Anime fans as you'll all no doubt know I very rarely make a spoiler post for an anime film or TV show. That is because I want you to experience the product with very little to know knowledge about what's going on sadly tho that actually can't happen with this film as even the plot summery gives away a key plot point and so i'm going to pretty butcher my own summery of the plot just to keep it spoiler free and so here is my spoiler filled review of Ride Your Wave aka Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara enjoy.
The plot for of the film as spoiler free as I can make it is boy meets girl something happens to either the boy or the girl and then there's the aftermath. You see I told you I was going to butcher it but your just going to have to take my word for it when I say that there's pretty much no plot outside of the central theme which I can't get into because it's spoiler but I do wish that there was more of an actual story in this film.
Starring in the film is Rina Kawaei as Hinako Mukaimizu , Ryota Katayose as Minato Hinageshi , Honoka Matsumoto as Yōko Hinageshi and Kentaro Ito as Wasabi Kawamura. Yes as you can no doubt tell i'm basing this review of the original Japanese dub which as alot of will know is a mildly rare thing for me to do however as there is no dub for this film out and it doesn't look like there will be any out soon.
As for what I thought about the acting in the film it honestly was really good altho it really is hard for me to judge Japanese voice acting since i've not heard any of these actors so I have no idea what they could do when there at their best or worst. The script of the film really does give the actors alot to work with and I do feel that that does help the actors since all they'd have to do is just say the lines and not add in character traits.
The animation for the film was done by Science Saru a company owned by director Masaaki Yuasa and is there third feature film . In terms of what I thought about the animation it's shockingly really good and I say shockingly because i've seen nothing from them and so just based of this film I can say that they do a good job when it comes to the animation with alot of scenes leaping of the screen which is something that I very rarely get to say.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There we go anime fans anything said beyond this point will be a spoiler and so you shouldn't anything beyond the spoiler warning if you haven't seen the film. So then what really did shock me was the fact that the main male character Minato dies nearly half way through the film that was something that I never saw coming and I couldn't mention it in the summery because it's a plot point his death has an effect on our main female character Hinako.
Part of the joy and sadness of this film for me is seeing the relationship between Minato and Hinako develop as they go from friends to boyfriend and girlfriend but then it comes crashing down when Minato dies. How the film deals with grief is honestly really interesting since we get to see Hinako go through the stages of grief eventually learning that in order for Minato to move on she must also accept his death.
Part of what made Hinako's arc seem more real to me is the fact that is that she's young and I know that sounds weird but imagine if your in early twenties you fall in love with someone and then that person suddenly dies it would be crushing. Which is what happens here for a large portion of the film she's crushed and she might possibly feel guilty for Minato's death but i'm not sure and she has to go through this horrible thing and she comes out stronger because of it.
Hinako's character at the start of the film is completely different from the character we see at the end of the film. Since at the start she's sort of happy go lucky she's not unpacked any of her boxes but then over the course of the film she learns more responsibility and that is something that I don't think the Hinako at the start of the film would even consider being like at all and it was something that I thought was very interesting.
As you can see by the above picture the film has an art style that honestly reminded me alot of Summer Wars. Considering that I liked that film that is not a bad thing at all but at the same time there was times during the more emotional moments so I do feel that they should have tweaked the designs just to suit those moments and make them more effective but since they didn't the art style and designs become a little bit distracting.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall this is an anime film that I can very easily recommend to any anime fans regardless of if you like the slice of life genre or not. This is also a film that does have plenty of flaws some of which I have mentioned in this review but if this is something that you can get past then there's a really enjoyable film in there and it helps that the pacing is honestly really good and so with all of this in mind the film gets a 7.5 out of 10 from me.