Ride Your Wave

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1:31

Ride Your Wave

2019

1h 34m

Comedy

Fantasy

Romance

Anime

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

93%

Tomatometer

30 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

50+ Ratings

Surf-loving college student Hinako must find joy and purpose in life again, after a terrible tragedy results in the death of her firefighter boyfriend Minato.

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Tim Cogshell

FilmWeek (LAist)

08/13/2020

Charming! Perhaps overly so in some ways.

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Christy Lemire

FilmWeek (LAist)

08/13/2020

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

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Tasha Robinson

Polygon

08/06/2020

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.

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Julian Singleton

Cinapse

07/12/2025

Very much a film in the vein of recent animated tearjerkers like Your Name, Ride Your Wave is a slice-of-life that captures the magic of a budding love that manages to transcend the limitations of time and space.

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Grant Watson

Fiction Machine

04/11/2021

7/10

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

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Julian Lytle

idobi.com

08/14/2020

9/10

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

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Phoebe P

@Phoebe6 Jul 19

My daughter was influenced to watch this and asked me to join her. I was looking forward to some bonding time with this highly anticipated movie. We were both very disappointed. In the beginning, it had some promise. And then it just spiraled into a plot we just couldn’t follow. It gave us great laughs I guess.

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Jay W

@RT52162311 Jul 16

Stick with the plot synopsis: "A surfer and firefighter meet and fall in love." Don't watch the trailer or read any other description. That is all you need to know about the movie. This movie is so sweet. I was audibly saying "aww" so often. The best part of this movie is when it is doing the same old cliched romantic stuff, that when it goes in a strange new direction, I am kind of bummed out. The strange stuff is still good. I just wanted the movie to stay in its Opening to the Movie "Up" for the entire runtime.

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Phursang G

@RT59554907 Sep 10

The best animated movie for me. Love at its purest form.

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Jude C

@Judechelsea69 Sep 7

Can't believe after that DAMN Christmas scene with the building i still couldn't cry!

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hypmic T

@RT12909055 05/12/2025

A movie that always brings tears, beautiful

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Joshua G

@RT19089098 08/22/2024

Poorly paced, incoherent story-telling, terrible writing. Watch at your own peril.

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Masaaki Yuasa

Director

Ryôta Katayose

Hinageshi Minato

Rina Kawaei

Mukaimizu Hinako

Reiko Yoshida

Screenwriter

Eunyoung Choi

Producer

Minami Ichikawa

Producer

The Call of the Wild Is a Tame Journey to the Uncanny Valley

Ride Your Wave: Trailer 1

1:31

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Synopsis

Surf-loving college student Hinako must find joy and purpose in life again, after a terrible tragedy results in the death of her firefighter boyfriend Minato.

Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Producer: Eunyoung Choi, Minami Ichikawa, Masakazu Kubo, Kei Morita, Yuka Okayasu, Akihito Watanabe, Makoto Yamaguchi, Masaaki Yuasa, Masanori Yumiya
Screenwriter: Reiko Yoshida
Production Co: Science Saru
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance, Anime
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 4, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA): $330.6K
Runtime: 1h 34m