Summer Wars

Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Studio:  Madhouse
Release: August 1, 2009
Genre: Slice-Of-Life, Cyberpunk
Theme song: "Bokura no Natsu no Yume" (僕らの夏の夢) [Our Summer Dream] by Tatsuro Yamashita
Official Site

Story: An adolescent math wiz unintentionally plunges the virtual world into chaos by solving a numerological riddle that makes the global network vulnerable to attack in this animated sci-fi adventure comedy. When Natsuki asks Kenji to pose as her boyfriend at her grandmother's upcoming birthday party, the smitten young numbers man jumps at the opportunity. But his summer of romance takes an unexpected turn when Kenji receives a complex math riddle on his cell phone, and solves it without a second thought. In the process, however, Kenji breaches the security of Oz, an extensive virtual realm containing everything from online shopping records to sensitive government documents and even the codes to launch nuclear weapons. Later, when a malicious AI program dubbed Love Machine begins gathering all of this data and threatens to bring the entire information infrastructure to its knees, Kenji, Natsuki, and her family must figure out a way to clear up the mess before it plunges the planet into chaos. (source: RottenTomatoes, Wikipedia, MyAnimeList)

Thoughts: This is the same director who made "The Girl Who Leapt Though Time" animated movie, and I loved that movie, so I decided to take a look at this one, "Summer Wars". Plus, this film won several awards, so it has to be good. But overall, I thought it was a decent animated film. I mean, for me it just didn't have that spark to make me feel drawn into the story like it did in "The Girl Who Leapt Though Time" film. Nevertheless, I had fun watching this movie. Although, I have to admit the animated visuals were really good. Especially the scenes for the virtual word of OZ. The use of 3-D and 2-D animation, combined, were awesome.

One of my favorite moments in this film was the final showdown between Love Machine and Natsuki, wagering on returning all of the OZ account participants. They had to use the Hanafuda cards to play a game called "Koi-Koi."  I never thought that playing with the Hanafuda cards could be so epic and yet so beautiful at the same time.

It was definitely worth buying the DVD because it had many great visuals and so, it was much better to watch it in high definition than watching it in low quality that I found streaming online. But anyway, I prefer the "TGWLTT" over this movie because it made more of an emotional impact on me. But "Summer Wars" told its story and it got the job done. If you have an eye for great animated visuals then this movie is recommended.