Movie Review: Summer Wars (2009) directed by Mamoru Hosoda
High schooler Kenji Koiso is a math whiz who almost qualified for Team Japan in the Math Olympics. But almost won’t get you a good summer job, so he’s a low level maintenance admin for the OZ online service. OZ is the most popular online virtual world, featuring everything from social media accounts with personalized avatars through online shopping to government agencies and satellite guidance. It needs a lot of low-paid grunts like Kenji to keep it running. So Kenji is willing to take a slightly better-paying job escorting cute senpai (senior at school) Natsuki Shinohara to a family reunion for her great-grandmother’s ninetieth birthday.
The Jinnouchi clan used to be powerful and wealthy back in the day, but poor financial decisions by the late clan head mean that Great Grandmother Sakae is down to just owning the (very nice) house she lives in and the surrounding grounds. Which is not to say the large extended family is impoverished, as most of them have perfectly decent jobs that they’re good at. What Natsuki didn’t tell Kenji until they already arrived is that he’s actually there to pretend to be her boyfriend and fiance, as she’d lied about having one to help keep Sakae’s spirits up.
That’s stressful enough, but Kenji also falls victim to a phishing attack disguised as a math puzzle sent to him in an email. This allows the malevolent artificial intelligence known as “Love Machine” to steal his moderator account as part of its bid to take over OZ. Even worse, Love Machine frames Kenji as the criminal! With the entire world in danger, Kenji and the Jinnouchi clan must find a way to defeat Love Machine.
This 2009 movie reuses some plot points from Hosoda’s earlier movie Our War Game, part of the toyetic Digimon franchise, but places much more emphasis on the physical world and family relationships. By the end, almost every family member has contributed to the story in some important way. Which is not to say that all of them always contribute positively. Off-duty cop Shota makes several bone-headed choices (while still meaning well) while black sheep of the family Wabisuke has inadvertently set the larger disaster in motion trying to make good for running off with most of Sakae’s money years ago. (In an amusing twist, we learn that Natsuki’s fake background for Kenji as her boyfriend was based on Wabisuke’s achievements.)
(There’s also a nice parallel sports story going on in the background.)
Both the human and virtual worlds are important and the art for both is good, though I preferred the warmer tones of the “real” segments. I strongly connected with the characters’ emotions and the theme of family working together, even when they struggle to understand each other.
The one part that’s perhaps a little weak is that there’s an awful lot of coincidence needed to make sure that this one particular family and their guest are pivotal to both creating and solving the worldwide crisis.
Content note: There’s a bit of partial nudity, and I am told the English dub has more swearing than parents of young children may be comfortable with. That latter bit and a particularly affecting death may make parents want to screen the movie to decide if little ones are ready to see it.
Overall: This is a superior animated movie that tugged my heartstrings. Highly recommended.
