By Kelsey Norden
On Feb. 9 The Psychotronic Film Society of Savannah screened “Summer Wars,” a fantastic anime feature about the power the Internet holds over our lives and the social implications of this power.
The film begins with math genius Kenji Koiso working at his summer job debugging minor threats in the massive Internet world of Oz. He’s quickly convinced by his classmate, Natsuki, to instead spend the summer pretending to be her boyfriend at a family reunion.
The central crisis of the story begins when Kenji receives a message on Oz with a complex math algorithm. He solves it, replies with the answer, and the next morning Oz is falling apart at the seams. A virus has gotten in, and it’s Kenji’s fault. As the movie progresses, the virus steals more accounts from people across the world which allows it to grow stronger. Eventually it threatens to destroy the world as it holds the power to release nuclear bombs from a government facility.
When Kenji woke up that first morning when Oz began to deteriorate, I knew I had seen this all before.
Most people of our generation have seen or at least heard of the ’90s hit TV show “Digimon: Digital Monsters” about a group of grade school kids trapped in a digital world with their digimon companions and sent on an adventure to save it. In 2000, three 40-minute movies were released, the second of which is titled “Our War Game.”
“Our War Game” occurred within the first season of the show. Izzy found a “digi-egg” had hatched on the internet, and within a matter of hours the little monster inside was eating data across the Web and growing exponentially. The digimon had been created by a young American genius named Willis, but it ended up being corrupted and set out to destroy the world, just like the virus in “Summer Wars.”
For them, it was all a game.
The similarities are seemingly endless between these two films. Both depict the Internet in the same artistic style: orange outlines on all of the characters, with 3D figures to make the spinning camera angles more manageable. Both have their main characters represented in some way by cute animals, whether it is avatars on the Internet or monsters in a virtual world.
All the major plot points are split between these two movies as well. There’s a virus eating up the Internet that has to be eradicated. It constantly grows and reaches new levels of power. Eventually a timer is set and once it hits zero, nuclear missiles will destroy the earth.
But how did Mamoru Hosoda, the director and creator of “Summer Wars,” manage to rip off possibly one of the most popular anime series of the ’90s? The answer is simple: It turns out Hosoda also directed the “Digimon” movie. He had access to the story and the opportunity to improve upon it, and seized that opportunity.
Hosoda manages to expand on the story of the Internet being destroyed by tying in the story of a large family that used to have everything in reach but lost it all over the years. The family dynamic of the Jinnouchi clan is compelling and pulls the viewer in right off the bat. Everyone is gathering for great grandma’s 90th birthday, so the household is bustling with activity to get ready for the festivities. The family spans plenty of professions: an overactive cop, a fisherman, his sons that work in various utilities, a computer salesman, a soldier. While you only really get a glimpse into each of their lives, the character development is so deep that you can’t help but feel a part of it.
The family’s story ties in so well with the main plot of the movie that it both drives and is driven by it. Everything that each family member does affects the situation at hand, and every choice they make is affected by what has happened. As the virus takes a hold of more accounts and information on Oz, traffic is jammed, water systems are busted and hospitals are sent into chaos. The Jinnouchi clan gives us a sample of the horror happening across the globe, showing just what this virus is doing to everyone’s personal lives.
A new question remains, though: why would Hosoda repeat his own work so thoroughly? I believe that the subject of the film was important enough to be repeated far and wide, as “Summer Wars” managed to reach audiences that “Digimon” definitely could not. The Internet is heavily relied on. We spend all of our time now on Facebook, connecting with our friends and sharing information. This is the technology era. Everyone relies on the Internet to organize their lives and communicate quickly. But if we rely too heavily on something that can be torn apart by the right code, everything could fall apart. Hosoda manages to tell us this effectively in his film.
“Summer Wars” leaves you with something to think about regarding your own social networking life. Are you leaving too much information on the Net, or could a virus come in and completely steal your entire identity? Be careful out there.
The Psychotronic Film Society has film screenings every Wednesday night. Their main goal is to bring films to people in Savannah that they otherwise would not be able to see in a regular theater.
[Contact fname=”Kesley” lname=”Norden” email=”knorde20@student.scad.edu”]
