Is that Mamoru Hosoda or Takashi Murakami animating "Summer Wars"?

by Chris MaGee

Back in April the trailer for Mamoru Hosoda's "Summer Wars" popped up online and renewed my faith in anime. Not that my faith in anime was ever shaken that badly, but from what we saw in the trailer Hosoda's handling of the the story of a family who one summer embark on an adventure at the request of a 90-year-old woman could easily go up against the most inspired works of Studio 4°C, and that's saying a lot if you've seen films like "Mind Game" and the two "Genius Party" films.

Now on the eve of "Summer Wars" being released in Japanese theatres the first 5-miutes of the film is being streamed online. It still looks phenomenal, but the influence of artist Takashi Murakami that I saw in the trailer is even more apparent in the opening sequence... really apparent. All I can say is I hope they got his input or approval before lavishing their time on this sequence because it almost directly lifts some of Murakami's own animated work.

Well, it's still a truly impressive looking film, so here's hoping that shortly after "Summer Wars" premieres in Japan on August 1st that we get some word of North American distribution.

Thanks to Anime News Network for pointing the way to this.