It doesn’t help that Natsuki has obvious feelings for her “uncle”. It is a foreboding scene and sure enough, things begin to move in a bad direction for Kenji and company. His appearance brings with it unexpected tension and seriousness to the movie, which had been light hearted until now. Every family has a black sheep and theirs is named Wabisuke. Keep an eye out for that.īut not all is fun and games at the Jinnouchi gathering. Also interwoven is a parallel to baseball presented in the television broadcasts of one of teens of the family in a high school baseball tournament. Throughout the movie, we are shown the various family members interacting and many little things are planted for future reference. He’s there for comic relief and because every large family has someone like him. All are believable, realistic characters – even Shota the second cousin cop with a crush on Natsuki. I loved this scene for it rang with the authenticity of how families behave, from the banter to the insults as we get a glimpse of each personality. Not even a flow chart can help him keep everyone straight. Meeting the rest of the boisterous and varied family follows at dinner. For some reason Kenji is rather upset about being misled, but Natsuki is determined to keep the ruse going. She sees something deep within him and gives her approval to the marriage. But amongst the comedy is a sublime moment where Sakae stares at him with all the ferocity of her spirit to evaluate the lad. It is a scene that demonstrates marvelous comic timing as the clueless boy slowly realizes what is going on. The biggest one being that he is her fiancé. ![]() Natsuki reveals a scheming side when she introduces Kenji to her great grandmother and unreels multiple lies about who he is. In fact, her 90th birthday is approaching and that is why the family has gathered together. It also turns out he has been hired to pose as Natsuki’s boyfriend to meet her family.Īnd oh what a family she belongs to! The Jinnouchi clan are descendants of samurai and the matriarch Sakae is the one all orbit around. We also find out the shy boy is a math wiz who narrowly lost out being the Japanese representative at the international math olympics. Instead the older student needs one boy to come traveling with her to the countryside.Īnd so our hero, Kenji begins his assignment of escorting Natsuki in a montage that manages to catch subtle nuances of every day life while interweaving glimpses of cyber life on OZ. No, Natsuki isn’t asking them to rig her grades. Then something happens that never happens in real life – the prettiest girl in school walks in and offers a paying job. Here we meet two computer geeks who are part time administrators in OZ. In Japan, they have clubs for almost everything and they are a big part of a teen’s high school life. Suddenly we are deposited in the real world, or more accurately the traditionally animated depiction of a Japanese high school computer club. By that I mean in a talking paperclip kind of style for those of you who remember that in Microsoft Office. Now there is a frightening thought!Īll of this was presented in cell shaded CGI rather than traditional animation was extremely cutesy in a corporate way. It is like if Microsoft, Apple, or Google ran the entire planet’s infrastructure. OZ is also the backbone of all communications in the world with government agencies and facilities using it as an operating system. In fact, it goes through the entire creation of an avatar as if it were a real system.īut is more than just a riff on Facebook and other online communities. OZ looks like a cross between Facebook and Second Life, with cute avatars representing the users of the system. The opening scenes are shown as an online tutorial and introduction to a virtual social community called OZ. When the movie started, I wondered if I’d made a mistake. So did it become a purchase to regret? Read on to find out. ![]() It ended up on my Amazon wish list and was forgotten until scrolling through that to find it on sale. This one is not quite a blind buy because I saw part of a fan translated manga adaptation and thought it looked interesting. While some people enjoy blind buying movies, I am not one of them. UPDATED for Blu-ray details and HD screen captures. But looking beyond the protagonist, this science fiction film is also about the importance of family relationships, good and bad. An extraordinary animated film that switches between real world rural Japan and an online virtual community provides laughs, tears, and the possibility of the end of the world – all during one high school student’s unexpected summer vacation.
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