Summer Wars

I have been anxiously awaiting the release of Summer Wars for some time now and seeing Hosoda's excellent The Girl Who Lept through Time only increased my unwisely high expectations. After finally being able to sit down and view Summer Wars, I am happy to announce it has met my outlandish expectations and then some.

The story concerns Kenji, a math nerd who (suspension of belief required) is asked by cute popular girl Natsuki attend her Grandmothers birthday celebration posing as her boyfriend(!). The farce is going swimmingly with the event bringing together Natsuki's lively and eccentric extended family. Things go to shit when the online virtual world "Oz" (which the world more or less runs on, think of it has a advanced version of the internet) is taken over by a particularly malicious hacker who used Kenji's account to do the deed. With the world in chaos and the authorities after him, Kenji teams up with Natsuki's computer wiz cousin in an attempt to destroy the virus like avatar in Oz through virtual battle and set the world back to normal.

Summer Wars is a family dramady with a strong sci-fi component. The characters we are given, even the bit players, are immensely likable and well characterized, they feel very real and down to earth. The film as a whole is beautifully animated, but its the scenes in Oz, a kind of digital wonderland, are the scenes that really stick out and the several action sequences the film has are exhilarating. Summer War's biggest triumph is being able to combine the sci-fi bits flawlessly with the rest of the film which is essentially about family and budding romance. Summer Wars is thoroughly entertaining, thought provoking, funny and at times rather poignant. In short it's one of the best amine feature films to come out in a decade; right up there with Spirited Away...(and hopefully Eva 2.22...which is next on my must see list.)

Grade: A

Reviewed: Feature Film Format: DVD, English Dub

Eden Of the East

Eden of the East begins with a scene involving a frustrated female Japanese tourist throwing pennies at the White House(not the best idea), understandably she is accosted by the secret service but saved by the appearance of Takizawa, a young and very naked man holding a hi-tech cell phone in one hand and a handgun in the other. Fate (and a lost passport) brings the two together again and we learn Takizawa posses infinite funds through his mysterious phone and can make just about anything possible; and he belongs to a clandestine group of operatives who also posses such phones called cellasates. The problem is Takizawa has had is own memory erased prior to the escapade in D.C. The two return to japan, a country on edge due to a recent string of anonymous missile strikes and the disappearance of twenty thousands neets(shut ins). Has Takizawa and his new companion try to dig up information about his former life; its becomes clearer and clearer that the celasates, the missile strikes and the missing neets and even Takizawa himself are all connected.

Eden of the East is a interesting take on conspiracy thrillers with its political intrigue, well developed characters and a plot full of twists and turns. Unfortunately the strong plot is also the series greatest weakness; there are more than several major events that occur and are crucial to the story that require a hefty suspension of disbelief and in the end these moments come over as to far fetched and under explained, which is frustrating. Those looking for high octane action sequences are advised to look elsewhere, but viewers looking for an intelligent, fast paced, well written (despite some eyebrow raising occurrences) and often thought provoking thriller should look no further than Eden of the East.

Grade: B+

Reviewed: episodes 11/11 (complete) Format: English Dub, DVD.