Ride Your Wave
a review by flashpool
a review by flashpool
Ride Your Wave.
🎵There you are, out on the water.🎵
I initially intended for this to just be a simple status update to go alongside me completing this movie but I figured that I have a good amount to say about this. As an author's note, this was the visualization of the very first novel I completed related to an anime so a soft spot existed already for me when it comes to this existing work. Or in other words, I have some slight bias in the material's favor as I knew what would happen already. However, that potentially made this experience that much more memorable. Considering this, spoilers abound so proceed with caution or return to this upon viewing the movie first if you wish.
I think the best way to properly delve into things is to understand who is who and what is what. When it comes to this film and not knowing anything about it, it surface level comes across as a love story with the ocean as a background. And that's true. To an extent. There are some surprises that may potentially change the tone of how you're perceiving this film and that may be where it loses a viewer's interest. But I found this as simple progression to get to the conclusion. And therefore, why I loved this movie.
Anywho, enough of this wordy explanation and let's just ride this upcoming wave :)
This movie really only has four characters (disregarding the work bosses and such). These four are: Minato, a firefighter. Hinako, a college student who loves surfing. Wasabi, another firefighter and coworker of Minato. Youko, Minato's sister.
For most of this, I will mostly bring up Hinako and Minato because they are who the story is for.
It all begins with Hinako surfing really. Minato always looks out into the ocean whenever the possibility presents itself at his work if he sees the orange toned surfboard and the person on it riding the waves. It's simply a pleasant sight for him to look at and one that he finds beautiful.
Visually, I do agree. While for him it's more of a love sort of deal, as a viewer I think the setting and character designs throughout the film are pleasing. So no complaints on my end here. In motion, it all looks so bubbly. Considering the underlying theme being water, this feels fitting.
Regardless, going back to Minato, he sees the beauty of the person surfing and calls her his hero....from afar.
This changes one night when an apartment complex ignites on fire due to illegal fireworks being fired nearby. A person isn't accounted for during the head count of evacuees so he goes to rescue them. Upon arriving to their location, he sees the orange surfboard and she sees a hero. He is her hero....from nearby.
Repetition. Repetition is used when a message is intended to get across. In this case, this would be their song.
After the events of the night fire, Minato and Hinako start seeing each other. They are the couple in love.
When a couple is in love, they have their thing. For Minato and Hinako, it is a song called Brand New Story as well as a love for porpoises.
However, to anyone but the main pair, these sweet little interactions might be too cheesy to take in. For example, in a small sequence of their dates, the song Brand New Story is sung by the duo in the background and the direction of it is anything but perfect. But this works because you simply understand that when it's just the two of them, it really is just them two in their world. No way people who aren't in love would tolerate some off key singing and giggling interrupting a full song otherwise!
This is actually the biggest instance of how my previous experience with this in the form of the novel influenced my appreciation for this. When it cut to their first drive to the beach, because Hinako wanted to teach Minato how to surf, they first sang the song until it became theirs. In text, this scene stuck the lyrics in my head but seeing it made me attach the sound to it. By doing so, I became one of those persons who found their couple activity to be anything but cheesy. Though in return, I was rewarded with the frequent use of their song. Thankfully, it did not wear me down.
Before proceeding be aware this section as well as part of what follows this part will be a full on spoiler. I don't think I can get this point across without detailing it.
So I came to love the dynamic between Minato and Hinako didn't I? Well, it's something that wasn't meant to last.
Due to drowning (the exact situation won't be detailed here to at least not spoil that much), the relationship between Minato and Hinako is over. No more dates, no more talking about goals and life, and no more singing their song. Hinako is now alone.
The very moment she starts realizing this, was a moment that I will possibly never forget. Whereas previously the whole world had color, the instance her heart drops, the moment loses its shine. The grey overlay shows the occasion her heart breaks and I simply applaud Science Saru for making this scene extremely powerful even if it comes at the expense of a main character's death.
But to the point of the aftermath, Hinako does not take it well. And a story about love becomes a story about dealing with grief.
As with real life, people deal with grief very differently. Extremely so in fact that I personally believe there is no right way to grieve. And now we have Hinako as well as Wasabi and Youko who find themselves going through this process.
Wasabi presents a facade of being okay and his priority is worrying about Hinako. Youko is more stern in her responses and simply says "it's time to move on" which is a presentation of a hard exterior. Hinako, as hinted at here previously, does not know what to do. She does not know what to say. All she knows is Minato and now her world is gone.
These are all simply the many faces of dealing with grief and by approaching this subject, the movie adds more depth to its story.
To say this movie only adheres to realism would be a false statement. Because once it approaches the moment of death, it brings into the movie a supernatural element.
Relating to how Hinako "deals" with her grief, she remembers her and Minato's song. So she sings it.
Upon singing the initial lyrics, she sees Minato. In the water.
At this point realism is thrown out the window in favor of recovering from the aftermath somewhat metaphorically. Again, I didn't mind this but it's entirely understandable if someone doesn't like seeing our main heroine talking to a water bottle. Or even more, walking with an inflatable porpoise (one that Minato is inside of). But in any case, Minato appears when she sings the "there you are, out on the water" lyric. To the point the song now bears a different meaning of love for them.
But why does he appear?
It is part of the process. Hinako simply cannot move on and is just isolating herself, so he arrives to help her. His love remains to help her move on. And with this, there is a purpose for the porpoise.
At this point, Wasabi and Youko have recovered enough to more or less push Hinako to 'snap out of it'. Yet it remains pretty much impossible. She simply denies denies denies.
Youko, after inviting Hinako into their home for a Minato shrine visit, indirectly helps Hinako find her resolve again. She pretty much explains why Minato wanted to be a firefighter and it actually all happened because of a little girl saving him from drowning when he was a kid. This girl had an orange surfboard with a porpoise on it. Yes, as Minato never directly said it to her, Hinako was his hero.
With this small resolve, Hinako is able to recover. Or at least, begin the process of recovering.
This extends to Wasabi and Youko too because they get courage to go ahead and do a few things they never had the resolve to do (I'll keep this part unspoiled).
All this is to say that there is still a bit of conflict by the end but the themes of love, grief, and growth intertwine to leave a strong impression.
It should be fairly obvious by now, but I intentionally repeated the first lyric (of the English dub version) to Minato and Hinako's song as my way of segmenting this review. I figured the different ways of expressing it spoke pretty well to how the film did things and by doing so I believe that my appreciation for it should be coming through.
To specify however, I thought this film was excellent. It gives direct and indirect meaning to the term ride your wave and for that, I appreciate it. While love and grief are on opposite aspects of positive and negative emotions, they are pretty well connected with one another and this movie helps show that.
Honestly, me praising this partially stems from me enjoying the novel, but on its own I do think the movie itself is wonderful.
So to Hinako, Minato, Wasabi, and Youko, I give you a 🤙
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