on watching this movie. Feedback is greatly appreciated! :D

Summary: Summer wars is about a math genious named Kenji Koiso. Suddendly he is being asked by prettiest girl in the whole school Natsuki Shinohara to go with her to her summer house and dance with her at 90th birthday of Sakae Jinnouchi, grandmother of Natsuki. As Kenji pretends tob e Natsukis boyfriend in front of her family , he gets a weird mathematical quiz that he solves over night. It turns out that the answer was the security code that made the hacker possible to enter world of Oz, that controles almost everything within the real world. And now it’s up to Kenji and hes new made “family” to control the chaos and put an end to the hacker. Review: Story is especialy aimed at romance genre, but it has a comedy side aswell. But, it doesn’t have anything special added to it. It is just another comedy romance like alot of others out there. The love between Kenji and Natsuki slowly developes as story progresses, it starts from 0 at the time that the story begins and it ends with a romantic kiss infront of the whole family. Characters are suprisingly normal. Natsuki is a popular pretty school girl that happend to need a fake boyfriend, and Kenji is a math genious that saves the world from total chaos (I don’t even know why non other math genious could do it). But hey, he is a hero and gets a pretty girl at the end. Sakae is very strict but at thesame time kind, she is like a perfect grandma. Natsukis family is just a bunch of random characters to fill in the background and have only few usefull moments in the whole anime. Animation and music are great, the artwork is a bit diffrent from other animes what made it pretty amazing, music is also very fitting and fills in the missing parts to a perfect romance comedy. To sum things up, the story line is pretty plain but enjoyable, animation and music filling in the missing parts. Should you watch it? Yes you should, if you love romance animes, enjoy movies and want to watch a good one then Summer wars is just for you.

Ahh, Summer Wars, a family movie with a title that may have had viewers thinking it is centered around family fights, which it was in a way, yet when reading the synopsis it was quite different than expected. It is an sci-fi anime enriched with comedy and drama to a certain extent, which proposed an interesting theme: the effects of having a digital system that controls and stores personal data that is hacked and the effects of it. This anime was entertaining, yet when analysing the story and characters a bit closer, flaws could be found, in addition to some pacing issues. The story of Summer Wars! focuses on the math genius Kenji Koiso who agrees on the summer job proposed by his secret crush Natsuki; but there is a gist to it as he soon discovers: he must act as her fiancé. Joining her family to celebrate the 90th birthday of Sakae, the matriarch of the family, it is soon apparent that it is tough deceiving the family. Amidst of this, he receives a math problem to solve which he successfully does without knowing the catastrophic consequences it has to OZ, the digital program that controls almost every aspect of people's life. The premise looks interesting, which in addition seems to be packed with humor and with a little drama. This was indeed the case, in had a good introduction of the different characters, how society was structured technological-wise and the importance of the program of OZ. The humour may not be to everyone's liking, but there were some passages that were amusing; the present family affairs were interesting to observe, as these were relatable and realistic, albeit a bit exaggerated. However, although the first half of the movie was well paced, the second half was not; this was rushed, consequently leaving quite a lot of questions unanswered such as how the system of OZ worked, as well having quite some plot holes and plot conveniences that would leave viewers eye-rolling. The concept of such a program is surely of high interest, as this may be a possibility in the near future of current society. It certainly displays the worst aspects of this program, although a bit lackluster when displaying its strengths. The interactions of people with this programme also seemed to give the impression that everyone was only concerned with this digital world, rather than the reality, which in turn through the animation seemed to suggest that these coexisted in harmony. This program also raises the question on why such a program has access to everything, including government data, without corresponding countering systems to avoid said issue. Moving on to the characters, these are varied and unique on its own way, meaning representing different personalities from reality anyone could relate to. In fact, some were very well presented, as the case of Tanimura Mitsuki who is a 13-year-old game addict; others were amusing, such as Sakuraba Nanami who provides a balance to counter the character of Natsuki. Character development of these are nearly nihil, in addition to its fleshing out of its cast, which in understandable in a movie format anime with such a huge cast of characters. Nevertheless, the interactions with the family and its cast, strikingly similar to reality, easily identifying with some viewers. However, some questions may linger among audiences, such as why the family is so influential, or why certain things happened in this family. The animation of Summer Wars was well done, having fluid movements, and a great variety in character design: be it the skin tone, hair style, facial structure, being all very distinctive from each other. The backgrounds are beautiful to watch at as well, brightly coloured and drawn. As for the virtual world, this is original and displayed with a mix of CG and drawings, which was surprisingly well done. Other positive aspect would be the character's avatars in this world, as these represented well the personality of the different characters of the cast. In terms of soundtrack, the different compositions matched with the atmosphere of the movie, although no track in particular stood out. The voice actors performed their roles well. There was however a at times issues with the sounds: speech, music and back ground effects were sometimes overlapping each other too much, making it difficult for audiences to either understand or properly follow the story/different soundtracks used. Overall Summer Wars! was an enjoyable anime, and certainly proved to work well as a family movie, although not anything outstanding. For more critical viewers there were quite some issues which impacted negatively on the experience of the show, as the story was rushed in the last part, consequently failing to explain properly the different workings of the program and the family. The characters and their interactions certainly stood out, in addition to its animation and the interesting theme it proposed, but was hindered by its own strength, being a family movie. So do I recommend Summers Wars? Yes, to a certain extent. If you are searching for a light movie to watch, then go ahead; otherwise maybe it is better to watch other ones. Thank you for reading.

