Summer Wars Movie Review

“Are you man enough to make my Natsuki happy?” “Uh… yeah?” “Man enough to die for her?

Summer Wars is an Action Comedy Drama War Science Fiction film directed by Mamoro Hosuda. The same director behind Digimon The Movie (2000), Wolf Children (2012) and The Boy and The Beast (2015), who is an insanely influential animation director and I definitely recommend his other works.

Summer Wars tells the story of a high school student Kenji Koiso, a wiz in mathematics however socially inept, who spends his time in OZ, a massive computer-simulated virtual reality world (sort of like, Facebook but with Avatars) as a part-time low-end moderator. At the beginning of summer vacation, he is asked by Natsuki, his school crush, to help in celebrating her great-grandmother's 90th birthday. Although Kenji does not know the details of the plan, he agrees and goes with Natsuki to her grandmother's estate in Ueda, Nagano Prefecture. Much to Kenji's surprise, he is introduced at the Shinohara family house as Natsuki's fiancé.

While trying to awkwardly fit in the Natsuki’s house hold, later on, Kenji mysteriously receives a mystery code from OZ and he solves it but accidentally hacks into OZ and unleashes a menacing artificial intelligence called Love Machine, and is suspected as a Hacker Terrorist. Kenji must right the wrong he caused and must try to stop Love Machine and figure out who is really controlling him, whilst trying to reconcile with Natsuki’s aggressive family before they get severely hurt… or worse.

First off, I love the fact that it focuses on two different themes. One is modern day technology, social media and artificial intelligence and the other is family, war, tradition and togetherness in which they all blend surprisingly well together. I actually find it hard to believe that this film was created in 2009, the technology in this film is so advanced it looks like it was made now.

This anime movie was surprisingly so much more dramatic than I thought it was going to be. There are some scenes where it touches your heart. There is a lot of character development within the story, especially with our young reluctant hero, Kenji as you sort of sympathise with and relate to him as well from the very beginning to the end. He is thrown into a difficult position in the second act and his challenges grow more challenging as the story progresses and as he tries his hardest to help Natsuki’s family, he only makes things worse which causes him to lose his confidence more and more. Also with Netsuke as well, because she is more than just a naive young girl who wants to stir up trouble, but it’s all to do with her keeping up with her family’s tradition and you can see her struggling in that.

The animation looks undoubtedly stunning and you can tell that Mamoru Hosuda has really improved. I noticed this when I saw the virtual world of OZ and its creative use of Avatars and their designs. There are fight scenes between avatars which involve blood, which is really creative and thrilling.

Summer Wars is probably the most thrilling Anime movie I have ever seen and I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves technology and family… so that’s basically anyone, really! It’s funny, it’s quirky, the characters are engaging, colourful and relatable, the action scenes look stunning, the story has an interesting dynamic from start to finish and has a shocking anti climax that will have your fingers crossed or look away until it’s all over!!

Summer Wars is a fun time for any Anime Movie lovers as it balances the New and Innovative with the Old and Traditional.