Ocean Waves anime review

Originally known as Umi ga Kikoeru, Ocean Waves is a Studio Ghibli made-for-TV movie from 1993.  It’s fairly mediocre, as love triangle shows are wont to be.

 A girl named Rikako moves from Tokyo to Kochi because her parents gets divorced, but she has difficulties adjusting to her new life. The story is told through the eyes of one of her new classmates, whose name I have totally forgotten. Let’s call him Billy Bob.
Anyway, Billy Bob’s best friend Yutaka likes Rikako, but somehow Billy Bob is the one who ends up hanging out with her, until Billy Bob and Rikako have a bitter argument and stop talking. And then Billy Bob has a fight with Yutaka as well.
Fast forward to a year after graduation. Billy Bob meets Yutaka again and they make up. And there it is suddenly revealed that Billy Bob liked Rikako too! Except I totally didn’t see that at all in their interactions right until the end. You might say it’s subtle, but this is way beyond subtle and well into virtually-nonexistent territory. They basically just bitched at each other for 1 hour and that meant they were in love?
Well anyway, the ending has Billy Bob and Rikako meeting again at a train station. It’s stated that Rikako has finally gotten the stick out of her *** and stopped being a giant *****, so maybe things will work out between them. I didn’t know what to feel about all that because I just didn’t see the mutual attraction, but whatever. Good luck with that, guys.

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