Summer Wars | A Great ‘Summer’ Movie!

Wowowow, would you look at that, another ‘older’ Anime. This time in the form of a movie and a pretty good movie at that. Summer Wars was released in August 2009, which means this movie is roundabouts 9-year-old, roughly. Despite it being old, it still holds up as a really good movie.

I also think its worth mentioning that just over 60% of the people who know of the Anime have rated it an 8 or higher. So I think it’s worth giving it a look.

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Story: 9/10
In a world where everything is connected to OZ (Imagine the internet but with animation), OZ assists almost everything, from GPS’s to maintaining water pressure to sending dispatch calls for emergency vehicles. OZ helps the world and is well protected. The movie follows Kenji as he joins his crush in a visit to her grandma’s 90th birthday party. While there, OZ gets taken over by a hacker and chaos ensues.

The pacing was a bit slow in the very beginning, as much action hasn’t really happened. It was a lot of introduction scenes, for the massive amounts of family members in the Jinnouchi family. This pacing picked up rather quickly and kept the quick pacing until the end which was very good due to the seriousness of the main story during the time.

Art: 8/10
The art in the anime changes form night & day rather quickly. We have a gorgeous digital world, the world of OZ, and the very scenic real world, the world of Japan. The world of OZ is a very bright world with bright shapes and designs. The real world was very normal, except with amazing backgrounds and scenery, what more do I expect from the same people who made Wolf Children?

The animation of the action scenes were amazing. The animation was smooth and had very little use of transitional scenes to change the angle of the fight. I enjoyed this very much since we can see every punch thrown, every kick blocked, we do not miss a thing when it comes to a fight, and there is no confusion on what exactly happened as well.

The character designs were quite splendid as well. The designs of the avatars help compliment the artwork of OZ and are very unique. The designs of the family members were great too, different enough to separate the family members (most of the family members, there were a couple who looked similar… but they were brothers) but not too unique so they still fit in with the real world Japan.

Sound: 9/10
The soundtrack is outstanding. The first song that plays is OZ, the Virtual City, a song that helped introduce the world of OZ. The song is a very simple electronic song that gives off a great feeling of happiness. This assist in sending the message of OZ being a great and helpful resource. The other songs do the exact same thing the OZ, the Virtual City, as it helps carry the message and mood through.

What is the difference between normal anime background music and Summer Wars soundtrack? The use of the song in the right scene and the feeling each song brings out are both executed very well throughout the movie. If this is not a good enough reason, I may just be a bit biased on the sound then.

Character: 9/10
The family members were awesome. Everyone in the Jinnouchi family appears to be in a high ranking profession. This along with the character designs helps distinguish the family members from each other. The grandma tops it off as being the best family member with her connections to a lot of high ranking people and her optimistic attitude.

This movie had great character development in the form of Kenji. Kenji learns what it is like being in a family, what it means to support one another even if the odds are against you and to be supported by others when facing dangers such as death.

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