Summer Wars Review

I was skeptical about this anime at first, heard many good reviews about it, but never had the time to sit down and watch it. Now that I have, I'm sure glad I did.

Story: 8/10

The story is simple. A second place math genius gets hired by the most popular girl at school to be her boyfriend for 4 days to trick her dying grandmother into believing that she has a fiance. Now what made this story interesting is the incorporation of a cyber world called Oz, which acts very similar to our "internet". Oz is basically an information super high way in which most of the world relies heavily on to go on about their everyday lives. Everything from being able to control satellites to texting through mobile phones to shopping is all controlled by Oz. However, someone released a vicious program into the world of Oz and now it's on the loose, stealing everyone's profile information, which leads to disastrous consequences in the real world. Mix this with a family drama and you've got yourself a good anime to watch. The only drawback was that since it was in the form of a movie, the story was not fully explored and left many plot holes. Why did Wabiske create such a program? How did Oz start? This anime would have been a lot better if it was stretched into a mini series. I'm not talking a full flegdge season, just maybe 10-12 episodes would suffice.

Character: 9/10

Now this is where the score could have been a perfect ten if this movie was made into a mini series. There are over a dozen characters, each with their very own personality and their relationship with each other is phenomenol. I just wished that each individual could have been explored more, each with their own back story that contributes to the family theme. For example, Kazuma was a very interesting character. In the real world, he's a small kid who is often bullied at school, but in Oz, he's King Kazuma, standing at the very top of fighting tournaments. If only there was more character development, this category would have been a perfect ten.

Sound: 8/10

There wasn't any piece of music that stood out and obviously these seiyuus are not big name voice actor/actresses either. However, everyone did their job well. The sound effects, on the other hand, are exceptional. Just listening to that bunny rabbit (FluffyBunnyPwn Yo!) beat the crap out of other users is just wow...

Animation: 10/10

Now this is where the anime truly shines. Like a good anime with good animation, no two frames are the same. The world of Oz is extremely colorful and very well done. The mix of CGI and 2D animation were blended together flawlessly to create a fluid experience. The fight scenes in particular are very smooth.

FluffyBunnyPwn gives it 9/10 overall.