sol- Accused of hacking into a virtual reality platform that controls traffic, water and other aspects of Japanese life, a young computer whiz has to prove his innocence and take back control of the virtual world in this imaginative animated feature. The plot is more complicated than just that as he has also been asked to pose as a classmate's boyfriend, with the whole film set during a family reunion where he finds it difficult to maintain the pretence. The mythology upon which the film is built (is a virtual world or a social network?) is arguably too complex for its own good with a slate of unanswered questions, but the movie does a very good job contrasting family life to the online world. The girl's extended family is also full of such lively characters that it is easy to get swept away in the story even when some of the virtual world elements jar - most notably how all the virtual fights simulate real life and how all the avatars are somehow programmed to sweat and show emotions identical to their users. Indeed, this is a film best appreciated with all the virtual reality aspects as metaphorical with the whole film really a tale of the main character becoming gradually accepted by his fake girlfriend's suspicious family. The film also takes a stab at the risks of placing everything online where is capable of being hacked, but this really more a tale of a nervous young man making good.

jaygorian The good (As in, why I didn't give it only one star):The art and animation in this movie were excellent The extremely large cast of characters is very well managed, there are very few that fall completely to the sidelines, story or writing wise The plot is easily digestible for those who are younger or newer to the mediumThe bad: The plot was mediocre at best, with the way the MC was brought into the plot utterly unrealistic and stereotypical for anime being one of its many unoriginal aspects, however, I could've set aside my qualms about the plot if not for the digital side of the filmThe ugly (As in, here's where I make an itemized list so it's not too ragey):1. The world of OZ is portrayed as impossibly immersive considering the fact that it uses mouse and keyboard or hand-held controls2. OZ is given an insane amount of access to the world. Considering that even UPS uses an internal network for its in-hub computers, it is unbelievable that computers with control over public works, infrastructure, satellites, and nuclear power plants would be connected to this social network on steroids.3. The "hacking" is so utterly nonsensical that to point out every single issue would take up the rest of this relatively short review 4. Real life martial arts skills do not translate to video game skills 5. A combat control scheme that requires use of the entire keyboard is utter nonsense and would be considered trash by anyone with even a small amount of gaming experience, and therefore should not have been even remotely popular6. The number of different platforms OZ is accessible through is difficult to believe, mostly in terms of the DS. Plausible, but unlikely.7. The supercomputer should not have been able to have OZ installed on it out of the box, installing an OS on the thing should've taken most of the time they had8. There should have been no way for people to "give" the girl their avatars in the end9. In-game proximity should have had nothing to do with whether the hacking AI could steal one's accountThere's more, but just remembering this movie is starting to upset me, so I'll leave it at that.

emilywake I know this is a spoiler, but when every remaining free avatar rallies behind Natsuki, I always cry. After the bombing in France, the world actually united in the same way and I cried. In the movie, it took people losing their lives and everything needed to function for everyone to come together. In reality, it takes people dying. I cry for two reasons.Movie: - It takes deaths and potential fall of society for people to unite - People do amazing things when they rally togetherReality: - It takes many deaths for us to unite - We can do great things (i.e. solve world hunger, world peace) if we can rally together like we do when people are having tragedies, but do it everydayUNITY people! Apply it everyday for a brighter future. That's what I get from this movie. The perfect movie. Now, if I can stop crying, I won't get a stopped up nose. Then it would be a 10 out of 10!P.S. Hanafuda (Koi Koi) is a great game. You need to get the app.

Tweekums In the near future just about everybody uses an internet site called OZ; on it on can do just about everything one can do in the real world and its security system means that governments and corporations use it too. Protagonist Kenji spends most of his time there but it looks like things might change when a girl called Natsuki offers him a summer job. He doesn't realise what he is expected of him until she introduces him to her grandmother… as her boyfriend and future husband! He isn't sure that he can keep up the charade but it turns out that is the least of his problems. That night he gets sent a strange mathematical puzzle, which he solves and in the morning his face is on the television; he has been accused of hacking OZ's security! Soon there is chaos as whoever has hacked in is interfering with the country's infrastructure and it is only a matter of time before it presents a real danger to people.This, Mamoru Hosoda's second film after 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' is a lot of fun; there are laughs, thrills and drama as well as tragedy and a little romance. Kenji is a fairly typical anime protagonist; shy around girls to the extent that he has a cliché nosebleed! This isn't really a problem though. The large cast of characters are entertaining and the depiction of the online world is nicely different to the real world… just don't expect it to be a realistic vision of anything on line; I suspect that realism would have made a less interesting film, especially for younger viewers. The film does rely on a level of coincidence that strains ones suspension of disbelief somewhat: Kenji, the best fighter in OZ and the person indirectly responsible for the events all end up at the same house at the same time! From the description it might sound like this is primarily a science fiction film but it feels more like a family drama; and these aspects of the story entertained me more; they were believable as a family in a way that made the more far-fetched parts of the story acceptable. The animation is of a high standard as anybody who watched Hosada's previous film would expect. Overall I found this to be an entertaining film that any anime fan can enjoy; there is certainly very little to offend.These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.