"Please tell me you didn't break the internet." Welcome to the land of Oz... no, there are no girls that claim to be sucked into a tornado with her little dog as she goes down a yellow brick road in a giant musical number with friends she makes along the way. This Oz is a social network, if that's even the right word for it... I guess you could call it a program that can literally do anything. It can help you with your business, it can buy real estate, you can play sports, and make friends from all over the world while being able to communicate with a script that translates everything you say into any language imaginable. Pretty incredible, right? Now, what would you say if a virus had been uploaded into that program? A virus that could cause mass destruction to any location in the world? Summer Wars was a very entertaining movie. It was full of action, it had a good story, the characters were likable, almost flawless. However, with most movies and TV shows these days, there are almost always things that need to be improved on. Despite these very few things, this is easily one of the best movies I've ever seen. Now, without further ado, let's get this review started, shall we? How many of you have seen the Digimon Movie? Remember the plot? A virus is uploaded onto the internet, and causes a whole lot of hell, and it's up to the main characters to destroy it. Now, Summer Wars is amazingly similar to the Digimon Movie, but what really counts is how they play it out. Meet Kenji, a maintenance worker for Oz. He is given the opportunity to go with the girl of his dreams, Natsuki, on a vacation to meet her family while celebrating her Great Grandmother's 90th birthday. Here's the catch: apparently they're engaged, or so Natsuki says. He just goes along with it after some begging from her, and things are going pretty well, until an amazingly large digit code is sent to Kenji's phone, and him being a math genius solves it. It wasn't until the next day where he was accused into allowing a virus access into Oz and a warrant is placed for his arrest. Unfortunately the virus on Oz appears to be a bigger problem then anyone could imagine, and now it's up to Kenji, Natsuki and the rest of her family to find a way to stop it before it causes some mass destruction to the world. The story is full of comedy, heart, and some pretty hardcore feels. All of it mixes together to create a pretty good anime. The only problem is that the entire time I was watching it, I was reminded of Digimon and I kept waiting for Kenji's avatar to digivolve. This movie was brought to you by the company Madhouse Studios, and was directed by Hosoda Mamoru. The movie might have a similar feel to the art style, mainly because it's from the same company as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. I remember that I really loved the art style to TGWLTT, and I knew that I'd love the artwork in Summer Wars as well. It doesn't stop there though, it also has a different animation style as well. The artwork in the real world was similar to TGWLTT, while the artwork in Oz seemed very video game-ish, which was perfect considering the fighting in this movie reminded me a lot of fighting in a game. Very awesome indeed. There's one definite thing I can say about the cast list: it's fricking HUGE. There are tons of characters you might know from other animes. We have Maxey Whitehead, Pam Dougherty, Michael Tantum, Michael Sinterniklaas, Brina Palencia, and a whole lot more! I was amazed when I kept naming all the actors in my head when their characters showed up on-screen. Very satisfied with the cast (mainly cause all of my favorites were in it). As I previously stated, the cast list is huge, so naming every single character is out of the question. So, I'll be introducing the 5 main characters to you: 1) Kenji Koiso Kenji is your average high school student, with the exception of him being the smartest math genius in anime history, and he runs maintenance on Oz. He can easily solve 1000 digit cryptic equations (later proved to be useful). He is very shy around people, especially around Natsuki. 2) Natsuki Shinohara The prettiest girl in school, or so they say. She's apparently very popular, and she comes from a very long line of Jinnouchi's. She loves her friends and family, and is a very skilled card player (later proves to be useful). 3) Kazuma Ikezawa (King Kazuma) He is the martial arts champion on Oz, his username being King Kazuma, and he has the world record in the Martial Arts Championship (later proves to be useful), and he's only 13! However, he doesn't care for the game itself, he cares for the fighting and winning. 4) Wabisuke Jinnouchi At first, he appears to be a no good scumbag, at least according to everyone in the Jinnouchi family. He is the illegitimate son of Natsuki's Great Grandfather, and was adopted into the Jinnouchi family, however a few years ago, before the story took place, he took a large sum of money from the family to fund a project of his. He is an incredible computer programmer (later proves to be useful). 5) Sakae Jinnouchi (Granny) She is the main reason Kenji was invited to Natsuki's home, because Natsuki told her grandmother she had to meet her boyfriend/fiance before she died due to her poor health. She has a lot of courage, and is able to pass that on to people by encouraging them (later proved to be useful). A very important character to the story. Summer Wars was, in a word, epic. I had chills going down my spine for over half of the movie, especially near the ending. The movie was filled with action, comedy, and just an overall feel of both sadness and happiness. It's like the Digimon Movie, only in my opinion, 10 times better. For all those who enjoy action and artwork by Hosoda Mamoru, don't hesitate in watching this any longer. Watch it as soon as you can, cause this is a definite must see for everyone!

What is this anime? It is about Facebook's new Metaverse they are trying to push out. Except in this world it has already happened and Facebook is called "OZ" instead. The whole world essentially runs on OZ. Then Oopsie Whoopsie! OZ has a virus! Many essential services get taken down and the MC is accidentally responsible for it all. We watch his journey as he defeats the virus and saves the world. Did I enjoy it? It sure is an odd film, with bright, abstract colors. And game (OZ) character designs that dare I say are unnecessarily creepy/unnerving. This film would work well if you needed something to watch on family night, especially if your kids are gamer-obsessed. (unless your kids get nightmares easily. like foreal the character designs are messed up.) The random bouts of comedy are what I enjoyed most about the film, and most were well executed. It was enjoyable when I watched it with friends, however I cannot see myself ever rewatching.

