Summer Wars Review

Tom and Sora_thekey sit down after an L.A. viewing of Summer Wars to talk about how Hosoda's film stacks up.

Video posted by danielm on Jan. 18, 2011

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Dig Deeper into Summer Wars

Summer Wars is a movie of Kenji Koiso who's hired to play the fiancee of Natsuki Shinohara for her family reunion when his OZ account is hacked and shuts down the program all Japan depends on to function. Kenji must fix this with the help and support of Natsuki's family.

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42 Comments
Om1kronon Jan. 18, 2011 at 2:32 p.m.
Just watched this right now and my mind was blown the fuck away!!! Seriously you need to watch this!!!  
 
Edit : After hearing Sora's review, I still think this is more accessible, if I tried to have someone not into anime watch this or watch DIGIMON with the same story. Nobody would watch the digimon. 
thuiscoolon Jan. 18, 2011 at 2:47 p.m.
Summer Wars was great!
sotyfan16on Jan. 18, 2011 at 3:28 p.m.

The video won't play for me! :(

sora_thekey moderator on Jan. 18, 2011 at 3:34 p.m.
I apologize for messing up Mamoru Hosada's name in the video... and be sure to watch the video all the way through until the end!
 
@Om1kron: You are totally right. I do like Digimon a lot, and I will hold my 4.5/5 rating on the movie because a lot of the elements from the Digimon movie were taken to make Summer Wars. If I were to introduce someone to anime, I would use Summer Wars rather than Digimon: Our War Game. 
 
@sotyfan16: I just watched it on Google Chrome. Try to play it there.
sora_thekey moderator on Jan. 18, 2011 at 3:43 p.m.
Also, I mentioned that in the video that Summer Wars is already on sale for Pre-Order. Here's the link for you to buy, or you can wait for the movie to be released on Feb. 15th.
danielm staff on Jan. 18, 2011 at 4:16 p.m.
I actually REALLY wanna see this movie. I went into editing the video thinking I wouldn't like it, but after hearing you guys talk about it and watching the trailer a couple times, it looks pretty damn cool.
Daniel_Newton moderator on Jan. 18, 2011 at 6:56 p.m.
I turned the video off when you said Digimon was better than Pokémon. 
Seriously though, great video review. It was great to see Tom so hyped up about an anime movie, and I really wasn't expecting to see Geo make an appearance, guess some good can come out of movies being limited release. Definitely sounds like a movie I'd be interested in, I'll have to check it out when I can. Won't be easy living in the UK though. 
That totally wasn't the chair Tom, admit it.
FoxxFireArt moderator is online on Jan. 18, 2011 at 7:33 p.m.
@sora_thekey: 
Ohhh, doing so well until you botched the director's name and the DVD's release. You should really look these kinds of things up when you start.
 
I will say I'm deeply envious. Makes me wish I lived closer to the San Fransisco area. You can make requests and EVENTS.com but it's a bit of a lost cause unless enough people can make requests in your area. The idea of the site is to show theaters the interest the public has.
I made one of those requests, but saw only three other people did in my area, as well.
 
FUNimation can be hit or miss on their dub work of anime TV series, but a lot of their movie work is exceptional.

@danielm:
I'm actually a tad disappointed that they never really discussed this very interesting turning point in anime that is taking place this year. Not one, but two main stream anime movies are being placed in US theaters prior to their DVD release dates. Both Summer Wars and Evangelion 2.0.
 
More often than not, the theater release if post DVD release and it's to a small handful of theaters. They are more promotional showings.
 
I wrote a blog post HERE about Summer Wars back when the theatrical releases were being announced. It has some clips from the movie that FUNimation released officially on their youtube page.
Summer Wars really strikes me as something that will be really great on Blu-ray.
EquitasInvictuson Jan. 18, 2011 at 8:21 p.m.
Great video review and especially great background provided on your part, @sora_thekey! 
  
You provided some really nice insight on Hosada's previous experiences with the Digimon franchise in context with this film. Both of your points regarding the film were also on spot and I appreciated this video review very much. Having seen this film last summer myself, it was nice to be reminded of everything I liked about it by this video review. 
  
Also, nice way to end it with a joke! This must have been fun to film!
Lurkeroon Jan. 18, 2011 at 8:27 p.m.
  @Newten: Digimon Tamers (season 3) is better than anything Pokemon has ever done (movies are debatable). The rest of Digimon...not so much.
 
I still watch Pokemon and even though I occasionally enjoy the battles, Ash is annoying as a character. Over 600 episodes and he still makes rookie mistakes (Paul is the best).
 
