Summer Wars (spoilers)

[Seshi]

Summer wars was fantastic! I loved the integration of the Japanese culture into this film, I really felt connected to the family and their bonds were tremendous. 

The grandmas efforts to save her city were beyond my imagining. Isn’t it a huge loss when we lose an elder? Their ties to the community are so great and so powerful.

Though there are many great attributes to this movie, it speaks to me most strongly in this way. 

What about you? What did you think of the movie?

Edited May 25, 2019 by Seshi

[Ohayotaku]

 

First of all, I was only able to find the dub version of the movie thus time around which is usually not how I watch anime. That being said, I thought it was a really well done version with all the voices matching the characters’ appearances. As far as translation, the only line that sounded somewhat off to me was where Kenji’s friend accuses him of acting “emo”.  But again very well done.

As far as the movies themes, the ones that really stand out (and the ones I remember from my previous viewing) are 1) the importance of family and 2) the conflict, but also the need for reconciliation of, traditional and modern values. Both are pretty common in anime. I think the movie did a very good job of portraying the sort of quirks that you find in a large family gathering that members take in stride, but outsiders would find awkward or chaotic without seeming over the top.  Of course Uncle Wabisuke is in the unique position of being both a family member and an outsider as he was apparently born as the result of an affair (or at least illegitimately). Even though he was accepted by the grandmother, there was still a stigma attached to that and he later rebelled against the family’s traditional values. Despite this, it becomes clear that he desperately wants to belong and his actions were an attempt to make amends (though in a misguided and materialistic way). Kazuma comes across as a more successful merger of traditional and modern society: while something of a loner, highly competitive and immersed in the online world, he incorporates martial arts learned from his uncle into his fighting style. I can’t help but notice the somewhat paradoxical way America was s represented. On the one hand, Natsuki tells her family that Kenji studied in America to make him sound more experienced and exciting. But the fact that Wabisuke took the money to travel to America is treated as particularly shameful, and of course the US Department of Defense are portrayed as the real “bad guys”. This view of the US being both intriguing but also unsavory is another theme I’ve noticed in a lot of anime. Of course the grandmother is a central figure, not just for the family, but for the movie itself. I think another key message of the movie is that a life well spent will continue to be felt on future generations. Even though there is sadness at her passing, it concludes with a celebration of her life and the knowledge she will continue to be a source of inspiration and encouragement for a long time to come. Finally, I actually do like the romcom aspect of the story between Natsuki  & Kenji as well.

With all the things I found enjoyable about the movie, there are some aspects I don’t think were handled very well. My biggest complaint being the way virtual world is portrayed. For being a global network encompassing everything from the mundane to the critical with millions of users, too much of it was portrayed as just empty white space and most  of the avatars (exceptions being Kazuma, Love Machine & Natsuki’s goddess mode) are extremely wonky looking. Not at all what you would expect of a system supposed to he that advanced. Also, while the hanafuda show down probably is much more meaningful to a japanese audience (I get the impression it’s culturally significant), as someone with no prior knowledge it just seemed like a bunch of random shout outs.

I’ve probably rambled on too long, but these ate some of my impressions. I look forward to what others have to say

Edited May 25, 2019 by Ohiotaku

[Illusion of Terra]

Just watched it and it was different from what I expected seeing the trailer. I'll give a short general review and go into more detail for individual things. Obviously there are going to be a lot of spoilers. 

I wrote the below before reading what others wrote, but I think it's hilarious how differently I and @Ohiotaku see some aspects (the Natsuki Kejni thing, and virtual world) 

I think it was a great anime, and in general quite unusual. It felt like a mix between a Western movie and an anime with how the plot progressed. I liked that there were a lot of different aspects to it so many different people can watch and understand it. Even if you are not a tech nerd, because of how the fight with the AI was portrayed you can still understand what was happening. At the same time, if you do enjoy tech you still got what the main idea was and also that tech for some is like watching sports for others. And above all you got the community/family aspect which I think everyone knows in some way at least.
There was a lot of symbolism which I didn't get because it was Japanese (the playing cards the grandma played, the morning glories, Natsuki and the AI were obviously dressed as some characters from mythology). What I disliked most though was the Natsuki Kenji thing. Natsuki tricked Kenji to act as her fiance and then in the end they seem to have gotten together. I don't know, I think there were better ways for her to approach things. But views diverge about these things.

So the anime is something a very mixed group of people can watch. You don't have to be a huge otaku to understand it, nor a tech nerd. For me personally it is not the best anime I've ever seen but that's because of personal preferences. It has something for everyone and I think it did a great job incorporating all those aspects. So it is a great all-round anime and I'd recommend others watch it!

Now some more specific things.

Life in a village

Spoiler

I'm originally from a village and am thinking about moving back there soon, so there's a lot that reminded me of it in the movie. I think life in a village was portrayed really well, down to complicated family ties which you always forget if you haven't grown up in a village, and also down to one scumbag who tricks the villagers with some kind of scheme and then disappears abroad with that money (I know someone personally who did this not more than 3 years ago).
You also get the idea of mistrust against foreigners, when they blamed Kenji for having started all that, or divided interests, such as some being highly invested in sports while others more in tech, but all kinda connected by death. So I think they captured life in a village really well!

I also thought that the idea behind the grandma solving a problem her way was great. Even if we now think that things have to be solved in a specific way, I've seen older generations solving the very same issues in a very different way, such as actually talking to people on a human level and having community ties as @Seshi mentioned.

