Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara

Jul 1, 2019

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

war0blade (All reviews)

30 people found this review helpful

I wasn't really expecting much before watching this movie, mainly because I saw the trailer and I thought it was going to be some sappy love story which I've honestly seen my fair share but I'm really glad I actually watched it.

Story - 9
SPOILER ALERT
The story focuses on Mukaimizu Hinako and how she learns to "find her wave". It's about how people need to keep moving forward and learn to stand on their own even through the hardships. There's a lot of symbolism in the movie between riding a wave and the life of a person. The story also touches on motivation, as Hinako struggles with finding the strength to move on after the death of her boyfriend.

Art - 8
People will probably recognize the art style from the recent devilman series as its made by the same studio. The style, as with all their works, is simple but unique. But I particularly like this style because it gives something that can't be imitated by 3D CGI or live acting. It's a bit hard to explain but the style exaggerates certain things like when eating or doing actions, certain body parts may be way out of proportion than they should, and this exaggeration is something which you can only produce because your medium is 2D. Being a smaller studio, they obviously can't produce gorgeous backdrops or super intense action scenes but they've certainly proved that there's more to animation than just that, and you can convey so much even with simple animation.

Sound - 9
If you haven't heard of Oshima Michiru before it's about time you have. This woman is a living legend of a composer. The main reason I watched this movie actually was because I saw her name in the trailer. She produces a lot of background music for japanese anime or dramas. Usually they're orchestral, most of the time they have this nostalgic kind of vibe like the ET theme. In this movie however, most of the music is lighthearted and uplifting and it really helps in setting the mood and conveying the expressions of the characters. It's nothing extravagant but still really good.

Character - 7
There aren't many characters as this is a movie, so there isn't much time for introduction or development. But there are 4 main characters, each with different hair colors so the audience can tell them apart easily haha. No one really stands out as a really cool/unique character but the main focus of the movie is the story so as far as interaction between characters go, the dialogue was really good and nothing really felt that awkward or out of place to hear.

Enjoyment - 8
Really enjoyable. Probably something I would have enjoyed watching with my girlfriend if I had one :( This movie is about love, but it's also about coping loss and motivation so I think it appeals to a lot of whoever's watching this.

Overall - 8
The story is surprisingly good. Love stories usually struggle in any genre because it's so hard to relate to something I believe the majority of the population struggles in (especially anime otaku haha) but what makes this good is it also tackles other things besides love and it manages to do all this and make the story simple and easy to understand for the audience to follow. I like simple, simple is best. It's fun, refreshing and enjoyable to watch.

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Jan 4, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

rtil (All reviews)

26 people found this review helpful

I picked up this film for no other reason than the fact that it was directed than Masaaki Yuasa. This is a very different type of story than he would typically adapt. It's a story about love, coming of age and learning to move on from loss. Colorful, vibrant and fairly easygoing, it does away with most of Yuasa's hallmarks of frantic and wild feverdreams.

Nothing wrong with that, however I don't think the movie is very successful at giving its lead much of anything to do besides being an absolutely hopeless blubbering mess who comes off as a dysfunctional klutz who needs her hand held by her knight in shining armor.

The film starts off showing Hinako - the female lead - as an elusive, glowing trophy. Two friends, Minato and Wasabi, admire her surfing in the distance. They don't know her name, and accept that her existence in their lives could be as fleeting. Yet fate has her cross paths with both of them, and in fact Minato ends up saving her from a fire, and the two of them start dating.

It's then that you learn that Hinako is basically only good at surfing and doesn't have her life together in any way. She can't take care of herself, her house is a mess, she can't cook, she doesn't have a job - in fact, it's never quite made clear what exactly she's doing with her life. Minato, on the other hand, does everything for her and is basically the perfect cookie-cutter boyfriend. She becomes quite reliant on him. The only thing he can't do is surf, which Hinako teaches him.

This is a spoiler, but you can see it coming a mile away - Minato dies in a tragic surfing accident trying to save someone's life. Hinako then spends the rest of the film acting like a lunatic when she learns she can sing a song to make Minato appear in water whenever she needs him - which is basically all the time. The problem is, no one else can see him except her. So naturally, everyone around her finds her behavior strange. I can't tell if these portions of the film are supposed to be funny, or sad, or perhaps even both. It's a bizarre mix of emotions and it lacks any kind of magic or chemistry. The two only love eachother because of a dependency issue, and Minato is such a flat and uninteresting character that it's hard to miss him anywhere near as much as Hinako does.

The supporting cast is .. there. The only voice of reason is the stone cold Youko, Minato's sister. Minato's friend Wasabi doesn't do much of note besides live in the shadow of his buddy. And there's really not much more to it.

