Ocean Waves (海がきこえる) is slice of life romance film based on the novel of the same name by Himuro Saeko. The film was produced by Studio Ghibli and directed by Mochizuki Tomomi.
Morisaki Taku's middle school class was deprived of their school trip for questionable reasons. His protest of the situation strengthened his friendship with Matsuno Yutaka, who also protested the cancellation. The school promised the students a trip to Hawaii during high school to make up for it. In high school a girl from Tokyo transfers to their school, her arrival threatens the bond the two friends have.
Muta Rikako moves to Kochi from Tokyo due to her parents separating. Her beauty, athletic prowess and scholarly aptitude makes her classmates both admire and despise her. Due to this and her personality traits she ends up alone. While many of the boys are attracted to her, Yutaka is the only one that ends up talking with her. He stealthily brags to Taku about spending time with her outside of school and eludes to some of her familial difficulties. During the trip to Hawaii Rikako approaches Taku for the first time, to borrow money from him. Months later, still unpaid, Taku ends up accompanying her to Tokyo as she tries to reconnect with her father. The results of the trip and Taku's general oblivious nature, cause severe strains on his relationship with Yutaka. Rumors of the trip at school also cause problems between Taku and Rikako. As Taku returns to Kochi for a school reunion, a number of years later, will the passage of time heal the damage done?
Ocean Waves is a relatively straight forward drama about human interactions and the inevitable change of childhood. The series does a good job of filling in background details through character dialogue, especially for things that become more relevant later on. Visually the movie is not as striking as other Ghibli films, very close to the character design and animation style of Only Yesterday. The film also reminded me a lot of the OAV series Here is Greenwood, in its tone and story progression. The fact that the same director directed that series makes this more than understandable. While not the best Ghibli film by a long shot it is worth the time for those who enjoy human drama's. I was expecting one of the main characters to meet an untimely death at some point, to push the film into serious drama mode. Instead it coasted along on its projected course, not wavering much from the pace that it established in the beginning of the film.
To be honest this one slipped well under my radar and I didn't even know it existed until I saw it at a local library and immediately checked it out. I went in with out any expectations and am not sure what I feel about it. The story is far from what people expect out of Ghibli films if they are only familiar with Miyazaki's grand fantasies. This is the only film that Mochizuki directed under Ghibli, being more well known for working on Ranma 1/2 and Kimagure Orange Road. It was originally made for TV and comes in at under an hour and a half. Even if you are just watching it to see every film that came out of Ghibli you won't have wasted too much time if you were disappointed with it.
The film was released in 2017 by GKids in North America.
Morisaki Taku's middle school class was deprived of their school trip for questionable reasons. His protest of the situation strengthened his friendship with Matsuno Yutaka, who also protested the cancellation. The school promised the students a trip to Hawaii during high school to make up for it. In high school a girl from Tokyo transfers to their school, her arrival threatens the bond the two friends have.
Muta Rikako moves to Kochi from Tokyo due to her parents separating. Her beauty, athletic prowess and scholarly aptitude makes her classmates both admire and despise her. Due to this and her personality traits she ends up alone. While many of the boys are attracted to her, Yutaka is the only one that ends up talking with her. He stealthily brags to Taku about spending time with her outside of school and eludes to some of her familial difficulties. During the trip to Hawaii Rikako approaches Taku for the first time, to borrow money from him. Months later, still unpaid, Taku ends up accompanying her to Tokyo as she tries to reconnect with her father. The results of the trip and Taku's general oblivious nature, cause severe strains on his relationship with Yutaka. Rumors of the trip at school also cause problems between Taku and Rikako. As Taku returns to Kochi for a school reunion, a number of years later, will the passage of time heal the damage done?
Ocean Waves is a relatively straight forward drama about human interactions and the inevitable change of childhood. The series does a good job of filling in background details through character dialogue, especially for things that become more relevant later on. Visually the movie is not as striking as other Ghibli films, very close to the character design and animation style of Only Yesterday. The film also reminded me a lot of the OAV series Here is Greenwood, in its tone and story progression. The fact that the same director directed that series makes this more than understandable. While not the best Ghibli film by a long shot it is worth the time for those who enjoy human drama's. I was expecting one of the main characters to meet an untimely death at some point, to push the film into serious drama mode. Instead it coasted along on its projected course, not wavering much from the pace that it established in the beginning of the film.
To be honest this one slipped well under my radar and I didn't even know it existed until I saw it at a local library and immediately checked it out. I went in with out any expectations and am not sure what I feel about it. The story is far from what people expect out of Ghibli films if they are only familiar with Miyazaki's grand fantasies. This is the only film that Mochizuki directed under Ghibli, being more well known for working on Ranma 1/2 and Kimagure Orange Road. It was originally made for TV and comes in at under an hour and a half. Even if you are just watching it to see every film that came out of Ghibli you won't have wasted too much time if you were disappointed with it.
The film was released in 2017 by GKids in North America.
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