Summer Wars (2009) Review

An extraordinary animated film that switches between real world rural Japan and an online virtual community provides laughs, tears, and the possibility of the end of the world – all during one high school student’s unexpected summer vacation. But looking beyond the protagonist, this science fiction film is also about the importance of family relationships, good and bad. UPDATED for Blu-ray details and HD screen captures.

While some people enjoy blind buying movies, I am not one of them. This one is not quite a blind buy because I saw part of a fan translated manga adaptation and thought it looked interesting. It ended up on my Amazon wish list and was forgotten until scrolling through that to find it on sale. So did it become a purchase to regret? Read on to find out.

When the movie started, I wondered if I’d made a mistake. The opening scenes are shown as an online tutorial and introduction to a virtual social community called OZ. OZ looks like a cross between Facebook and Second Life, with cute avatars representing the users of the system. In fact, it goes through the entire creation of an avatar as if it were a real system.

But is more than just a riff on Facebook and other online communities. OZ is also the backbone of all communications in the world with government agencies and facilities using it as an operating system. It is like if Microsoft, Apple, or Google ran the entire planet’s infrastructure. Now there is a frightening thought!

All of this was presented in cell shaded CGI rather than traditional animation was extremely cutesy in a corporate way. By that I mean in a talking paperclip kind of style for those of you who remember that in Microsoft Office. Not my cup of tea.

Suddenly we are deposited in the real world, or more accurately the traditionally animated depiction of a Japanese high school computer club. In Japan, they have clubs for almost everything and they are a big part of a teen’s high school life. Here we meet two computer geeks who are part time administrators in OZ.

Then something happens that never happens in real life – the prettiest girl in school walks in and offers a paying job. No, Natsuki isn’t asking them to rig her grades. Instead the older student needs one boy to come traveling with her to the countryside.

And so our hero, Kenji begins his assignment of escorting Natsuki in a montage that manages to catch subtle nuances of every day life while interweaving glimpses of cyber life on OZ. We also find out the shy boy is a math wiz who narrowly lost out being the Japanese representative at the international math olympics. It also turns out he has been hired to pose as Natsuki’s boyfriend to meet her family.

And oh what a family she belongs to! The Jinnouchi clan are descendants of samurai and the matriarch Sakae is the one all orbit around. In fact, her 90th birthday is approaching and that is why the family has gathered together. Natsuki reveals a scheming side when she introduces Kenji to her great grandmother and unreels multiple lies about who he is. The biggest one being that he is her fiancé.

It is a scene that demonstrates marvelous comic timing as the clueless boy slowly realizes what is going on. But amongst the comedy is a sublime moment where Sakae stares at him with all the ferocity of her spirit to evaluate the lad. She sees something deep within him and gives her approval to the marriage. For some reason Kenji is rather upset about being misled, but Natsuki is determined to keep the ruse going.

Meeting the rest of the boisterous and varied family follows at dinner. Not even a flow chart can help him keep everyone straight. I loved this scene for it rang with the authenticity of how families behave, from the banter to the insults as we get a glimpse of each personality. All are believable, realistic characters – even Shota the second cousin cop with a crush on Natsuki. He’s there for comic relief and because every large family has someone like him.

Throughout the movie, we are shown the various family members interacting and many little things are planted for future reference. This is a very complicated movie. Also interwoven is a parallel to baseball presented in the television broadcasts of one of teens of the family in a high school baseball tournament. Keep an eye out for that.

But not all is fun and games at the Jinnouchi gathering. Every family has a black sheep and theirs is named Wabisuke. His appearance brings with it unexpected tension and seriousness to the movie, which had been light hearted until now. It is a foreboding scene and sure enough, things begin to move in a bad direction for Kenji and company. It doesn’t help that Natsuki has obvious feelings for her “uncle”.

Inability to sleep and a strange email with a cypher asking to be broken leads to Kenji being framed for hacking OZ. Suddenly a wanted international criminal, it is up to him to find out who stole his account and is vandalizing OZ. With help from Kazuma, a young computer gaming ace in the family, Kenji begins his attempts to clear his name while hiding what is happening from the family.

