Ride Your Wave (Kimi to, nami ni noretara)
RIDE YOUR WAVE - TOHO
While anime directors like Makoto Shinkai & Mamoru Hosoda have successfully broken into the mainstream, there are plenty of anime directors that go unnoticed by most audiences; one of the biggest is Masaaki Yuasa. Despite putting out exceptional high-quality work at a regular pace and even working on several more significant and mainstream projects like episodes of Adventure Time, his work often goes underappreciated and underrated.
After an incredible 2018 where he released two awe-inspiring feature films ("Night Is Short, Walk On Girl " & "Lu over the Wall"), Yuasa is back with Ride Your Wave. Hinako Mukaimizu (Rina Kawaei) is a young schoolgirl who has just moved to a beachside town, where she often surfs. Here she meets a boy named Minato Hinageshi (Ryota Katayose), and quickly they fall in love. Things are going great until Hinageshi tragically passes away in an accident. Hinageshi’s death leaves Mukaimizu destroyed, having to work through her pain and resistance to say goodbye to the love of her life; it all gets even more complicated when she starts to see Hinageshi in water whenever she sings a song they both loved.
The first thing to stand out about a Masaaki Yuasa film is going to be the animation; it is always unique compared to what audiences typically get with modern-day animation. The blend of simplicity and linework mixed with the complexity of the colours and depth of the shots makes each of his films a pure visual delight and Ride Your Wave is no different. Taking place in a coastal town with plenty of scenes on beaches and in the water, this is unlike any other Yuasa film done before when it comes to setting.
The dynamic but also majestic approach Yuasa takes in the surfing scenes is remarkable. The attention to realistic detail in the various coffee shops and firework shows our characters encounter stands out just as uniquely. This is specifically seen in contrast to Yuasa’s filmography, who has always embraced a more fantasy approach when it comes to building his worlds, instead of focusing on detail, which is something other filmmakers like Makoto Shinkai have become known to craft. These elements come together to create a beautiful-looking film which is exceptionally different from Yuasa’s other works and shows his continued growth as a filmmaker.
Part of the reasoning behind this could be the more grounded emotions this film takes. Looking at the overwhelming grief and the process of coming to terms with such a traumatic event, this is easily one of Yuasa’s most straightforward films from a narrative perspective, which both helps and hurts the final project. Even at the beginning of the film, the plot connects and hits hard with the pain and emotion within it.
However, once the film grows to the more fantasy elements that Yuasa always brings to his work, it can feel a bit clustered. Having such a raw and down to earth premise only to then add an element of fantasy – bringing the dead back through singing into water – can hurt its overall effect. Especially towards the end, when the major third act conflict starts to build, it really feels like the film starts to focus more on building a fun and adventurous plot rather than giving the best emotional payoff it could. Still, by the end, it does not ruin its emotions and has a tear-jerking finale with some great messages throughout; it just does not have the focus to become an all-time classic.
In many ways, Ride Your Wave is one of the most mainstream and basic films in Yuasa’s filmography, but that is not necessarily negative. This is a film with legitimately great emotion and animation, even if it lacks some of the nuance and depth other Yuasafilms have. This is not a film with many secrets within itself that could be revealed with re-watches and analysis, but it is one with meaningful messages that do leave an impact.
