“Never turn your back on family, especially when they hurt you”
Summer Wars, is practically speaking, not the first movie that comes to mind when one thinks of director Mamoru Hosoda, especially when there’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. But in many ways Summer Wars crosses conventional stereotypes of animated movies to deliver a unique perspective to Japan’s family life and how a society deeply rooted into its history transitions into the modern world.
Deviating from the normal stereotype of character development and self-discovery, Summer Wars introduces a lot of random characters, characters that anyone can relate to – the gossip-loving aunt, the uncle who loves fishing, the cousin super excited about sports, the cousin always on the computer, the scientist uncle, the girl who is always looking after her family, the lonely math nerd. The movie doesn’t try to focus on any of the particular characters but rather on the relationship between them. In a world that is more focused on plot-lines and unique characters, Hosoda takes a step in a different direction and focuses on the relationships among characters as a driving force force for the plot-line.
The movie introduces us to a virtual reality called Oz which has been integrated into the lives of everyone all over the world. Every person has a unique avatar in Oz where almost every facility in the real world is integrated into the Oz mainframe. The story begins with Kenji Koiso, a math nerd who is recruited by fellow student Natsuki to pose as her fiancé during her family reunion for celebration of her great-grandmother Sakae Jinnouichi’s 90th birthday. Kenji travels with Natsuki to Sakae’s estate in Ueda where he learns of the samurai heritage of the Jinnouichis and meets Natsuki’s family members including her half-great uncle Wabisuke Jinnouichi, a computer expert and professor who spent the last 10 years in the US. Soon Kenji finds himself involved in a situation when Love Machine, an Artificial Intelligence created by Wabisuke hacks into the Oz Mainframe and potentially threatens to destroy the world. Kenji, Natsuki along with her family strive to defeat Love Machine and restore order in a fight that encompasses two different worlds and in the process understand the deep bonds of family.
The movie focuses on a lot of contemporary issues especially of the increased virtualization of amenities like banking, healthcare and others and the dangers that it poises to the real world as a result of hacking. The portrayal of Oz imitates the modern internet and how the world is getting increasingly dependent on it. It also accurately portrays the generation gap with respect to the internet that is prevalent in every family. But what it focuses most on is the bonds of family, a thing that is people neglect most of the time, especially in the modern times where people hardly spend time as a family.
Summer Wars is the type of movie that relates to everyone, has lots of comic moments, great animation and characters and plot that keeps you interested throughout. It’s a movie that lingers on at the back of your head and makes you wonder how it effortlessly portrays different aspects of our lives- a must watch for everyone.
-Ankit Basak
