Director Masaaki Yuasa doesn’t do what you would think of as normal anime. He is known for trippy works which obey no law in the anime universe as seen in the previous Mindgames and Devilman Cry-baby animes. There are no big eyed, superhero tropes in Ride Your Wave , just real people with their own quirks.
Yet Ride Your Wave seems to be a standard romantic comedy set to the backdrop of Chiba, Japan’s surf town. New girl in town meets boy, falls in love…. What is special about it, is the way the director manages to capture all the little moments in life which shared with a special person becomes the little building blocks of a love story.
The blooming of coffee beans
Strumming on a Ukulele.
The simplicity of rolling waves.
Spoiler.. The song will definitely ‘get you’ by the end of the movie.