The Studio Ghibli Stinker of 1993
Ghibli Month — Chapter 8: Ocean Waves
Director — Tomomi Mochizuki
Year of Release — 1993
Language — Japanese
How Many Times Watched? — 1 time
Rating — ★★½
This is For the Ghibli Completionists. By no means a bad movie, but definitely not Studi Ghibli at their strongest.
We’ve reached a milestone: the first film in the Studio Ghibli catalogue not directed by Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata. Also, the first TV movie, running a brief 73 minutes. Ocean Waves was born when Studio Ghibli wanted to give their younger members a chance to show off what they’ve learned on a small budget and a quick schedule, both of which they went over.
Ocean Waves follows Taku and his friend Yutaka. They’ve never had a class together, but they became friends by fighting for the reinstatement of the cancelled junior high school class trip. Rikako, a mysterious girl from Tokyo, transfers to their Kōchi high school, “the country,” and shakes things up. Yutaka and Taku both develop feelings for Rikako, but only Yutaka’s are public, creating a love-triangle of sorts. I am hesitant to call it a love-triangle because the three of them have very little interaction throughout. Yutaka has no idea Taku likes Rikako and Taku barely recognises it himself.
Which gets to why I think this is Studio Ghibli’s first miss. Besides the aesthetic, there’s nothing really all that compelling about Ocean Waves. The characters are rather generic, the story is lacking any sort of emotional weight, and the romance isn’t believable whatsoever.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the characters of Taku, Yutaka, and Rikako, they’re just not that likeable. Not to say they’re unlikable, they are just nothing special. The only reason given to care about them is that they are the ones on the screen. It’s not exactly compelling. I wish there were stronger interactions between the three of them rather than a short, bland discussion followed by minutes of Taku’s voiceover.
I think Ocean Waves’s greatest pitfall is its length. There is a lot of potential with this plot, but it wasn’t able to fully develop with only a 73-minute runtime. Very few of the main plot points were ever able to get any sort of payoff. They only live in brief mentions, which is upsetting because the creators here were able to develop an interesting world that they weren’t able to build on further. The characters and set pieces were intriguing, they just weren’t given enough time to fully conceptualise.
The biggest problem with the central romance between Taku and Rikako is that you never know whether they are supposed to like each other or not. The very few interactions they have are limited and give neither of them any reason to substantially like each other. If anything, it’s just the opposite. Some of the things Rikako does to Taku are awful and should have dispelled any stray feelings he may have had.
And the ending did nothing for me. It felt like it was supposed to tie it up and give a hopeful ending to Taku and Rikako, but it only left me scratching my head, wondering how it even got there. Rikako’s line about the bathtub (you’ll know it when you hear it) was a random callback that was not indicative of their relationship. It wasn’t as cute as it was made out to be, and it didn’t make me want to root for them whatsoever.
However, I really liked and appreciated the feel of this film. While not as vibrant as other Studio Ghibli films, the simple style really works for this, though I am a sucker for pastels. The soft look is perfect for this very soft and dream-like film. The music is also solid and helps with the changing moods of the film. You can always count on Studio Ghibli to deliver gorgeous animations, no matter how simple, and beautiful music, and Ocean Waves is no different.
Now don’t get me wrong, Ocean Waves is not a bad movie, and I did enjoy my time. I’ll still gladly watch this over the majority of western animation. There is a certain level of sophistication in its craft that is rarely seen here in the west. I mean, it is still a Studio Ghibli film. Not every film can be a masterpiece, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to put their all into it.
Ocean Waves is in a tough position because it is in no way a bad film. It’s just in a league that it could never possibly live up to. It is still worth a watch, but make it one of your last, or somewhere in the middle if you’d rather end on a high note. Maybe on a somber summer afternoon with a cool glass of iced tea (or a whiskey and Coke).
