top 5: Summer Wars moments
"The worst things in this world are being hungry and being alone."
OK so that title is a bit of a lie since this isn’t a top 5 but a top 20. There were just SO many good moments that I couldn’t settle for just 5. I love this film to death and beyond; the animation is the best I’ve seen, the characters are all likeable despite their flaws and you can really see the effort that went into it every step of the way. If you haven’t heard of it then let me say this: WATCH IT NOW. If you are going to read this first then there WILL be spoilers for the ending.
If you’re still reading here’s a rundown of what you need to know to read this list and understand it: Kenji is our hero and is second runner up for representing Japan at the math Olympics and is invited by his crush (Natsuki) to visit her house in the country for the summer. Little does he know that Natsuki just wants to pretend he is her fiancé to please her grandmother (Sakae) whose 90th birthday it is. A virus called Love Machine gets loose in Oz (halfway between an MMO and Facebook) and the world is threatened but with the help of Natsuki’s extended family can Kenji save the world before it’s too late?
Other important characters, for the sake of this list anyway, are Kazama who is the main fighter of the group, Mansuke who taught Kazama to fight and is a fisherman, Tasuke who runs a computer store, Riichi who is in the self defence force, Wabisuke who is Sakae’s adopted son who has left the family on bad terms 10 years ago and Takashi who is Kenji’s friend back home and runs checks on Oz as a part time job.
The list is in the order that it happens and not the order of preference since it took me long enough to get the list this short. So without further delay let’s look at my top 20 Summer Wars moments shall we?
“That’s very sweet but it’s my mum’s birthday.” Before the virus shows up there is a lot of funny moments. They kind of serve as making the first act distinct from the rest of the film but they aren’t so over the top; it still feels like the same film which is what I like about it. This one is the classic that kind of had to happen with the set up; Kenji shows up and thinks the woman at the door welcoming everyone is Sakae and wishes her a happy birthday.
“I didn’t see anything I swear!” I picked the bath scene because of naked Natsu-I mean the humour! Yeah because they are pretending to be fiancés and are obviously going to be love interests by the end of the film so his reaction is ironic and stuff. Yeah that was it. Naked Natsuki does help though...
“I solved it!” Now the virus gets released because Kenji gets an email that he thinks is a random math problem so, being the nerd he is, he solves it. Note that it is a 2056-bit encryption and was said to be unbreakable and Kenji solves it in one night. Not only is this funny/awesome but it gives an idea of Kenji’s personality since he is worried about why he is going through with the farce until he gets the email and can retreat into the problem which implies that he has done this his whole life and that is why he is so good at maths.
“Please tell me you didn’t break the internet” What more needs to be said about this line?
“This guy is nothing.” Kazama and Love Machine’s first fight is a thing of beauty as it is the first time that we see just how good the animation is. Don’t get me wrong I love it the whole way through but this fight is just amazing and fluid and just shows the amount of effort that went into it.
“Don’t you ever give up; if you remember nothing else remember that.” After Love Machine takes over Oz there is mass panic because he is causing false fire alarms and such, business that is usually carried out over Oz (something like 99.99%) are collapsing plus since everyone’s data is on their accounts by stealing the account of the man in charge of traffic Love Machine can turn all the lights to green all over the city. Sakae goes to her phone and use all her 90 years worth of contacts to motivate the entire country to push on and get through the night without too much trouble.
“I know you can do it Kenji.” It’s about this point that Sakae dies but her last action is to play hanafuda with Kenji. She makes it obvious that she knew from the start that Kenji and Natsuki were faking and tells him she has faith that he can protect Natsuki. It all ties into the idea of family looking out for each other and just makes the death scene hit even harder with how strong she seemed. Oh and the Hanafuda stuff keeps popping up as a little bit of foreshadowing; that’s one of the great things about the film, it sets SO much up but in really subtle ways.
“Make them stop. My tears. Hold me, right here. Please.” After Sakae’s death there is a beautiful scene where it pans across everyone and ends on Kenji and Natsuki sitting looking at the sunrise. Natsuki asks Kenji to hold her pinky and he does but she only cries more so their hands interlock. This isn’t here for how sad or heart wrenching it is but because of how beautiful it is. I’m a big believer in the idea that just because something is sad and tragic doesn’t stop it from being beautiful. When I’m writing I always try to include that idea and this scene perfectly encapsulates that idea in its direction, writing and everything else. I love the film for all the scenes like this because I like a story that tells a tale of loss but also of hope and that is this movie in a nutshell.
