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Summer Wars – a 2009 Japanese anime movie, which has been re-released this year – is an everyday tale of love, with boy meeting girl – Kenji (Ryûnosuke Kamiki – Godzilla Minus One) and Natsuki (Nanami Sakuraba), fancying each other… okay, not quite an everyday tale.
After a family party, Kenji receives an email full of random numbers with the invitation “solve me“, and after doing so, he’s then accused of computer hacking of a virtual reality world called Oz that’s like a mix of Google, Twitter, Amazon and whatever else put together.
The 2056-digit security code created by an AI bot known as The Love Machine, and what ensues is all kinds of calamity on the roads, with water hydrants bursting etc. and ultimately, they have to play computer games to beat the bot.
There’s a rather odd moment early on, as Kenji is staying at Natsuki’s house, and because in Japan, it’s common to share bathwater previously used by someone else, because everyone has a good rinse down before getting in the bath (EWWWW!!), there’s a scene where he goes into said bathroom and stares at her used bathwater, getting a thrill out of it.
However, you could then add that there’s loads of weird shit happening in this film, such as someone driving a huge pirate ship towards the house!
And for one character, which could be a spoiler, so click on the next bit if you’ve already seen it, or don’t mind a mild spoiler…
Summer Wars is certainly engaging, but maybe it tipped in favour of being worth a watch with all the computer aspects to it.
As an aside, thanks to some bloody awful motorway traffic, by the time I got to the screen in Odeon, the film had been running for 15 minutes. However, I’d watched the trailer beforehand, so when I arrived, it was shortly before Kenji received that email, and I got the impression that I didn’t really miss anything.
Once I caught up with that missed 15 minutes later on, I realised I’d definitely missed nothing. Yes, it filled in some extra info about Oz, as well as seeing Kenji talk more to Natsuki’s family, but there was nothing I couldn’t pick up at the time of the screening.
Still, even though I was a bit late, I still took my seat whilst being as quiet as a mouse. Take note anyone who comes into a film late, and still makes a fucking racket, as they wave their phone torch about in everyone’s face, etc.
NOTE: I saw the subtitled version, although there is an English trailer below.
NOTE 2: There are no mid- or post-credits scenes.
Summer Wars is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 114 minutes
Release date: August 1st 2025
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 (35mm)
Studio: Universal Pictures
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7/10
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Producers: Takuya Itô, Yûichirô Saitô, Nozomu Takahashi, Takafumi Watanabe
Screenplay: Satoko Okudera
Music: Akihiko Matsumoto
Voice Cast:
Kenji Koiso: Ryûnosuke Kamiki
Natsuki Shinohara: Nanami Sakuraba
Kazuma Ikezawa: Mitsuki Tanimura
Takashi Sakuma: Takahiro Yokokawa
Mariko Jin’nouchi: Mieko Nobusawa
Kazuo Shinohara: Mutsumi Sasaki
Tasuke Jin’nouchi: Takashi Kobayashi
Yorihiko Jin’nouchi: Yôji Tanaka
Yukiko Shinohara: Kiyomi Tanigawa
Kunihiko Jin’nouchi: Hashiya Nakamura
Rika Jin’nouchi: Sakiko Tamagawa
Naomi Miwa: Kaori Yamagata
Ri’ichi Jin’nouchi: Takuya Kirimoto
Katsuhiko Jin’nouchi: Mitsutaka Itakura
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.