Thought I'd kick off the summer with a movie that has "summer" in the title. Alas, TV anime isn't the only anime that doesn't always live up to its titles. This flick has a war of sorts and could easily have taken place in another season.
Set in either the near future or an alternate present, it introduces us up front to an online network called OZ that's even more pervasive than Google. Protagonist Kenji is an OZ programmer in high school who deems math his only strong suit. When he gets an anonymous email full of numbers, he injudiciously accepts the implicit invitation to decode them. The sender turns out to be Love Machine, a rogue hacker bot that swipes his avatar and wreaks havoc on OZ. Indignation at this frame-up is by no means Kenji's biggest motivation to fight back: Japan really has put all its eggs in one basket, and Love Machine's actions can be deadly.
The above outline actually skips a lot of important stuff that doesn't easily fit into the same paragraph. You see, Kenji's story begins with lovely classmate Natsuki looking for a boy to take a volunteer "job" accompanying her to her grandmother's 90th birthday celebration. Only at the house does he learn what it entails: pretending to be her fiance just to put Grandma's mind at ease. (Apparently, she expects engagement by age 17.) It sure doesn't put Kenji's bashful mind at ease, especially in the midst of her vast, rather colorful extended family. Imagine how he feels when they think he broke the Internet on purpose.
Oh, it's not all bad for him. Not only does the crowd relieve his usual loneliness, but it comes in handy once the "war" begins. Natsuki's junior high cousin Kazuma contributes strongly as an expert fighting gamer. Natsuki herself takes advantage of Love Machine's craving for all kinds of online games. Grandma, with more energy than her age would suggest, eggs on the emergency personnel in the family. Relatives haul in powerful hardware. Even the least able people can lend support in little ways. Only Shota, the comically irascible and jealous cop, does more harm than good to the effort.
Indeed, the story is never more heartwarming than when everybody works together. (You didn't think I'd say it's when Natsuki really falls for Kenji, did you?) And by "everybody," I mean more than the household. Kenji's programming buddy helps over the phone, and Kazuma's online fans provide quite a force in numbers. Kenji may be the final hero, but the credit spreads out pretty nicely.
For a while, I thought the movie sexist. The first several characters to join the struggle against Love Machine are males of various ages, and at least one of the women voices an opinion that the men of the family have silly priorities in doing so. (Compared to decoration and catering, lady?) But Madhouse is the same studio that gave us The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, so I doubt they intended an insult to females. And like I said, Natsuki and Grandma leave Shota in the dust.
For a mostly hard sci-fi, it does strain credulity from time to time. A quirky subplot involves a baseball series in which the home team's situation mirrors that of Team Kenji. None of the characters notice, since the woman who takes baseball seriously is tuning out the more immediate crisis. Funny? Maybe a little.
More enjoyable to me than the humor or the over-the-top drama is the visual aspect. OZ looks pretty cool for anime with a touch of CG. The avatars have interesting designs, especially Love Machine's once it ditches Kenji's. Outside of OZ, there's a big traditional Japanese home on a sprawling landscape. It's not the Studio Ghibli signature, but it has the potential. (I could do without a couple moments of youthful nudity, but they're nothing to challenge the PG rating.)
What the gestalt amounts to is one of the nerdiest movies I've ever seen. For the most part, I'm just fine with that. It's a fun way for a forum-frequenting gamer to kill the better part of two hours. The question is whether your taste runs similarly nerdy enough.
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