As the title suggests, the film is supposed to be about Hinako learning how to "ride the wave" of her life without Minato. But constantly throughout the film she howls and begs for Minato's help via their goofy water singing manifestation ritual. It's only at the very tail end of the story that Hinako learns to move on, and only because of Minato's help. She never once accomplishes anything on her own accord.

It's an unsatisfying story because of this abrupt end to Hinako's arc. The ending is bittersweet, as one might imagine, but it lacks any emotional punch. Hinako is hard to care about because she doesn't grow or change much, and when she does it feels unearned. Minato is hard to care about because he's basically an ideal and not much of a character. I, personally, only really enjoyed Youko's brief time on screen, a minor character by all means.

Should you watch "Ride Your Wave"? I'm not sure who I would answer "yes" to. If you like the works of Masaaki Yuasa, you probably are looking in the wrong place. If you like romantic stories, the relationships aren't fleshed out enough here to give a satisfying romance. Everything that "Ride Your Wave" represents falls flat. Perhaps it could offer some catharsis for those going through the loss of a loved one, but I think there are many other stories out there that do it better. If you are looking for anime in that vein, I might recommend something like "The Wind Rises", "Shinsekai Yori" or "Katanagatari" instead.

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Jul 18, 2019

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

roankun (All reviews)

22 people found this review helpful

The showing date for Tenki no Ko was announced the day right after I booked my flight to Japan, and that showing happened to be just a day after my flight back. In pure frustration, I decided I would watch at least one anime movie while I was there, and that happened to be this: Kimi to Nami.

After seeing only the trailer, I didn't really have much expectation for this other than a sappy, supernatural love story, but it was surprisingly good. The story was simple, the characters were easily relatable, and the music was fantastic. I still find myself humming BRAND NEW STORY every read more

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Jan 6, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

thefoolsorchids (All reviews)

9 people found this review helpful

I normally don't write reviews and forgive me if my thought process is all over the place. This review will contain spoilers (kind of) as well as my own personal experience, so please bear with me. This is my first review.

When I first saw the trailer for this film, I thought it would be another romance anime, but it was more than that to me. I'll start with the six points and why I scored them as such. I hope you enjoy this review. And even if our opinions differ, I'm glad I was still able to share my experience with you all.

Story (7): The story was nothing overly spectacular, but was very relatable in terms of someone starting their own path in life and working their way towards their future with each bump in the road along the way. Even so, I enjoyed the journey and really felt it on a personal level. Which I will discuss at the end of this review.

Art (9): The art style and animation in this film was absolutely gorgeous. The colors were bright and used effectively and I really enjoyed the pleasant look of the whole film. The movement of the waves were honestly what stood out to me most.

Sound (8): The soundtrack in this movie was very well done. The composition was put together in a way that I thought worked well. I'm no expert on sound design or music scores, but I enjoyed how everything flowed with the movie like a wave. It matched the tone and I had no problems with it.

Character (7): I enjoyed the characters. Nothing to write home about, but I was invested in them nonetheless. Nothing really more to say here. No complaints.

Enjoyment (10): As I stated in the beginning of this review albeit being short and to the point, I felt this movie on a personal level. I enjoyed watching it and I hope to see more from this studio.

I wrote this review because in April of 2019, my father who was eldery passed away and left this earth. He had been struggling for a long time but chose not to tell me because he knew I would worry. Even though he passed peacefully, it's been tough grieving someone who had been there my whole life.

I lost my job, my sense of purpose, my interests in a lot of things and have felt conflicted on where to go and what to do. I was sobbing by the end of this movie because even when people leave us they're always there in spirit. I felt my own father was trying to reach out to me while I watched this film trying to tell me that he wanted me to be happy and to get back on my feet.

Thank you for reading this if you did and I do recommend you watch this film.

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Jan 13, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

yxckson (All reviews)

4 people found this review helpful

"You can make something groundbreaking by doing nothing groundbreaking and everything else really damn good." - yxckson

Just a quick heads up for anyone who may want to watch this movie: DON'T WATCH THE TRAILER. The trailer for some damn reason spoils the entire movie and makes it not near as intriguing to watch. I'm glad I didn't watch the trailer until after the movie.

I am just blown away about how surprisingly spectacular this movie was. Looking at the score and the reviews, I thought this would either be a disappointing, boring ass movie like Shikioriori or a real solid, heartwarming movie like Summer Wars; and read more

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Jan 8, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

Avocadoe (All reviews)

4 people found this review helpful

needed more yonkage. in terms of art it was good. the song playing in throughout? good song. now in terms of the yonkage mentioned earlier, i felt as if there wasn't enough, ya know? girl needed more sad cause, and i only felt the yonk towards the end (the New Years Scene). Overall pretty forgetful except for the song they drilled into your head.
needed more yonkage. in terms of art it was good. the song playing in throughout? good song. now in terms of the yonkage mentioned earlier, i felt as if there wasn't enough, ya know? girl needed more sad cause, and i read more

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Jan 6, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Hatul (All reviews)

3 people found this review helpful

Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara or Ride Your Wave is Masaaki Yuasa's latest film and coming from a long time fan of his, I'd say this is probably his weakest one so far. But even his weakest work makes for a great watch that's enjoyable and has at least some interesting things about it.

