Cloudis   28 June 2011

I really really enjoyed Summer Wars, I am never sure what anime to buy, so this was suggested to me and I took it. Let me tell you it was worth it. It makes me want to buy and watch more anime movies. It is almost like the Digimon movie story, really enjoyed it!

VERY VERY COOL!

 

Sasshi106   09 February 2012

In terms of anime movies Summer Wars stacks right up there with Parika and Tokyo Godfathers. An amazing well rounded movie.

I like to break down reviews into Visual, Characters overall, soundtrack, plot and how it developes and finally Dub/Sub.

So visually, Summer Wars I found very impressive just because of the way Mamoru Hosoda decided to do it. The lines, the colour setting, and how this all changes jumping between the real world and the digital world. It is very similar to one of his early works which was the Digimon movie.

Characters. The story at first seems to only really revolve around two characters which are Natsuki and Kenji but later begins to incorperate Natsuki's very large and unique family.

Kenji is a math savy kid who's got a very reserved feel to his character. Always quite nervous and jumpy, he makes quite a nice comical character with a love for Math.

Next is Natsuki who starts off the story. She is a very happy go lucky relaxed character whom invites Kenji over for the summer to help with organizing stuff for a family gathering. She has quite a few sides to her as a serious character at times but all very believable.

The family as mentioned above is very big and unique and each character is made critical to the story without being too overwhelming which is a nice relief. Each offering something fun and different and later all piecing together a very nice picture.

Next is the soundtrack. The opening song is very strong classical music I feel to excited the viewer but that being said, the rest of the film features a very subtle list of tracks that just helps set the mood over all in each scenario and sometimes is completly absent. Nothing really to rave about in terms of wanting to own the OST.

Plot and developement. This is where Summer Wars really exceeds I believe. The plot follows two stories running parallel to each other. The one is the story of Natsuki's family and why she needed Kenji to spend the summer there. The other side is the story of OZ, the online world that connects the real world all together effectivly making a true global village. Oz is used for everything, from purchasing anything you can imagine from cars to retail to clothing, to running major services like police, health care and traffic lights etc. With two stories running parallel to eachother they never conflict and flow very nicely.

Finally is the DUB/SUB. The original Japanese dub felt very generic to me offering nothing exciting or new for this level of film. I felt the dub offered a lot more for us western audience in terms of play on words, emotion and general feeling that connected better.

Animation = A +
Soundtrack = B -
Plot = A +
Characters = A +
Dub/Sub = A

Personal note time! As a big plus the film had a very good vibe over all and I loved the world of OZ. The characters were very well animated and had a stunning flow.

As a negative the end of the film felt quite dragged out and over dramatic compared to the rest of the film.