Summer Wars Review

I know this title has been out for a good minute but I don’t know too many people who’ve seen it, so...Danny and I had our 10 dollar off coupon from Best Buy and it was about to expire...”What should we buy...WHAT SHOULD WE BUY???!!!”

As we searched through all the blu-rays we came upon a title that we had already looked at and were interested in.  This is what we decided on:


In 2009 the animation studio Madhouse released through Warner Bros studios a Japanese animated film called Summer Wars.  Director Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and writer Satoko Okudera (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Kaidan) joined forces once again and conceived the story about a gargantuan social network/virtual reality site (named OZ) that is used by almost everyone and everything in the world.  The story follows a young boy named Kenji Koiso who has a knack for mathematics.  Kenji is a moderator for OZ until Natsuki Shinohara invites him out to the country for her great-grandmother’s 90th birthday.  After receiving a mysterious email one night all hell breaks lose in the land of OZ and Kenji has to find a way to put things back together.

We really purchased this film on a whim...I didn’t know much about the title at all.  I just knew that I wanted to know what the deal is with that slightly displeased looking squirrel on the cover.  With that being said, Summer Wars was quite a surprise.  Not only was the animation beautiful, especially in OZ, but the characters themselves were well rounded.  So often we get these cartoons that pop up where the characters are flat and one sided.  In this film though, you knew who they were, their values, their passions, and their loves in life.

See, the squirrel isn't always mad!

Two of the main reasons why I love anime so much is the depths they are willing to go to for their characters and the classic animation styles.  Although some use a mixture of classic and computer graphics, movies like Summer Wars make it seamless.  Much of the animation and sequences from it made me feel...well...

GAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I highly HIGHLY recommend this movie to anyone with a love of anime or really just films in general.  The writing is amazing and well thought out and it breezed by so quickly that it left me wanting more.  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is one of my favorite animated films and after learning that the same writer/director team worked on both of these films...well, lets just say that I’m going to keep a close eye on those two.

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