A strange collision of real and virtual worlds lies at the center of the wildly imaginative anime feature Summer Wars, from director Mamoru Hosoda. In this 2009 comedy-drama, a nerdy young math genius named Kenji is enlisted by Natsuki (a woman he has a crush on)—to pretend to be her fiancé during a four-day visit to her family in the lovely city of Ueda. Trying hard to play the part, Kenji certainly doesn't fool Natsuki's old grandmother and he isn't necessarily making friends with the others. Desperate for a distraction, he falls for a trick when someone nefarious texts him an extremely long number pattern, which Kenji dutifully translates into computer code that—unknown to him—unlocks a massive program called Oz. Like a bigger, scarier variation of Amazon.com, Oz is a global behemoth in which billions of people, as well as corporations and governments, transact all business and communications via wacky, pop-art mad avatars. The ensuing break-in of Oz causes global calamities in the actual world while the avatars duke it out online in a parallel tale in which Kenji and Natsuki have to team up to save the planet. Presented in a dual-language Blu-ray/DVD Combo set, rated TV-PG, extras include cast and crew interviews. Recommended. (T. Keogh)
Summer Wars
(2009) 115 min. Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $49.98. Funimation (avail. from most distributors). Volume 32, Issue 2
Summer Wars
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