Forum - View topicREVIEW: Summer Wars BLURAY
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1341 |
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My one and only nitpick: I've long grown weary of movies about nerdy boys winning the affections of popular pretty girls. They never felt real to me and came across as nothing much more than pandering fantasies, and it's unfortunate this movie falls within this spectrum. I couldn't help but wonder why Natsuki went directly to the computer nerds at the start of the film to pose as her boyfriend--unless she didn't trust them or they were unavailable which goes unexplained, aren't there any popular boys of the school that were more realistically within her league?
Again, just a nitpick. I was otherwise really surprised this movie was as good as people said it was and made for wonderful viewing from start to finish. And coincidentally, this review came just at almost the same time as when Funimation revealed the mystery song within the English trailer on thier blog, complete with links to a free download! Nobody can guess how much it drove me crazy to not know what that song was when it first caught my ear. |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I always assumed she picked them because she needed someone smart to pull off her fake boyfriend. I don't remember the exact specs, but I do remember that her "boyfriend" was going to Tokyo University and studied abroad, so they were really smart. So, who better to pull off the role of a smart guy than a genuine smart guy? Also, nerds are nice guys, so they would be more likely to do it without the need for incentive. |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1525 |
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Wow, totally disagree with you on the Natsuki thing Carl. I thought she was a pretty strong, capable lead through and through. The whole "Gotta get a boyfriend for Grandma!" was just an eccentricity on her part really...
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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Interesting, because I had assumed she already knew them, making them a better choice than some random guy. It's not as though they introduced themselves to each other (to the point we could easily see the two boys shared similar feelings toward her). Sure, we can premise there are "better" guys, but I concur with Carl's observation of Natsuki in the first half. Given this, I find she'd have a difficult time making friends but to those who share in her lack of self-confidence. Where I disagree, though, is the "prize" component. I didn't get this feeling. Instead, it was the other way around. It was Natsuki seeking the prize, and in order to do so, had to transform herself from who she was to someone who is on par with Kenji, especially when he's fighting vehemently. This is why we get to see her in the wonderfully-applied-at-the-right-moment battle scene using the game hanafuda and you can bet I will most certainly be buying a figure of that (as well as Love Machine). I also concur the series isn't a masterpiece, just missing it by a narrow margin, but regardless what format one chooses, this is a movie not to be missed. |
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asimpson2006
 Posts: 3151 Location: USA |
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I am curious as to why you think this is pandering to the fans, and not real. I know it's a common trope in anime, but I am pretty sure in real life that a pretty popular female could win the affection of a nerdy male. I know it wouldn't be common but it can happen. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Of course a pretty popular female could win the affection of a nerdy male. But it's the question of if a nerdy male can win the affection of a popular pretty female (if he's not loaded of course). Anyway, I saw this as straight nerd-pleasing fantasy. It was okay, but I much preferred The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. |
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Sanosuke_Inara
 Posts: 1662 |
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Anyway, I don’t think Natsuki was any sort of incredibly powerful female lead, but I didn’t feel as though she was as big as a problem as the reviewer did. The only real problem I had with her is spoiler[the whole way the Hanafuda game VS. Love Machine went down. Even though that’s easily one of my favorite scenes from the movie, she wasn’t shown to be any sort of amazing player at the game throughout the movie beforehand—hell, she couldn’t even beat Wabisuke—so having her be able to take down Love Machine, even with the hell of this AUSPICIOUS RARE ITEM!!! was a little much.] All that aside, Summer Wars still reigns as one of my favorite anime films ever, and I’d give it an A- easy. |
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boredandlazy
Posts: 189 |
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I really enjoyed this movie, but I didn't love it as such.There were just a couple of really contrived occurrences such as spoiler[the small children barging in and screwing things up just as they caught love machine, also when the supercomputer overheated because the ice was removed... again just as they thought they had caught love machine]. These two events just made me roll my eyes a little and diminished my enjoyment just that little bit.