But with media being everywhere in modern society, that doesn’t work out so well. Exposed and arrested, Kenji’s spirit manages to shine when confronted before being hauled off. His family is small and doesn’t interact very much, so his gratitude for his experiences with the Jinnouchi’s says a lot about what the movie is really about.

Horrified by the turn of events, Natsuki surprisingly shows great concern for Kenji as it appears the shy boy has managed to make an impression on her after all. I suppose being hauled off in hand cuffs helps with the whole bad boy thing girls go for. I kid, I kid. Or do I?

Meanwhile things are going very wrong in OZ. Very wrong and what goes wrong in OZ will go wrong in the real world.

The hacker isn’t a hacker, but a rogue artificial intelligence unleashed from a United States university. Named “Love Machine”, it begins consuming accounts and interfering with everything from stop lights to atomic clocks. As the chaos expands, the entire country of Japan is paralyzed.

Enter Sakae and her very old fashioned rotary phone with equally archaic hand written address books. Her many decades of contacts with noble families and the government turn out to be very handy when modern communications fail. It is a tour de force performance, something I never expected to write about a cartoon character.

Her efforts and that of her family are traceable, however. Love Machine now knows he has an opponent and more importantly, knows the clan crest. The AI is cunning and growing even more dangerous.

Returned to the mansion due to Natsuki’s efforts, Kenji is on hand when things finally come to a boil regarding Wasibuke as secrets are revealed and a dramatic confrontation occurs. Later on, a card game of hanafuda changes one life as the shy teen is forced to make a fateful promise by the scheming matriarch.

Hanafuda is a way of life to the Jinnouchi’s and another reoccurring theme to watch for. This movie made me want to learn how to play it. I have a feeling I will be buying a set of cards.

Things go from bad to worse as Love Machine continues its rampage, the world itself is endangered, and Kenji finds himself accompanying the Jinnouchi clan into cyber battle. With the stakes being raised to that of life or death, the peaceful summer vacation has turned into a summer war.

Can Kenji save the world and maybe, just maybe, get the girl?

Thoughts

Summer Wars is a wonderful film, filled with all those moments that make families truly family. It is also a ripping good science fiction yarn; one of those that warns of a possible future already happening. The gradual takeover of everything by the Internet includes our electrical power plants and hackers have already accessed them. The potential to bring things to a grinding halt is not very far fetched anymore.

But the heart of the movie is the Jinnouchi clan and all their colorful personalities. This really is an ensemble cast and the director’s having the voice actors together in the same studio really paid off. Come to think of it, this movie feels like a live action film in the real world scenes because of this.

The main message of  Summer Wars is the importance and strength of family. None of it is rendered in a sappy way and it is unflinching in showing the embarrassing sides of relatives. I also loved the character of Sakae, the matriarch. While it is not rare to see the elderly shown respect in anime, it is unusual to see a woman of her intellect and fire combined with age. She alone makes the movie worth seeing.

Fortunately, there is a lot more that makes the film great.

The development and growth of the two leads is also well done and manages to be believable despite the short amount of time it happens over. Kenji’s becoming the young man Sakae saw in him is a joy to behold.  Natsuki gets her share of progression too, going from a selfish girl to someone willing to risk all for others – becoming more than a little like her great grandmother.

The Japanese voice cast is absolutely superb across the board. I do want to point out that Natsuki’s voice actress, Nanami Sakuraba, doesn’t sound like the typical cutesy anime girl, but like a real one. It makes her character and I couldn’t imagine her any other way.

Though I am on record as hating English dubs, this one has a very good one with a cast that rises to the occasion. The only complaint I have is that when they did the dub script, more profanity was introduced than was in the subtitles. This is something I have noticed in fan subtitling and it seems to be spreading to official dubs, unfortunately.

Because of the scatalogical profanity, I cannot recommend it for children. It is rated PG and contains violence, both in the virtual world and the Jinnouchi mansion. Older teens and up are the real targets of the movie, anyway. There are some scenes in the the virtual world of OZ that could give nightmares to little ones.