When I first saw the Summer Wars trailer I instantly thought of Digimon the movie.
Daniel_Newton moderator on Jan. 18, 2011 at 10:18 p.m.
@lurkero: I was kidding about the Pokémon thing. The Digimon anime is probably better, considering how the Pokémon anime just repeats itself over and over. Though as an overall thing, like, the entire franchise, Pokémon destroys Digimon. Digimon doesn't even come close, Pokémon is one of the biggest franchises in the history of ever. 
 
But... yeah. I stopped watching Pokémon years ago.
sotyfan16on Jan. 19, 2011 at 4:27 a.m.
I really want to see this movie. By the time I knew the dates (Chicago being the closest) it was already showing there and I couldn't drive 5 hrs there and back. I am excited that you two were able to see the movie together and provide the rest of us AV users with some laughs and understanding. With now seeing the film do you guys think it could get an Oscar nomination? (I think that would have been an interesting topic to bring up in the video as well)
 
@sora_thekey:
I don't have Chrome but it worked when I used Firefox. I get to put a face to the name now! lol
metalsnakezeroon Jan. 19, 2011 at 5:31 a.m.
Nice discussion guys. It is a very well done movie and great dubbing by Funimation.
 
You guys should look in to doing more anime movies as some are coming out in the USA soon.
Kuma_From_Argentinaon Jan. 19, 2011 at 5:57 a.m.
@lurkero:  I like Frontier and Adventure 01, Tamers I liked less than the others...
JonathanMooreon Jan. 19, 2011 at 11:05 a.m.
Guy on the right is really cute.
sora_thekey moderator on Jan. 19, 2011 at 12:05 p.m.
@danielm: Watch it!! 
@Newten: Haha. Surprise. No but you are right, the Pokemon franchise became so big that it made Digimon look like it was nothing. The reason I defend Digimon so much is that I enjoyed the characters and monsters better. When I was little Pokemon would come on after Digimon so by the time I was watching Pokemon I already was filled with my fix of "Mons". (and it was totally not the Chair!) 
@FoxxFireArt: Funny you should mention that, because at the movie theater I kept repeating the name to Tom so that I would not mess it up in the video. That's why Tom started laughing when I botched the name. 
@EquitasInvictus: Thanks. When it comes to Digimon... I know my stuff, and yeah Tom and I had a blast! 
@lurkero: @Kuma_From_Argentina: It's so strange to see people defend Digimon seasons that are not the first two. 
@metalsnakezero: That all depends on how well you guys respond to videos like these. 
@JonathanMoore: Um... Thank. You. 
Om1kronon Jan. 19, 2011 at 5:14 p.m.
@FoxxFireArt said:

I wrote a blog post HERE about Summer Wars back when the theatrical releases were being announced. It has some clips from the movie that FUNimation released officially on their youtube page. Summer Wars really strikes me as something that will be really great on Blu-ray. "

The version I watched was the Blue Ray obviously with a fan sub, can't wait until the official release so I can add it to my collection.  
 
Seriously the quality of animation is amazing, I spent so much time just watching ambient motion displays in the background like when they're watching a baseball game and all of the children cheer. Nothing fascinates me more about animation when the motion is just so well captured and animated you want to think some things were motion captured. 
JJOR64on Jan. 19, 2011 at 5:30 p.m.
Great video guys!  The movie sounds interesting.
JonathanMooreon Jan. 19, 2011 at 6:56 p.m.
@sora_thekey said:
" @danielm: Watch it!! 
@Newten: Haha. Surprise. No but you are right, the Pokemon franchise became so big that it made Digimon look like it was nothing. The reason I defend Digimon so much is that I enjoyed the characters and monsters better. When I was little Pokemon would come on after Digimon so by the time I was watching Pokemon I already was filled with my fix of "Mons". (and it was totally not the Chair!) 
@FoxxFireArt: Funny you should mention that, because at the movie theater I kept repeating the name to Tom so that I would not mess it up in the video. That's why Tom started laughing when I botched the name. 
@EquitasInvictus: Thanks. When it comes to Digimon... I know my stuff, and yeah Tom and I had a blast! 
@lurkero: @Kuma_From_Argentina: It's so strange to see people defend Digimon seasons that are not the first two. 
@metalsnakezero: That all depends on how well you guys respond to videos like these. 
@JonathanMoore: Um... Thank. You.  "
No need to thank, just pay it forward. 
 
In Coke Zero. That would be good right about now.
TheLegendaryOneon Jan. 19, 2011 at 7:36 p.m.
@sora_thekey: Is there anywhere online that I can watch this? Like casual anime viewing websites online like for example Anime Freak? Or is this strictly order the DVD or request it at your local movie theater?
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