My Christmas eve 2010 was spent with my extended family but I had the pleasure to spend that Christmas day in a movie theater with the Jinnouchi family. I went to see the movie Summer Wars in San Francisco on that rainy Christmas day and it was well worth the 100 mile drive.
In my humble opinion Summer Wars directed by Hosoda Mamoru is the best animation I've seen in a long time.
The heroes of this exciting, hilarious and heartwarming movie are Kenji and the Jinnouchi family. The best animations have authentic believable characters and here we find several of them most notably Sakae, the family's charismatic matriarch. If there was an Academy award for best supporting actress in an animation it should go to her. In what could have easily stayed a simple scifi adventure alone, Hosoda has seamlessly weaved in an extensive cast of charming heart and togetherness.
The male lead Kenji is a shy math geek who has never even dated a girl before. He agrees to a summer job escorting Natsuki, the most popular girl in school, to her family's gathering. A sprawling earthy ancient rural family estate where the Jinnouchi clan has gathered to celebrate the family matriarch's 90th birthday. This is the real world setting where the enemy strikes however the movie doesn't just take place in this world. It starts introducing you to the white sterile appealing online universe called OZ that has all but completely taken over all the worlds workings. As in "the Wizard of OZ" something there declares it self as "all powerful" and starts stealing peoples very identities and online privileges.
Kenji stuck in the middle of nowhere like a fish out of water has to ask for help from the people he just met and instead of saving the day alone, is becomes the catalyst that helps unite the family together in battle.
Yes it gets deadly serious, and just when you think the battle is over the villain strikes back once more and then once again putting you on the edge of your seat.
Not being Japanese, I enjoyed being introduced to things like the ancient card game of Hanafuda Koi Koi and the anime cliché wherein a shy boy gets a nose bleed when kissed by a beautiful girl.
If you liked Mamoru Hosoda's the Girl Who Leapt Through Time (and why shouldn't you) then you'l definitely love this movie.
In my humble opinion Summer Wars directed by Hosoda Mamoru is the best animation I've seen in a long time.
The heroes of this exciting, hilarious and heartwarming movie are Kenji and the Jinnouchi family. The best animations have authentic believable characters and here we find several of them most notably Sakae, the family's charismatic matriarch. If there was an Academy award for best supporting actress in an animation it should go to her. In what could have easily stayed a simple scifi adventure alone, Hosoda has seamlessly weaved in an extensive cast of charming heart and togetherness.
The male lead Kenji is a shy math geek who has never even dated a girl before. He agrees to a summer job escorting Natsuki, the most popular girl in school, to her family's gathering. A sprawling earthy ancient rural family estate where the Jinnouchi clan has gathered to celebrate the family matriarch's 90th birthday. This is the real world setting where the enemy strikes however the movie doesn't just take place in this world. It starts introducing you to the white sterile appealing online universe called OZ that has all but completely taken over all the worlds workings. As in "the Wizard of OZ" something there declares it self as "all powerful" and starts stealing peoples very identities and online privileges.
Kenji stuck in the middle of nowhere like a fish out of water has to ask for help from the people he just met and instead of saving the day alone, is becomes the catalyst that helps unite the family together in battle.
Yes it gets deadly serious, and just when you think the battle is over the villain strikes back once more and then once again putting you on the edge of your seat.
Not being Japanese, I enjoyed being introduced to things like the ancient card game of Hanafuda Koi Koi and the anime cliché wherein a shy boy gets a nose bleed when kissed by a beautiful girl.
If you liked Mamoru Hosoda's the Girl Who Leapt Through Time (and why shouldn't you) then you'l definitely love this movie.