SUMMER WARS - ****

Directed by Mamoru Hosoda. Anime. Cert 12.

Released in UK on DVD and Blu-ray by Manga Entertainment on the 28th March, £17.99 DVD, £19.99 Blu-ray.

The first major blockbuster to hit DVD and Blu-ray in 2011, SUMMER WARS comes loaded with expectations – especially given the critical accolades heaped on helmer Mamoru Hosoda’s previous feature, THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME. Does it live up to the hype? In a word, ‘yes’. In another, ‘definitely’. SUMMER WAR’s storyline sees bashful maths nerd Kenji roped into posing as the fiancé of the school hottie, Natsuki, while she visits her numerous family at their country mansion presided over by formidable great grandma Sakae. During his first night, Kenji is sent a mysterious maths problem from a stranger in Oz, a massively popular cyberspace realm used by everyone from kids on their mobile ‘phones to governments and corporations. He solves it – only to find that he has unwittingly unleashed Love Machine, a rogue AI intent on using the virtual world of Oz to wreak havoc in the real world by crashing a satellite onto a nuclear plant. It’s an entertaining story, and one told with intelligence, gusto and a lively sense of humour, that looks at themes of networks and connections rather than plumping for a clichéd ‘technology bad’ message. And although Love Machine’s attack on Oz provides much of the film’s drama, one of the chief delights is the interplay between the various members of Natsuki’s slightly down-at-heels aristocratic extended family. As for animation, SUMMER WARS is simply gorgeous, whether in Oz – where the cutesy avatars and inventive imagery are a graphic designer’s dream - or back in the real world, where Natsuki’s family is graced by some excellent character design, all the more impressive given the plethora of cast members. INCEPTION showed us that Hollywood can make a blockbuster with a brain; SUMMER WARS does the same for anime.

David Axbey.