Trivia / Ocean Waves

• Creator's Oddball: Is the first made-for-TV movie they've done and the first film to not be directed by either Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, but rather by a younger staff member. Tomomi Mochizuki. The effort was considered unsuccessful.
• Colbert Bump: Eliquorice's essay on the film caused interest in the film to skyrocket after remaining largely in obscurity prior.
• Completely Different Title: The film's original japanese title is Umi Ga Kikoeru or I Can Hear the Sea. Outside of Japan though, it's called Ocean Waves.
• Genre-Killer: The film Is Studio Ghibli's first and for years, only made-for-TV film due to how much of a disaster the film's production was. It would be nearly 3 decades before Ghibli would attempt another one in the form of Goro Miyazaki's Earwig and the Witch in 2021.
• Late Export for You: It took around 23 years for the film to get a release outside of Japan and in the US with the film originally releasing in May 1993 in Japan and than in the US via GKIDS on December 2016.
• No Dub for You: The only Ghibli film to not get an English Dub. It did get a Spanish one however.
• Referenced by...: A poster for this film, prominently showing Rikako, can be seen very briefly in Pom Poko at around the 16:20 mark.
• Troubled Production: The film was originally intended by Ghibli to be a cheap and quick TV film to train their younger staff members by letting them work on their own film, however the film ended up going over schedule and over budget and the project even caused its director, Tomomi Mochizuki, to get peptic ulcer disease due to how stressful it all was. Ultimately, the production ended up being a disaster that caused Ghibli to not do such a project again for several decades afterwards.

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