The Second Chance of Ocean Waves

Ocean Waves, the legendary Studio Ghibli's only direct-for-television film, debuted on Nippon TV in the spring of 1993. Being the first Ghibli film not directed by Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, this project marked a spring of its own for the studio. . Instead, entrusted to the youngest members of the film house, a young team that would dedicate themselves to a work that spoke of those tumultuous years between childhood and adulthood. Years they had just left behind. Their mission was simple: produce a work quickly, within a budget and with that familiar Ghibli seal of quality. They would only achieve one of those goals... but what an achievement it was.

The first time you see a Studio Ghibli film is usually a memorable event. Much of that acclaimed library I vividly remember exactly where I was, who I was with, and how those films made me feel during that first journey into the worlds beyond the screen. Like many anime fans of the time, I began my journey by devouring everything I could find in the studio. And 10 years after its home debut, I managed to get my hands on a copy of Ocean Waves and devoured it too. It became one of my most memorable first visits to the Ghibli Pantheon, but for the wrong reasons.

At the same age as its teenage protagonists, I clearly remember my disappointment as Ocean Waves' runtime passed, giving up hope that the familiar Ghibli magic would finally appear. Rushing toward it from the heights of Miyazaki's fantastical escapism, from a portfolio of works that asked me to look back at the wonders of childhood rather than the mundanity of adulthood, the reality of Ocean Waves left me cold. Ocean Waves centers on a class reunion, intertwining the nervous excitement of the present with the nostalgic phases of the past. While the film relies heavily on flashbacks to their school days, the present offers these players a

chance

to reevaluate things they thought they knew.

See your friends and enemies in a new light and rethink your relationships going forward. It's wonderfully fitting, then, that when I finally caught up with the one Ghibli film I'd never liked, almost 20 years later, I too found myself re-evaluating it. As a truly different person than the one who had originally sat with him all those years before, I fell in love. At first glance, Ocean Waves may feel cynical toward its teenage protagonists. The childish presumption of which we are all victims, that everything matters during those formative years, that anything matters in fact, is instantly recontextualized as immature by the framing of the film.

A reunion just a few years later, full of totally different people. In those years, our attitudes change. The actions we consider important to demonstrate have few consequences, and the people we thought we knew change in an instant and you'll miss it. Perhaps, as part of that group of children on my first watch, I felt unfairly attacked by the seemingly condescending point of view. A point of view that saw us trapped in a meaningless drama while the real world was happening around us. Now that I'm older and a bit more cynical, I see the film differently. Ocean Waves' vision of school days and youth is wonderfully nostalgic and hopelessly romantic, painting a world that seems to stretch into infinity, filled with nothing but possibilities.

He does not seek to belittle his characters, but rather to elevate them. Focus on the moments of freedom, excitement, and promise that occur less frequently as the years go by and adult responsibility accumulates. An impromptu trip with a girl, the decision to move to a new city, confessing to the person you love and feeling like the end of the world when you get knocked down, and a good dose of excitement. A heartbreaking drama, but ultimately unimportant. There's a lightness of touch that gently sniffs into your own hazy summer memories, filled with moments that make you smile and moments that make you shudder.

Moments when childhood begins to recede and the adult you are about to become comes into focus. Today, I can't see the mockery and ridicule I imagined from a team critical of the childhood they left behind, but rather a story of loving compassion. For the hard times we all have to endure before we realize they weren't that hard. In any case, Ocean Waves feels like a group of animators, of storytellers, who have just left those moments behind and want to get into the frame and shake up their characters. To yell at them, so they understand how well they've done and realize they're back in the good old days before I leave them.

Maybe by doing so, they can capture a little of that magic for themselves and offer a little of it to their audience in the process. I was disappointed by the lack of that fantastical Ghibli charm when I first sat down with Ocean Waves, not realizing that the film was shaking me up too. Understanding how good and easy I had it, worrying less, enjoying it all while it lasted. But like the film's protagonists, it's a concept impossible to understand until those days have slipped through your fingers. That magic is here in its entirety, I just couldn't see it yet.

Watching Ocean Waves for the first time in almost two decades, I quickly realized that this was not a

second

chance

for the film. It's a film that's as good today as it was when it first aired, off schedule and on budget, to a nation of people excited to see what the young men at Studio Ghibli could achieve. No, Ocean Waves didn't need a

second

chance. I did. As always, thanks for watching. When the deal between Ghibli and Netflix closed and their library began rolling out to the service, I knew I had to give Ocean Waves another chance.

I thought about this movie for years without revisiting it, and before I even pressed play on my second viewing, I think I already knew my opinion had changed. Watching and loving it lit a fire in me and I had to post this video to tell anyone who had written it off in a similar way to go back and try again. My next video may be a while away, so until then you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe here on YouTube to stay informed. If, on the other hand, you think I was wrong and that fifteen-year-old Joe was right about Ocean Waves being a doodoo movie for doodoo people, hit the like button and I'll let him run the channel from now on. - I'm suscribe. - I am not subscribed.