#OCEAN WAVES STUDIO GHIBLI TRAILER MOVIE#

Taku, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to be motivated by much of anything, but this is true to the experience of a lot of teenagers who haven’t yet figured out what they want or where they fit in the world. Rikako mentions in a conversation we don’t see that her world had been so small that everything felt more important than it was, and this, coupled with the genuinely hard time we see her have at school and with her parents, make her both incredibly sympathetic and extremely believable to me. Cliques have evaporated, old fights have become shared stories, and, more than anything, kindness prevails. When Taku returns home after a year at a Tokyo university, he finds that all the petty, unnecessary, sometimes violent unpleasantness that has dominated the film up to that point has washed away. But, crucially, they’re not, and we see after the time-skip just how significant the simple act of leaving home and broadening your horizons can be. Taku, Yutaka, Rikako, and the rest are independent, assertive, capable, and view themselves as basically adult. This is often where the film seems to lose people - Rikako is too bratty and frustrating, Taku is a pushover, the boys have no reason to keep chasing this girl who gives them nothing in return - but the irrationality of these motivations, as well as the fact that a lot of the behaviour on display in Ocean Waves is just plainly unacceptable, serves what I believe to be the film’s central thesis: It’s wonderfully unique and presented with all the vibrance and attention-to-detail you’d expect, and the same goes, I think, for the characters.

Everything is drenched in sun and everyone looks great, but there’s also a particular grittiness to these older characters that’s not so often seen in Ghibli (Taku’s coworker squatting by the back door for a cigarette, or Rikako passing out after three swift whiskeys, for instance). It’s Ghibli, so you might say that this is a given, but, where many Ghibli projects tend either to ignore period or to focus on the post-war Japan of Miyazaki’s childhood, Ocean Waves is steeped in the aesthetic of the early-90s high-waisted jeans, parted hair, Toyota Corollas, and mecha anime.

#OCEAN WAVES STUDIO GHIBLI TRAILER MOVIE#

So, with this post, hopefully I can help at least someone appreciate what I think makes this movie shine.Įven detractors of Ocean Waves generally can’t deny how good it looks. Beneath its abrasive characters and seemingly aimless story, I think it’s a masterfully-observed portrayal of late-adolescence that does a beautiful job of illustrating how children become adults, as well as highlighting the toxicity and pointlessness of so much of the drama that dominates teenagers’ lives. Admittedly I’ve only seen 15 Ghibli films, and I’m still missing some apparent heavy-hitters like Grave of the Fireflies and Nausicaä, but I would tentatively call Ocean Waves my current favourite, even above Spirited Away. (Some spoilers ahead, though I don’t think you can really spoil this plot)Īside from Tales from Earthsea (and I guess Earwig and the Witch, if you count that) Ocean Waves is the only Ghibli film that I’ve seen widely maligned by the community, and in reviews generally. A fan-run 'guidepost' site for Studio Ghibli Posts containing spoilers without using the above method ( except in clearly labelled threads) should be reported. Which in turn will show up in your post like this: Spoilers can be posted using the following formatting: (/s) Post frequency is limited to 2 posts per day.

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