As a "made for TV" production with limited budget and time, created by junior staff of animators and creative folks, **Ocean Waves** is not a typical Studio Ghibli production.

The animation is still very good, with great set design and character animation. But it lacks subtle details that makes our jaws drop. Music is another casualty, unmemorable synthesizer score that I found distracting.

But to me, the most important things are the story and voice acting. And they are fantastic with a great deal of realism. It's Truffaut's **Jules and Jim** meets **From Up On Poppy Hill**. Due to short runtime (a barely over an hour long when you exclude opening and closing credits), each character is not as richly developed as I wanted. And the conclusion is rushed, leaving me wanting more. But what's on the screen works exceedingly well and I really felt for 3 principle characters.