Ride Your Wave – Kimi to, nami ni noretara (2019)

Directed by: Masaaki Yuasa | 94 minutes | animation, comedy | Original voice cast: Ryôta Katayose, Rina Kawaei, Honoka Matsumoto, Kentaro Ito

earwigs. Songs that are so penetrating and catchy that you can’t get them out of your head. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s a beautiful song or a very annoying song; it keeps ringing in your mind. Just such a song plays a crucial role in the Japanese animation film ‘Ride Your Wave’ (2019). ‘Brand New Story’ is very sweet and is sung with warped voices by the extremely popular J-pop formation Generations from Exile Tribe in Japan. From the makers of ‘Ride Your Wave’ it is not only a clever idea for the band to make such a prominent contribution to the film; it was quite a smart move to have one of the singers of the band, Ryota Katayose, do one of the voices. This way you immediately attract a lot of audience (mainly adolescent girls) to the halls! Incidentally, the director of ‘Ride Your Wave’ is not the least; Masaaki Yuasa, an accomplished anime director who debuted with ‘Mind Game’ in 2004 and whose work is characterized by an inventive artistry and creative style. ‘Ride Your Wave’ is his most accessible work to date.

Themes such as love, death, mourning and resilience are poetically intertwined in a summery setting. The 19-year-old girl Hinako (voice of Rina Kawaei) lives in a coastal town where she studies at the local university. But she doesn’t really feel like sitting in school and worrying about what she has to do for a living later on; she’d rather hang out by the sea, where she can surf and chill. One day, the apartment complex where Hinako lives catches fire when a flare changes direction. Fortunately, 21-year-old firefighter Minato (Ryota Katayose) is quickly on the scene to rescue her from the blaze. To thank him for that, Hinako wants to teach him how to surf. The more they interact, the more violent the sparks jump between the two. The romance blossoms during atmospheric scenes by the sea, or in the kitchen where we see how Minato is meticulously preparing the perfect cup of coffee (by portraying something so seemingly trivial in such extensive detail, ‘Ride Your Wave’ gets its idiosyncrasy ). As a viewer, you sometimes feel like a voyeur secretly spying on a couple in love, so intimate and calm (if it weren’t such a pretentious buzzword, you’d almost say ‘mindfull’) Yuasa knows the budding love and all-overgrowing attention that the two have to portray each other.

But then disaster strikes and we are pulled out of the dream; Minato decides to go surfing during a heavy winter storm and tragically perishes in the sea of ​​waves. This is not a spoiler, but a central breaking point in the film, as Yuasa then shows how Hinako copes with the loss of her great love. He turns out to appear in special, watery guises in her life, especially when she sings ‘their’ song, ‘Brand New Story’. Yuasa and the equally experienced screenwriter Reiko Yoshida know how to maintain the balance between realism and magic and blur the line further and further. The poetic play with water and fire is also inventively woven into the story and the animations; Hinako is at her best in the water, but nearly loses her life in a conflagration, Minato beats the fire, but can’t stand the water. The way in which Hinako subsequently processes her grief – in which Minato shows herself to her in all kinds of fantasy and water-rich guises – is a naturally beautiful way of processing grief and a moving form of comfort.

The film may be on the conventional side for die-hard Yuasa fans, but if you look closely, you can see that the director has indeed found the space for himself to leave his creative mark within a more mainstream framework. Only in a more subtle way, for example by playing with frivolous visual angles and perspectives. For those who are not yet familiar with the work of this director, ‘Ride Your Wave’ is an accessible ‘slip-on’. Let yourself be carried away by ‘Ride Your Wave’, which will leave you feeling hopeless in love one moment, inconsolable with a vicarious guilt the next, and finally lead you through a magical route on your way to finding new hope.