Excellent! This anime is an example of a good animation movie. It can be watched not only by some geeks, but it is fine for people who never heard about anime - like, the whole family. This movie is about family - the simple life advice about being bond together, the family can stand the mountain, blah blah. It is shown in great way, very enternaining and exciting. For my personal opinion, this movie is perfect to watch with little kids - simple and wise, entertaing, the art is bright and catchy. Good job MadHouse, though I don't like this studio.

This film is brilliant for so many reasons. The message it puts out is simple and what so many people fail to do : stick by your family. Even if your brother is mental he's your brother and there isn't anything you can do about it.(that doesn't happen though ;P) It's detailed and simple at the same time, with the typical romance and also the typical bad guy wants to destroy everything and one of the main characters accidently help him a bit too much. But they take how modern life is now to create a more agreeable future... Ain't no flying cars there, only smartphones and internet (not complaining) But they was one problem that i had with the film. It's tiny but still annoys me. The fact that one code,one firewall is all you need to break to basically control everyones lives. Other then that its a great family film with a nice mix of action, romance and the odd parts of comedy

As all great movies do this one relies on the basic humanity of the characters to push the story forward. The story comes together naturally as a simple birthday weekend turns into a battle to save the world from an out of control AI that is taking over the world's internet. The simple strength of an old woman and her family shows you the best of what it means to be human, a young woman grows as tragedy both personal and worldly come to a head finding an inner strength she didn't know she had, and a young man comes into his own to fight against a threat to his new family. All these story lines are held together with humor and the bonds of family. Whether its the slice of life setting, the science fiction plot, or the romance of young love this movie is excellent in every way. A must see.

The first time I saw Summer Wars was at Anime News Network. I read their recent review on it and man, they were absolutely blown away. This, as well as the interesting plot and title, made me want to watch it right away. The plot of Summer Wars definitely intrigued me. It was just too bizarre and out of the ordinary and I just couldn't help myself to not watch it. It pretty much had everything - slice of life, action, romance, annoying family members and even had something along the lines of a social networking site as one of its central concepts! It definitely tried something new by making it more modern and something young adults can somewhat relate to. As previously mentioned, Summer Wars focuses a lot on the Internet and its relation. This is done through OZ, which was a popular hangout space that you could access practically anywhere. The user was allowed to make a virtual character that was to present them in the virtual world where you can shop for almost anything - whether it be clothes, toys or even stationary supplies! When OZ was pretty much destroyed, it truly conveyed horror of how much the internet was a part of their lives to the point where the traffic lights wouldn't work anymore. It showed that without the internet and the current technology today, the world would pretty much be in total havoc and would become a nightmare. The cast of Summer Wars was truly numerous. This was probably another highlight to Summer Wars as it showed different personailties and how these characters would interact each other. They focused on developing the characters as well, which was a plus considering how many characters there were. Clearly noticeable out of the whole bunch would probably be Kazuma. At home, he is nothing but a teenager who rarely speaks and is always at the computer but at OZ, he is known worldwide as the champion in the online fighting game. This shows contrast between the two of how weak he truly is compared to his online status at OZ. As for the art and animation, Summer Wars is beyond magnificent. I loved the artwork and the simplicity it brought out. The characters were drawn well and the background was truly great. The animation was superb - and showed just how excellent it was when it switched to the fighting scenes and the 3d look of OZ. This was close to perfect and I never thought it would look as great as it did. Normally, I would hate this type of artwork but something about Summer Wars just made it work. Summer Wars is truly something great. It is fresh and the character and plot line are thoroughly enjoyable and just makes the whole movie a lot better. It explores a lot of themes and concepts that is well executed. The art is simply gorgeous and the animation was smooth and crisp. It doesn't get better than this and Summer Wars is simply something you want to get if you are planning on getting a movie that is enjoyable by pretty much anyone. Rating Overall: A+ Story: A+ Character: A+ Art: A+ Animation: A+ Music: A Pros = Extremely entertaining to watch and a great cast of characters. Animation and art is great and suits the overall mood of the show. Cons: I loved it. Oh wait, that was a Pro wasn't it?

