Summer Wars is a Japanese animation film and it has an interesting mix of real-life and the virtual world. Kenji, a mathematical genius high school student (although just a tad not good enough to be representative for Japan in the Math Olympiads), is asked out of the blue by Natsuki to spend four days with her at her family's residence at Ueda. To his surprise, it is to pose as her boyfriend and be presented to her great-grandmother. Naturally, Natsuki's great-grandmother is formidable and holds considerable presence to many important people in Japan, so Kenji has to deal with the trouble that this entails when presented as Natsuki's fiance. On the other side, and this seems at odds with the real-life portion, is the virtual space known as OZ where nearly all transactions and dealings happen nowadays. Kenji's account is hacked after solving a mathematical code which allows a rogue AI to hack the system and throw the world in disarray. Naturally, Kenji and Natsuki, along with her family, saves the world as the problem escalates. The plot may sound like a weird combination but it works really well together in harmony. You're interested with the dynamics in Natsuki's family, what at first seems like the perfect family quickly reveals some underlying issues, and as these issues are solved throughout the film, you slowly bond to the characters. By the time the climax of the film comes, you've been through the highs and lows and you're genuinely cheering on for the main characters. To top it off perfectly, the ending is as you'd expect, a sweet closure to the (obvious) romantic relationship between Kenji and Natsuki. Overall, Summer Wars is a very enjoyable film that surprisingly affects you emotionally more than you'd expect, but is an exciting, peaceful and engaging film all at the same time.
