So, I just watched Summer Wars — directed by Mamoru Hosoda (of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time fame) and written by Satoko Okudera (also of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time fame) — and I enjoyed it a lot. Takeshige Youji (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc) was the art director for the movie, and as you would expect, he did a fantastic job. The plot revolves around Kenji Koiso, an eleventh grade math genius, who breaks a code that causes the online world of OZ to be thrown into disarray. That’s about as much as I’ll say. The themes for the movie are “Internal Struggle of a Diverse Family meets Cyber Mayhem meets Love Story meets pseudo-standard Japanese Drama“. The movie clocks in at 1 hour & 44 minutes. It also won “Best Animated Feature Film” in three separate academys, including the Japanese Academy, Mainichi Film Concours and the Sitges International Festival.
Watch it.