Review of Ride Your Wave

i came across this while just browsing for anime films to watch and i thought it was interesting so i gave it a try. didnt have high expectations for it, neither low ones but i was excited to watch it. my review will mostly be critiquing a certain part of the story that rly disappointed me so im gonna start of with some nice stuff !! the animation. so fucking pretty. the waves looked like waves, water looked like water, everything looked so pleasing to look at. its not one of those films where you can make every frame a wallpaper but its still so so pretty.the music and voice acting too!! the song thats used a lot is lovely, warm, perfect for the story. bgm for each scenes matched well, and so does the voices for each character. i
now onto the story !

story started out really nice !! we got introduced to the main characters rly well, and we got a rly cute compilation kinda on the main couples relationship. what they do, how they are, etc with them singing the theme song in the background, which i absolutely love. it rly felt like they were singing and i could feel how happy they were.

though all of that was a bit.. Too nice. which made me feel a bit uneasy on whats gonna happen next. and it happened. spoiler ? i guess but the story revolves around this so i cant rly not say it lol. minato dies. from this point on you can guess that the story is gonna be about overcoming grief. heres where it started to become disappointing for me. the way the characters act after minato's death didn't really feel like he Died. it just felt like he broke up with her. his sister didnt even looked like she cared lmfao?? i was hoping to get a moment where its shown that shes been holding it in or something but spoiler.. we didnt get one. she just moved on her day like it was nothing.
hinako's grief was played pretty well id say, spoiler ! //she started to hallucinate that minato appears in water whenever she sings their theme song. i interpreted of it as she just couldn't believe that he's gone so she imagines that she can see him to cope with it, which i thought was rly smart and interesting but it wasn't like that. minato actually does appear whenever she sings and could even control water n shit lol. so she didnt rly.. have him Gone. thoughh ofc she ends up overcoming her grief, she moves on with her life yada yada the end.

tldr on all of that: story was abt overcoming grief but it didnt rly felt like they grieved for him. didnt felt like he was Gone. like dead gone. he's never coming back. and none of the characters felt different after they "overcame the grief" it didnt rly feel like anything. minato was removed from the story but thats it.

id recommend you to check it out if you have time or is interested in it though !! i think i was just a bit too disappointed so i didnt end up enjoying it as much hahah. i did get teary eyed a couple of times and fucking cried at the end on the christmas message part. it came out of nowhere so idk how it made me cry but it broke me