Summer Wars isn’t your average anime movie - while we do get the familiar visuals of perverted nosebleeds, oversized sweat drops and magical worlds where almost anything can happen, the difference with this film is that it feels too real. Yes, even during the supernatural chaos.
The script revolves around the online world of OZ, an Internet sensation where people can socialize, control businesses, and play games from sports and cards to martial arts showdowns, all in the guise of a personalized avatar. Facebook meets Gaia much? It’s all eerily familiar, which seals the movie’s message about the destructive powers of social networking.
One OZ security worker and high school math genius, Kenji Koise (Ryūnosuke Kamiki), finds his summer plans rapidly changing when the most popular girl in school, Natsuki Shinohara (Nanami Sakuraba), hires him to accompany her to a family reunion for a few days – with the job details to be disclosed at a later time.
Natsuki’s large and invasive family bombards Kenji with questions about his personal life, and he gets more than he bargained for when a disowned cousin crashes the party and creates discord among the family. But the real trouble begins when OZ is taken over by a mysterious hacker and Kenji is framed for it. The family must put aside their differences to solve the mystery before chaos and devastation transfers from the Internet world to their own.
The animation and camera work are so incredible in some sequences that the film seems to create a new form of anime. The 3D effects and use of color in OZ make the audience actually feel like they are avatars floating around in the virtual world. But while OZ is fun, bright, and exciting, reality is, well, real.
The film explores the struggles that test a family’s strength, like jealousy, anger, and death, in ways that feel too relatable for an animated movie. The scenes of the reunion will make you hide your face in embarrassment, hold back tears, and laugh out loud through the colorful characterization of the Shinohara family, but even still, the viewer cannot wait for them all to return to OZ, where life is easier and painless. But OZ’s uncomplicated lifestyle creates more problems than good in the family, which is reminiscent of our own technologically charged generation.
Kenji’s timid and awkward personality makes him more comic relief than hero in the film, but when paired with the Shinohara family men, this testosterone-charged team delivers action and comedy in the same punch. The Shinohara women are even kookier than their husbands and children, but remain the rocks of the family when tragedy strikes. And while you may want to strangle Natsuki in the beginning of the film, she’ll win back your affection in the end thanks to a hidden talent and amusing Sailor Moon transformation reference.
While I saw a lot of kids at the showing, this movie isn’t really geared for one generation over another, and the heavy material (and daunting 114 minute length) makes this anime more sophisticated than a lot of the films that are out this summer.
But maybe this is what makes Summer Wars so divinely unique and entertaining. Not only will you bounce in your seat during some of the fast-paced battles in OZ, but you will also feel all the emotions of a broken family while at the same time laughing at the well-placed awkward moments and one-liners. This anime isn’t only about action, romance, drama, or magical worlds—it’s a hodgepodge of real life, fantasy, and everything in between.
The film has won multiple awards, including Animation of the Year from the Japan Academy Prize Association, and I don’t see it going away anytime soon. I even dragged a self-proclaimed anime hater along with me to the showing and all she could say at the end was, “That was actually really good!” I’ll take that as a win.
Social networking, beware—real life never seemed better thanks to the imaginative world of Mamoru Hosoda’s Summer Wars.
[This review has been cross-posted at Twitch Film.