Before watching this film it's best that you know what you're in for so that you'd be in the right mindset. This is a relatable and sweet (if cheesy and a very fairy tail-esque) portrayal of young love which then turns in to a story of overcoming loss, letting go of the past and finding new passions in life. The surfing and catching waves motif in the film is akin to catching new opportunities in life instead of hiding underwater and letting opportunities pass over you.

Not a bad concept and this is tied together nicely with every aspect of the film. I especially like the hints we get about the main character early in the film about her clinging to her childhood by having her move in to her childhood town, using her childhood surfboard, eating her childhood food, listening to a song from her childhood... etc' etc'
it's a little heavy handed, but it makes for good foreshadowing to what she's about to cling to later in the film.
The male lead observed baby sea turtles struggling to enter the sea which hints at what he's going to cling to as well.
The chemistry between the two leads is pretty solid, if a bit cheesy and the film is able to set up a fairly cute love story in its first act, using montages, seeing them have fun together and hearing them have nice casual conversations too.

The supporting characters don't have too much of a character arc of their own, but they're also given enough personality, screen time, serve enough of a purpose in the story to justify their existence and they do just that - support.
You have a another firefighter who's not very good at his job, but is trying his best to improve and is also used as a red herring to make the audience think he's gonna be another love interest for the main character. There's also the real love interest's little sister who's the voice of reason and does play more of a role later in the film.

The thing you really need to know going in to this film is that it relies heavily on happenstance and fairy tail logic:
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
The inciting incident of the film is that the main character is saved by a fireman from a fire who (later turns out) just so happens to be the same guy she saved from drowning when they were kids.. Who later becomes her boyfriend, who later drowns in the sea, dies and becomes a firefighting ghost with water powers who saves the day in the climax (yeah it can't be her imagination at that point).. It's also worth mentioning that the climax is set up pretty conveniently too, with one of the supporting characters who just so happened to overhear the same punks who set off fireworks illegally and caused the fire in the beginning of the film, planning their next fireworks playtime in an abandoned building where there happens to be a dried up tree that catches fire easily..
[End of SPOILERS]

Maybe making this feel like a fairy tail was intentional, I have no way to know that. I'm just pointing this out because this does hamper some of the character's control over the story in retrospect. It feels like the scenarios are driving the characters half the time and not the other way around. This isn't too bad though since in a lot of the film the characters do act in a way that's significant and that's tied to their personalities, it's just that the transition between acts or the actual plot points that feel kinda forced and establishing that ghosts exist in the middle of the film isn't the best decision.

Visually, the film is quite beautiful in terms of imagery and background art that seems to have depth of field and has very fluid character motions, impressive character acting, as well an emphasis on food and coffee animation that is also very elaborate. Coming from Yuasa Masaaki this is probably his most mainstream looking film, in the sense that the characters look a lot more "animeish" and further away from Masaaki's usual abstract style. Which is fitting since the film in general is more of a crowd-pleaser (not that there's anything wrong with that) and further away from his more abstract and weirder works.

Soundwise it has breezy pop music, great sound design and excellent voice acting all around, especially from the main character who is the only one to sound like an actual anime character, while the rest sound like they have more realistic speech patterns (not the first time this has been done).

Overall, I'd say it's Yuasa's weakest work, but still a terrific film that's emotionally powerful, fun, has nice atmosphere and hits all the right notes.
Yeah, it's pretty sappy, but I guess I'm a sap..

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Jan 14, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

VittorioL (All reviews)

2 people found this review helpful

I watched Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara expecting a lot, because its director is Masaaki Yuasa, the same person who directed incredible shows like Devilman Crybaby or The Tatami Galaxy, and what I got was nothing but an amazing emotional movie that never stops impressing. It is a rollercoaster of emotions that in the end almost left me with tears in my eyes. It is a beatiful, wholesome movie about how people can influence other people´s lives even if they do not realize that. It never gets melodramatic, it never gets boring. It is just what it is, and is not trying to be read more

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Jan 6, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

Irishchatter (All reviews)

2 people found this review helpful

When I first watched the film, I thought the pacing was way too quick for me to actually understand what was going on. Although I will say that the fire fighter scenes were pretty intense regardless if they were only training or had to attend buildings that were on fire due to fireworks.

I understood this films backdrop involving the feeling of losing someone through drowning and honestly the ending was a near hard hitter for me. However I would have liked if the couples experience together was more in depth because as I said yet again, it was rather rushed. It didn't give much in read more

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