FUNimation Entertainment announced that it has acquired the home entertainment, theatrical, broadcast and merchandise rights to the animated sci-fi action film SUMMER WARS from NTV.
Released in August 2009 in Japan by Warner Brothers, SUMMER WARS is produced by Madhouse and directed by Mamoru Hosoda. SUMMER WARS is the second full-length film that Hosoda has made as a freelance director. The first, THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, an animated movie in which the teenage heroine discovers that she can travel to the past, received rave reviews from critics and audiences worldwide.
SUMMER WARS reunites many who worked on that film, including scriptwriter Satoko Okudera and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.
The SUMMER WARS story begins with Kenji, a timid math prodigy who seems better suited for virtual worlds than his more intimidating high school. When class cutie Natsuki asks Kenji to accompany her on a family trip to celebrate her great-grandmother’s 90th birthday, he instantly agrees, not realizing she intends to present him to her family as her fiance - a ruse that forces Kenji, who hides behind an avatar online, to role-play in the real world as well.
The plot thickens after Kenji solves a math riddle that inadvertently brings a worldwide social networking site to its knees and throws the real world into confusion. Suddenly, this large family in rural Japan must work together to stave off a world crisis.
FUNimation Entertainment will release the film theatrically in 2010 and on DVD and Blu-ray in 2011.
