Review of Ride Your Wave

This romance story will bring quite a wave of emotions. My top scores would have to be Art and Story. Lowest would be Characters then Sound. Heres what I think: Art: 9| While the art really brings out the emotions, it kind of looks weird at certain times, kind of alien. It is so much better than some lip flapping picture though! Story: 8| The plot of the story brings you in and the beginning sets up the romance story to be something great, but the amount of timeskips or quick speed ups to try to fit a romance story that should be more fleshed out into a1hr time frame, kind of kills the big tragedy that's suppose to set up for the revival at the end.
Sound: 5| The theme song is super chipper, really sets the fun in the waves and how nice it is in that summer surfing season. Its just when its sung the 11th billion time that is gets old. Not to mention the very mediocre soundtrack that accompanies a scene. Wouldn't mind just listening to background or sfx over the music.
Characters: 7| While the main (Misako) has a lot of bright, cheery eyed, star struck, klutz you learn to love and cry and cheer with. The other characters aren't so fleshed out and are more like story placeholders rather than actual beings.
Overal & Enjoyment: 8| I enjoyed it! The art is captivating, funny, sad, and the story is well thought out. Misako is a character I would love to have as a friend. I wish I could talk with someone I love by singing a song and calling them up from the water. It has some bad sides, but that's what happens when a big romance tragedy and revival arc all have to fit in a 1 hr time slot. I would love to be able to read this as a manga or even watch it as an episodic anime show.

Spoilers Ahead!
The story the art and even the characters are so nicely drawn, with so much emotions. You wish that you could be there in those heartbreaking moments, or wish you can slap those fire making gangstas' faces.

The art style really brings out those emotions. Instead of static faces with a lip flap, you can see their whole face contort or scrunch up or even get super red. It makes them more animated and relatable than some 2D mouth moving picture. The story is a wave of emotions itself. From the beginning where it sets up some guy admiring his "hero" and this girl who wants to be out there, do things, show the world she is more. Then the two meeting up realizing they have so much more in common and a past too. Their love story blossoms until it is all taken away from him saving someone's life. In the end though, the girl realizes her dreams, finds her place in the big world, and realizes she can take on any wave.

But what this story lacks, is the time it needs to flesh out a romance. The beginning is sweet. Its romantic. It drags me in because I see the romance blossom in real time, but then I'm suppose to believe in tiny glimpses of the romantic adventure these two have in short tiny story points? Yes it's cute they are singing the theme with tiny laughs and so much emotion, but I can't relate or really see everything blossom.

Its like trying to figure out what the ocean is except you live in the middle of a continent and all you have is a snow globe that's has a small replica of "Panama Beach".

So when the big dramatic climax comes in, I'm not invested enough in the relationship to realize how big the drop, the tragedy, will become. I'm sad that such a lovable character was taken away from me, but how can I feel heartbreak when I haven't even felt love? I'm sad that Misako is so broken down, I'm sad that her passion to surf died with her boyfriend. I'm sad that such a bright sun like her is so broken. Yet her boyfriend who is the tragedy, I'm not so sad about and their now broken relationship.

Okay, so time is one downside. In romance you have to take it slow sometimes to really make the drop so much more painful. Another downside to this story is...the side characters.

So we have Wasabi and Kyoko, and also Misako's two friends. In the beginning we see a bit of all of them. All their different personalities but they seem more like static characters or placeholders then actual beings. Misako's friends are just that "her friends". I don't see the quirky or the hip or the sloth or anything. Just two placeholders friends for two scenes.

Kyuoko seems just like another placeholder too, except with a larger role. She is the little sister Hinako and pretty protective too. She has this running gag with "Love is bad" but she isn't really funny or something cute. She's just kind of pops up sometimes. The we go back to Misako sulking, or a timeskip, or her talking to water Hinako.

Wasabi, I had high hopes for. Like maybe by the end he would be so much more. Maybe be a senior firefighter or help Misako with the flower shop. Instead we are pushed this weird, "So like, I know you were my former bff's gf but like...I've always liked you soooo, wanna like me?" At this point I'm disappointed. The story does skip over this mistep, "by not bringing him back till the end (and one scene with Kyoto) [yes I spelled it wrong]." Eventually he becomes a "good firefighter" and eventually gets a girl that actually likes him.

The sound is pretty mediocre too. The waves don't really sound good, but I'll leave that out, cause I can see the recording issues. The soundtrack is pretty bland, and my the time you hear the theme song the 11th billion time it kind of gets pretty boring too. I'm not a sound expert but I could have just watched the movie with just regular sfx and I would have still been fine.