Threat of AI

Spoiler

This was really well made. Only a couple of years ago there was (if I'm not mistaken a quite young) hacker who distributed a 'virus' across Europe. What apparently was thought of as a joke or challenge at the time, led to people dying in hospitals because of some machine dysfunction caused by it. Nowadays people try to not connect machines with important functions to the internet but as I've seen myself in different facilities people still connect them through their phones etc because of convenience. So yeah, people dying because of hackers etc is very real.
This also brings me to the idea which was hinted at in the movie. Self-learning AI. I've talked about it with two colleagues who work on that and develop it (machine learning) and we had some debates about it. It's true that there can be a lot of benefits that can come from it, even lives saved, but I still think it is very risky to leave the life of others into the hands of something that has the potential to change its own code and do things which we cannot expect.

Developing weapons and morality

Spoiler

This was quite interesting for me personally because I had two professors who had a public debate about it. One was a chemist, the other an ethicist. The chemist has been working on developing 'environmentally-friendly' bombs for the US military, which are bombs that will kill people but will reduce of environmental damage to plants compared to current bombs. Quite a few people said that he could be held responsible for how those bombs would be used, but he defended himself by saying that he only develops the bombs (like what Wabisuke said) and others use it. The ethicist said the chemist was still responsible since handing someone a weapon knowing what it is for is still enabling others to kill, something the grandma would probably agree to which is probably why she was horrified that Wabisuke used her money for it. So yeah, debates like that in the movie are quite real.

 

@Ohiotaku I didn't even notice the Kazuma successfully blending the two together! But now that you mention it, I definitely agree.
I also agree with you that the virtual world was not portrayed realistically. But I think the main idea was to target and make it understandable to people who are not tech-savvy, which is probably why it looked so simple.
I overlooked the whole US being the bad guy thing, maybe because it's quite common 

Edited May 25, 2019 by Illusion of Terra

[Beocat]

I have the movie and watched it several times when it first came out. @Ohiotaku I believe you are right on the mark and have always felt that. Rant alert coming up...

 

 

The constant US blame in anime is quite tiring and overused in anime. The US is always in these cases portrayed as being reckless and uncaring and agressive. I believe they forget that we typically are not aggressors. The US tends to have a reactive mentality when it comes to war (too many soft people who take for granted what our founding fathers fought and died for). We didn't have Japan on our radar until Pearl Harbor. We even dropped pamphlets in the Japanese cities warning we were going to bomb them. This whole "victimhood" mentality that gets used over and over again in anime is especially offensive to me and not what I want to watch anime for. I haven't watched it in years because of it. That the Uncle is "corrupted" by America is especially irksome. I feel like his family had more to do with his behavior than him going to school in the US.

 

Other than that, it's a great movie. The online world is well thought out, the characters likable, the overall plotline is fun even. I just wish they'd stop blaming America for all thier problems in life. 

 

Perhaps I come off a bit harsh here but this was the movie that really was the last straw on the subject for me. Before this, I was complacent enough to roll my eyes and move on but after watching this movie I literally stop watching anime and move on to something else when the play the blame game on America. And I watched it several times before coming to the conclusion that this was actual, intended blame and not just lazy writing.

 

As an aside, ever notice how Japan is always portrayed as a Utopian/near-perfect society in a world of chaos? Psycho-PASS for example? That too is old and overused. End rant.

[Illusion of Terra]

@Beocat I never realized that Americans were so bothered by it. I agree that generally concrete politics should best be left out of anime (unless it is an actual politics or war anime). But I kinda accepted that people use all kinds of stereotypes in movies in general. Religious leaders (like in Shield Hero) are often crazy fanatics, France or sometimes even Europe as a whole some kind of cultured fairy-tale land and Americans the paragon of gluttony.
In this case I guess they needed some kind of way to tie everything together and it is not too far-fetched that someone would work for the US military if they know how to code. The military using such a new technique so willy-nilly on the other hand was kinda sloppy. But I'm not so sure if the US was chosen because of some, possibly unconscious, bias against them. From a neutral perspective, as someone who both likes the US and Japan, I think the reason why the US was chosen was because of their technological advancements, not necessarily because of what they did to Japan. At the same time I can see a point being made with the whole uncle getting corrupted in the US, but then again I think he was pretty hated just because he took their money and moved overseas. I don't know, you guys might have a point, but I think it could go either way.

[Seshi]

I just didn’t read too far into it. The government being blamed (be it US, or any other country) is a common theme, even a very large number of western movies have plots based on their own government being “evil” and that plot usually revolves around a central military character who is corrupt or has evil intentions. Since the movie isn’t really clear on these persons, we can only connect the intentions of the author to the intentions of Wabisque. I don’t see anything driving this “US is evil” narrative- but more of a “technology is evil” one. And as others above have mentioned, it’s probably only aimed at the US because of the plausibility of our military technology actually having these large scale capabilities (given our military budget, and assets). Just my two cents tho.

@Illusion of Terra I also didn’t like the way Natsu used Kenji. It kind of felt undeserving after all was said and done, but I guess they did have a strong bond after all of that, so it was kind of like fate moved them together through the circumstances 

[Illusion of Terra]

Something I didn't mention at all was the artstyle. I really liked it, and it felt different from many other anime, with the characters being drawn a bit 'longer'. It has a unique character to it, and generally quite enjoyable just looking at it good to watch in the summer. Now that I mention it, why is it called summer wars, because it is a war in the summer? 

[EnviousEnvy]

One of my favorites honestly. I got the limited edition version of Summer Wars. 

I'll be completely honest though, the artwork of the avatars on this movie reminds me of the first Digimon movie that came out like in the late 90's, early 2000's (the one with Angelina Anaconda in the animated short that played before the feature film).