Summer Wars

So, I just got finished watching “Summer Wars” (2009, Mamoru Hosada) and I enjoyed nearly every minute of it.

Hosada has been on my radar since last year when I finally caught “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” (2006, Hosada).  I had heard good things about Summer Wars and finally found a nice 1080p copy with decent subs, so I was quite happy to watch it tonight.

Visually it’s a pretty good film.  It has the unfair advantage of being the first animated film I’ve actually watched in true 1080p, but it was decent regardless.  Madhouse did a decent job with this, which is good since they’ve had a slipshod past few years.  It’s about 65% normal animation and the rest is a combination of cel shading and CGI.  It looks great overall, and even when multiple styles blend in the internet world of OZ it doesn’t jump out at you like it so often does in other films.

It’s visual style has quite a bit in common with “The Girl Who Leapt through Time” as well.  It’s simple, uncluttered, and has a very down to earth vibe going on.  It isn’t the multi-colored drug induced vomit that Kon likes to throw at us, but it also isn’t the fantastical magicy sorta stuff that Miyazaki is famous for.  The real world looks real, and the internet world looks like what I could see an internet world looking like.  I rather liked it.

The story is what you’d expect with his sort of thing.  Rogue AI gets all sorts of power and has no emotions so it messes with the world, so dudes have to work together to trick it into stopping… think “War Games” but a bit crazier with a definite Japanese flair.  But… it’s well told and has a really nice style to it, even after the 10 failed resolutions I wasn’t bored.  However, the story could have been nearly anything, because this movie’s saving grace is elsewhere.

What makes the film is the characters.  They are FANTASTIC.  The story basically goes that the female “lead” (Though she’s in the movie a good deal less than many other female characters…) Natsuki lied to her family about some all-star and ends up bringing Kenji, the protagonist (classically socially awkward but kindhearted, as most anime protagonists are wont to be) as a faux-boyfriend for the duration of the trip for her grandmother’s 90th birthday.

The family is the best part of the film.  Each character is unique in some way and, while you meet some more than others, they’re all decently charming.

Now, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” wasn’t perfect.  It was enjoyable, something a bit slower paced than most stuff I was watching back then and got me to look up who Hosada was, but ultimately it was flawed.  I’d recommend someone to watch it, but not before about a hundred other movies.

“Summer Wars” is in the same boat.  The animation, like I said, is good but not spectacular.  We don’t see Kenji really “grow” as a character as much as I’d liked, and due to the fact we have a dozen some odd family members we don’t see much in the way of character development with them either.  The story is the same crazy AI story that’s been done a million times and is taken care of in a similar way of how it always is.

However, “Summer Wars” is way better than “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”.  The characters don’t really grow as you’d expect them to in a story, but there are so many different characters you don’t really get bored.  The interplay between all the different personalities is done well and the family feels pretty damn authentic as a whole, which I thought was good.

Overall, while TGWLTT is OK and I’d say give it a shot if you’re really into animation, I can recommend Summer Wars with far higher accolades.  It’s quite a bit different than things Kon or Miyazaki or any of the other big animation directors have put out recently (though having a surprisingly similar setting to “Paprika”… but far, far, far better), and I think that’s a good thing.  If you’re up for something new, I’d try this film.  It’s a bit different and even though it’s filled to the brim  with flaws upon further reflection and analysis, I felt pretty good about it when the credits started rolling, and I think that’s what matters most.