Lion Tamers; come one, come all! We try again to make sense in an insane world. We turn our attention to a movie anime called "Summer Wars" Just once in a great while, amid the hustle and bustle, the endless chatter, and the astronomical noise, we see a little sense; expressed as a moment of silence. Today, I will not discuss the surface plot, the conflicts in the main struggle or the specific characters. There are so many important characters in this movie; it would be a kind of insanity to attempt to highlight even a round dozen of them. Besides, things like the plot of the story, the struggles, and the characters are unimportant. This time. To get hung up in all that blather, is to miss the the fact that the trees look like a forest; only to truly miss the fire in its' interior. We don't call that entire image a forest, unless we've all lost the point of our own existence. I bring this point, to the reader, in order to cut down the shouting so that the real point of "Summer Wars" can be clearly seen. To try to give you an idea of where I'm going, I'd like to give you some examples in my own history: My uncle Bud died just after the Christmas of 2014, at the ripe old age of 93. But before that, incidents were common. Bud's wife Connie, might be arguing over the phone, with her son Rapheal, about the actions of Rapheal's wife. Both of them went to Northwestern University for different reasons; and they both found themselves married to each other almost for contrasting reasons. The volume of the conversation over the phone increases by moments. Connie's daughter Janice walks in to the kitchen, just getting home from work, and wants to know if she should buy some green beans for a casserole, Connie is trying to make for supper. Uncle Bud is oblivious to all of this, as he is really heatedly busy watching the Cubs Game on TV. He screams at the TV at the top of his lungs about the bums that work on the Cubs batting lineup, almost to the point of interfering with the conversation Connie is having on the phone, while Connie is trying to make head-or-tails of the comments from Janice. Connie yells upstairs at Uncle Bud, to quiet down so that she can hear Janice. Bud screams back down stairs; "... Who the hell is Janice? ..." Uncle Bud has Alzheimer's and is so forgetful that he can't even remember the names of his own children, but the names of the batters on the Cubs Lineup are fresh and clear as the day Bud saw his first baseball game, 75-years previous. So what does this all mean? The notions we think we have about family are often couched in phrases like community, order, and rational thought. But in the great scheme of things we really ought to see as reality; the Chaos of Human Relations inside of family, are rarely seen clearly. And even rarer, described on paper; or film. Which returns us inexorably back to the true nature of "Summer Wars". Summer Wars is not about the larger world, or of the nature of multidimensional conflicts that extend past our own households; or even about the problems of money or politics. The story plot-points are window-blind hangers, to form an impression, most of us never really see. The family, disjointed, not really listening to each other, conflicted, unreasoning, and more in tune with their interior conflicts than they are about the things that make them the family they are; alive, diverse and sometimes unwarranted; are sometimes the very things that brings a family in turmoil and in deep trouble; together. Quite often, for reasons difficult to explain, families will come together in fellowship, and in determined spirits of casual-seeming importance, try to put aside the daily noise of family life, to solve problems above and beyond themselves. Writing this seems an exercise in futility. People who have never really recognized their own families, will miss the meaning in the words I'm using to try to describe an emotion. Emotions are tricky things, and are ephemeral, spiritual; and almost unreachable at times. And most of them deal with family. Family that we have seen, family that makes up our own household, or just the feelings we have for that other significant person which might become the basis for a new family. Families are the center of the world. Good families, bad families, conflicted dark, cruel, honorable, strong, beaten, destroyed, and uncomfortable, or even successful. But whatever your complaints or your commendations; nothing else is quite so powerful as our memories tied to family. So I write this review of a movie that celebrates that institution few have value in, but all know soundly. So three cheers for family. And highest possible recommendations to a tiny story, that quietly brings into focus, that rarest of misunderstood institutions. I whole heartedly give this tiny microcosm of real life a solid 9, and I hope those of you who understand the larger principles of authorship and the development of story; will give it watch!

