Summer Wars English cast announced

[Cloud500]

http://blog.funimation.com/2010/09/summer-wars-has-people-talking/

[steenajack]

*fangirl sqees!!!!!* I'VE GOTTA TELL SOMEONE......CADENCE!!!!!!

[TWWK]

I'm sooooo looking forward to this movie! I haven't wanted to see an anime movie as much since Ponyo first came out.

But I don't recognize any of the first five names in the cast off-hand. Any favorites among them?

[Atria35]

I don't know any of the VA's- but then again, I don't know the names of ANY English VA's other than Vic. So I don't care.... I just want a release date!!!

[Fish and Chips]

Wabisuke Jinnouchi
Voice cast: J. Michael Tatum

Yes please.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Maxey Whitehead seems like a stupid choice for Kazuma, but Brina Palencia has proven to be one of my favorite VAs, so I'm pretty pumped about this dub now.

[Cadence]

I'VE GOTTA TELL SOMEONE......CADENCE!!!!!!

You called? Oh, awesomeness, a dub cast! Now you have no excuse to not watch this, Steena!

Maxey Whitehead seems like a stupid choice for Kazuma

Agreed.

I don't recognize many of the other voice actors...here's hoping this great movie gets a decent dub! I'd better start saving...I will definitely be buying this once it comes out.

[steenajack]

You called? Oh, awesomeness, a dub cast! Now you have no excuse to not watch this, Steena!

Yes I do, I don't know when it's coming out yet.

*pouts*....lol jk jk

[Cloud500]

First English trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsLwVoZqEjk&feature=player_embedded

[steenajack]

Eep! I can't wait until it comes out! I hope I can see it in my state. :3!

[ChristianKitsune]

Ohhh maaaii
I totally wanna seee thiiiissss!

[KeybladeWarrior]

I want to see this too.

[AnimeGirl]

I haven't seen it subbed yet, but that dub cast...that dub cast....I SPOTTED SO MANY OF MY FAVORITES!!! This is a film I have been considering seeing, but after seeing that voice cast....oh yeah!! Plus I've only seen Todd H. and Jason L. in like 2 anime (yeah either they're not used much or I'm not watching much anime >.>) so it'll be cool to see their amazing talent in another anime! And though I know Monica R. is used alot....she's my favorite voice actress, so to see her in any anime makes me excited!! And there's more, but I'm rambling too much, so we'll leave it at that. ^.^

[Atria35]

I pre-ordered it. This movie is amazing. I honestly don't care who's in the dub since the sub was super-dooper fantastic, but I am going to see it in both regardless. Just so I know.

[Atria35]

Accidental post. Posted in the wrong thread. Silly me! XD

EDIT: but on the subject, after listening to the English dubs, I'm really not sure about Kenji's English VA. I like the rest of them, but I think Kenji is the voice I will prefer in Japanese.

[ChristianKitsune]

Wheee! February 15th! So close!
Does anyone know if this was ever nominated for any awards?

[Atria35]

Internationally, in Japan, or in America?
In Japan:
an award for new media *Won
Animation Division Grand Prize at the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival *Won
Award of Excellence in Animation 33rd Japan Academy Prizes *Won
Animated Film of the Year *Won

America:
Best Animated Film at the Academy Awards
Annie Award for Best Director

Internationally:
2009 Golden Leopard award
Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards
Audience Award for Best Animation Feature at the Anaheim International Film Festival *Won

[Atria35]

Rightstuf's

SUMMER WARS PRE-ORDERS SHIPPED TODAY!!!

i am so excited!!!

knowing my post office's track record, I will have it by Weds!

[Cloud500]

I still need to order this...

[ChristianKitsune]

Bought this movie and watched it today. I'll save my major comments/crits for the Podcast XD

but... I think people seemed to really over-hype this movie. Don't get me wrong it WAS GOOD. But I prefer The Girl Who Leapt Through Time much better. ^^;

[Atria35]

I preferred Summer Wars over TGWLTT. I think it was, although TGWLTT was beautiful, bittersweet endings sometimes don't always feel satisfying.
My brother preferred Summer Wars because it was less of a romance movie and more action-packed (and people who prefer action over romance will like it because of that).

In any case, had an incident w/ordering this. While they did ship it out early, and said that they shipped 2 copies (one for me, one for my bro!), only one was actually delivered. Thankfully, Rightstuf was right on that when I contacted customer service- even though their records showed 2 had been shipped, they sent another one free of charge! It should arrive sometime early next week.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

I preferred Summer Wars to The Girl Who Leapt Through Time as well, though they're very close for the top spot as far as anime films go. I loved how Summer Wars involved each of the family members, and the huge cast didn't feel out of place or like a background decoration, every one of them felt like a character. They all ended up helping in the end, and all ended up helping in their own way.

