Summer Wars/The Girl Who Leapt Through Time [Blu-ray]

Right now director Mamoru Hosoda (MH) is the rising star in the anime industry. Sure, there's room for a lot of other writers, directors, producers, artists and musicians, but, as of this moment, there's no one out there who's got it together as crisply or as sweetly. In the space of three films, the two covered in this review and the even more recent, Wolf Children, MH is the go to guy for when you want a slice of pure Nipponese narrative culture.So, what is it that makes the man's works such an enjoyable experience? Well, from my purely subjective viewpoint, it's that MH has an absolute grasp when it comes to storytelling. The man understands the beats within a script in a manner which other directors have seldom ever managed. If I were to compare him to an American or European director it would probably be Howard Hawks. Like Hawks, MH knows exactly how ring all that is available to him out of any given tale and if that means letting a scene play out in a way which, at first (and occasionally second, third and fourth) sight would appear to be clichéd and, sometimes, it is clichéd, but it isn't wrong.The first of these two features, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (TGWLTT) is from a series of short novels by Yasutaka Tsutsui which were published between November 1965 and May 1966. The film diverges somewhat from these volumes and could be seen as a loose sequel to the original stories. Certainly the time frame is updated. The protagonist, Makoto Konno is a seventeen year old girl who to her shock discovers that she has the gained the ability to, as the title tells us, Leap Through Time. Initially she has a blast, using her power to enjoy petty pleasures and these sequences are both beautiful and deeply ironic. However, as the story develops, both the implications of she's doing and the hitherto hidden limitations to her abilities begin to surface and so the shape and tone of the plot grow in depth and seriousness.Which is all I'm prepared to say about the story , for to say more would be a crime for any of you who might read further, learn the films secrets and then not be able to jump back and correct this mistake.What I will say is that MH's direction and the beautiful, clean, vibrancy to his animation are a joy to behold. TGWLTT is simply a lovely film to watch. At no point are you shown a screen which anything less than interesting and some, such as the time jumps themselves, are visual master pieces.TGWLTT is a gorgeous film and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who as an interest in Science Fiction, morality tales or romances, the story covers all three and does so with out strain.Which brings me to the second of these two films, Summer Wars.Summer Wars(SW) was MH's present from Madhouse for having done such a good job adapting TGWLTT. Apparent the producers at Madhouse did something almost unheard of from a big studio, they gave their artist license to do what he wanted. What we got was a fantastic, fascinating, fabulous film, which I personally could watch over and over again.The plot for SW has an interesting history, in as much that it's bares a certain resemblance to Didgimon Our War Game. Well more than a resemblance, the plots are similar, extremely similar. Oh hell, Summer Wars is Digimon Our War Game with some extra stuff thrown in for good measure. But, you what? I'm fine with that. For two reasons. Digimon Our War Game was MH's own early work and, besides, here he got a chance to do that story right and boy did he ever grasp that opportunity.Seventeen year old, shy, high school nerd Kenji Koiso has a serious crush on his upperclassman, Natsuki Shinohara. However his shyness is particularly acute around girls and he's barely able to open his mouth in her presence. Fortune however finds him Natsuki bursts into the room where Kenji and a friend are working on the Summer jobs as code monkeys for an online service provider called OZ. (and if you think that the name is a touch suspicious... well you'd not be wrong.) It seems that Natsuki needs a guy to go off to the town of Ueda where her samurai line family and family estate are situated and pretend to be her boyfriend for a few days in order to please Natsuki's Great Grand Mother, Sakae Jinnouchi. Once there it seems that Natsuki feels the need to raise the stakes and declares that Kenji is in fact her fiance.Kenji nerves are made no better by this pronouncement which might be why he was so careless when a maths problem arrive in his phone. Careless enough for him to solve it. It seems it the sort of problem which only fifty or so people in the world can solve. Kemji is a maths genius of the highest calibre. Unfortunately this allows a vicious A.I. to hack into OZ account and so the plot proper gets under way.Which is all I'm going to say about that, as with TGWLTT I have no desire to ruin the surprises for anyone. What I will say is that is that this is a story which focuses on family and how important family is. How important it is that people who live together have to learn to love and have tolerance of each other. When the film focuses on those elements it works beautifully. That sentence might seem to suggest that the portions of the movie which focuses on the rogue A.I. are, by comparison poor. They aren't, it is an extremely strong, and gripping thriller in that sense, with moments of humour interspersed with drama and at least one image of complete horror. This is an all round beautifully made movie. The parts where the art focuses on the OZ are wonderfully fantastical and you will be endlessly engrossed in the details. Where as the pure naturalism of the off line world is where the true depth of the stories emotions play out and appropriately enough that naturalism allows the characters fill out in a manner where you truly come to believe in them as people.If it weren't for two tiny problems I'd be left with nothing else to say about Summer Wars. However the two problems should be addressed. The first is that late on in the film Natsuki is pushed into a position where she need to step up and act on behalf of everyone else and, at no time in the film, does it tell us why it should be her, other than the fact that she's pretty and the protagonist's love interest. As it happens there is a manga which was brought out soon after the film which slightly expands upon some of the details in in that there is a page, a single page, maybe four panels, where this is explained and, frankly, in the film it could have been addressed in a single sentence. That they fail to do that is awkward.The other problem is in the post-dramatic end of the film, where for a few seconds the careful and clever emotional nuancing goes right out the window for a cheap laugh. It's not funny, it's not clever and quite frankly, the manga version of the same scenes did it a hell of a lot better.Still these are desperately small nitpicks in what is otherwise glorious good film. I happily recommend it to everyone.It's just that good.

