Watched Ocean Waves for the first time and liked it. Why do so many feel the opposite?

Neil.T said:
Personal opinion only, but Yonebayashi is easily my least-favourite Ghibli director. I find Arrietty rather stuffy and stilted and, for me, even Ghibli's always-impressive artwork is lacking in Marnie. There's also Marnie's lack of convincing characterisation.

Marnie: Let's be best friends!
Anna: Right. Okay.

Again, personal opinion only.
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I do wonder if that can be, at least partially, explained away by the fact that Marnie's entire existence isn't convincing - at least in the sense that the interactions with Anna were real and not a figment of her imagination.

I like Ocean Waves well enough - it's merely good, nothing more and nothing less. It's definitely one of the least essential entries in the Ghibli canon.

My top 10 would be:

1. Grave of the Fireflies
2. Princess Mononoke
3. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
4. Only Yesterday
5. Spirited Away
6. My Neighbour Totoro
7. Whisper of the Heart
8. Nausicaa
9. Laputa
10. Howl's

Or something like that anyway! I'd slot in Future Boy Conan if it counted.
 
Girls wIth Guns said:
But have you seen the animation quality of RWBY Volume 5 yet? It's nothing to sneeze at now... (no spoilers in this vid):

RWBY: Volume 5 Yang Character Short
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That does actually look a lot better, genuinely happy to see people improving. I think I'll always be a little sour on RWBY because it was recommended to me by a couple of friends who wouldn't shut up about how great it was - I lasted all of three episodes before the shoddy 3d modelling and animation made me switch off (as someone who is studying and hopes to one day find employment in that field, the realisation that people were paying for Blu-rays of RWBY would later virtually give me a Stressed Eric style aneurysm). Then when Bloom Ruby met Stella Yang and went to Alfea College Beacon Academy and started chatting to Prince Sky Jaune Arc I couldn't shake the feeling this all seemed a bit familiar. Maybe it got better, I dunno. But I don't feel in any particular rush to find out. Maybe one day they can go back and reanimate the older episodes so I can face watching them. I always feel kinda bad criticising it too, since so many people seem to love it.
 
Just re-watched Ocean Waves and
whilst Rikako certainly seems like a calculating b**** at first with the borrowing of the money by lying and maybe even making friends with Yumi just so she could use her in her plan, there is a degree of sympathy for her circumstances that made her do it with her parents splitting up and having to move to a place which is made out to be a massive step down from Tokyo in a lot of ways. A bit of personal experience probably means I sympathise more than other people, although I didn't have to move away at least.

I found that the backgrounds were nicely detailed, but a lot of other technical things were a little off, especially compared to the rest of the Ghibli films, but I guess this was made on a TV budget by relative newbies.

As good as it was to see the cast grown up the reunion section was a little odd. Why did Rikako suddenly decide to go to Tokyo, surely she knew the reunion was happening and that Taku was likely to be there, but I suppose it made for a good bookend with the 2 scenes at the station.
 
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In my somewhat ********ish opinion, there are two types of Ghibli fans: those that fall in love with the magical eye-candy and sense of adventure of Miyazaki's films, and those that enjoy the grounded drama focused on in the films other directors did... well, three since some are in-between, but whatevas, you feel me.

Nausicaa aside (and she, really, is something of a bug-loving Mary Sue), Miyazaki never places much value in characterisation, and that was most evident to me when comparing Laputa to Nadia (Nadia having been directed by Anno of psychological breakdown NGE fame). I loved Princess Mononoke but found it hard to connect with most of his other films.

Ocean Waves on the other hand I 9/10'd, way back when, after it came out on DVD. I was even inspired to review it, based on how underappreciated it struck me as being. It needed another 20 minutes after the timeskip, was rough around the edges due to trainee staff, etc... yet there was something far more real to me about the heroine's selfish bitchiness and a friendship breaking down over a girl than I'd seen in other Ghibli films, bar Only Yesterday and Whispers of the Heart.

In more recent years, Marnie impressed me by being kinda like the antithesis of Miyazaki's work: dealing with social anxiety in a very down to earth way, right from the beginning. Just a pity Mary and The Witch's Flower opted to be a knock-off of Miyazaki, rather than continuing on from Marnie. Not that I don't understand why: only Miyazaki-esque Ghibli works have any hope of selling. And not much without Miyazaki's name attached, although I think he must have sent his remaining fans to sleep with Wind Rises--a very alien attempt at the great man trying to direct a character drama and failing to make my give a toss.
 
