Summer Wars

***Summer Wars*** (Japanese: ***サマーウォーズ***) is the 2009 Mamoru Hosoda-directed science fiction film that premiered in Japan on August 1, 2009. The film's synopsis reads, "A young math genius solves a complex equation and inadvertently puts a virtual world's artificial intelligence in a position to destroy Earth." On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 79% approval rating from critics based on 24 reviews. The site's consensus states, "Family drama mixes with virtual online action in the breezy and entertaining *Summer Wars*." On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 63 out of 100, based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The film was commonly mentioned in interviews for *Belle*, comparing and contrasting the two virtual worlds, where U was an "update" from OZ. This was also remarked upon, where Hosoda said, "I remember reading an article about Facebook back then which said it was approaching one billion users, so I said: "Let Oz have one billion users" and that was fine, but nowadays Facebook has more than two billion users, and I thought "Aw man, my fiction has been surpassed by reality", so I wanted five billion users for "U" to stay ahead of reality a bit longer." Much like *Summer Wars*, *Belle*'s intro consists of entering the virtual world, which was intentional.

## Background

Hosoda likened the decade span between the two films with "So, perhaps every 10 years, I feel there's a massive enough shift hitting." He elaborated, "There's a massive shift in our relationship to the internet and internet actions. If you rewind the clock back to *Summer Wars*, I felt that there was a clear line, or distinction, that where we exist right now is reality and what the internet is, is a tool of convenience in many ways. And that line was very clear. Fast-forward to today and *Belle*, and I think there's definitely this idea of two realities. The internet is no longer a tool to achieve certain tasks, it's become a projection of our society in many ways. And for that reason, I think a lot of content creators or filmmakers depict this internet world as this dystopian society and this thing that strips us of our humanity because its presence has grown so much in our daily lives. But, take this idea of there being multiple realities, I think there are also multiple societies or faces humans decide to show within reality. So the current reality we occupy and exist physically, we have one face or facet of ourselves, but on the internet, we project a much different image. I think we can relate to this. But I'd argue all of these are what completes that person, and both of those are real in many ways. So, Suzu and Belle may feel like polar opposites of the spectrum—and they're very different—but the same. I think this is something we can all relate to if we look at how people perceive us and what we try to project, etc. etc."

## References

1. ↑ Vijn, Ard (January 12, 2022). "BELLE Interview: Director Hosoda Mamoru Provides Hope For The Future". *Screen Anarchy*.
2. ↑ Whitbrook, James (January 13, 2022). "*Belle*'s Mamoru Hosoda Tells Us Why He Keeps Making Stories for the Internet Age". *Gizmodo*.