Taku is a young man at a train station in Tokyo when he spots a familiar face on another platform.

It’s a delicate, well-told drama that may lack the depth of something like “Only Yesterday” but proves that Miyazaki and Takahata’s students were listening to their teachers.ĭirected by Tomomi Mochizuki and written by Kaori Nakamura (from a novel by Saeko Himuro), “Ocean Waves” is a story of memory and love. With an incredibly short running time (72 minutes) and deceptively simple story, “Ocean Waves” could feel like a footnote in the Ghibli story but it features qualities of its own as well. Reportedly sprung to life as an opportunity for some of the younger animators at Ghibli to spread their wings, “Ocean Waves” is the first Ghibli film not directed by Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, although one can see the fingerprints of both gentlemen on the final product. “Ocean Waves” was broadcast on Japanese television in the early ‘90s, but has been hard to find in the United States since then. viewers with an animated drama from one of the most important film companies in history (now in limited release in NY).

Earlier this year, GKIDS released a restored version of Studio Ghibli’s rarely-seen and masterful “ Only Yesterday,” and they end the year in a similar fashion, digging into the vaults to present U.S.

Animated ocean waves