Japan Synopsis
海がきこえる
At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite boarding a train. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. Picking it up, he looks at it briefly before leaving. As the aeroplane takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life…
Audience Engagement
750 audience reviews — more than 96% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 88th percentile among Japan films.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Ocean Waves. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Studio Ghibli
Animation + Drama in Japan
730 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Animation and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Ocean Waves itself).
The 1992–1994 Japan Window
Ocean Waves holds position #76 of 112 Japan films in the 1992–1994 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
#1Furuhata Ninzaburo
★ 8.8 · 1994
#2Slam Dunk
★ 8.6 · 1993
#3Yu Yu Hakusho
★ 8.6 · 1992
#4Magic Knight Rayearth
★ 8.5 · 1994
#5Sailor Moon
★ 8.4 · 1992
#6Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Overture to a New War
★ 8.3 · 1993
#7Ranma ½: The Movie 2 — The Battle of Togenkyo: Rescue the Brides!
★ 8.1 · 1992
#8Sailor Moon R: The Movie
★ 7.9 · 1993
The 1990s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1990s in Japan, 447 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Ocean Waves premiered alongside 34 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 34 other Japan films in 1993.
The 922nd Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Ocean Waves, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- high school reunion · 3
- romantic · 3
- unspoken love · 2
- ambiguous · 1
- falling in love · 8
- anime · 711
- japan · 454
- friendship · 134
- love · 123
- tokyo · 78
- surrealism · 34
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #3,258 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (29th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is -0.5 points below the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Animation productions specifically: #2,041 of 2,532 (top 81%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Studio Ghibli, Tokuma Shoten, J.C.STAFF, Nippon Television Network Corporation |
| Runtime | 1h 12m |
| Release Date | May 5, 1993 |
| IMDb | tt0108432 |