Ride Your Wave

Play trailer

1:31

Ride Your Wave

2019

1h 34m

Comedy

Anime

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

93%

Tomatometer

30 Reviews

84%

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.

Watch on Max

Stream Now

Tim Cogshell

FilmWeek (LAist)

Charming! Perhaps overly so in some ways.

Aug 13, 2020

Full Review

Christy Lemire

FilmWeek (LAist)

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

Aug 13, 2020

Full Review

Tasha Robinson

Polygon

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.

Aug 6, 2020

Full Review

Julian Singleton

Cinapse

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.

Jul 12, 2025

Full Review

Grant Watson

Fiction Machine

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

Rated: 7/10

Apr 11, 2021

Full Review

Julian Lytle

idobi.com

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

Rated: 9/10

Aug 14, 2020

Full Review

Read all reviews

Phursang G

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

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/10/25

Full Review

Jude C

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

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/07/25

Full Review

Audience Member

A movie that always brings tears, beautiful

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/12/25

Full Review

Joshua G

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

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

08/22/24

Full Review

Audience Member

Mi opinión es simple es bastante común , predecible y para nada profundo , una historia más que junta realidad y fantasía , que toma los elementos necesarios para que un público se hunda en un mar de emociones , elementos que puedo decir que se dan de acuerdo a la historia y de acuerdo a lo que pide el público, espere muy poco y recibí lo que espere . Eso si la animación una belleza.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Just surfing through life. A romance anime that I found on HBO Max. The animation for this movie was gorgeous and cute. The look of the ocean and waves were so refreshing. It just made me feel relaxed and happy watching this animation. This movie had a one of those montages of a couple that would make you feel sad that you're single. The romance was cute and I enjoyed watching the relationship. As for the story, something major happened midway that required the main character to move on. There's a big element of fantasy, but not one that I haven't seen before. The plot was pretty typical of a drama dealing with death and moving on, so there wasn't too many surprises. Also, the emotion wasn't as high as I wanted, probably because of the typical storyline and the light tone. The characters were pretty okay and not unexpected. The main characters were focused mostly, and the two side characters wasn't delved into as much. Overall, beautiful and refreshing animation made for a pretty enjoyable romance drama. 7.5/10

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Masaaki Yuasa

Director

Ryôta Katayose

Hinageshi Minato

Rina Kawaei

Mukaimizu Hinako

Ride Your Wave: Trailer 1

1:31

View more videos

View more photos

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
Production Co: Science Saru
Genre: Comedy, Anime
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 4, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA): $330.6K
Runtime: 1h 34m

Most Popular at Home Now