The social network has become a phenomenon in our society. With the power of smart-phones, Twitter, Facebook, online gaming and the Internet, we can do almost everything we want to on our devices like sharing photos and content, communicate with different types of languages, express our thoughts on a certain movie or game by writing reviews and share them to others like I do and so much more. However, what happens when the global network is in danger and becomes unstable to all users? That's where Summer Wars comes in. An anime film that tackles on the issues of global social network but not only is about the whole online world conflict, it is also about the theme of family and while it's been done before, the sheer raw power and emotion that Summer Wars delivers is just an unforgettable experience. Summer Wars is about Kenji, a gifted student who's very good at math and had plans to compete in the math olympics but sadly decided not to cause there are no prizes for runner-ups and decides to spend his summer to work on OZ and what is OZ? OZ is a big virtual world that it's crucial to the society in Japan and it's where they do all the work from working to even pay taxes. It is also the place that holds complex battle gaming tournaments to all avatars to compete for the championship title. One day, a young girl named Natsuki asks Kenji if he could join her on coming to Grandma Sakae's birthday and Kenji gladly accepts the offer but he discovers that Natsuki wants Kenji to be her fake boyfriend in order to impress the enormous Jinnouchi family and we all know that the whole fake boyfriend plan will fail miserably. One night, Kenji receives a strange text message with a lot of digital numbers and he solves it, only to find out that he unleashed a killer virus named "Love Machine", a virus that has the power to devour tons of data including personal informations of all the users of OZ and can control any system on OZ, causing it to have huge effect on the real world. With the world and the online world of OZ at stake, Kenji must work together with the Jinnouchi family in order to prevent world destruction. The best thing about Summer Wars is the story. Yes, it's been done before a lot of time but Mamoru Hosoda somehow put a lot of depth into the theme and it's characters that it doesn't even matter. The Jinnouchi family are simply the best characters I've seen cause we can relate to them. This is a family that relies on hard work and with the guidance of Sakae, they can overcome any challenging obstacle that life throws at them. Speaking of Sakae, she is simply the most powerful character in the film. Sakae has a big spirit of wisdom and encourages everyone, including her old relatives, to do their best. She isn't some grumpy old-lady that whines a lot to her family that we've seen in movies, this old-lady is simply a woman who wants her big family to do their best and just wants the family to be proud of the time they spent together as a family. Also, there is a lot of heartbreaking scenes in this film but I will not spoil it cause I swear to God, If I did spoil this emotional moments on Summer Wars, I will get my ass kicked for it. The social network also plays a big part in the film, as we see the good things and bad things about expanding our online social network and it deals with the issue of safety like what if an unstoppable killer virus can affect our private information? Do we trust on the military to help us or do we try our best to fight back the virus? What if the virus can consume top secret information and can be used against us? It doesn't go too deep but it offers interesting point of views on how we look at our online social networking and how it would affect us in or daily life. The animation by MADHOUSE is amazing. The animators go wild in the world of OZ with amazing architecture designs and incredibly creative avatar designs including King Kazma, which is one of the coolest looking characters in the film. He may look like a cute bunny but when you see him fight in a tournament, you better watch your ass cause this bunny is 100% badass and can kick your ass a mile away. His design is also awesome, It's like Bugs Bunny took Super Saiyan steroids then wears Marty McFly's jacket from Back To The Future and becomes an unstoppable force of nature that shouldn't be reckon with. The animation in the real world is also gorgeous. The watercolor art in the skies are outstanding to look at, the character designs of the kids really move and act like real children and the design of the house where the family lives is gigantic with very polished wood-floorings and a vast of green fields with trees and daisies surrounding the beautiful home. The music by Akihito Matsumoto is grand and epic, offering a lot of epic orchestrations and some top-notch suspenseful music that adds a lot to the movies more intense moments. As for the quieter moments of the movie, it uses only music and atmosphere with no dialogue, something very refreshing to see in a family film. The Japanese performances are spot on and the dub by Funimation is perfect. Brina Palencia was fantastic in the role of Natsuki giving a lot more emotional power and raw to the character that it's Japanese counterpart. Maxey Whitehead, who voices Alphonse in FMA: Brotherhood, was pretty damn good as Kazuma and Pam Dougherty was incredible in her performance as Grandma Sakae. Simply put, Summer Wars is fantastic in both Japanese and English languages. Just take your pick and enjoy it. Like I said, the only issue I have with Summer Wars is that the story has been done to death but..... *sigh* It doesn't even matter, as the writing, the editing, the powerful and affecting emotional moments of the movie and the characters are just perfect the way it is. Like JesuOtaku said, Sumer Wars is a powerful story with lots of unchecked emotions and it gives us the idea on how a central family works, not just the ones that we relate to but the ones we meet through friendship and connection in real life. It won't revolutionize anything but Summer Wars is a fantastic piece of art that all animation fans must see and it shows us how to make a good family film done the right way. If I learned something from watching Summer Wars is this: Never turn your back on family, especially when times are rough.

This movie was probably one of the many I will actually remember enjoying from start to finish. From the first few seconds of the start of the movie. I was already drawn in my the concept of OZ which is the worlds main online network for people to conduct their everyday lives and business through. The idea that one day everyone in the world would be signed up one one single entity, where even government bodies and ultility systems have established their own accounts and communities is just amazing. Even though OZ isn't well understood, for example who created how its controlled where its systems are placed. It still seems like a fluid concept. The other thing is how the brief introduction of 3-4 minutes of OZ explains how it works and how it allows the international community to communicate with its automated translation system. The story is revolved around one single family and a two other characters. Kenji is the main character in my view, cause the story seems to revolve around him. From the very start of the movie, you can tell from his movements and the way he speaks and looks that he is very timid and shy. While on the other hand Natsuki the heroine of this movie. Is full of life and very daring. After arriving at Natuski's Grandmothers home, Kenji reluctantly accepts Natsuki's request to pretend to be her fiancee with a pretisgeous profile. During his first night he recieved a mysterious text message that is title "Solve this" while its main content is a long list of numbers. Thinking it was just some brain teaser Kenji solves the numbers and replies with the answer. Not knowing that what he had solved was of great importance, Which could affect the entire world. Thats the main jist of the story. Story seems typical because it really reminds me of the second Digimon movie. the animation and the fighting even the world just brings a sense of nostalgia. Which is one of the reasons I like this anime. But what else I like about the story is the unique history of Natsuki's family, and the uniqueness of each and every character. Especially Grandmother Sakae, She was probably one of the best characters in the movie. The action in this movie is well done and executed. And instead of seeing a typical otaku, you see Kazuma who controls the champion of OZ's Martial art tournament. The other thing I enjoyed was the comedy, the family's chemistry is so good and they are so crazy. How the family is spreadout so well in different industries from civil to military is some what facinating. All in all I enjoyed this movie so much I re watched it 3-4 times in the same day. So watch it. its worth the 2 hours that it will take you to watch it.

I like this movie. It's got comedy and action. Plus, this may be just me, but I'm a sucker for happy endings. And I like movies where the guy get the girl at the end. The plot is not all that bad. If you don't really understand it, well it's that there's an AI rampant in the cyber world and it must be stopped, because the better part of most everyday life and equipment depends on the internet. The art is pretty awesome and characters are well done as well in terms of giving them all their own personality. I definitely encourage anyone to watch it. It's got action, comedy, little hint of drama, and also a hint of romance. Pretty cool movie.

