The story of a love triangle among three high school students, Ocean Waves comes from Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation house that created Spirited Away and, more recently, Ponyo. Originally released in 1993 as I Can Hear the Sea, the elusive film is receiving its first widespread international release. Unlike Ghibli's best-known films, which feature flying machines, fantastical creatures and usually pre-teenagers as protagonists, Ocean Waves is more like an episode of the American television drama Dawson's Creek - that is, if Dawson's Creek featured beautiful and imaginative hand-drawn animation. It focuses on two friends, Taku and Yutaka, who are in their final year of high school in the seaside town of Kochi. When the beautiful but selfish Rikako arrives from Tokyo, she drives a wedge between the pair by borrowing money from Taku and lying to both boys. Things get even more complicated when Taku has to accompany Rikako on a trip to Tokyo. The film is an engaging glance at teenage angst and emotion, and the animated characters are brought to life masterfully, but Ocean Waves is a long way from being Ghibli's best work. It was originally devised as an exercise for the studio's younger staff to produce a fast and inexpensive animated film (it was actually delivered late and over budget), and one can't help but notice that in the 17 years since this release, Studio Ghibli has not become famous for teenage drama, but giant fantastical spectacles. It's a good thing they stuck to what they do best.
