Baldr: Summer Wars | サマーウォーズ

Heyo, happy sunday, Baldr here(finally, as some of my comrades might add). I am going to start off with Summer Wars, a 2009 film distributed by Warner Bros. The premise is based mainly around technology, which is one of my personal favorite bases. The film comes from Mamoru Hosoda, this is his second full length film, his first being The Girl Who Leapt Through Time in 2006. So without further ado, let’s get started.


Plot

The plot revolves around Kenji Koiso, a high school junior and math genius who works maintenance on the cyber world of Oz. Senior Natsuki barges in and says she has a job for one of them. She takes him to her family’s estate in Ueda where they are celebrating her grandmother’s 90th birthday. When they arrive Natsuki reveals that the job is to pretend to be her fiancé. That night he receives a text that is a math problem, he solves it and the next day his account is hijacked by an AI and it is wreaking havoc on Oz.

Overall I liked the plot in its entirety though there are some places where it gets a little lost. In addition there is a weird subplot about baseball that goes on in the background during most of the movie and doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of it. I do like the fact that though there are some parts that are predictable, it does surprise you much more than an average blockbuster. Overall I thought that it was an exciting and interesting story that I enjoyed following the whole way through.

Love Machine after taking Kenji's avatar

Characters

I really liked the characters in this film, they all felt very realistic and well portrayed. However, there is not much character progression as it is only 114 minutes long. One of the characters I thought was one of the most interesting didn’t have very much screen time, but honestly that might be why he was an interest to me. I think that the characters were one of the better aspects of the film, I thought the interactions between the different family members was very well done and felt authentic. Hosoda had originally planned for there to be 80 members of the family, all of them main characters, but thankfully that got narrowed down. Most of characters are important in their own way and play their own part in the film. I think that the characters really make the film worth watching, and are among some of my favorites.

The Jinnouchi family

Animation and Music

The story switches between the real world and a visual representation of Oz. Both settings I enjoyed and they both looked very good, but I am a sucker for a virtual world, and most of the action happens in Oz making it the more exciting of the two. The music wasn't anything special but it fit the mood nicely, and gave some parts the intense feeling they needed.


I give Summer Wars an 8/10
There were not very many twists and turns in this movie, so it may be dull for some, but overall it is a very enjoyable experience. I have seen it a couple times now and I'm not going to be watching it by myself any time soon, but I would graciously watch it with others. It is just a good story combined with interesting characters that make for a great film.


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