Ocean Waves (AKA I Can Hear the Sea)
Dir: Tomomi Mochizuki
1993
***
Ocean Waves is a melancholy adolescent drama from Studio Ghibli about love in the class room. I hate Japaneses high-school dramas even more than I hate (non-1950's era) American high-school dramas. I didn't however, hate Ocean Waves. It's got that Ghibli charm that I just can't resist. The animation is, as always, absolutely brilliant and for once I could see it as a real story with substance rather than a fantastical example of what doesn't happen in the last years of school. Released on Japanese TV in 1993 as a project for the younger Ghibli employees to learn how to make a film on a limited budget and in a structured about of time, Ocean Waves ironically ended up going over budget and over schedule. It influenced a heap of mind-numbing melodramas, animated and live action, but remains the best of its kind. The animation is of a high quality, probably the reason it was over budget and over schedule, the younger artists clearly wanted to prove themselves visually. It was the first Ghibli film to feature a director that wasn't either Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata but I think the 34 year old Tomomi Mochizuki was a little out of his depth.
It's not my favorite Ghibli, give me a giant furry monster and talking cats any day and the work of Makoto Shinkai is far superior within the same style and sub-genre of work but it is quite lovely all the same.