Well... this isn't really related to my trip to Japan, but still Japan-related, so... :)
I just saw the movie
Summer Wars [サマーウォーズ,
samā wōzu] last week for the first time... and it was simply spectacular. I had heard about it in the past, and recently seeing (and loving)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time [時をかける少女,
toki o kakeru shoujo], which has the same director, editor and producer as Summer Wars, I decided to check it out.
(click on the image to make it bigger!)
[[SPOILERS FOLLOW]]The plot, along with the whole movie was very clever, but the animation was simply
amazing! So basically, Kenji Koiso is an 11th grade high school math genius who works part time as a moderator of OZ-- a massive online virtual world. At the start of summer break his crush, Natsuki, asks him to pretend to be her fiancé for four days in front of her family. After getting to know the whole clan, he receives a mysterious coded text message from OZ. After solving the code, he awakens the next morning to find himself on the news, framed as a hacker of OZ! Kenji and the family find out the "hacker" is actually an A.I. named "Love Machine," which, by wreaking havoc in OZ, is causing the entire infrastructure of Japan to crumble, and eventually plans for all the nuclear reactors in the world to explode! OH NOES.
Oh, and Grandma's pretty awesome too. Here are some screenshots I took:
(there's probably some spoilers in here, so be careful!)
You can watch the trailer
here. The movie isn't yet out on DVD in America, but you can easily find it online... but be sure to buy the DVD when it comes out to support the creators!
Now go watch it! :D
Oh and also, my YFU pre-departure orientation for my trip to Japan is on the 22nd... :)
if anyone cares. heh.
