General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Ocean Waves (海がきこえる)

Ocean Waves (海がきこえる, Umi ga Kikoeru, literally "I Can Hear the Sea") is a 1993 Japanese animated television film produced by Studio Ghibli, directed by Tomomi Mochizuki and based on the novel of the same name by Saeko Himuro. It follows Taku Morisaki, a university student in Tokyo who recalls his high-school years in Kochi and his entanglement with the transfer student Rikako Muto and his best friend Yutaka Matsuno.¹^•² It was the first Ghibli film not directed by Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, and it was made largely by the studio's younger staff as a deliberate training and succession project.³^•⁴

Key fact	Detail
Original title / English title	海がきこえる (Umi ga Kikoeru) / Ocean Waves¹
First broadcast	Nippon Television, May 5, 1993, 16:00–17:25, as a TV special¹
Running time	About 72 minutes per Studio Ghibli's official page; allcinema lists 82 minutes¹^•⁵
Director / script	Tomomi Mochizuki; script by Kaori Nakamura (now Keiko Niwa)¹^•⁴
Original novel	Saeko Himuro, serialized in Animage from the February 1990 to January 1992 issue⁶
Principal cast	Nobuo Tobita (Taku Morisaki), Yoko Sakamoto (Rikako Muto), Toshihiko Seki (Yutaka Matsuno)¹
Format	16:9 vista aspect ratio, shot on 35mm with stereo sound, unusual for a 1993 television production⁷
Music / theme song	Shigeru Nagata; theme song performed by Yoko Sakamoto¹

Spoilers

Story and setting

The film is a flashback romance. Taku Morisaki, now a university student in Tokyo, glimpses a figure who looks like Rikako Muto on the opposite platform at Kichijoji Station, although Rikako was supposed to have gone to university in Kochi. On the flight back to Kochi his memories return to the summer two years earlier, when Rikako, a beautiful student accomplished in both study and sports, transferred from Tokyo. Taku's best friend Yutaka Matsuno falls for her, but Rikako keeps drawing close to Taku himself, and the two end up on a trip to Tokyo together, where Taku learns of the problems in Rikako's family after her parents' divorce.²^•⁵

The story is set in Kochi City on Shikoku and in Tokyo. Taku's high-school life unfolds mainly around his home and school in central Kochi, including landmarks such as Harimayabashi with its streetcar and Tenjinbashi bridge over the Kagami River, while the Tokyo scenes widen the stage to include the daily lives of the other characters.⁸^•⁹ Producer Nozomu Takahashi has described the film as a kind of time capsule of Kochi as it looked thirty years ago.⁹

Production

A young-staff project. In May 1992, while Porco Rosso was in dubbing, Studio Ghibli had no next feature scheduled and considered pausing feature production for a year. Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki instead agreed on a plan for a film they would largely keep their hands off, entrusting it to young staff. Suzuki proposed the source: Himuro's Umi ga Kikoeru, which had run in Animage from the February 1990 issue to the January 1992 issue; an editor at the magazine, Sanae Mitsugi, was a fan of Himuro's work.⁶ The project was made as a Nippon Television 40th-anniversary program with the studio's young staff at its center.⁵

The director was Tomomi Mochizuki of Ajia-do Animation Works, who had long hoped to adapt Himuro's work; character design and animation direction were by Katsuya Kondo, a former Ghibli staff member; the script was by Kaori Nakamura of the Animage editorial staff (now known as Keiko Niwa). Nozomu Takahashi, a Ghibli staff member, produced for the first time.⁴ Mochizuki had previously floated anime-adaptation proposals for the novel to Suzuki several times without result.¹⁰ It was the first work produced at the studio's newly completed building in Koganei.⁶

Format. Although made for television broadcast, the film was produced in the 16:9 vista aspect ratio used for theatrical films rather than the 4:3 of terrestrial television at the time, shot properly on 35mm with stereo sound. Takahashi explained the decision as preserving the work for the future: had it survived only in 4:3, he said, it would now look dated. Mochizuki recalled that many decisions were made through discussion among the staff rather than by his own fiat.⁷

Reception and later releases

The film aired on Nippon Television on May 5, 1993.¹ It was long one of the studio's less-seen works outside Japan; GKIDS gave it a limited United States theatrical release in 2016, and the Roger Ebert website's review notes it as the first Ghibli film directed by neither Miyazaki nor Takahata while observing traces of both in the finished film.³ On Rotten Tomatoes it holds an 89% Tomatometer against a considerably lower 63% audience score.¹¹ Within the studio's catalog it stands out for depicting everyday life rather than the fantasy that characterizes most Ghibli films.⁹

Interest in the film revived decades later. A first-ever teach-in screening with Mochizuki and Takahashi was held on April 19, 2024, at Bunkamura Le Cinema Shibuya Miyashita in Tokyo, thirty-one years after the first broadcast. A limited run in Tokyo cinemas in 2024 drew a large response, and in 2025 the film was scheduled for release in 172 cinemas nationwide.⁷^•⁹

Related works

Himuro wrote a sequel novel, Umi ga Kikoeru II: Ai ga Aru kara, and a live-action television drama of that title was broadcast by TV Asahi on December 25, 1995, starring Shinji Takeda, Saki Takaoka, and Yoshihiko Hakamada, with a script by Kei Hei Ogawa.¹² A further sequel was anticipated but did not materialize after Himuro died on June 6, 2008, at the age of 51.¹⁰

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 1932 to 1998

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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