Review of Ride Your Wave

Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara or Ride Your Wave is Masaaki Yuasa's latest film and coming from a long time fan of his, I'd say this is probably his weakest one so far. But even his weakest work makes for a great watch that's enjoyable and has at least some interesting things about it. Before watching this film it's best that you know what you're in for so that you'd be in the right mindset. This is a relatable and sweet (if cheesy and a very fairy tale-esque) portrayal of young love which then turns in to a story of overcoming loss, letting go ofthe past and finding new passions in life. The surfing and catching waves motif in the film is akin to catching new opportunities in life instead of hiding underwater and letting opportunities pass over you.

Not a bad concept and this is tied together nicely with every aspect of the film. I especially like the hints we get about the main character early in the film about her clinging to her childhood by having her move in to her childhood town, using her childhood surfboard, eating her childhood food, listening to a song from her childhood... etc' etc'
it's a little heavy handed, but it makes for good foreshadowing to what she's about to cling to later in the film.
The male lead observed baby sea turtles struggling to enter the sea which hints at what he's going to cling to as well.
The chemistry between the two leads is pretty solid, if a bit cheesy and the film is able to set up a fairly cute love story in its first act, using montages, seeing them have fun together and hearing them have nice casual conversations too.

The supporting characters don't have too much of a character arc of their own, but they're also given enough personality, screen time, serve enough of a purpose in the story to justify their existence and they do just that - support.
You have a another firefighter who's not very good at his job, but is trying his best to improve and is also used as a red herring to make the audience think he's gonna be another love interest for the main character. There's also the real love interest's little sister who's the voice of reason and does play more of a role later in the film.

The thing you really need to know going in to this film is that it relies heavily on happenstance and fairy tale logic:
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
The inciting incident of the film is that the main character is saved by a fireman from a fire who (later turns out) just so happens to be the same guy she saved from drowning when they were kids.. Who later becomes her boyfriend, who later drowns in the sea, dies and becomes a firefighting ghost with water powers who saves the day in the climax (yeah it can't be her imagination at that point).. It's also worth mentioning that the climax is set up pretty conveniently too, with one of the supporting characters who just so happened to overhear the same punks who set off fireworks illegally and caused the fire in the beginning of the film, planning their next fireworks playtime in an abandoned building where there happens to be a dried up tree that catches fire easily..
[End of SPOILERS]

Maybe making this feel like a fairy tale was intentional, I have no way to know that. I'm just pointing this out because this does hamper some of the character's control over the story in retrospect. It feels like the scenarios are driving the characters half the time and not the other way around. This isn't too bad though since in a lot of the film the characters do act in a way that's significant and that's tied to their personalities, it's just that the transition between acts or the actual plot points that feel kinda forced and establishing that ghosts exist in the middle of the film isn't the best decision.

Visually, the film is quite beautiful in terms of imagery and background art that seems to have great depth of field and has very fluid character motions, impressive character acting, as well an emphasis on food and coffee animation that is also very elaborate. Coming from Yuasa Masaaki this is probably his most mainstream looking film, in the sense that the characters look a lot more "animeish" and further away from Masaaki's usual abstract style. Which is fitting since the film in general is more of a crowd-pleaser (not that there's anything wrong with that) and further away from his more abstract and weirder works.

Soundwise it has breezy pop music, great sound design and excellent voice acting all around, especially from the main character who is the only one to sound like an actual anime character, while the rest sound like they have more realistic speech patterns (not the first time this has been done).

Overall, I'd say it's Yuasa's weakest work, but still a terrific film that's emotionally powerful, fun, has nice atmosphere and hits all the right notes.
Yeah, it's pretty sappy, but I guess I'm a sap..