[blkmage]

I love Summer Wars because anyone who can break RSA in their head within a few minutes is my hero.

[ClosetOtaku]

As I wrote elsewhere, I found Summer Wars to be "funny and touching and cliched and contrived". It had some memorable good moments and nice plot twists and turns. I thought the plethora of extended family members were one-dimensional. The main characters started out interesting or mysterious, but by the end of the film were predictable and bland. The only character who was truly admirable was the family matriarch -- I could have watched a two-hour film about her life with great interest.

The key portion of the story line (outside of the family reunion) tended to be overly grandiose and implausible at best. The writers tried to combine elements of slice-of-life, martial arts, romance, social satire, medieval Japanese history, and cyberpunk -- and it all collapsed under the weight.

It is certainly worth watching (taken with a grain of salt), but in my book will never approach The Girl Who Leapt Through Time in terms of endearing qualities or production values.

[MangaRocks!]

Maybe it's just because I really like sci-fi, but I have to say that I didn't find the Oz/technological plot implausible at all (in context). And also, I'm pretty sure there was some satire even in the movie's main elements. One scene in particular that comes to mind is [spoiler]the 'magical girl transformation' of Natsuki's avatar when Oz's Guardians give her that "rare item". I think it was pretty obvious that that scene, plus her defeat of Love Machine, were purposefully a little over-the-top-- poking a bit of fun at similar scenes done elsewhere with the intent to be serious. (I mean, even the characters were joking about it-- "I have no idea what that means, but thank you!", etc. )[/spoiler] As I mentioned in the "what are you watching?" thread, I liked the movie a lot when I first saw it (indeed, enough to say it was a favorite), but I enjoyed it even more the second time around. There's more going on with it than first appears; and, in my case, it was on my second viewing that I really observed just how well everything does actually fit and work together.

[Wolf-man]

I bought this. I can't wait to watch it again. I have already seen the movie from fansubbers. It is a fantastic film. I can honestly say it is the best anime film I have had the pleasure of watching. I think it was much better than Girl Who Leap Through Time. I think that the director improved which all directors should strive to improve on their previous films. I really hope that this director keeps making movies cause i can't wait to see another one from him.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

As I wrote elsewhere, I found Summer Wars to be "funny and touching and cliched and contrived". It had some memorable good moments and nice plot twists and turns. I thought the plethora of extended family members were one-dimensional. The main characters started out interesting or mysterious, but by the end of the film were predictable and bland. The only character who was truly admirable was the family matriarch -- I could have watched a two-hour film about her life with great interest.

The key portion of the story line (outside of the family reunion) tended to be overly grandiose and implausible at best. The writers tried to combine elements of slice-of-life, martial arts, romance, social satire, medieval Japanese history, and cyberpunk -- and it all collapsed under the weight.

It is certainly worth watching (taken with a grain of salt), but in my book will never approach The Girl Who Leapt Through Time in terms of endearing qualities or production values.

See, I don't quite get this argument, especially about it adding in too many elements from different genres. I was going to wait and see if someone who isn't a dumb teenager would defend Summer Wars, but I guess I'll try.

So it had a couple action scenes, specifically ones where punching was involved, and that weakened it? It made a couple jokes about the family's history, and that gave it too many elements? I also don't get why people try to bill this as a romance/sci-fi, when it's more just sci-fi with a little romance. It's like trying to call FMA a romance because it contains romance, even though the romance is definitely not the focus of the plot. Honestly, I felt the romance was kind of what it was, it wasn't portrayed as Epic True Love, it was something that kind of developed along the way, but you didn't feel any chemistry at all?

And honestly, what makes the family great is that they're just random people. Sure, Kenji's good at math and Kazuma is good at martial arts and fighting games, and Natuski is good at koi koi, but these aren't action heroes. They don't cry or whine about it, sure, but none of these people are who you'd look to to take down Love Machine. Did you find nothing endearing about them? They weren't going to have a whole ton of development in a two hour movie, but I don't get why everyone says that "Oh, man, Hosoda is just using anime cliches."

I don't really get how Oz or Love Machine are convoluted, so I won't try and contest that point.

[Doubleshadow]

Woohoo! Cannot wait!

[ClosetOtaku]

To answer this adequately, I'm going to have to go into Spoiler mode. Apologies to those who haven't seen the movie yet, but you really don't want to read those.

So it had a couple action scenes, specifically ones where punching was involved, and that weakened it? It made a couple jokes about the family's history, and that gave it too many elements? I also don't get why people try to bill this as a romance/sci-fi, when it's more just sci-fi with a little romance. It's like trying to call FMA a romance because it contains romance, even though the romance is definitely not the focus of the plot. Honestly, I felt the romance was kind of what it was, it wasn't portrayed as Epic True Love, it was something that kind of developed along the way, but you didn't feel any chemistry at all?