I've had chance to actually sit down and enjoy the blu-ray release of 'Summer Wars', and 'enjoy' is definitely the right word.The story is simple enough: high school maths-geek is persuaded by girl he secretly loves to do some 'work' for her, which he discovers far too late is actually pretending to be her boyfriend/fiancé in front of her entire extended family. Cue humorous confusion/embarrassment etc., before the truth is revealed and boy is arrested for 'breaking the internet'(!) He then has to save the world (and the girl) from the AI now controlling everything. So far so normal (for anime).But while the core concept may lack originality, the film excels in both storytelling and in the way it is populated by solid, entertaining characters. Kenji is a likeable lad who suffers from neither guilt-ridden angst or misplaced arrogance, while Natsuki, a potentially two-dimensional character (how many 'popular' girls would pay someone to pretend to be a boyfriend?) manages to join him in coming across as likeable and plausible. The whole cast comes across as ordinary people in an extraordinary situation, rising to the un-winnable challenge. And this is what has been one of the things pulled over from this team's previous film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time [DVD], along with the animation style and overall attention to detail. I would encourage anyone who has seen TGWLTT to get 'Summer Wars' without delay.The film does genuinely live up to its name, it is light, 'summery' and features a rather strange 'war'. The more obvious CG elements are appropriate and blend well with the film as a whole, while the storytelling is handled far more effectively than with TGWLTT. In the previous film, there were distinct lumps in the story, where everything seemed to stop and readjust, whereas 'Summer Wars' flows neatly, everything handled elegantly and effectively; with a simplicity rarely found in some of the more popular anime (Mononoke & Spirited Away come to mind).The film is not without faults, I would challenge anyone to be able to NAME all of Natsuki's family on one viewing, let alone understand how they're related to each other, but minor issues like this do not detract from the overall enjoyment of what has to be one of the most mainstream-friendly animes of recent years. Think Whisper Of The Heart [DVD] by the TGWLTT team and you probably have the spirit of 'Summer Wars'.Technical Review.While the film was never likely to overstretch the format, it is clear that some care has been taken in mastering the Blu-Ray edition. The image is crisp, clean and pin-sharp: a flawless transfer that does justice to the animators. The audio is again very good, with the English dub being well-written and performed, comparing well to the Japanese original. The use of the American term 'math' instead of 'maths' is a minor quibble I could live with. The extras are predictable but interesting, with various teasers, trailers and some interviews.Overall, an excellent presentation and a good overall package.'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' appears to have a similar package to its DVD release, just higher quality. I'll update this review when I have had chance to check out the whole disk

1 good and 1 great movie for a fair price. The girl who leapt through time is clearly the superior film, but Summer Wars is definitely also worth a watch. Even is it feels like 2 different stories mashed together.

While I could take the time to tell you how fantastic both of these movies are, I won't. This is a review of the Blu-Rays themselves, not a movie review. But I can still say how I think these are great.The Blu-Rays are very well priced for two Blu-Rays! The reversible covers are also a nice touch and the box that they come in is handy. However, the content on both discs does seem a bit limited and the menus look a bit "unprofessional" but nothing too bad. All-in-all this package is definitely worth your money if you're a fan of the films. And if you haven't seen them yet, then you should have even more incentive to buy this! The two movies are absolutely superb and worth anybody's time!

I had seen both these movies before, and loved them both instantly, but had never bought them on dvd before. When I found out that Summer Wars was being released on dvd in a boxset also containing The Girl Who Leapt Through Time I squealed with joy, as two of my favourite movies would be available together in a perfect boxset.I was disappointed with the lack of extras on the TGWLTT disc, but I can't really complain - two fantastic movies bundled together for an amazing price, I strongly urge you all to buy this and fall in love.

Very entertaining. Was hoping that both videos would have subtitles for hearing impaired, but only Summer Wars did. I guess my family will just have to suffer through having the volume turned up on The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

二作品ともに購入希望だったので、この同梱品は最適でした。

Very very good! You can enjoy the Hosoda world and the Japanese atmosphere by both two DVDs. I recommend you!!

la storia è intrigante e le animazioni fluide e molto dettagliate. entrambi ottimi film di animazione.per the girl who leapt through time il doppiaggio è solo inglese.

First I love the movie, watched it once at a friends and bought this one. Didn't read that it was a region b video, I live in the US..So ya.