Ocean waves anime style1/22/2024 There’s a scene where out of pure hatred and contempt for Rikako after her being so ungrateful to him, he decides to slap her in the school hallway which is one of, if not, the best things about the entire movie. There’s a school trip to Hawaii that led to an important trip to Tokyo where Rikako tries to find her father and eventually, Taku decides to tag along, something that will be of bigger relevance later on in the plot. It’s a slow, drama that tells the tale of a love triangle between Rikako, Taku, and Yutaka. It feels like the movie is very restrained. The story of a tragic infatuation for love that ruined friendship, and the movie would’ve been in the halls of Ghibli classics if it was about that. But the childhood innocence and the multi-referential subtlety of a deeper, more mature narrative worked brilliantly ever since Castle in the Sky, but will they ever move on? Will they ever work on something that tackles the problems of life straight on? But the plot-heavy story and lack of character development and connection sadly hold the film back from being able to truly stand aside its studio brethren.The previous success of My Neighbor Totoro (both released in 1988) and Kiki’s Delivery Service in 1989 became the face of 80’s anime. Beautifully realistic and kinetic, even if simple by today’s computer-generated standards. The animation in Ocean Waves is definitely up to par. Perhaps that was the intention all along. But instead, it merely came across as just another moment in this slice of Taku’s life. That kind of realization would often be the emotional climax of a story like this. The last quarter of the film takes place in the present day as Taku arrives in Kochi and attends the reunion where he appears to come to a realization about his true feelings. Unlike the similar countryside or quiet neighborhood settings in the previously mentioned films. While it feels nostalgic enough reminding us of a time with no cell phones to easily connect one another, its setting in Kochi isn’t even fully utilized as its own character. But it lacks a bit of the emotional magic that is present in many Studio Ghibli productions.Ĭomparing it to similar Ghibli films like Only Yesterday or Whisper of the Heart, all released around the same time in the early 90s, Ocean Waves seems to lack the same amount of sincerity and emotion. Ocean Waves is undoubtedly a slice of life story. The lack of defined characters, even when we have only three of them at the focus, really prevents the story from taking off toward heights that the premise is capable of reaching. And finally, the falling out between Taku and Yutaka after that Tokyo trip due in part to Yutaka’s romantic feelings for Rikako and Rikako’s troubled family life and antisocial behavior at school.īeing a film that recounts several events by way of Taku’s narration, it becomes a plot driven story that comes at the expense of giving the reasonably stock characters more of a personality or depth. Then, Taku accompanying Rikako to Tokyo to see her father. Second, a class trip to Hawaii where Tokyo transfer student Rikako asks to borrow money. First, becoming friends with Yutaka when they jointly protest the school cancelling their junior class trip. During his flight, he reminisces about a few seminal moments in his high school life. In the film, we meet Taku on his way from Tokyo to Kochi for a class reunion. The 1993 Studio Ghibli television movie Ocean Waves ( I Can Hear the Sea/海がきこえる) is a beautifully animated, though perhaps undercooked slice of life story.
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