| Summer Wars | |
|---|---|
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| サマーウォーズ Samā wōzu | |
| Episode Info | |
| Air Date | June 27th, 2011 |
| Adapted from | |
| Episode | 24.0 |
| Episode (Original) | 12.0 |
| Arc | Hunting Break Arc |
| Opening Song | A Whole New World God Only Knows |
| Ending Song | God only knows |
| Episode Guide | |
| Previous "There's Always a Sun in Your Heart" |
Next "4 Girls and an Idol" |
"Summer Wars" (サマーウォーズ, Samā wōzu) is the 12th. episode of the second season and the 24th. episode in all.
Synopsis
The episode starts off with Keima playing a dating sim game, where he chooses the option of confessing his love for the heroine. Keima is seen sitting on a chair in his house at 2 in the morning, putting down the PFP and exclaiming that it was a good sequel. He decides to start playing another game. As Keima looks through his gaming backlog to see what to play next, he grabs “One Leaf” with the character Yotsuba Sugimoto on the cover, the game that Keima had picked up in a bargain bin a few episodes ago. He sighs, saying that he only picked the game up because it was cheap.
Keima decides to play the game, albeit with low expectations. He is “transported” into the game, where Keima finds the character on the cover looking for clovers. He spots a four-leaf clover and gives it to her, but she rejects it, saying that she already has a four-leaf clover and is looking for a clover with five leaves. She stands up and introduces herself as Yotsuba Sugimoto. Keima is immediately mesmerized by Yotsuba, staring at the PFP screen in awe. In the morning, Elsie is seen cooking breakfast while singing along to one of Kanon’s songs. Keima’s mother comes in and asks her if she could please check up on Keima, expressing worry over the fact that he never bathed the day before and probably stayed up all night playing games. Elsie knocks on Keima’s door to tell him that breakfast is ready. Since she never got a response, Elsie decided to come in to Keima’s room. When Elsie finds him, Keima was still sitting on the chair in his room. He smiles at her and says that he has found “his destiny”.
Keima happily runs to school, still playing One Leaf and asking himself why it took him so long to find that game. Completely immersed in the game, Keima imagines him meeting up with Yotsuba while on his way to school. At one point he is surprised by what Yotsuba had said in the game and stops in the middle of the street.
While in class, Keima is still immersed in the game. He began to realize that Yotsuba fits many, if not all, of his criteria of the perfect game heroine, and shouts it in the middle of class. Nikaido becomes angry at his sudden outburst and kicks him outside, telling Elsie to keep a tighter leash on him. Ayumi and Chihiro comment that Keima may be a dweeb, but that is who he is. He crawls through the hallway, saying that he can now play in peace. While immersed in the game, Keima arrived at the point where he could call Yutsuba “Yokkyun”.
While Elsie and Keima are walking back home, he comments that of all the game he has played, One Leaf is the closest to his ideal game. Elsie mentions that the game is taking Keima a long time to play, to which Keima replies that the better the game, the more time you want to spend with it. At Café Grandpa, Elsie is talking to Haqua about how Keima is not leaving his room because he is absorbed in his game. When Haqua wonders what game he is playing, Elsie draws a very accurate representation of the game’s heroine, Yotsuba. Haqua tells her that she sucks at drawing, as there is no way that someone would put a heroine like that in a game.
While Keima is in his room getting emotional over the game, Elsie and Haqua are peeking from the door. Haqua comments that she does not understand why someone would use such horrible art in a game, which infuriates Keima and makes them run away. As he leans back on his chair, a message from B’s Ware, the company that made One Leaf, arrives. The company is making a new dating sim and wants Keima’s input as the “God of Conquest” on the ideal dating sim.
Imagination at War
Keima is in his fantasy world, overjoyed at the fact that the people responsible for Yokkyun want his input on the ideal dating sim. Just when he says that he is satisfied as long as the game has cute girls, another Keima pops up to tell him that they should think this through. This Keima drops a pile of books, saying that it should have a profound story, followed by an elaborate background and setting. A third Keima jumps in and says that the game must have an entertaining simulation experience. While the second and third Keimas are fighting, a fourth one appears and mentions that the game should appeal across a variety of niches. A fifth Keima appears, playing his harmonica, and says that music is what the games need.
Back in the real world, Keima struggles to think of the ideal story, saying that the more he thinks about it, the farther away from the solution he becomes. The episode then goes to a political battle between the opposing party, The Anti-Cliché Union and the ruling party, The Everyone-Has-The-Same-Effect Coalition. When Elsie is going back to her room, she sees Keima, depressed, looking out the window.
Back in Keima’s imagination, it is Dating Sim Century 0079. The battle between the one-heroine forces and the multi-heroine forces was nearing its end. In a face-to-face clash between two opposing soldiers, one of their pendants with a picture of Yokkyun drops to the floor. The other reveals that he has the exact same pendant, revealing that even though their vision of an ideal game might be different, they are all dating sim brothers. All of the soldiers from both sides turn into identical Keimas, flying over to Yokkyun’s “dimension”. Yotsuba and Keima, drawn the same way as Keima, are seen holding hands under a tree.
One Leaf's ending screen
Sitting in his chair, Keima realized that he just beat One Leaf and decides to email B’s ware. In his message, Keima just asks that they make a good game. While on his way to school, Elsie runs to Keima to tell him that Haqua had informed her of several loose souls that are expected to arrive in the area. The episode then shows a short glimpse of the next few heroines, from Tsukiyo to Tenri and Diana.
Trivia
- All conquest targets in the anime made a cameo apperance.
Keima as "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time".
- The scene where Keima is making a big leap on the school roof is a reference to "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" (時をかける少女 Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo) and its movie cover.
- In relation to how the episode title is a reference to the movie "Summer Wars", both "Summer Wars" and "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" are movies produced by Madhouse and directed by Mamoru Hosoda with screenplay by Satoko Okudera.
- When Keima is protesting against cliché games, one of the followers raises up a sign reading "No more osananajimi!" which translates to "No more childhood friends!" The picture with an X over it on the sign is of Akari and Hiroyuki, the most famous example of childhood friends in a very famous dating sim, To Heart.
- The song Kanon sings is Uraha Love.
- The scene where all the the Chibi Keimas are brainstorming in the mountains, one of them appears dressed as Snufkin from The Moomins.
- The song Keima and Yokkyun sang is Happy End.
- B's Ware is a reference to Key in logo style and C's Ware.
- In the manga version, B's Ware was replaced by Mitsuragi-sama.
- In the manga version, the event of this was the end of summer vacation.
- In a political debate at the United States Capitol, "YES WE CAN" is written on the lectern.
- The entirety of the original Gundam series gets played out in Keima's intergalactic war between the single- and multi-heroine armies, right down to Char and Amuro's climatic sword fight.
- Although adapted from the 43rd chapter of the manga series, which is part of Tsukiyo's arc, only the introduction of the character "Yokkyun" was present in the anime, with no trace of Tsukiyo herself. This is due to the fact that "Yokkyun's" introduction was in the chapter, and only that portion of the chapter was adapted.
