Set in the countryside of japan in Ueda, summer wars by the MadHouse animation studio is a work of art that can pull on your heart strings in a instant. Summer Wars is a movie with heavy themes of family and togetherness throughout. with a wide array of cast members, the movie is centred around the Jinnouchi family and the main characters Kenji Koiso and Natsuki Shinohara. Kenji is a high school 'nerd' and genius of the maths olympics. All of his academic accolades landed him a job on futuristic world of OZ as a maintenance officer. Meanwhile Natsuki comes from the prestigious Jinnouchi Family and is one of most popular girls at school. being friends natsuki asks kenji to come to the countryside with her for the summer for a trip for her Great Grandmothers 90th birthday, little did he know everyone in the family presumes they are engaged to be married.
With the beautiful countryside in Ueda that is vividly presented and fleshed out by animators, with detail added to elements such as nature and food. This heavy emphasis on the setting can have the viewer at ease and have them at ease in the quiet tranquillity of Ueda. But the writers and the animators contrast this with the world of OZ. The loud online, bright and vibrant world is used as almost a symbol posed by the screen writers of - what if technology went too far? In the movie everyone in the world requires OZ to do their jobs, communicate with friends, shop online, play games or even control parliment. Every user has it attached to their real world job, so if you hack a politician; and take his account, you are now one in the eyes of the world. The system moves smoothly until a hack on the system that leaves the real world at a stand still. When chaos ensues with broken water pipes, flooding, fires and no electricity - fatalities grow by the minuet. It is up to the Ueda family to stop the crisis created as one of their own; Wabisuke Jinnouchi, has caused this mess by creating the destructive virus known as 'love machine' plaguing the internet.
Wabisuke's actions has had the family turn their backs on him except Granny, who adopted him at the age of 5. Simply referred to as "Granny" by everyone she is the head of the family and keeps everyone in check and is also well respected throughout Japan. Being one of the many colourful members of family she stands out by keeping her cool in moments of stress being the anchor that keeps everyone together. She presents one of the key messages presented by Mamoru Hosoda - that family is meant to support, love and care for you throughout everything and they'll never leave you. Also that in her words that " you take care of yourself by taking care of others ", this selfless attitude inspires the family to drive forward and fix the problems at hand. Everything takes a turn for the worst when the President's account is taken and bombs are sent to every large city in the world. Furthermore, the worst case scenario happens as Granny passes on due to no access to medicine because of roads being closed. This state of mourning halts the family to mourn the loss of their elder. Every member of the family handles it differently as the Aunties want to preserve her memory and give her a good send off while Natsuki goes into a state of depression understanding that Wabisuke has an indirect role to play. Meanwhile Kenji wants to honour her memory by defeating the virus to mak sure no one else dies. The family pulls towards him as the new anchor as they provide him with their wide array of contacts to get him a computer to re-hack the system.
During this climax the family for the first time visually are apart in different rooms of the big complex handling it differently until Natsuki stumbles upon a letter from Granny that was meant for post death. Natsuki rounds everyone up and reads Granny's last words. Written inside it was said the family should forgive Wabisuke and take care of him because family is about love and that they should never stop supporting each-other. The whole family now rounds up around Kenji to save the day while Natsuki realises that her Uncle Wabisuke is still missing. She calls him to come back and upon finding about Granny's death her hurries back to aid the family. They eat what could be their final meal together if the bomb hits and they get back to work hacking. With help from the whole family Kenji disarms the bomb and saves the world and brings the family together. The closing scene ends with confession from Natsuki of her love for Kenji as he saved her family and showed them hope. The films ends on a comical high as Kenji, in classic anime fashion passes out from the kiss with a nose bleed.
The beautiful animation and cast of characters are effective in enthralling the viewer in a world of imagination and innovation while in OZ but when in the Jinnouchi family household in Ueda we are reminded about love and family values. Elements such as cinematography by Yukihiro Matsumoto brings the emotion to life by making us feel a part of Kenji's journey and the orchestral music by Akihiko Matsumoto gives a Disney vibe to the magical world. Writing, music and cinematography rounds off to tell the story of Mamoru Hosoda in beautiful imaginative way.
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