Another ranking just popped up on my YouTube suggestions (video is a bit spoilery):
Remember worst to best:
Tales from Earthsea
My Neighbors the Yamadas
From Up on Poppy Hill
Porco Rosso
The Wind Rises
Pom Poko
Ponyo
The Cat Returns
When Marnie Was There
Howl's Moving Castle
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Whisper of the Heart
Ocean Waves
My Neighbor Totoro
Castle in the Sky
The Secret World of Arrietty
Princess Mononoke
Kiki's Delivery Service
Only Yesterday
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Spirited Away
Grave of the Fireflies
 
Geriatric hedgehog said:
lowest rated Ghibli - blasphemy!
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Not quite the lowest. There's 4 below Pom Poko, Yamadas, Earthsea and Ocean Waves.
Here's my old ranking from over 3 years ago!:
D1tchd1gger said:
The top 6 were fairly easy to pick and so were last 2, but the rest are so similar in quality that you have to think real hard to move them above or below others (and will probably be different if I did the same exercise in a few months):
  1. Princess Mononoke
  2. Only Yesterday
  3. Grave of the Fireflies
  4. Spirited Away
  5. My Neighbour Totoro
  6. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
  7. Whisper of the Heart
  8. Laputa: Castle in the Sky
  9. The Tale of Princess Kaguya
  10. From Up On Poppy Hill
  11. Kiki's Delivery Service
  12. Howl's Moving Castle
  13. Ocean Waves
  14. Arrietty
  15. When Marnie Was There
  16. Porco Rosso
  17. The Wind Rises
  18. Pom Poko
  19. The Cat Returns
  20. Ponyo
  21. Tales from Earthsea
  22. My Neighbours the Yamadas
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The Ghibli films is a simulwatch I want to do at some point. It's easier in some ways, because surely most people have them or access to them (Netflix), but harder because they're films.
 
Sorry to necromance but I was thinking about Ghibli as I watched Ronja the Robber's Daughter (which I absolutely adored and it's one of my all-time favourite Ghibli works) 🤔 😅

My favourites (TBH I did try ranking these but I like all of them about equally):

Kiki's Delivery Service
Only Yesterday
Porco Rosso
My Neighbour Totoro
Whisper of the Heart
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun

The rest of the ones I like ranked in order from really good to good

Castle in the Sky
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Howl's Moving Castle
Animal Treasure Island (I know this wasn't directed by Miyazaki but he did do a lot of the visual stuff)
Ponyo
From Up On Poppy Hill
Pom Poko
Taro the Dragon Boy (Isao Takahata is credited with original concept)
The Cat Returns
Gauche the Cellist

Didn't like

Arrietty
The Wind Rises
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

I need to see this again to give a properly informed opinion/haven't seen it yet

Ocean Waves - only seen it once and it was not my favourite nor a terrible film, I am considering importing the US BD as it has Ghiblies Episode 2 on it as an extra but that will have to wait as neither are top priorities for me, but I would like to see it again, I will say though that I think Tomomi Mochizuki has done better work than this with various non-Ghibli TV series that he directed
My Neighbours the Yamadas
Tales From Earthsea - haven't seen
When Marnie Was There
Earwig and the Witch - Haven't seen
Panda! Go, Panda!
Future Boy Conan/Heidi/Anne of Green Gables/Marco - have only seen about half of FBC and very little of the other three

Unrankable

Grave of the Fireflies - it's such a sad movie that while I do think it's brilliant I couldn't handle watching it very often and haven't upgraded my DVD of it to a BD yet for that reason
 
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I had to adjust my Studio Ghibli rankings a bit since I last did my list in 2017, and I also added Earwig and the Witch as an entry:

1. When Marnie was There
2. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
3. Princess Mononoke
4. Howl's Moving Castle
5. Only Yesterday
6. From Up on Poppy Hill
7. Porco Rosso
8. Whisper of the Heart
9. Ocean Waves
10. Tales From Earthsea
11. The Wind Rises
12. Laputa: Castle in the Sky
13. Grave of the Fireflies
14. The Secret World of Arrietty
15. The Castle of Cagliostro
16. Kiki's Delivery Service
17. Spirited Away
18. My Neighbor Totoro
19. The Tale of Princess Kaguya
20. The Cat Returns
21. Earwig and the Witch
22. Pom Poko
23. My Neighbors the Yamadas
24. Ponyo
 
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