Speaking of children, this is a rare anime where the little kids are voiced by little kids rather than women.

I highly recommend Summer Wars, as it is a true delight and holds up very well on repeated viewings. In fact, I recommend purchasing it outright. Not bad for a semi-blind buy, eh?

Technical

This is a review of the DVD, so I can’t say if the Blu-ray is even more spectacular, but I would hope it does full justice to the gorgeous transfer. Make no mistake about it, this is a beautiful film and after adjusting to the CGI world of OZ I found that impressive as well.

UPDATED: Yes, the Blu-ray is even more spectacular. Animated content gets a huge boost in quality in this format and everything is better.

It is presented in 1.85:1 ratio with a full 5.1 Dolby Surround mix for both Japanese and English dubs. Sound is excellent with full use of positioning and ambient noises that are very effective at making you feel that you are in the countryside. On the Blu-ray the sound is in Dolby TrueHD and is even better.

The soundtrack fits the film perfectly, especially during the sequences set in OZ. Madhouse has created something to rival Studio Ghibli in every facet of film making.

Funimation issued this as a two disc set with the movie on one DVD and the extras on the other. All are on one disc in the Blu-ray release. The extras are well worth looking at with interviews with the main cast members and the director. It is interesting to see behind the scenes of how voice work was handled, normally you get extras on the animation.

The packaging has to be mentioned. Summer Wars comes in a sturdy plastic case that doesn’t skimp on plastic to save costs. A separate plastic leaf holds the movie with the extras DVD on the inside back. The case is clear which allows a rather unique insert to be used. On one side is the front and back while the inside of the insert is a mini poster of the lead couple backed by the rest of the cast. The Blu-ray case is smaller and only has one disc, but the rest applies to it.

Taking things a bit further, the case comes with an embossed slip cover which shows the same characters on the cover but as their OZ avatars. The back is the same reversal. It is extremely clever and testifies to the quality of the issue. Oh and the artwork is very good.

Funimation deserves kudos all around on the effort.

BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

 

 

 

 

The death of Sakae is handled wonderfully as she becomes the sole casualty of Love Machine. Here is where the movie becomes more than just a lark, but something deeper and sweeter. With the loss of their matriarch, the Jinnouchi clan both pull together and splinter at the same time – mainly along gender lines.

The panning across the porch conveys the loss powerfully and how it affects everyone differently. It is one of the best scenes in the movie.

And it is here that Kenji and Natsuki start becoming a couple. Having been spurned Kenji when trying to comfort her earlier in the movie, Natsuki’s request to have her hand held is a sweet moment as he enables her to release her grief.

Having been through enough family deaths to outnumber the amount of weddings I have been to, the way Sakae’s death is handled by the family rang true. It was all too familiar, especially since my immediate family was bound together by my mother.

Another sub story I enjoyed in the movie was that of Kazuma, the kid with the laptop. His alter ego, King Kazma is the champion of fighting in OZ and a direct outgrowth of two things: his being bullied in school and being taught kung-fu by his uncle. His frustration and despair at failing to save his family from imminent death is what finally unites the family.

The prodigal son arc of Wabisuke is deftly handled and another highlight of the film. His creation of Love Machine was meant to restore the family fortune lost by the great grandfather, but like the biblical figure he came to calamity in a far off land. His return and guilt make this a redemptive movie on top of everything else.

Seeing Natsuki pull herself together and support Kenji in the last stand while death was hurtling down upon the mansion showed her growth. Becoming the champion of her clan, the power up in the final battle of hanafuda conveys her blossoming beauty and stature of soul. Here she becomes worthy of the boy chosen by Sakae to be her husband and protector.

Then there is our hero of the story, Kenji. Sakae took pride in being able to assess a person’s character by looking at them and her confidence in him was well placed. Calling upon strength and leadership he didn’t know he had, Kenji ends up leading the clan into battle by rallying the men to fight back. One gets the feeling Sakae was looking for a strong man to restore the family after many generations of women running the clan.

The ending was fantastic, except for the very last moment which went to slapstick comedy. But I’ll forgive it. After all, how many happy endings feature a funeral?