Title: Summer Wars
Alternative Title: サマーウォーズ
Published by: Madman Entertainment (Australia and New Zealand)
Based on: Original Title
Audio: English and Japanese dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 16:9
Runtime: 114 minutes
Cost: $AUD34.95 for DVD and $39.95 for Blu-ray
Classification: This title has been classified PG for Mild themes and animated violence.
My Blurb: “Boasting a number of awards on the front cover, it is evident that Summer Wars is more then deserving of them. With a high standard for design and music alongside a storyline that is an interesting watch from start to finish, you will not be disappointed with this title”
Special Thanks: Special thanks goes to Madman Entertainment for providing me with a review sample of this title.
Summer Wars is, despite the misleading cover, focuses on a virtual world which the entire planet relies on for everything for communication to running the water and military services. So what happens when this world falls afoul by a rogue artificial intelligence? So yes, this is essentially similar, although a much more indepth to the storyline of the .hack series.
Summer wars is a title that was released last year in Japan, and some of the awards it so proudly boasts include
- Best Animated Film – Japan Academy Prize 2010
- Best Animated Film – Fantasia Film Festival 2010
- Best Animated Film – Sitges Film Festival 2010
- Animation of the Year – Tokyo Anime Awards
- Best Animated Film – Mainichi Film Concours 2010
So obviously, this title has the credentials of a top notch anime, rivaling those by the likes of Studio Ghibli. I will not ramble on here, however for those interested in this title, I encourage you to read on, for my review of Summer Wars.
Kenji is your typical teenage misfit. He’s good at math, Bad with Girls and spends most of his time hanging out in the all-powerful, online community known as OZ. His second life is the only life he has – Until the girl of his dreams, Natsuki, hijacks him for a starring role as a fake fiance at her family reunion.
Things only get stranger from there. A late-night email containing a cryptic mathematic riddle leads to the unleashing of a rogue AI, intent on using the virtual world of OZ to destroy the real world, literarily. As armageddon looms on the horizon, Kenji and his new “family” set aside their differences and band together to save the worlds they inhabit.
Setting aside the fact that they described a teenage misfit as being good at maths and bad at girls, the blurb above essentially sums up the entire storyline. When I first heard from one of my friends, Yatsushiro that the series was sort of like a series on “Social Networking”, I was a bit confused considering the cover art had an entire family in a rural part of Japan that didnt seem to have much of an internet connection. However, after getting it, it was evident that the storyline was essentially the best of two worlds, the war taking part in the online world as well as the disputes and tragedies of one big happy family, with the story-lines intertwining at the end.
Whilst more time is spent in the real world, the majority of the storyline surrounds the online game OZ, which has become the hub of everything in the world (Think…. the iStore + Amazon + the Government + facebook + Car Retailer + etc) all merged into one virtual world that is able to be accessed through anything with a wireless or wired internet connection. Everyone in the world is connected by a virtual avatar that can look like anything, from a relatively normal human, to a floating head. This is becoming so important to everyones day to day lives… so what happens if a rogue piece of software took over it….?
The series primarily follows Kenji, who works for OZ as a part-time administrator, and has all hell break loose when he finds out that he is being framed for breaking into OZ, disrupting service and stealing accounts. He finds himself with a family who are both willing to help him clear his name and defeat the threat, and that are more then happy to hand him over to the police. Once the world services are disrupted however, he makes a desperate attempt to rectify the problem, alongside Natsuki (His dream girl) and Kazuma (One of the big guns in the fighting arena of OZ).
However, the family is also a key element of the storyline. As can be seen on the cover art, the family is extensive, and therefore bound to have a few oddities…. or in this case a fair few. The whole family is led by their “clan” grandmother Sakae, who even at her age commends respect among them all and with a short phone call, can have them all fixing the issues caused the the rogue AI, cleverly named Love Machine. Of course, there is also the black sheep of the family Wabisuke who is disliked by Sakae, despite her adopting him, and does not approve of his actions, which are shown by the other family members as well.
The series has a nice flow of the storyline and they do not remain focused on one part of the plot to long, and at the same time, do not skip over the information required to understand the storyline. Around the half-way point, it is implied that the solution has been solved, only to have it escalate into a much more dire event that requires the support of the whole family as the world is left in impending doom. If this game was based primarily in-game, I do not think it would have as much an impacting storyline as it does as it is, and the rural family element was actually the highlight of the series as it allowed the character development of the protagonists otherwise leaving them as named controllers of game characters.
