If you’re not a hardcore anime fan but do enjoy animated films like Spirited Away or The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, then I think the film Summer Wars is worth taking a look at.
Summer Wars was produced by the animation studio Madhouse and distributed by Warner Bros. The story revolves around a high school boy named Kenji. He is asked by an upperclassman, Natsuki, to go with her to her grandmother’s home and pretend to be her boyfriend to make her grandmother happy. While there, however, Kenji finds out that he has been accused of hacking into OZ, a virtual world that is connected to infrastructure networks around the world. Determined to prove his innocence and stop the hacker from disrupting systems worldwide, Kenji and some members of Natsuki’s family log into OZ and challenge the hacker to a virtual battle to save OZ.
The first thing I thought when I started watching Summer Wars was that the animation was very vibrant and detailed. Considering the quality of anime tv shows these days, it’s a welcome change. The character designs are also noticeably different from anime that you would find on tv. I don’t want to call it old-fashioned, but it more closely resembles character designs of the early 90′s with normal hairstyles and relatively proportional eyes (as opposed to wild pink hair and eyes that cover half the face). The amount of detail that was put into the animation is immediately evident at the beginning of the film as Kenji and Natsuki travel to meet with Natsuki’s family. Animators that take the time to draw individual leaves on trees certainly deserve some credit.
What I liked about the characters in Summer Wars was that they were actually believable. For example, the rebel that actually wants to make his family proud but screws up in the end, or the uncle that just won’t stop talking about the family history. You won’t find shallow characters like a house full of pretty women falling for a useless guy in this anime.
Personally, I thought the first half of the film was a bit dull, but after experiencing a death in Natsuki’ family, the plot really start to pick up. Every family has its issues, and with the hacking of OZ indirectly causing a death in Natsuki’s family, more conflicts begin to arise as everyone has different thoughts as to what to do. Of course, considering this is a film directed more towards families, it wouldn’t be right unless everyone made up. After realizing how their family was involved with the hacking of OZ, everyone joins together to defeat the hacker (something you would expect in a children’s show, but was still tear-jerking at some points).
Although I know Summer Wars was written with a wider audience in mind, I would have preferred if they had explained how beating up the avatar of a hacker would solve anything. Other than that, I thought Summer Wars was a good family film. It’s certainly something that I think both children and adults can enjoy. On the other hand, someone expecting more of a sci-fi film (that’s what it’s classified as) may be disappointed in the lack of technical jargon and how hacking into a network is portrayed. If you ignore that stuff though, the film is pretty good, definitely worth watching if you have the chance.
