Umi ga Kikoeru (The Ocean Waves)

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Alternative Titles

English: The Ocean Waves

Synonyms: I Can Hear the Sea

Japanese: 海がきこえる

Information

Type: Special

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: May 5, 1993

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: GKIDS

Studios: J.C.Staff, Studio Ghibli

Source: Novel

Genres: Drama, Romance, School, Slice of Life

Duration: 1 hr. 12 min.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 6.59¹ (scored by 46,178 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #5446²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1684

Members: 84,974

Favorites: 311

6.59

Ranked #5446Popularity #1684Members 84,974

SpecialJ.C.Staff, Studio Ghibli

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Episodes: /1

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Trailer English sub version

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Synopsis

In the city of Kouchi, high school student Taku Morisaki is going about his work when his friend Yutaka Matsuno calls and asks him to get to their school as soon as possible. Taku arrives, and Matsuno introduces him to Rikako Muto, a beautiful girl from Tokyo who recently transferred to their school. Although Rikako is academically and athletically gifted, her generally unpleasant attitude leaves her with virtually no friends outside of Matsuno and another girl from her class.

After a chance encounter during their class trip, Taku suddenly finds himself more involved in Rikako's personal life, much to Matsuno's dismay. Struggling to balance his friendship with Matsuno and his own budding infatuation for Rikako, Taku must come to terms with his feelings and understand how a girl with a troubled past is having such a massive effect on his life.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

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More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Morisaki, Taku

Main

Tobita, Nobuo
Japanese

Muto, Rikako

Main

Sakamoto, Youko
Japanese

Matsuno, Yutaka

Main

Seki, Toshihiko
Japanese

Shimizu, Akiko

Supporting

Amano, Yuri
Japanese

Kohama, Yumi

Supporting

Araki, Kae
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Mochizuki, Tomomi

Director, Theme Song Lyrics, Theme Song Composition

Urakami, Yasuo

Sound Director

Niwa, Keiko

Script

Sakamoto, Youko

Theme Song Performance

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Opening Theme

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Ending Theme

"Umi ni Naretara (海になれたら; If I can be an Ocean)" by Youko Sakamoto

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Reviews

Feb 2, 2012

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 3

T2Darlantan (All reviews)

328 people found this review helpful

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 read more

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Feb 21, 2009

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

Strife91 (All reviews)

165 people found this review helpful

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 read more

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Sep 15, 2019

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

Optigisa (All reviews)

57 people found this review helpful

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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Aug 5, 2009

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

Kurremkarmerruk (All reviews)

85 people found this review helpful

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 read more

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