Summer Wars Review

I used to be a big-time anime otaku and I still am a bigger fan than most people I know, so when I heard about this film and the critical acclaim it had received, I was shocked that it had flown past me. Well, after watching it, I can say that the hype is, indeed, to be believed. From the high quality, high budget animaiton, to the amazing story-within-a-story presentation, everything about this film shines on the same level as any of the great anime films. It is certainly the most impressive and entertaining animated feature I have seen in the last 10 years since 2001's "Spirited Away" awed me similarly. (Miyazaki's more recent films, Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo, did not elicit such a response from me, as I am sort of a harsh critic.)

The story seems simple enough at first, with a school setting during summer vacation, and two guys doing a part-time internet job over summer vacation. They work for Oz, which is a big computer network that nearly everyone in the world uses. Imagine the world's biggest MMO, but it has very lenient sandbox-style rules, and it's even used by governments, religions, and businesses. Anyway, one of those two guys, out protaginist, gets invited out to a rural part of Japan to help one of the seniors from their school with something. Once there, he finds out that she wants him to pose as her fiancee in front of the family because of a promise she made with her grandmother, whose birthday they are celebrating.

This may sound very tame and cliche, but the next day, the Oz system gets hacked somehow, and it appears that the hacker is using his account as a front for the hacking, so he gets blamed! Havoc breaks loose as everyone's personal information gets compromised and all the systems across the world that Oz runs - road signs, GPS, telephone, emergency response - all go haywire, which leads us to the story within the story. Our protaganist, Keiji, must prove his innocence and stop the hacker before something really dangerous happens, like the hacker getting ahold of the ability to launch nuclear weapons!

To put it simply, if you are an anime fan, you absolutely MUST see the movie. I would say it should be added to anyone's "required viewing" list. And of course, if you decide to get it, you should really get the Blu Ray! I have not seen the DVD version of the movie, but I can say that the use of HD resolution was glorious, and I can not imagine watching it in SD! You must see it in High Definition for the true experience!

So, should you get this? In a word, YES!