Summer Wars - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Summer Wars



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
As a huge Anime connoisseur, I’m kind of embarrassed to say that I have never seen 2009’s Summer Wars. I meant to, but back in 2009, I was much more interested in action or sci-fi/mecha shows rather than light-hearted family adventures, so it got put on the back burner. By the time I actually did get around to feeling that I should watch the award-winning film, the Funimation disc was long out of print, and all I had to get access to was fansubs or the Japanese Blu-ray, so I put it off once more. Now, several years later, it looks like we get a reprieve in the form of Shout! Studios releasing the film in a remastered Blu-ray AND a 4K steelbook that is exclusive to Amazon. While I would have loved to have seen how the 4K looks, the Blu-ray looks and sounds fantastic, which means fans of the movie will FINALLY have another way of watching it legally in the United States (at least in terms of physical media).

In the short-term future, the world has been united by a digital network known as OZ. A network that controls all of the world’s technology and infrastructure, as well as runs a gigantic digital world that people of all ages can game in. Kind of like Ready Player One or Belle, people can form avatars and interact in the digital world, while the real-life infrastructure machinations go on behind the scenes. Offices, governments, utilities, you name it, are all run by OZ. However, things go awry one day when math genius Kenji (Ryunosuke Kamiki) gets a math problem on his phone from the OZ network. Thinking it was a puzzle for the system, he completes the problem and sends it back. The problem is, the “puzzle” was actually a Trojan horse for a government-funded AI (the irony of this re-release coming out during the AI boom did not escape me) to get into the OZ network and start absorbing everything it can.

The rest of the movie takes a sort of double-edged sword take on the narrative. Half of the rest of the film deals with the interpersonal lives of Kenji and his friend’s family where he’s staying for the summer, and the other half is inside the digital world with Kenji and his friends trying to figure out how to stop the AI from taking over the entire world. And quite frankly, they did a great job blending the two competing story lines. The “real life” story focuses on Kenji coming to grips with accidentally unleashing the AI apocalypse (even though it turns out it actually wasn’t him) as well as the rest of the family realizing that one of their estranged members was actually the CREATOR of the AI program. Mix in a little death, some family disturbances, along with everyone mad at Kenji, and we have pure chaos on our hands. Simultaneously, we have the sci-fi level narrative with Kenji and the rest of the family banding together to take on the ever-growing AI and beat it at its own game (so to speak). Both stories blend seamlessly for a heart-tugging, action-filled adventure that won the hearts of everyone 16 years ago.

Lovingly animated by Madhouse, we’re given a strange dichotomy of real-world and overly stylized “VR world” animation styles. Outside in the real world, things are animated very brightly and naturally, with an emphasis on greens and blues with typical Anime character drawings. But on the inside, it gets a bit more impressionistic, leaning more towards Yuasa Masaaki's art styles (although not nearly AS jagged and offbeat as Masaaki tends to do). It’s a cool little art style and adds some flavor to the whole film.




Rating:

Rated PG for action violence, some suggestive content, language, mild thematic material, and incidental smoking




Video:

I don’t have access to the Funimation disc naturally, but from what I remember, it got REALLY high marks for the audio and video scores. Supposedly, this got a new remaster according to internet rumblings, but I couldn’t find any solid confirmation of that, so I’m going to GUESS that this is simply the same master used for the Funimation release unless I can get confirmation otherwise. Either way, it looks great in 1080p. The film is very textured and layered, with varying shades of blue, red, green, and browns for the outside world, and just about every crazy color you can imagine inside of OZ. Fine details are resplendent, with every hand-drawn line looking immaculate. I really couldn’t see any banding or compression issues, and the disc sports a very hefty bitrate that pushes up into the low 30s quite often. Overall, this is a fantastic transfer, making for a great home theater experience.









Audio:

The original Funimation disc was given English and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks, but this Shout! Studios' release comes with dual 5.1 DTS-HD MA mixes. My gut reaction is that these are the same tracks just re-encoded, but once again, that’s simply a hunch as I can’t compare the two tracks due to not having the disc. That being said, just like the video, this is a fantastic home theater experience. The mix can be quiet and rather front-heavy in the outside world, but once we get into the world of OZ, the sound stage opens up quite a bit. Punches, explosions, and general chaos fill out all 6 channels with ease, giving us some crushing bass and LOOOW end rumbles near the end. I DID notice that I had to bump it up 1 to 1.5 DB’s over norm, but it was a slight level boosting, and once matched to reference levels, opened up a good bit more.











Extras:

• Interviews With The Original Cast
• Interview With Mamoru Hosoda
• Teasers & Trailers

Final Score:

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Honestly, I loved a lot of Summer Wars. It wasn’t anything that I expected (I expected most of the movie to be based inside of OZ, not just bits of it), and it weaves a tapestry of young love, family squabbles, camaraderie, and friendship that tugs quite heavily on the “feel good” heart strings. I WAS a little bit disappointed at the lack of OZ digital screen time compared to my expectations, but after adapting to it, I realize why Masada did what he did. The Blu-ray looks and sounds amazing, with my ONLY complaint more of a personal “bummer” situation rather than anything that Shout! Studios did wrong (from my understanding, they’re simply the distributor for it), and that is the fact that this only ports over the existing Funimation extras, and not the copious ones from the Japanese import. But, at the end of the day, this is a fantastic release on pretty much every front. Highly recommended as a great watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Nanami Sakuraba, Mitsuki Tanimura
Directed by: Mamoru Hosoda
Written by: Mamoru Hosoda
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Japanese DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, French, Spanish
Studio: Shout! Studios
Rated: PG
Runtime: 114 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: April 1st, 2025

Recommendation: Great Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Shame for not seeing this when it was released but glad you were able to see it now! lol. Great movie to have.