I may have expected too much from this movie. After seeing Wolf Children, and The Boy and the Beast I went into this movie with high hopes, but I was severely disappointed. The premise for the movie sounded interesting, and I thought the setup for the events of the movie were well done. It was downhill from there. The action in this movie was boring. There was no tension, despite the overreactions from all the mains. Its boring watching two video game characters fighting, knowing full well that the bloke sitting behind the keyboard wouldn't be affected in any way. The one potentially interesting fight, with actual real world consequences had no actual fighting, instead they decided to do some board game. On top of this they weren't very well choreographed, and very short. If you're looking for good fighting watch The Boy and the Beast. The middle of the movie was not very interesting either, especially with the cheap way they extended the plot. I reckon it should have been at least half an hour shorter. The "OZ" in the movie was pretty undefined as well, full of deus ex machinas and weird techno stuff that was there simply to drive the plot forward. Who connected a satellite to a goddam MMO? Why is all the infrastructure connected? Who connects a heart monitor to an MMO? Why did they not just turn off the damn thing, or restore it to an earlier point? Why does defeating some AI's avatar stop it? Surely it can just come back? Why does the game allow a single person to control more than one account, let alone 100 million? Why can you bet accounts? That sounds creepily close to slave trading. These problems aside I liked the beginning and end of the movie. The parts were fun, and the grandma is badass.

One of very few anime work that I was actually happy enough to give out the full mark. Am I being too positive on this Movie? Well then, let me explain. Summer Wars was done by Hosoda Mamoru who gave us The girl who leapt through the time, Digimon - Our WarGame, and Wolf Children. Since I am a die-hard Digimon fan, I knew straight away that the movie was done my Mamoru due to its over the top brilliant art work. If I had to pick an anime movie that I have to watch with my family, without a doubt I'll pick Summer Wars faster then any other anime movie, since it is that beautiful Story of loving family and young couple's love story and a catastrophe, which was about to hit the world was far too brilliant. BGM tracks for this movie was also perfect for the movie. But what I truly loved about this movie the most was the characters. There was no 'background character' in this anime. Everyone played their role as an important, likeable characters to carry on the story together. I've never seen any anime which was able to do this with the characters except Monogatari Series in my life. As for enjoyment? Do I need further explanation? Recommended to you all. If you have watched it, watch it again and again. If you haven't watched it, go to Youtube or something and watch it now. I guess that's the end of Summer Wars review. Until next time! Sayonara~

As touching as it is entertaining, Summer Wars blends an imaginative coming of age tale with real world dilemmas and consequences.  Developed by Madhouse, the same studio that helped make 'Wolf Children', the similarities in teaching raw life lessons and colourful art style are apparent throughout. What could've easily turned into a very clichéd story thankfully has enough unique twists and turns to set it apart, helped in no small part by some very endearing and relatable characters. One noteworthy role goes to that of the family matriarch, a kindly but no nonsense grandmother who'll be familiar to anyone lucky enough to have a granny of their own. Special mention has to go to the masterful pacing, which is so well crafted you'd swear the film was shorter than the running time claims. Summer Wars reminded me of the simple joys and bitter realities to be found in everyday life, and that even in sorrow, there is comfort to be found.

---Summer Wars is a movie directed by Mamoru Hosoda, who has also worked on other films such as Wolf Children (Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki) and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo), both highly regarded movies. --The story starts with two guys named Kenji and Takashi who work for an international internet service known as Oz that everyone uses. Oz is a multi-use system that controls pretty much everything in the modern world, including shopping services, water systems, and even electricity and such. Then a girl named Natsuki comes into their office and asks if one of them if they can do a job for her. Kenji accepts the offer and goes on a ride to the countryside and gets to meet Natsuki's huge family. But why did she bring Kenji along? Natsuki wanted Kenji to pretend he is her fiance in front of everyone. One night Kenji receives a mysterious message with a seemly impossible-to-solve algorithm. Kenji luckily is a math genius, and he finishes the problem in one sitting. Solving the math problem causes his Oz account to be hacked. His hacked account then wrecks havoc in Oz, causing problems in the real world, and Kenji is blamed for the issues. It's now up to Kenji, Natsuki, and the big family to try to stop this mess! The story and setting is set-up perfectly in the exposition and the pacing is very nice. The events involving the family and their struggles were really intriguing. They felt genuine and were the most memorable parts of the movie for me. I do have a complaint though. The relationship between the characters Kenji and Natsuki had loads of potential. That is something I would've liked to see more of. Though the interactions were believable, the two characters barely talk, and I wish Natsuki had more screen time than she got. She doesn't even do anything groundbreaking in the story until the very end. With that aside though, I thought the story was good. --I'm a huge fan of Mamoru Hosada's films in terms of artwork and animation. Character designs were great, and the background artwork looks downright gorgeous. The backgrounds are nearly lifelike. The animation is also something to marvel at. MADHOUSE did a splendid job on this film. I have a couple of nit picks on the use of the CGI, but it never drove me away from the experience. In terms of art, the movie nails it perfectly. --The sound in the movie isn't too much to talk about. There weren't any music tracks in the film that were memorable, but it's not awful. It is generic, and it may not be something that will stick out. In terms of dubs, the english dub is also alright, so it won't be upsetting anyone who prefer subs over voice-overs. Both are fine for watching the film. --There are a lot of characters in this movie. I'm one of those people who couldn't keep track of everyone's names during the whole film. That's actually one of my issues with the movie; there are a lot of characters that are ignorable and don't really advance the plot. There's one character who does nothing, but watch baseball through almost the entirety of the movie. The character design for the main protagonist, Kenji, also seems very generic. He's your typical brown-haired-anxious-shy-white-t-shirt-wearing protagonist. His only known character trait in the film is the fact that he's a math genius, and that's all. Not that it's a problem, it's just something I've been seeing in more and more anime movies and shows. By far the most popular character in the movie is the granny, Sakae, and with good reason too. I won't be explaining why, but just know that she is a strong character in the film and defines the core of the movie's message very well. The characters, while many are seemingly uninteresting, are plausible. --I call these kinds of movies 'snack movies'. It's a good quick movie to watch when you have some time to kill. It isn't anything that's going to be winning an oscar, but it's still great just the way it is. If you wanna watch a quick movie with some sci-fi stuff and action, then this movie is for you.

