Summer Wars

"Always protect your network."

2009 1h 54m JA

🙌

7.5

BANGER

★7.5TMDB · 1,081

AnimationScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Teenage math whiz Kenji Koiso agrees to take a summer job at the Nagano hometown of his crush, Natsuki. When he arrives, he finds that her family have reunited to celebrate the 90th birthday of their matriarch. His job: pretend to be Natsuki's fiancé. Meanwhile, his attempt to solve a mathematical equation causes a parallel world's collision with Earth.

“Always protect your network.”

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Cast

Ryunosuke Kamiki
Kenji Koiso (voice)
Hitomi Miyauchi
Natsuki Shinohara (voice)
Mitsuki Tanimura
Kazuma Ikezawa (voice)
Sumiko Fuji
Sakae Jinnouchi (voice)
Ayumu Saito
Wabisuke Jinnouchi (voice)
Takahiro Yokokawa
Takashi Sakuma (voice)
Kiyomi Tanigawa
Yukiko Shinohara (voice)
Mutsumi Sasaki
Kazuo Shinohara (voice)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Writers: Satoko Okudera, Mamoru Hosoda
Languages: Japanese
Countries: Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 17 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Mamoru Hosoda, shot by Yukihiro Masumoto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Akihiko Matsumoto. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Shigeru Nishiyama shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Ryunosuke Kamiki and Hitomi Miyauchi and Mitsuki Tanimura carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Always protect your network.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt1474276 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Mamoru Hosoda directs. Yukihiro Masumoto behind the camera. Akihiko Matsumoto scores. Shigeru Nishiyama cuts. Produced in Japan. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 17 years ago.
2Directed by Mamoru Hosoda, shot by Yukihiro Masumoto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Akihiko Matsumoto. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Shigeru Nishiyama shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Ryunosuke Kamiki and Hitomi Miyauchi and Mitsuki Tanimura carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "Always protect your network.".
7IMDB entry: tt1474276 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 9 themes, including "card game", "artificial intelligence (a.i.)", "computer", "hacker".

The technical file

Cinematography: Yukihiro Masumoto
Original score: Akihiko Matsumoto
Editing: Shigeru Nishiyama
Runtime: 114 min · 1h 54m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $18,434,328
Original language: JA
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Summer Wars (2009)

Awards

Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Mamoru Hosoda

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-08-06
★ 7/10
It’s really quite apposite to watch this film at a time when governments across the world are merrily acquiescing to the demands of global tech to facilitate the rampant advance of AI. This story quite cleverly illustrates just how easily a collection of “Will Hunting” types can be used to crack even the most complex (2,000 digit) numeric code and allow nefarious access to a global network which manages just about everything we do - from using our phones to firing a nuclear missile. It’s bright spark - but maybe just a touch inept - “Kenji” who has accepted a task that is definitely not what he was expecting from “Natsuki” and so finds himself at her grandmother’s ninetieth birthday luncheon posing as her beau. A bit of a nervous wreck, he is later presented with an online puzzle by “OZ”, the network in question and he manages to message back a solution. Next thing we all know, it’s been hacked by an increasingly violent AI that is bent on a quest for knowledge and power, and that will stop at nothing. When poor old “Kenji” is identified and gets the blame, only an unique sort of intervention from granny and a solid series of team efforts from her family and from his friends might enable them to thwart this menacing creation. The animation starts off with images that reminded me of one of those childhood kaleidoscopes that brought vibrant crystalline shapes together, before heading full pelt into a frequently quite pithily comedic look at family traditions, teenage hormones and menacing nasties threatening the entire fabric of the internet. You’ll possibly never see a more potent cinematic demonstration of just how dependent and inter-dependant we are on this network of cables and zeroes and ones for much, if not most, of modern life. Not just our social lives, but our actual lives too are controlled and once control of that falls into malevolent hands, well humanity risks being well and truly stuffed. The last half hour focuses a little more on dealing with that problem, and the quickly paced action animation is underpinned by a plausible degree of science too. In many ways, it’s almost a horror movie - especially if you think on it: first love or online demons?

Production companies