Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara

Entranced by surfing and the sea, Hinako Mukaimizu is a spirited girl who attends college in a coastal city with no consideration for her future career. Her life takes an unexpected turn when a fireworks mishap sets the apartment building she lives in ablaze, where she is saved by a talented firefighter named Minato Hinageshi. Upon meeting, the two quickly become acquainted with one another—Hinako is instantly enamored by Minato's reliable personality and passion for saving others, while Minato is intrigued by surfing and is eager to learn how. As Hinako begins to teach Minato about surfing, the pair eventually fall in love and begin a gentle and devoted relationship.

However, while surfing may seem fun and carefree, it can still be a dangerous and unpredictable activity. This is what Hinako learns when a surfing incident completely changes her life, leaving her forced to contemplate her undecided future. In search of her own calling, Hinako begins her journey of self-discovery, keeping Minato by her side as she gradually attempts to find her purpose and ride her own wave.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hinageshi, Minato Main

Katayose, Ryouta Japanese

Mukaimizu, Hinako Main

Kawaei, Rina Japanese

Kawamura, Wasabi Supporting

Itou, Kentarou Japanese

Hinageshi, Youko Supporting

Matsumoto, Honoka Japanese

Sakita, Kouhei Assistant Producer

Sugawara, Hana Assistant Producer

Yuasa, Masaaki Director, Executive Producer

Yamashiro, Fuuga Episode Director

Reviews

May 16, 2025

Siluetta

Recommended

Ride Your Wave is the type of anime that on the surface looks like a light-hearted holiday love story - surfing, cute dates, summer vibe - but then BAM 💥 an emotional wave smashes you against the rocks and leaves you with red eyes and a mug of tea in your hand.

The colours are warm, summery, pastel - perfect for the holiday atmosphere and emotional tone of the film. The surfing scenes are really lovely and fluid, and the visual metaphors with water - very subtle but moving.
Especially those moments when the “wave” of memories comes “back”... uff.

The whole soundtrack is well chosen - calm, ... emotional, not overdone. Perfect for the theme of the film.

It's not the most complex story, but it has its heart on its hands. If you're in the mood for something uplifting, with a summer vibe and a touch of melancholy, jump on the wave with Ride Your Wave.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 23, 2022

thedoddone

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

Great first half, lack luster second half. My main issues with the movie are the rushed pacing and constant repeating of the films main message, moving on from sadness/grief and relying on yourself in life. The movie isn't a complete dud as it has great visuals and cute moments between the main characters but I can't say that's its more than average. Worth a watch but not highly recommended! I think Josee, the Tiger and the Fish has very similar vibes to this movie but executes the romance aspect better so give that a try if you like this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 4, 2021

jasonpresley14

Not Recommended

Let me start by saying I learned how to write a review on MAL just to write this review. This movie really had some promise, the premise is alright and what it more or less wanted to do could be a good story, but it fails on so many crucial parts. To be fair I'll start with what I liked.

First I actually quite liked the music, and by that I mean musically they were not bad songs. I also did enjoy the two main characters singing together as it added some nice wholesomeness to the montage. Secondly I did like the ... art, backgrounds and still objects were very beautiful and things were vibrant when it needed to be and muted where they weren't. I also enjoyed the couple of action/fire sequences as they were fairly well done and quite engaging. And finally the core story is good, dealing with a person having to handle the loss of a loved one and the toll it can take on them.

Those were the few pros that bumped it up to a 3, but here are the things that it really does poorly. First minor problem is the animation and character design, Im all for unique art styles and character design but these designs often make the characters look down right stupid and often took away from deep moments in the movie as they made silly and exaggerated looking faces, also their animations were often distracting and really took away from the tone being set at times.

Second is the characters, these might be minor spoilers but I will try to remain vague. Our two main characters are pretty underwhelming but not inherently bad. Hinako can be a little stupid at times but overall she was probably the best, Minato was simply bland and so overly romantic at times I almost felt like Hinako was being set up or lured into a trap, see the sudden heart card and lock in the tower. Wasabi was a very nothing character as well, providing very little to the plot except for some very forced feeling conflict with him trying to date his dead friends GF. Finally Youko was by far the worst character, she was a rotten human being and the only explanation for this was she had a sharp tongue as she spews insults and practically mock a girl whose BF just died. Her "redemption arc" also consisted of nothing more than "she has a crush now so she cant be bad." Id also like to bring up the fact that Youko and Wasabi did practically nothing to help Hinako who was, as far as they knew, having a mental breakdown.

Next is pacing. Im a fairly decent reader of subtitles and yet the characters talked so fast throughout the entire film, I found my self constantly pausing and rewinding to read what was said. And yet despite this it seemed like very little was actually being said, towards the end I could gloss over about 60% of the dialog and still understand what was happening. It seemed like the film was constantly racing to get to its two big climaxes, the ending and the other one.

Sound design was also a big problem, while the music used was quite good musically, the way the sound designers used it a lot of the time ruined it. I often found myself getting interested in some very dramatic and sad scenes only to quickly get snapped out of it by the borderline happy music being played. They also did a couple cuts from loud music to sudden silenced, this worked once to create tension but the others times just made me thing my audio cut out.

Finally the story, as I said before the premise isn't bad, however the lightning fast pacing and pointless and/or unlikeable characters caused me to not care about the issues occurring through almost the whole film. The set up to Minato and Hinako's relationship was done in about 5 minutes of montage and then the audience is supposed to feel a connection. For me this connection was never made and any investment I might have had in these characters was quickly swept away by their unlikeable personalities and terrible character design.

Overall I was incredibly disappointed, the art and synopsis looked very interesting and what clips I had seen before hand tuned out to be by far the best the movie had to offer. Its obvious that the background artists and the musicians were not included in some meetings as they are the only reason this film gets a 3 over a 1.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Leosmileyface - Dec 18, 2019	114 replies	by Mirorin »» Apr 13, 9:28 PM
	Honestly it was beautiful Animezyon12 - Sep 14, 2021	14 replies	by Blank-c »» Sep 25, 2022 11:34 PM
	Does this have any love triangle aur drama? adityasingh2705 - Jul 31, 2022	6 replies	by Worm_Death »» Aug 2, 2022 4:24 AM
	Trending page? slutforhange - Aug 26, 2021	14 replies	by Sailor-Sleep »» Aug 31, 2021 2:55 PM
	New Yuasa Film germane - Mar 25, 2019	13 replies	by thelastknight101 »» Jan 2, 2020 5:57 PM