“What if he does it to someone else’s family tomorrow?” Sakae’s death is caused by the family doctor not being able to monitor her heart rate in real time because of Love Machine’s rampage. When everyone else is sitting around or planning the funeral Mansuke yells at them and says they should be out getting revenge but gets told to STFU. Kenji stands up and gives a speech about how it was kinda his fault and how just because they are sad doesn’t mean they can sit back. The message is that if those with power to stop something stand around watching then they are just as cruel as those causing the damage in the first place. It highlights Kenji’s character growth but also is done in such a way that the others don’t look like jerks but just grieving people who lost a close family member.
“It’s time for battle!” So Kenji is getting ready for the war on Love Machine and his troops consist of Kazama, Tasuke, Mansuke, Riichi and Takashi. I picked the scene because it is crazy awesome and also hilarious without anything feeling out of place. Tasuki brings in a super computer, Mansuke a fishing boat to power it and Riichi a military grade antenna. They then hatch a plan to trap Love Machine in the super computer and cut it off. If not for a last minute error then it would have worked.
“SHUT UP!” In Kazama’s rematch with Love Machine after the plan fails he gets tossed around and smashed into a barrier and Love Machine uses all his stolen avatars to become a huge swarm in a humanoid shape. Kazama, in a display of the resilience of the human spirit, charges forwards for one last shot but gets utterly defeated.
“I’m sorry, Granny; I couldn’t protect mum, or my sister.” After his failure Kasama is suffering from a BSOD but what really gets him is that his failure (which is a HUGE hit since he was famous on Oz for his fighting) but the fact he couldn’t save his mum and unborn sister. Kazama is my favourite character and he is a shut in so the fact that his skill can finally be used for something useful and he fails is incredibly hard hitting.
“So please come home again and say good bye.” So far Wabisuke has only been around to act like a jerkass and reveal he was the programmer of Love Machine but then Natsuki calls him and tells him about Sakae’s death. Wabisuke takes it well; after flashing back to his childhood for a few seconds he hangs up and starts driving like crazy. Considering how his car looks when he makes it there it is barely in a drivable state so he must have gone through everything in his way. After this he swaps sides and tries to help all the others take down his creation.
“But if he does I’m sure he’ll be hungry.” What convinces all the others to help out the effort to defeat Love Machine is reading Sakae’s will which says that despite everything Wabisuke has done he should be forgiven and welcomed back to the family if he wants to come home. She also says to sit down and have a meal as a family which is what they do. It shows the strength of her personality and the respect the family had for it but it is also goes back to the theme of family that is all over the film.
“We’ll trust you with our accounts; our precious families please protect them.” The final fight is Natsuki vs Love Machine in a game of Hanafuda. She bets her family’s accounts against his stolen ones to try and get back the account that Love Machine is using to crash a satellite on a nuclear plant. It goes well until Natsuki gets distracted and loses a hand so she no longer has the accounts needed for the minimum bet. Hope looks bleak until a little german boy gives her his account and then everyone that hasn’t had theirs stolen already hands them over.
“Hit him hard!” The last hand is an all in for both sides and is awesome. it’s kinda like Yu-Gi-Oh or Hikaru No Go but in this case it’s not the writer wanting it to seam more awesome than it is since this really is the fate of the world resting on this game.
“Get him boy!” After they win the Hanafuda game Love Machine has two accounts left; the one to crash the satellite and Kenji’s which he uses to target the house they are in. The only way to avoid certain death is to hack the system and dump junk data into its flight plan but they need to get past Love Machine which keeps locking them out with 2056-bit encryption codes which Kenji solves over and over but in the end they need Love Machine distracted so a wounded Kazama is sent flying forwards by his family to deliver a huge punch to its face. The icing on the cake has to be the Mansuki is the one that throws him forward and is in a sense passing on the torch to his student.
“In his…head?” the last 2056-bit encryption code is solved by Kenji in his head within seconds of seeing it. That is unarguably awesome.
“She’s thanking you for being brave.” I want to say the entire ending scene but one moment in particular is great. Kazama feeling his mother’s stomach and feeling his sister kicking. Family, character growth, passing on to the next generation the role of protector, finding joy in the small things during dark times and the idea of new life in the face of death. This moment is the movie.
All the little moments OK this is cheating but I wanted to give a shout out to all the little side comments, all the subtle foreshadowing, all the tiny bits of animation that most studios wouldn’t bother with and all the tiny flourishes that show that they really cared when they were making this. They wanted to make something beautiful and put their hearts and souls into it. For that I applaud them because they did it; they gave it their all and succeeded.
So for now I’m Silica and don’t go doing anything I wouldn’t.