The one issue I did have with the storyline was that, whilst I appreciated the real-life aspect of it all, it would have been nice to see a bit more of OZ then what was shown, the overall design of the OZ world really left it as an impractical online world that wouldn’t be any better then what we are using today. That being said, it was a clever idea and it was implemented well.
A benefit of the protagonist, Kenji, was the he broke every single stereotype that most male characters have in anime series where they are together with a cute girl. Instead of being dumb, jobless, hated and beaten up by women and well, come across as a pervert he is a math genius employed by the OZ company, who gets approached by a cute girl to become her mock fiancée and in return is never beaten up and approved of by most, although not all of the family…. sure came as a shock to me. Natsuki, whilst to some being a second main character, isn’t really in the movie until the end, so I would be inclined to make Kazuma a secondary main character….. just me through.
The character design of the series is rather well done. The real life characters look more or less realistic, perhaps more realistic then you would see in most anime series. Given the number of “family” members in the series, each one have unique appearances and completely different fashion senses, so you will not see two characters in similar clothing. Some might consider it to be the design of a series made a fair few years back…. but it works well. The facial expressions and animations are sometimes over the top, but for the most part, completely realistic. With so many characters and a quick introduction of all the characters, don’t feel bad not remembering all the characters names through.
The online world’s characters are built up of something that could be described as a much advanced version of the Mii Maker. Every character has a unique appearance that can be made up of a mixture of animal/humanoid/miscellaneous elements. I originally brushed the character designs off as being rather bland and basic, but when you suddenly having countless hundreds appearing on-screen at one time, you can appreciate how smart a move it was, and how well it went with the rather simplistic OZ interface.
The design of the real world areas are actually very detailed and are always filled with people, furniture, plants or whatever to ensure that the space in the background is not wasted. Even in a rural house, there should never be a lack of detail in a top-quality anime and in this event, they have done well. Of course, OZ is the real area that shines. For the most part, it has a boring white backdrop with random things flying around, however in events such as the casino battle or even when the team uses a method to trap the AI by surrounding it with Showa (?) era homes show how much fun the team evidently had with the background design. Also the ability to show countless avatars at once was also a nice feature when used.
Overall the design was very well done.
Whilst there is no official opening sequence, there is a sort of theme song which goes by the name Our Summer Dream, sung by Tatsuro Yamashita is placed on the menu screens and in the series. Overall, the song does not suit my tastes, but as it isn’t portrayed as much as an opening theme, it wasn’t that bad. The music in the series however is actually pretty good, with a good number of the songs having a sort of techno or fast-paced vibe to suit the mood. None of the music feels overused and add to the scenes well. The voice acting, even considering how many voice actors were needed, was of a really good standard. None of the voices were over the top and felt like the voices you would find in a normal family. Both Michael Sinterniklaas who voices Kenji and Brina Palencia who voices Natsuki are both actors who I haven’t heard before, but I think their voices went well with the characters.
Remember the days when a lot of movies came with a second DVD loaded with extras? It has been ages since I have seen the bonus DVD included and it was a pleasant surprise to see this movie came with one! Included on the bonus disk is:
- An interview with the director
- Stage Greeting – A sort of introduction to the series thing they did post-completion.
- Interview with the cast
- TV Spots for Summer Wars – In Japanese with Subtitles.
- Teaser Trailer – One in English (Nothing Special) and a Japanese one with English subtitles.
- Other trailers for Summer Wars
Honestly, whilst there is a fair bit on it, I was expecting a lot more for a DVD, such as a special behind the scenes making of video or something…. anyway, also included is a reversible cover with the families avatars on it. Personally I am keeping it how it is for now.
In my personal opinion, this is a movie I would highly recommend to all. Whilst its cover art and title may give an impression that it is a completely different series, upon watching it you will find yourself hooked on the rather different and enticing storyline. Whilst I only have the DVD copy, if you have a blu-ray player or the PS3, I would highly recommend getting the Blu-ray edition for only a few dollars extra as the design of the series is without a doubt, some of the best I have seen in a long while. The only major gripe I had was with the Japanese Hanafuda Koi-koi, which plays a key role in the series and despite owning a set myself, I have no idea how to play the game.
Final Score
Storyline: A+
Character Development: A-
Design: A
Music: A+
Voice Acting: A
Extras: B
Personal Opinion: A+
Overall Score: S (TOP SCORE)
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