Ride Your Wave

Charming! Perhaps overly so in some ways.

It's very sweet and it's very different in terms of its look for an anime.

Ride Your Wave winds up feeling like [Masaaki] Yuasa's richest and most adult film today, without ever losing track of the youthful wildness that makes his projects so special.

Despite the somewhat morbid premise, it's a comforting and serene approach to loss, Yuasa illustrating it with his usual mixture of glee and strangeness.

Doesn't constitute Yuasa's top effort, but it's inviting enough to persuade audiences unfamiliar with him to dip their feet and then fully dive into the profundity of his imagination, where wonder awaits.

The director, Masaaki Yuasa, is adept at stories and visuals where water is a major character.

It really is the art and design work that stands out. Yuasa has a keen visual eye, and a hugely distinctive aesthetic.

Ride Your Wave is a fantastic animated feature that can work over your feelings and a clear Best Animated Feature contender.

Masaaki Yuasa directs a film that presents life as riding a wave, filled with ups and down but also very beautiful.

Ride Your Wave is an adorable movie... My complaints are few and small when compared to how fun the entire movie is.