Summer Wars felt like an attempt to make a Western friendly anime film gone wrong. The girl who leapt through time, as shown by my review, is a favorite of mine. Its most well executed aspect is how grounded it was with real AND likable characters while knowing the limits of its universe. Here, my favorite part of Summer Wars is its real nostalgic portrayal of a big family gathering. Other than that, this film recognizes the limits, yet tries to forcefully go above it and ultimately fails. From the get-go, there are questionable settings that raise enough eyebrow to take you out the experience. The re-imagination of the Internet in OZ is not realistic in the fundamental sense. I understand liberties taken for fantasy, but the point of it being a WEB, and maintaining net neutrality is the very aspect of Internet that could've been more interesting to explore. Also, the MC's story begins as he is invited into a large family for an upcoming birthday. Anyone who has been in this situation knows just how awkward this is, especially around the middle of movie. It made the drama and the emotional punch so much harder to grasp. These are just few things that take you out of this universe. Like I said, I understand the cinematic liberties taken, but truthfully, what gives any fantasy a compelling edge is actually the strong parallels it holds to the real world. Usually, anime has great premise/story but disappoints in plot and characters. Imo, Summer Wars already went in with story problems. Unfortunately, the characters and the plot suffer as well. Most obviously, the large cast dilutes development which forces scenes that try too hard to give characters tasks something to do to in-your-face show that they have purpose. This wouldn't bother as much if this wasn't applied to the MC's as well. Neither the male or the female MC is developed well; in fact, the whole story is so overwhelmed by developing the existential conflict that they seem almost 1-dimensional. There are no compelling choices or dialogues and some scenes just feel out of place. Overall, what plagued the plot and the characters is that the film focused too much on this new conflict which I think was the wrong priority. It made the ending un-earned, not to mention its digimon rip-off plot that many are aware of and the uninspired "x brings the world together" approach. Hosoda never WOW'ed me with OSTs and, out of wolf children, TGWLTT, and this, Summer Wars had the least inspired OST. Last thing is to address people who love the film. I disagree with most of them because many warrants this film good rating by it being "layered" with venturing of many themes like family, identity, technology etc. I've seen one that went as far as to say that it's a "cautionary tale of AI ." This is not a spoiler because it's not. It's as much of a movie that delves into artificial intelligence as it is a movie about trees simply because the setting is in the country. Having or mentioning something does not make it a film that truly DISCUSSES that topic. And that's another big problem. The movie just scratches the surface of so many topics that had potential to be compelling. In conclusion, I don't recommend this film because, not only does it not have much emotional power, but you also don't come out having a deeper understanding of any theme that this film was trying to promote. And that's misleading. There are many better films that discusses the topic that this movie thinks it's doing. The Godfather series & Bong Joon Ho's Mother--THAT's films about family. Princess Mononoke--THAT's a film about our relationship with nature. Blade Runner & psycho pass--THAT's a film/series about technology. To his defense however, I guess that's the way it has to be. His whole brand is built on Disney-esque atmosphere that prevents him from exploring certain topics after a limit. The thing is, I think you have to delve into almost uncomfortable aspects of anything to find compelling art these days. But that's not the option for everyone.

