Summer Wars

Summer Wars is another excellent movie from Madhouse and Mamoru Hosada, the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Like TGWLTT, Summer Wars is a science fiction movie with heart. Instead of the humorous, poignant tone of the previous movie, Summer Wars focuses on family bonds and the inherent potential for mayhem that is an unavoidable part of our incredibly connected, increasingly virtual society. It's an easy to follow story that should have a lot of appeal for a broad audience.

The dubbing and animation are wonderful, and the fact that so much of the events play out in the virtual world provides a lot of opportunities for some eye-catching visuals. The music is fine, but not quite up to the fantastic score of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

I slightly prefer TGWLTT, but both movies are fully recommended and I've given them the same score. They're wonderful films, even in comparison to the amazing movies that have been coming out of Studio Ghibli for years. I can't wait to see what Hosada is working on next.

'Summer Wars' is another excellent exponent of the Japanese anime genre, directed by Mamoru Hosoda, whose modest (so far) directorial cannon includes 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' (not to be mistaken for one of the Stieg Larsson trilogy!), which is also highly enjoyable. This film is a lively and colourful affair, nicely evoking the optimism and energy of the season, and its large cast of characters is well drawn in both senses, each one sketched with enough care and detail to be believable and interesting, and to make their own distinct contribution to the story, despite there being some twenty family members or so to deal with, no mean feat.

The plot is bedded in the technology of future, an almost ubiquitous theme for the genre, but the story's posit of a worldwide virtual network to which every financial institution, emergency service and government agency links, and indeed some cedes control of its systems, is hardly Science Fiction! Events take a turn for the worst of course, but despite the action being centred on a bright and colourful online world, and a plethora of cuddly personal avatars, Hosoda invests the conflict with a dark malevolence that is convincing, and delivers a real sense of threat.

'Summer Wars' may look at first glance like a kid's film, but don't dismiss it as 'some kind of Pokémon', the film delivers some emotional passages and a sweet central relationship that you will root for. All in all very satisfying for fans of the genre, and has something to offer those who are not. For me, the final note strays from the tone of the piece, but that is a minor quibble. Treat yourself to a dose of optimism.

Summer Wars is one of the most ambitious animes to exist, ambitious doesn't always equal greatness on film as a result of being over-ambitious but Summer Wars is one of those that gets it right. Some characters are better developed than others, the main family members are very compellingly real but some of the side characters are sketchily written. If the film had less characters than it did the character development would have been even better.

The animation is just wonderful though and stylistically unlike any other I've seen, the colours are eye-popping and the backgrounds are so richly detailed and textured. None of it felt confusing to me. The cyber-battles are particularly strong in this regard, the action itself is thrilling and the visuals positively dazzle. Summer Wars has a music score that is both rousing and ethereal, and luckily mood-wise when matched with the animation and the tone of the storytelling it never jars. There is also a thoughtful script that handles its emotional themes very touchingly and remarkably maturely, while the story covers a lot but despite exploring several themes it doesn't feel too much. The family themes are ones that really resonate and charm, and while the message is not the most original it's a truthful message that doesn't patronise. The lead characters are engaging and the voice acting, both in Japanese and dubbing, is dynamic and expressive.

All in all, a beautifully executed anime and shouldn't disappoint anybody who likes Wolf Children and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It's ambitious but apart from the writing of some of the characters it doesn't feel too much so. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Summer Wars does a wonderful job of combining touching human Japanese animation with weird monster-fighting stuff. The former is the frame of the movie in which a young man finds himself caught in a friend's family drama involving a really cool old lady and a snarky black sheep. The latter involves a facebook-meets-second-life-meets-everything-else-on-the-internet entity that gets hacked. The two sections are beautifully integrated into a single, fantastic movie.

There are criticisms I could make if I really wanted to. The technology really makes no sense at all, and some remarkable idiocy has to happen in the real world to worsen things in the virtual one. But none of that bothered me, because the characters feel real and the animation in both worlds is absolutely gorgeous.

I adore this movie. Something about its mad mix of colourful, vibrant portrayal of virtual world and down to earth family life in rural Japan really appeals to me. These two stories are so far away from one another, yet they manage to tell a coherent, heartwarming story about the bonds that define us and that allow us to function with one another. It's a simple story - though yes, as a scifi story it has some bizarre elements - but it's told well, with special attention paid to the quiet moments and the little gestures we make when in the company of someone else.

And I really liked the Jinnouchi Clan. I could easily place myself among these people and feel immediately at home. I know that one uncle, who's loud and boisterous and all about big, material things. I have one. I know that teenage emo cousin, who's made of awkward. I have one. I know that aunt, who's bossing people around with a verbal whip and shrill voice. I have one, unfortunately.

So yes, I love this movie, and definitely recommend it to each and every one out there. If there is something that I have to nitpick about, it's that the movie doesn't have that awe-inspiring quality. It's not going to be an instant classic that everyone will talk about in the coming years. It has all the right elements. Stunning visuals, great story, identifiable characters, good romance, nice music... Yet it lacks that special something, that final spark. Instead it's just a really nice film.