Summer Wars
Reception

Summer Wars (2009)

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External reception

8.3
5 platform(s) · 7 ratings 226,342 votes
8.5/10 190,779 votes Synced 2026-08-08
7.4/10 34,414 votes Synced 2026-08-20
Audience 7.0/10 86 votes Synced 2026-07-19
Critics 6.3/10 Synced 2026-07-19
Audience 8.7/10 Synced 2026-07-18
Critics 8.1/10 Synced 2026-07-18
7.5/10 1,063 votes Synced 2026-08-25

External reviews

Joe Williams · St. Louis Post-Dispatch 75.00/100.00

Summer Wars has engineered a truce between the familiar and the fantastical.

synced 2026-07-19
Steven Rea · Philadelphia Inquirer 75.00/100.00

An enjoyably trippy Japanese animated feature.

synced 2026-07-19
Stephanie Merry · Washington Post 50.00/100.00

Considering it's anime, Summer Wars starts out more like a bad romantic comedy.

synced 2026-07-19
Ty Burr · Boston Globe 75.00/100.00

In Summer Wars, it's what's old that's made to seem refreshingly new.

synced 2026-07-19
Marc Savlov · Austin Chronicle 78.00/100.00

Summer Wars is a magnificently manufactured piece of film entertainment that goes beyond the obvious and manages to comment, often obliquely, on everything from Facebook to virtual war and/or terrorism without ever seeming heavy-handed or strident.

synced 2026-07-19
Kevin Thomas · Los Angeles Times 80.00/100.00

Hosoda, who directed the cult film "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time," has made a sophisticated yet poignant family entertainment with an appeal beyond Japanese animation buffs.

synced 2026-07-19
Frank Scheck · The Hollywood Reporter 80.00/100.00

Running almost two hours, its increasingly convoluted narrative may be too difficult to follow for younger viewers. But its thematic ambition and dazzling visual style ultimately make it one of the more rewarding anime efforts to reach these shores.

synced 2026-07-19
Rachel Saltz · The New York Times 70.00/100.00

There's a lovely, unhurried quality to Mr. Hosoda's storytelling, which nicely matches the clean, classically composed images of his outer story.

synced 2026-07-19
Nick Schager · Time Out 80.00/100.00

Summer Wars surprisingly celebrates togetherness and bravery as much as binary-mathematics expertise, all helped along by a kick-ass synthesis of traditional hand-drawn scenes and fluid, rainbow-explosive CG artistry.

synced 2026-07-19
Peter Hartlaub · San Francisco Chronicle 75.00/100.00

It's the kind of fun and quirky film that you don't see very often in art houses this time of year.

synced 2026-07-19

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