I While I wasn't entirely suprised by Mamoru Hosoda previous movie entry dating 2006, because there had already been loads and loads of hype around it, I got hooked from the beggining to the end!! But for Summer Wars I was still a bit skeptical, I simply didn't want to create hype for it! I wanted to be surprised be the movie, and indeed, without even reading the synopsis I got into it... was and I still m shocked by the quality of this movie, I had my doubts about the director, after all, it could all been a fruit of luck... Now I see, this person is trully a talented one at his work. As of now, I held him in high regards, I even dare to say this work, "Summer Wars", is even better than his previous one, YES better than "The Girl that Leapt Throught Time"! (Also, I always try to do my reviews shortest as possible... once again I failed miserably at that, and spent (unware of it) almost 3 hours into writting this... if I like something, then I have to fully express it, do it justice! Sorry for the longs reviews for those that hate it, and I would be grateful if you at least gave this reading a change before rating, hope you enjoy :] ) Why is the movie better than his great predecessor?! There is why: -The themes this movie aboards, in a sense they seem like a evolution from his previous works. From modern themes like techonology & society evolution together, the importance techonology achieved in our present days on society. Everything is globalized and more simplifed, and in a sense is more pratical and useful to us. The "Digital" era, indeed a great feat, but with it, it also cames the danger that if having everything connected over the internet, and thus being more useful to the human being, the risk of getting hacked... and from there lots of collateral damage happening, which's gravity could come to unimaginable heights. That risk could destroy our civilization as we know it! For example, the use we give to the global social websites like facebook... but treated here in a far more advanced and futuristic reality where the World of Oz exists, a place where people meet, chat, battle, do business, "live", live almost like a second life with their avatars. But this is not all there is to it, you even get the theme of romance, that like the previous theme is part of the charm of the movie and you could even say that some stuff happen derivated from it. It all gives the viewers some nice heart-light and comedic moments, especially the ending, and this is also true for the theme of Family, the end plays along so well with this theme, I was mostly smiling and even getting a bit teary in the movie's conclusion, such happiness was I feeling!! About the Family theme, I will aboard it more later on. The plot got me hooked in it since the first 20 minutes, which wasnt bad since the movie is almost 2 hours long, and when it "catchs" to you, it is a very enjoyable and emotional ride until its conclusion, with the pacing beggining very fundamental, thus you have something that is easy to get into, and hard to let go off, before the credits role, and even there I was calming listening to the amazing sound and beauttiful scenes that recall some of the best moments of the journey I had just gone throught!! The music of the credits is Bokura no Natsu no Yume, "Our Summer Dream", and while IMO it is the best song of the movie, overall everything is greatly done, setting the mood for what is happening on the screen, emerging the viewer further into the that family enviroment so well transmited along the whole movie! Also having a movie's budget, it is reflected pretty well in the art, design and animation that comes to life here, with Madhouse "showing off" in segments of the virtual world of Oz, being the reality world for obvious reasons not as good when it comes to such a high production values, but that is because all the great action and special effects for most occur into the virtual world od Oz. The characters are very well expressed, giving great credibility to the emotions that they come to face, and the actions taken from the decisions of those moments. It isn't nothing breathtaking, but it manages to accomplish its goals! Simply the animation is gorgeous to watch, not the best, but still reaching great standarts! Now lets talk about the thing I most loved about the movie! Its main driven force, the characters and how the Family theme cames into play throught the whole movie. Keeping it short and sweet, my experience with movie animation isnt that vast, certainly I have seen many more anime, than movie anime. Despite that I have never seen a Family theme being SOO AMAZINGLY WELL added into any media, yes any!! I m even including movies and series (what?!), not only restricting to anime and movies anime. It is that good, the way it fits with the movie... the vast and diverse numberous cast, that the main character cames to know, his crush Natsuki Shinohara's family, they are all one big family, with problems and conflicts between then like real ones are! But in times of need, they behave like a true family and join forces despite their diferent ideals, to surpass harsh goals... the things Kenji Koiso, the protagonist, comes to learn from living with Natsuki and her family, precious ideals and beliefs that also have a major impact on the viewer along the movie, not spoiling, especially this scene about the middle of the movie, and also its conclusion! They teach us of the valors of family and it may indeed change many people's ways of seeing life and their relationship with their families. I didn't cried once with the movie, some people may, with certain scenes... but even with those I was deeply shocked with, the sadness stroke pretty hard!! Because that is how much I care for the characters and their futures! I was happy when they were, afraid of what could happen to them, when they were. Shocked, moved, emotioned as they were, and when all of this happens, when you emerge yourself to the extense of itself being like you were there with them, learning and living, while in truth, you are using "your personal time" on watching a 2 long hours movie... and you get soo much out of it!!! This is the enjoyment I got out of the movie! A much watch!! A light-happy story that gets more complex and dramatic overtime, with a great and diverse cast, great soundtrack and art, serious themes of nowadays and themes that are beyond time, that warn and teachs us at the same time, and to great joy, it ends with a conclusion, that though it keeps you from wanting to see more about what happens next to some of its cast, it ends perfectly well, portraying the whole Family theme to its maximum seen across the movie, with of course, a good mix of romance and laughs to end it all. And so, I could only smile and think of the varied and vivid great moments that made me love this movie as much as I do!! Indeed it wont come off my head for a while, and when it does, and someday I remenber of it again, I will smile again, and certainly with great and high feelings, I will watch and re-watch this movie over and over again. Not all of you may feel like this, but for those who do, we greatly apreciate the director's work onto this movie! For now, I will also see the rest of its most recent work! Now at least expecting something great!! Not that I didn't expected to not enjoy this movie at first, but as this?! xD "Summer Wars", the name of the movie, but also from now on, I will also see it by is other name, a marvelous of a movie animation: A "Masterpiece" of a movie!!! Score: Story 10; Art & Sound 9; Character & Enjoyment 10 Overall => (10+9+9+10+10)/5=9.6-->10

This movie is a must see! Firstly, it has a great plot: the idea of old and new worlds of technology mixed together in harmony is a new twist I haven't encountered before. Also, the idea of a community based this much on the internet is an interesting matter and very current. The charater development adds to the story: our protagonist is quite shy and afraid at the start, but turns out to be a brave and responsible boy at the end of the story. Another notable character is the grandmother which really ties the whole story together by her round attitude. Moving on, the movie has a simple, yet recognizable character design. Its more outstanding art would be in the scenes going on inside of the internet; the creators have done some detailed work on that one, nice eyecandy and colorful art! The sound is superb. However, I'm not talking about the sountrack which is pretty average, I'm talking about the voicing of characters. The voices of the different people in this movie is extremely realistic which is something I always look after in an anime. Overall I really enjoyed watching this movie. I was engulfed from the first moment, and it is strongly reccomended. :D