Still a good movie, but I'd take "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" over this any day of the week. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Well, I'm glad to see someone finally give this movie a less than perfect review. I found it massively disappointing. Not awful of course but such a let down. As you said, Natsuki is a non presence. I didn't find Kenji that much better though. Plus, the whole plot is just so full of holes and contrivances.
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2094 |
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I thought they established early on that Natsuki had already tried practically everyone and they were either unwilling or too busy. But I might be remembering wrong. Anyway, the "most popular girl" was brought up like two times early on and then forgotten and Natsuki just seemed like any ordinary girl, so I wouldn't call this much of a wish-fulfillment-fantasy. Unless you actually think even your average girl couldn't be interested in a nerdy boy, but not all of us here are THAT pessimistic.
Anyway, I loved this movie, though I wish I had waited a few weeks before watching it as coincidentally some of the events in the film hit me on a personal level (spoiler[my grandmother had passed away, and my cousin's wife had to give birth early and it didn't survive (referring to when Kazuma is crying because he feels he can't protect his unborn sibling)]). |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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I don't really understand anyone else's reaction to this film. I was so uninterested in the characters and plot that I gave up by the mid-point, and experienced the same thing with Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
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zensunni
 Posts: 1294 |
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Having watched Brina's performance first, I was quite taken in by Natsuki as a character. I got the BluRay on the day of release, but haven't found time to watch the subtitled version, so I cannot comment on the Japanese seiyu's performances.
I also got the impression that Natsuki had tried several others prior to barging in on her last hope, the nerds that she knew from the physics club, which is mentioned a couple of times. When they initially decline, she says something to the effect of "I guess that's my last hope." (Not exact, but the spirit of the line...) One of the things that I really loved about the animation was the subtle glances between Kenji and Natsuki throughout the film, originating from Kenji at first, then as the story progresses and Natsuki begins to truly appreciate what serendipity has dropped in her lap, the other way around. It is the finer touches like that which give the romantic sub-plot its strength. (And one of the reasons that I watched the dub first, so I could concentrate on the fine details in the animation without having to worry about reading the dialog.) I agree that Brina and J. Michael were fantastic in their roles, but I am huge fans of their work in Spice and Wolf too, so I could be biased. I had no problems with Sinterniklass's or Dougherty's performances and I felt that Maxey Whitehead really did a great job as Kazuma, with some extremely well done emotional scenes. As usual, I have much less of a problem with the cliche elements that are present in the story than most. It just doesn't bother me, especially when the writing is as good as it was for Summer Wars! In addition, as the reviewer commented, the novel combination of cliches from different genres really turned them into strengths in the story instead of liabilities. This film does make it into the masterpiece category in my opinion, and ranks up there near the top of my favorite movies, not just anime movies. @doctordoom85 - Ouch! Bad timing for watching this movie then! I hope time has helped and your family is doing well! @Fronzel - Hey, to each his own... You obviously don't like Hosoda's style and that's fine. There are plenty of other things for you to watch. Thank you for being polite about it and not saying rude things about a show you didn't enjoy like so many on-line trolls seem to enjoy doing! |
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1341 |
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So far I've only watched the movie once, so I guess I missed that (maybe I was in too much awe of the animation to have picked up on it). Either way, that does make sense. |
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Potato07
 Posts: 11 Location: Canada |
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Completely agree with Zensunni!
I don't have any problem with the cliche here (nerve boy X popular girl). I think it is just a minor part of the plot. Why do you have to focus on this part too much. I think the main character here is the entire family, not just Natsuki or Kenji. I love the way this movie illustrate the idea of the increasing technology and human life. It has been long time that I watch a really fun and captivated movie like this one. And the children in this family make this movie more lively. If you have a huge family, you know what I mean. |
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1341 |
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I'm not. I said before that was just my personal nitpick I thought I'd comment on and I was merely explaining my reasoning behind it. As I've also said, despite that one aspect the overall movie still rocked. |
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