Summer Wars

As Kenji, a high school student, takes on a job for the most popular girl in school, Natsuki, stuff is quickly spiralling out of control for him. Not only is this job for Natsuki not entirely what he had expected, but an A.I. has taken over his Avatar in the virtual world of Oz, wreaking allsorts of havoc. This is the premise of a roller-coaster ride that is exciting, sweet, strange, touching, funny, cool, exhilarating and most of all, a lot of fun. If someone asked me to make a good animation /science fiction/ romance/ action/ comedy/ drama/ movie about a virtual world, a family, Japanse high school students in a save the world kind of scenario: I'd probably laugh in their faces... Director Mamoru Hosoda however likely said something along these lines:"Yeah, sounds cool!". And continued on to make an awesome movie. It baffles me how he pulled this off with this wacky scenario, every scene sets the right tone, has the perfect pacing and touches the right strings at the right time. Summer Wars (and the also amazing Girl Who Leapt Through Time) made it clear to me Japan has the one of the best directors on the planet in animation with Mamoru Hosoda, and I can't wait to see what more he will conjure up. Highly recommended!