[spoiler]In a movie, choosing to do one thing necessarily means you are going to choose not to do another (unless you want to end up with a 4-hour epic). Sometimes, especially in a good movie, you can advance the plot along a lot of dimensions simultaneously. Summer Wars didn't do this particularly well, in my opinion.

First, the romance. I thought the movie opened with a lot of potential with Kenji being unwittingly dragged into Natsuki's plot. I thought the tension increased dramatically with the arrival of Wabisuke. And it went up another notch with the 'discovery' of Kenji's real identity. And then -- it fizzled, except at the end, when Kenji gets the bloody nose (stereotypical) and Natsuki kisses him on the cheek -- that's when it crashed and burned. There were a lot of opportunities to play that tension throughout, but they lost it because... I don't know, they had to throw in a fight scene, or talk about a plunging satellite, or whatever. Compare this to The Girl Who Leapt Through Time -- that is the correct way to build romantic tension throughout a film, and release it all at the very end -- and nobody even shared a kiss!

Next, the sci-fi. In a fantasy world, the viewer has to accept the ground rules as they are presented to them. But if you're going to try to play slice-of-life in the real world, then you have to make the real world rules believable. And so I say: Oz? Really? Sure, you have the Internet as an analogue, but the very structure of the Internet would prevent the things the Love Machine was able to take advantage of in Oz. The thought that everything from chat rooms to power grids to satellites to nuclear missiles could be tied into Oz just didn't make sense to me. (Granted, I've worked with IT since High School and have been doing computers for the Defense Department for 17 years -- and there's another thing, that silliness with the Army and all. Pure fiction rubbish.) And not only am I expected to believe that Oz is vulnerable to the Love Machine, I also have to believe that two low-level administrators are suddenly able to start taking it on, and are the only ones who can stop it. All in all, it's a distraction from the story that is absolutely unnecessary -- you don't have to reveal a lot of detail in your sci-fi plots, but if you do, you need to make it believable.

The family history portion is what was really the core (along with the romance) of the movie. The audience is confronted with a dichotomy: Natsuki's family seemingly has fallen on hard times, the businesses and money of the past a distant memory. In reality, though, they are all very successful in diverse fields of computers, construction, Government, etc. This is why Natsuki needed Kenji: deep down, I think, she wants to gain Grandma Sakae's approval, the sort of approval she won't get in the midst of so many other high achievers. It's a great trick, but the movie suffers from another problem: we have no time to really get to know the family. Most of them are one-dimensional stereotypes. Five minutes of kick-boxing could have been replaced with five minutes of character development, and it would have been the right investment.

Please don't get me wrong -- Grandma Sakae's character alone made the movie worth watching. When she told Kenji for the second time to take care of Natsuki, it was obvious she knew she was going to die -- but that made the dramatic tension go through the roof. Maybe the writers thought they needed martial arts and fancy graphics to keep the audience's attention. You can tell, it did little for me.

So, I hope you see my point: it was a broad but shallow movie, and by taking some more time for exploring the more important parts (the romance and the family history) and foregoing indulging in the more flashy parts (the sci-fi, Oz, and the martial arts) you might get a better product.[/spoiler]

[blkmage]

[spoiler]Next, the sci-fi. In a fantasy world, the viewer has to accept the ground rules as they are presented to them. But if you're going to try to play slice-of-life in the real world, then you have to make the real world rules believable. And so I say: Oz? Really? Sure, you have the Internet as an analogue, but the very structure of the Internet would prevent the things the Love Machine was able to take advantage of in Oz. The thought that everything from chat rooms to power grids to satellites to nuclear missiles could be tied into Oz just didn't make sense to me. (Granted, I've worked with IT since High School and have been doing computers for the Defense Department for 17 years -- and there's another thing, that silliness with the Army and all. Pure fiction rubbish.) And not only am I expected to believe that Oz is vulnerable to the Love Machine, I also have to believe that two low-level administrators are suddenly able to start taking it on, and are the only ones who can stop it. All in all, it's a distraction from the story that is absolutely unnecessary -- you don't have to reveal a lot of detail in your sci-fi plots, but if you do, you need to make it believable.[/spoiler]

Because I like arguing about implementations of fictional computers:
[SPOILER]I had assumed that because of the events that take place and the things that the movie hints at that OZ wasn't the Internet. Rather, it's a service that is built on top of the Internet, kind of like Facebook or WoW. In that case, I think Love Machine would absolutely be able to wreak havoc on a system like that. And so, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume that all of these other different services run on top of OZ.

Now, there's the obvious question of why essential services are being run on top of a third-party virtual environment, which was something I suspended my disbelief for, since these things rarely work properly in movies. Or, I guess they figured security wasn't that big of a deal in a world where they don't need quantum computers to do polynomial time integer factorization since 17 year-old kids who didn't make it to the IMO can do it in their head in a few minutes.[/SPOILER]