Starting on December 10, the AMC Covina in Southern California will begin a 7 day run of Madhouse’s Summer Wars, a highly rated anime which was first released in Japan in August of last year. Just recently, the Academy changed their rules on Oscar submissions. A foreign film released in another country starting in 2009 may be eligible for nomination if the film runs in a Los Angeles theater for one week. So starting December 10th, lucky Southern Californians will get the chance to see this film on the big screen. The English-dub version of the anime will premier in New York on November 20.

Summer Wars is directed by Hosoda Mamoru, the man behind The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The film is visually appealing, to be sure. The storyline looks like it might be pretty exciting as well. All the reviews I have read seem to like the film a lot. Last month, Summer Wars won the audience award for Best Animated Feature at the Anaheim International Film Festival. Hopefully, Summer Wars will get a wider release. It should definitely if it wins an Oscar. The nominations will be announced on January 25. In September, the film was released on Blu-Ray in the UK and beat out the record-holder Evangelion for biggest selling anime in the first week. Here’s the trailer:

[Sources: Otaku Review, Anime News Network, Daily Otaku]

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