Although it can be fairly predictable and having a similar story as Only Yesterday (due to the backwards and forwards time line, in my opinion), Ocean Waves has a sweet and simple story focusing around the friendship of Taku and Rikako. Produced by Studio Ghibli, Ocean Waves first aired on Japanese television in 1993. The 1 hour and 10 minutes film is very underrated, as the more well-known and 'greater' Studio Ghibli films are pushed into the limelight moving the focus away from small gems like Ocean Waves. Its a basic film and if you want to watch a short movie with a 'romance' based theme don't pass up the chance! 7/10

I always liked animes from Ghibli, but until now I didn't quite get why. It is because they have calm. Everything today has to be over the top, flashy, fast. Ghibli stories take their time, they feature normal people with normal desires and rhythms. behaving normally.The Ocean Waves is about a cute girl moving from Tokyo to a provincial highschool in Kochi. Everybody is curious about her, but she is a loner and quite rude. Two friends are both interacting with her, but it's never clear what's in their hearts. Slowly, but surely, we start to understand each of the actors and the story comes full circle after graduation, at the first highschool reunion.I've learned so much about Japanese culture from animes, but the ones from Ghibli make me understand the people. The stories often have what is missing in not only animation, but real actor movies as well: people that you can empathise with, because they are like you (or rather, like you would like to be, but not in infantile fantasies, but in your hopeful dreams).Really nice movie, it certainly worth seeing.

The huge fan of Studio Ghibli (and especially Miyazaki) that I am, I was really excited to find this, the last Ghibli full-length production that I had yet to see.That excitement turned steadily into sadness. The complete lack of plot-line and ludicrous love interest simply appalled me. This made-for-television piece of crap does not deserve to belong to the otherwise amazing Studio Ghibli canon. What could possibly motivate people to write such positive reviews for this? I am baffled. If I was Taku, the main character in this dreck, I would have absolutely NO nostalgic feelings for any of the events that occurred, let alone for the SURELY bi-polar Rikako.That H. Miyazaki had nothing to do with the direction, animation, or writing of this horrifyingly tedious movie provides some solace... unlike every single other Ghibli production that I have seen, this one is completely and totally charmless.The second star was awarded for the only moment in the entire movie that I and my girlfriend enjoyed: that ephemeral moment of redemption that occurred shortly after the 51-minute mark, when Taku b*tchslapped Rikako. Yosh.

I saw this anime after I had been introduced to some other, more prominent anime from Studio Ghibli. If you appreciate a fine subtle authentic slice-of-life story of high school romance, this is as good as it gets.Its told from the point of view of a male student. A new female transfer student arrives from Tokyo and the plot moves forward in an interesting way. It never hurries, and feels very matter of fact. By the end of the film lessons are learned and the heart strings are pulled.This movie doesn't try to do too much; it simply focuses on the main characters and tells their story honestly. You never feel manipulated as you do with many Hollywood films. The dramatic conflicts are real and interesting.This is one movie I treasure.