Summer Wars (2009), A Summer Animation.

Directed by: Mamoru Hosoda | Written by: Satoko Okudera

Produced by: Madhouse

Awards

• Best Animation Film; 33rd Japanese Academy Prize & Mainichi Film Awards
• Best Animated Feature Film;  Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival
• Animation Of The Year; 9th Tokyo Anime Award
• Best Media; 2010 Seiun Award

...excellent anime... There's a lovely, unhurried quality to Mr. Hosoda's storytelling, which nicely matches the clean, classically composed images of his outer story.  -RACHEL SALTZ, New York Times

 Summer Wars (サマーウォーズ Samā Wōzu)  Is yet another great animated featured straight from the productive and creative core driven by Madhouse Studio's best defining the line between modern times and Sci-Fi fantasy trough keen and down-to-earth animation .

Anime Festival Asia 2009 : 22 Nov 2009 (Photo credit: chinnian)

 Could you Imagine if Facebook, the largest social Network known to man, was acknowledged worldwide as the greatest and only virtual social contact network by default used by nearly every human being with technological access (=everyone) making it a tool for great distribution and safe keeping for people and companies/government alike while being a heaven for virtual interaction and games (NO farmville!). Now remove the "Facebook " image and slap the word "Oz" on it; a virtual social giant protected by the words best encryption. You will be left wondering where the line between scripted information and virtual reality meet as the servers and use of avatars manifest themselves like 3D animations in this virtual city.

When Kenji, a mathematically skilled boy -and Oz server-maintainer- is asked to play the academical boy friend (unbeknown to him at the beginning ) of Natsuki Shinahara,a cute girl descending from Samurai's of the Tokugawa clan, a somewhat crowded family with a strong heritage and interesting personalities and individual which fill the screen with a joyful amount of interaction and family matter on the anniversary of the eldest member. Which went unnoticed until Kenji accidentally cracked Oz trough an unknown scripted message he solved mathematically allowing an individual access to all the accounts on Oz manifesting itself as a Virus, making Kenji a criminal for a short period and bringing both of the culprits in a tight spot. The Anime-like cliché has it however that the bonding process is unavoidable... I was surprised how acceptable it felt tough, for the shy boy to be acknowledged step by step which was essential being one of the only few who knew the dangerous of hacking  such a vast system.

The Oz- Crisis and underlying family matter are a successful blend that draws all the unsolved issues back to the family in question when the "hacking" goes from innocent to dangerous. Oz isn't just a social giant, but it is also a governmental used control panel INTERNATIONALLY.

The visuals are gentle and find their beauty in a simple yet detailed manner deeply contrasting more vivid and sharp works like Redline.

*Special thanks to this blog



Rating:
***** Summer-Buster! 

Top 3 Recommended animations of 2010-2011 that I am dying to watch.

There have been many animations I set my eye on but never had the time nor/or the means to see them. Well... I guess this could be subbed as my "to-watch" list. I better get started then...

 1. Tatsumi (2011)

Directed & Writer by:  Eric Khoo

*Starring: Tetsuya Bessho, Motoko Gollent , Yoshihiro Tatsumi (narator)

Produced by:  Infinite Frameworks Pte. Ltd., Zhao Wei Films

Director & Author

An animated biography based on Tatsumi Yoshihiro's 13th Osamu Tezuka Cultural prize winning manga A Drifting Life and his many short works. The movie was first shown at the 64th Cannes Film Festival and again at the 5th Brussels Animation Film Festival (ANIMA 2012).

The well made animation is supposed to capture the feeling of his short stories on the screen and carefully mimic Tatsumi Yoshihiro drawings, which should've worked due to the fact that the whole project was supervised by him. This drama-biography is a gate way to the life and works of a Gekiga veteran and manga pioneer.

(Read more here)

Awards won (so far):

• Best Animated Feature Film; Asia Pacific Screen Award
• Best Film; 8th Dubai International Film Festival
• Asian Film Award - Special Mention; 24th Tokyo International Film Festival

 2. Paths Of Hate (2010)

Directed & Writer by:  Damian Nenow

Produced By: Platige Image

A short tale about the demons that slumber deep in the human soul and have the power to push people into the abyss of blind hate, fury and rage. From IMDB 

Damian Nenow

Paths Of Rage is a polish war-drama animation directed and written by Damian Nenow. While I do admit that I know only little of this movie also due to the lack of resource and distribution. I can say that the comic-like visuals drew me to it as I found out that it was screened at the ANIMA 2012-Córdoba Animation Film Festival (Not to be confused with the one in Brussel).

 Despite its low interest rate and distribution, it seems to rival with it's more popular peers. if this movie is half as good as I think it is, then this could be up for review as soon as I can find a copy of this animated action-adventure.

  Awards won (so far):

• Grand Jury Price; ANIMA - Córdoba International Animation Festival
• Best Animation & Best Action/Adventure Short; San Diego Comic-Con international Independent Film Festival

  3.  From Up On Poppy Hill (2011)

Directed by: Gorō Miyazaki | Written by: Hayao Miyazaki, Keiko Niwa

*Starring: Junichi Okada, Masami Nagasawa

Produced by: Studio Ghibli

From Up On Poppy Hill (コクリコ坂から Kokuriko-zaka Kara) is a Japanese animated Drama based on a manga written by Tetsurō Sayama and illustrated by Chizuru Takahashi. 

A Miyazaki movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son and written by the one and only Hayao Miyazaki (obviously). I gotta say that gets my blood boiling, especially knowing that the later wants his son to stand on his own to feet without his support or funding (much like Jackie Chan did with his son... without the obvious failure that is). 

The movie got it's share of possitive feed back much like it's predecessor The Secret World of Arrietty and won a Japanese academy award for 'Best Animation Film'. Something to be expected from a Studio Ghibli Film.

  Awards won (so far):

• Best Animation Film; 35th Japanese Academy Prize

That's about it...

Well... I think that it's pretty obvious that I saved my best pick for last. But I am really looking forward to see all of them and to focus on more recent works (non-Ghibli this time...). 

Expect more to come and more to be revealed.

M.

• Facebook / twitter (Follow me!)

p.s: many thanks to Raju for it's simple yet effective tutorial for the "Facebook like button",  it is truly appreciated.