Had she played more of a central role throughout the picture, I think Hosada would have been closer to a full-on masterpiece. I liked her too much for her to get sidelined, so that bothered me. In particular, Natsuki nearly gets lost in the plot-heavy middle of the film. There are simply times when the plot gets in the way. The two sides are different but taste great together. That said, the combo here was very close to peanut butter and chocolate. If anything, Hosada seems to want to make slice-of-life movies where extraordinary things happen, and they don't quite mesh. Simply put, the world of Oz is fascinating and exciting, yet I was far more interested in the people than the plot. Most slice-of-life anime try really hard to do this Hosada does it effortlessly.Īnd unfortunately, it does mean that the same quibble I had with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is true here. It would be wonderful to sit down with Sakae and learn about Japan's history or to become buddies with Kenji. While every player has his or her quirks, they add dimension and depth no one here is a blatant anime stereotype or defined exclusively by their eccentricity. Both with dialogue and subtle non-verbal cues, Hosada brings life to his leads in such a way that you could believe they really exist. If there are quibbles to be had with the film - and there are a couple I'll mention in a minute - they shouldn't be found in the beautifully exquisite worlds Hosada has made for us to enjoy.Īs with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Hosada's work shines in his characters. The dub is highly enjoyable, even if it includes a few minor profanities that would be questionable for young children in America that wouldn't be as harshly understood in Japan. It's fantastic, yet not terribly flashy or showy it's just what's needed to draw the viewer into both worlds without even thinking about the animation itself. I often comment about the animation quality of a film, but here there's no need - it's simply perfect for the environs Mamoru Hosada has created. The contrast between the clean, lily white world of Oz and the warmth of real-life Japan is an artistic choice that pays considerable dividends. Oh, and all that while he's seriously falling for Natsuki. With the help of Natsuki's cousin Kazuma, a world-class gamer, and other family members in the computing business, Kenji is perhaps the only hope the world has of restoring order ever again. Now the prime suspect in a massive takeover of the system, Kenji not only has to prove his innocence, he has to help defeat the AI called Love Machine that's taken over and messed with everything from traffic lights to GPS systems. He figures it out in a few hours and sends back a response.only to find out that his calculations were actually the key to crack the encryption to Oz. Kenji received a mysterious email with an incredibly complex numeric riddle to solve. That's when the world of Oz hits the virtual fan. It's an even greater shock, then, when she introduces him as her fiance! Her extended family welcomes him, however, and he warms up quickly. ![]() He's kind and sweet, but rather shy, much smarter with numbers than with people, so it's a surprise when his friend Natsuki invites him to come with her to celebrate her grandmother Sakae's 90th birthday. Kenji is a high school student who's brilliant with mathematics he also works part-time for Oz as a low-level programmer. There are hundreds of millions of people on Oz.everyone from peasants to governments. It's as if somebody combined the massive multiplayer worlds of The Sims or WoW with shopping, relationships, you name it. ![]() However, whereas our modern networking is primarily text-based with pictures thrown in to liven things up, Oz is a visual wonderland. Oz is not so much an Internet site as it is the Internet as a whole. In Summer Wars, the virtual world is named Oz. Mamoru Hosada, director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, has delivered an engaging film that makes the most of both its virtual world and the reality behind it. A movie about relational dysfunction as much as computers going berserk, it is nevertheless a sunny, cheery film that most kids in upper elementary and beyond - and their families - will really enjoy. But most films that envision a computer system run amuck are dark and dreary and typically violent.not family fare. Films as early as WarGames warned us of the perils of networked computers The Matrix and The Terminator gave us dystopias where when the machines started thinking together, humanity became imperiled. We read our email, we browse our favorite sites, we order music and movies and books, all by way of the Web.
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