Ocean Waves

Plot

Taku Morisaki is in Kochi when his friend Yutaka Matsuno calls him to meet at their high school. There, Yutaka is with a new transfer student, Rikako Muto, who is pretty, smart, and athletic but comes across as arrogant. Taku gets the feeling she is upset about having to leave Tokyo. During a school trip to Hawaii, Rikako tells Taku she lost her money and asks to borrow some.

He has a part-time job, so he lends her 60,000 yen. She promises to pay him back and tells him to keep it a secret. Back in Kochi, the third year starts and Rikako becomes friends with a girl named Yumi Kohama. Taku still hasn't gotten his money back and starts to think she might have forgotten.

Then Yumi calls him, sounding upset. She explains that Rikako tricked her into going to the airport for what was supposed to be a concert trip, but the real plan was a flight to Tokyo, paid for with Taku's loan. Taku rushes to the airport and takes Yumi's place, going to Tokyo with Rikako. When they reach her father's home, they find out he already has a new girlfriend.

Rikako's father thanks Taku, gives him back the money, and books him a room at the Hyatt Regency. Rikako, let down by her father, joins Taku and says that during her parents' fights she always took her father's side, but now she sees he wasn't on hers. Taku lets her have the bed and tries to sleep in the bathtub. The next day, Rikako kicks him out of the room so she can change clothes before meeting a friend for lunch.

Taku spends the day exploring Tokyo and catching up on sleep at the hotel. Later, Rikako calls him, asking to be rescued from her ex-boyfriend, Okada. When Taku gets there, he gets angry at what he hears and calls both Rikako and Okada bores. Once they are back home, Rikako ignores Taku but tells her friends that she and Taku spent a night together.

Yutaka then tells Taku that he confessed his feelings to Rikako and was harshly turned down. This makes Taku confront Rikako in class. They argue in the hallway, where she slaps him and he hits her back.

Production

The story for Ocean Waves began as a novel by Himuro, first published in monthly installments in Animage magazine from February 1990 to January 1992, with artwork by Katsuya Kondō. These chapters were later compiled into a hardcover book released on February 28, 1993, though some episodes were left out. Kondō also worked on the film adaptation as character designer and animation director. While Studio Ghibli oversaw production, much of the actual animation was done with help from J.C.Staff, Madhouse Studios, and Oh!

Production, studios that had collaborated with Ghibli before. This movie stands out as the first Ghibli film directed by someone other than Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata. The director was Tomomi Mochizuki, then 34 years old. The project was meant to be made entirely by younger staff members, mostly in their twenties and thirties.

Their goal was to work "quickly, cheaply and with quality," but the film ended up going over budget and behind schedule. Mochizuki later said the stress gave him a peptic ulcer.

Reception

Critics were largely kind to the film, with 89% of 18 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes being positive, earning an average score of 6.6/10. On Metacritic, based on 4 reviews, it holds a 73 out of 100, indicating generally favorable reception. Anime Cafe praised it with 4/5 stars, calling it a graceful and mature work from Ghibli's younger generation. Conversely, Otaku USA was less impressed, labeling it the studio's most lackluster film up to that point, before Tales from Earthsea.

Release and home media

Ocean Waves first aired on Nippon TV in Japan on May 5, 1993, as part of the network's 40th anniversary programming. Shortly after, on June 25, 1993, Tokuma Shoten released it on VHS and Laserdisc under the Animage Video label. Because it was a television movie, it was initially excluded from the Disney-Tokuma deal, but an extension of that agreement later brought it in. Buena Vista Home Entertainment Japan re-released it on VHS on July 23, 1999. The same company issued a DVD on August 8, 2003. A remastered version first appeared in Disney's Ghibli ga Ippai Director's Collection boxset in December 2021, then as a standalone release on April 20, 2022. Walt Disney Studios Japan put out a Blu-Ray on July 17, 2015.

In 2008, distributor Wild Bunch licensed the film to several European companies, including Optimum. It came out in the UK on January 25, 2010, under the title Ocean Waves, as part of the Studio Ghibli Collection, just before the planned theatrical release of Ponyo. Disney held the U.S. distribution rights but never released the film on any home media platform, likely due to its more mature themes compared to most Ghibli titles. In 2016, GKIDS announced a limited North American theatrical run, starting December 28 of that year and expanding into early 2017.

Screenings in the U.S. and Canada ran from January 3 to March 24, 2017. The film earned $12,039 on its opening day, December 28, 2016. GKIDS, under Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, released it on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 18, 2017, with only the Japanese audio and English subtitles. As of 2022, no dubbed version had been released, making it the only Ghibli feature (excluding short films) without an English dub.