I just watched Summer Wars from director Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time). It's an enjoyable ride with a great English dub. Summer Wars is fun geek romance set against a hacker attack directed at the internet. And they got the tech right.
While not directly the antagonist in this film, the US Department of Defense is blamed for releasing a virus that starts destroying core operations on the internet. This is the weakest part of the plot. It's never made clear why the DOD would be motivated to release the virus on the public. It's just assumed that of course the DOD would do such a thing; reflecting Japanese stereotypes of the US military.
Only the DOD never counted on a nerdy kid, his sexy (sorta) girl friend and her 90 year old grandmother. This oddball mixture comes together to fight the virus and defend humanity. Each brings a different skill set and Rolodex to the battle. Hosoda covers familiar terrority here, strong family values, celebration of pastoral life and respect for elders. Only Hosoda applies those rules to a family that lives in the 21st century.
Visually Summer Wars is hand drawn with CG cut scenes and backgrounds. It can be
distracting to have a 2D figure standing in front of a 3D object and I
really wish anime would move away from this mixture. Otherwise, the
visual metaphors for the internet are amazing.
A fast driven plot with laughs and the odd touching moment.
3.5/4 stars
