Umi ga Kikoeru

This movie is a piece of crap. This is coming from a fan of Studio Ghibli movies and the slice of life/drama genre.

It's about this girl who nobody likes, and for good reason. She moves to Kochi, in the country and makes fun of the peoples' accent there, so already she's kind of a racist to begin with. Then she mooches this guy's money just to take a trip back to Tokyo where she's from. Snobby bitch. So the guy that loaned her the money does her a favor and escorts her there and she barges into his hotel room, gets drunk as fuck and passes out in his bed without putting out AT ALL.

Then when they get back to Kochi, she tells everybody she stayed in his bedroom and gives him a bad reputation and he calls her on her shit and the bitch has the audacity to slap him in his goddamn face! Then he goes BIIIITCH! and slaps her back. Later on the girls in the class gang up on her because they see what a cunt she's being to everyone and dude overhears it and she gets mad at him for the and slaps him in the face AGAIN!

So the movie turns out to be about the guy that gets abused throughout the movie realizing he likes her in the end, but with no explanation why anybody would like her stupid ass. Actually she's pretty smart because her antisocial behavior gets her good grades.

It's weird that everybody talks about how good looking she is, but all the characters in Ghibli movies seem to have the same face anyway, so I didn't see what the big deal was. There was a chick playing tennis that had some nice titties that would have made a much better main character.

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This is one of the most underrated ghibli movies. It's certainly quite different from the other ghibli movies. It doesn't contain any fantasy and Hayao Miyazaki isn't involved in the production anyhow. It's just a slice of life/drama/romance story, a hell of a good one too. Ocean Waves may be one of the most natural animes I've seen. It doesn't throw in a load of super tragic drama or anything of that kind. It only tells the story of a group of teenagers as they walk the path to adulthood.

The story is takes place in Kochi, Japan, a small town by the sea. Morisaku Taku and Matsuno Yutaka are two ordinary high schoolers and best friends. In the middle of the semester a city girl named Muto Rikako transfers to Matsuno's class. As the class representative he has to show her around school and that's how they get know each other, soon enough Morisaku is introduced to her. Muto has quite a hard time getting into the class. She's talented at sports and studies and quickly becomes popular, but that changes as many of the girls get envious of her and she becomes known for being a snob.

The art and animations are really good. No different from any other works from studio ghibli. If your fond of the typical 90s animations you will definitely like the art in this one. The characters looks typically ghibli, but the design is quite different. It doesn't "re-use" the same main characters as many ghibli movies seem to do. Not just only the way they look. The personalities are really different too. Morisaku is just the ordinary kind and honest guy, the one that is always there to help. Matsuno is the reliable best friend that's very respected by Morisaku. Muto is kind of spoiled and self-centered. She acts very tough though she's actually pretty sensitive. I think the characters develop great and I could really tell how they've matured through time.

The music was really good, very calm and fitting. It set the right mood. Voice acting is also very well done. The only thing I can complain about is the sound quality at times but it could have been fansub group's doing.

I enjoyed this movie a lot. It's just a charming and relaxing story that will make you smile. It's not super romantic just very sweet at times. It's one of those stories that make you wish for the characters happiness. Anyone who loves a down to earth, short love story will enjoy this movie and if you enjoyed Whisper of the heart you may like this one.

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Have you ever experienced that feeling where the manager for your favorite sports team decides to rest the best player for an important match? The team is performing well enough to stand on their own and keep the game leveled, but nobody is there to advance the score or awe the audience with their brilliance. The players are competent enough, performing what they are supposed to perform and following the tactics to a tee, but it all feels so pointless since their work does not translate into a total victory.

This is what this movie feels like. The two biggest players in Studio Ghibli history: Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, are not to be found here at all, and that of course decreased immensely from the quality of this film. So, what is this film even about? It is essentially a mundane premise about love and romance between two students. Knowing Isao Takahata, he managed to turn a mundane concept similar to this one into one of the greatest Anime movies ever made - Only Yesterday. Here, Takahata is nowhere to be found so that he can show us his magical directing, which is why a trivial concept such as high school love turned out to be such a disappointing product at the end of the day. Without Takahata’s directing to save the day, there isn’t much merit to this film at all.

Similarly, the concept of this film needed Miyazaki. His brain is imaginative, he creates some of the most imaginative, fantastical and surreal works ever put to the animation medium, and he would have created a movie that would be remembered for years to come and given endless amounts of praise if he were to take full control of the direction and script of this movie. Alas, he weren’t to be found here, which is why this movie is such a trivial work in the first place.

You might be wondering why I keep regurgitating the same points about Miyazaki and Takahata over and over again, and never go into plot specifics regarding this film. Well, there really isn’t anything to talk about in this film. The concept is a mundane high school romance story and the execution, while being “realistic”, falls flat in direction. No matter how hard I try, I can’t come up with anything out of thin air to say about this film or describe it. It is mundane, it is trivial, and it is boring. It neither does anything new nor does it do said thing excellently, even when it isn’t offensively bad.

To it’s credit, the movie is not of excruciating length, as it clocks in at about an hour and ten minutes, which is not much considering some lengthy titles Ghibli has pumped out over the years. The animation and the audiovisuals are good and are the typical Ghibli animations you would find anywhere in their discography. The soundtrack is good as well, especially the background Hawaiian music they chose for the lobby and money exchange scenes. Everything regarding the technicalities aspect is good and isn't offensive or anything.

Overall, I can’t say that this movie was bad. The characters were not archetypes, as they went through change and character development, even if those developments weren’t the greatest. The plot is not offensively bad or poorly written, and the audiovisuals, while not completely standing out from anything else, were good enough for the typical Ghibli film. However, even when it had factors working for it, those factors were not enough to make it excel in what it did. The movie is average and trivial, and thus should not be given praise or a positive score.

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Ocean Waves is not trying to be anything more than it is, and what it is, is absolutely fine. The story moves very smoothly and the perspective of our young protagonist Taku is set lucid immediately, showing classic hero potential in challenging his school on a decision he finds unfair. He is rational, hard working and emotionally moral. He takes a sight of Rikako, a fiery, athletic beauty and childishly does not realise that he is mad about her, fine, however:-

As a strong upholder of ROMANCE, Ocean Waves is not critical enough in delivering the heart wrenching moments which it clearly builds up for, as the characters are endearing and well developed in emotional integrity. For me, it borders irritatingly on adolescent, as there are far too many missed opportunities for real love to blossom on screen. It would be argued that this is not what the film or original story ever set about doing, however, one cannot help but feel bitter not seeing the climax of humanity's better emotions, in neither words or embrace.

A friend of mine said that Studio Ghibli is practically a Japanese Disney, and with this in some area's I would wholly agree, though I have found at times all of their films to be incredibly mature and perhaps beyond the reach of younger audiences. Ocean Waves is no exception to this, as the ever impending love anti-climax is noticeable only when it's too late to be called subtle.

It is high school, she is a vulnerable beauty, for God's sake man, kiss her, just do it, do you not realise that she wants you to?

It makes me wonder, is it worth dedicating your own emotions to more than capable story lines if there are not fire works at the end, merely a screeching bottle rocket, slowly fading into a dismal silent fart.

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