Ocean Waves (1993)

Studio Ghibli's most bizarre film. Why? Because it is just normal people doing normal things in our real world. Does this mean that fans of their regular films should avoid it? read on to find out or choose for yourself!

'So that's it. Now I realise the real reason why Matsuno called me up. When I realised he fancied her I was unreasonably upset. Don't go for her. Women are only into how guys look anyhow. Women never appreciate you for your personality.'




Out of all the Studio Ghibli films, this is the most normal. There are no special powers, no ghosts, no dragons, no sword fighting and isn't set in an alternate dimension. For this reason, many Studio Ghibli fans don't like it. But why do they judge this film like that? By doing that, it is effectively saying that Lionsgate can only create films like Saw or Disney can only make cartoons.

The story is simple, Taku is a university student studying in Tokyo. On the plane home to Kochi he remembers his days at school. He remembers the day he first saw the new girl with his friend Yutaka. A quick and clever switch lets us know we are watching the first time the two boys meet up, before it switched back again to the normal storyline. All is going well and Yutaka is telling Taku that he fancies the new girl, called Rikako. The story then follows the memories of Rikako, Yutaka and Taku in a wonderful story where they travel to Tokyo, get into numerous fights and where Taku learns a valuable lesson in love and friendship.

The script in this film reflects the mind of your average teenage boy and girl, or so I feel as a boy who has just hit his early 20's. It is well written and feels genuine. I guess this is helped by the fact that for this film Studio Ghibli had a large team of earl 20-somethings to help make it, and they gave their own thoughts and opinions on the matter.

The animation throughout this film was really good. The attention to little details throughout this film really makes it so beautiful and enjoying to watch. There are many scenes when nearly every person is moving, which makes a change to regular anime films where background characters do not move at all. The scenery used throughout this film is stunning as well, from a beautiful ocean/dusk view, to the view of clouds out of a airplane window.

These gif shows just how much detail is put into the animation of this film. The hair and clothes are blowing in the wind, the shadows move with the clothes and the sea sparkles and reflects the sky. There are even tiny ripples discreetly hidden just behind the pier. This film looks amazing. 

The acting in this film is very subtle. For those people that like loud, noisy actors that use shouting to show they are angry, then you won't like this film. There is very little of that. Most emotions are shown through the animation of the characters, with the occasional raised voice or harsh tone. This keeps the voice acting believable and allows the director to play around with actions more.

The music follows the acting style of this film by being calm and subtle with moments of just the background noises. This only adds further to the mood of the scenes.

There are, of course, problems with this film. It can be easy to get the timeline mixed up at the start. Even though it has an animation to show the difference it doesn't actually state it. This did cause a little confusion the first time I watched it, but after viewing the film for a second time, I knew exactly what it meant. The other problem other people had with the film was that it includes Japanese holidays which some people found confusing, although I found it doesn't take much to figure it all out.

This film doesn't try to do too much, it is simply focused on the main characters and their story. There are no big dramatic sequences. Any drama or problems that occur during the course of this film are resolved in a realistic way. Nothing like what Hollywood shows. The story is simply about three people maturing from teenage students to adults, with a very nice love triangle and a lesson on friendship. For this reason, many die hard Studio Ghibli fans don't like it. Yes it stands out compared at all the others, what with their bizarre stories and other planet settings, but that doesn't affect my ultimate judgement on the film.

Rating: 9.3/10