Anime Reviews ⇢ Summer Wars
Summer Wars
Samā Wōzu サマーウォーズ
Average Rating: 9.38 / 10

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Ratings: 14
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Content Overview
Violence: 2.9 / 10
Nudity: 2.3 / 10
Theo Theme: 1.5 / 10
Neg Theme: 2.4 / 10

Brief Description:
When timid eleventh-grader and math genius Kenji Koiso is asked by older student and secret crush Natsuki to come with her to her family’s Nagano home for a summer job, he agrees without hesitation. Natsuki’s family, the Jinnouchi clan, dates back to the Muromachi era, and they’ve all come together to celebrate the 90th birthday of the spunky matriarch of the family, Sakae. That’s when Kenji discovers his “summer job” is to pretend to be Natsuki’s fiancé and dance with her at the birthday celebration. As Kenji attempts to keep up with Natsuki’s act around her family, he receives a strange math problem on his cell phone which, being a math genius, he can’t resist solving. As it turns out, the solution to the mysterious equation causes a hijacking of the social networking site through which most of the world's social and business traffic flows.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10544

US Release date: 2009
US Distributor: FUNimation
Suitable for ages 11+
Summer Wars is a full length anime film.


User Reviews
04/15/2012: airichan623 [ Already Rated ]

Rating Note: The MPAA gave Summer Wars a very appropriate PG-rating upon its US theatrical and video release.

This is a great family film to be enjoyed by movie and anime fans of all ages alongside the works of Hayao Miyazaki. I have shown this movie to my parents, and they enjoyed it just as much as I do. The morals are great for children and parents alike- family, perseverance, acceptance, teamwork, and perseverance. To give you quick idea of the plot, it can be easily compared to that of the 1983 Matthew Broderick film War Games.

As an indicator of how great this movie is, it was rated the best anime of 2010 in the CAA forums.

The Japanese language track is great, as is expected, since all characters were played by actors of the same age as their on-screen counterparts. The English dub tries its best with an adult-only cast and succeeds rather well. The dub cast includes FUNimation regulars like Brina Palencia (Natsuki), J. Michael Tatum (Wabisuke), and Maxey Whitehead (Kazuma).
Sexual Content/Nudity
Being a family film, on-screen nudity issues are minimal, and are not sexual in nature. The only seen of real consequence is a short bath sequence. All body details are obscured by body parts, towels and steam. (Comparable to the bath scene in My Neighbor Totoro) More problematically, naked Natsuki leans out of the bath house to chase a baby and a male character catches a small glimpse of her before covering his eyes. Elsewhere, a woman breastfeeds her baby (nothing is visible).

One grown family member is shunned over his status as an illegitimate son, and this becomes central to the plot of the story. However, it is handled very tastefully. When family members hear that Kenji is Natsuki's "fiance," the assumption is made that she is pregnant. Passing references are made to children having crushes on family members, love fortunes, and "getting cuddly" with the opposite sex in bed. Characters kiss.

Violence
Characters fight in both the virtual world and the real world. In the virtual world, tournament video-game style matches are held, leading to kicking, punching, etc. Little blood is seen, though a little splatters from the mouth after a critical hit. In the real world of the Jinnouchi family, a character is threatened with a spear-like Japanese naginata. Some characters through punches. The only blood is from nosebleeds, caused by punches to the face, stress, and as well as being comedically "turned on."

Theological Notes
A Japanese funeral is held.

Other Problematic Themes
Many adult male characters smoke and drink beer/sake, and one or two get drunk. Minor PG swearing.

July, 2011: Vii [ Already Rated ]

Violence/Gore - Most of the fights are within the digital realm of OZ, and there is sometimes blood. It never goes beyond more than martial arts-esque combat.

Nudity/Sexual Content - One scene with Natsuki has her in a bathroom, helping the younger kids wash up. She's naked, but it's totally non-sexual and undetailed. The little kids are naked as well, but who hasn't seen naked little kids before, eh? Only their bottoms are shown anyhow.
Kenji later steps into the bath with only a towel covering himself as well.
A few members of Natsuki's family also ask whether or not Kenji and Natsuki have "done it" yet, in a fairly joking manner.

Theo. Themes - Japanese traditions are present, but don't play a huge role.

Other Themes - I seem to recall a few characters smoking, and there was some alcohol drinking, but it wasn't too over the top.

The following users rated this title without reviewing it: Link Antilles | Midori | MangaRocks! | blkmage | Cognitive Gear | Mr. Hat'n'Clogs | Narnian | MomentOfInertia | Cadence | GeneD | Masquerade1412 | ForeverInspired.
Added: July, 2011