Ocean Waves

Ocean Waves, also known as I Can Hear the Sea, is a 1993 romance, drama, coming of age Japanese anime film. It was directed by Tomomi Mochizuki, written by Kaori Nakamura, musically composed by Shigeru Nagata, and produced by Toshio Suzuki, Nozomu Takahashi, Seiji Okuda, and Studio Ghibli.

Plot
While journeying to from Tokyo to his old high school for a reunion with his old classmates, Taku Morisaki recounts his memories of his days at his high school, particularly on a love triangle that developed between him and two of his friends, Yutaka Matsuno and Rikako Muto.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Beautiful animation for 1993 standards. As to be expected from Studio Ghibli features.
 * 2) Engaging story about young love and friendship, and how those two can occasionally collide with each other.  In other words, a love triangle between two close male friends and a new girl.
 * 3) All three of the main characters are incredibly likable, interesting, complex, and relatable.  It makes it really difficult to decide what you want to happen. You want both the romantic relationship to take flight and for the friendship to remain, and you'll be sad if either one ends.
 * 4) This film is a master of visual storytelling. There's lots of quiet, slow, comtemplative scenes which helps to build on and further explore the characters and their relationships.
 * 5) Very appealing art style and character designs. Even though they're very simple, they still look very appealing and pretty.
 * 6) Excellent soundtrack. Shigeru Nagata's score is constant and is a part of the heart and soul of the series overall.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It can be a bit boring every now and then.
 * 2) Yutaka can be pretty unlikable at times

Reception
Ocean Waves, also known as I Can Hear the Sea, has a 87% critic rating and a 67% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 3.2/5 on Letterboxd, a 6/9/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDB), a 6.89/10 on MyAnimeList, a 3/5 on AnimePlanet, and a 68.86% community approval rating on Kitsu. Unfortunately, this film never got much attention back in the day as most Studio Ghibli films. It wasn't until it was re-released in 2016 that it got a lot of attention. Many think that this is because it was a made for TV movie, and never appeared in theaters back in the day.

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