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GKIDS Licenses Masaaki Yuasa's Ride Your Wave Film

GKIDS announced on Tuesday that is has licensed Masaaki Yuasa and Science SARU's Ride Your Wave (Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara) anime film for release in North America. GKIDS' website lists the film as "coming soon to theaters."

GKIDS describes the film:

From visionary director Masaaki Yuasa (The Night is Short Walk On, Girl, DEVILMAN crybaby) comes a deeply emotional new film that applies his trademark visual ingenuity to a tale of romance, grief and self-discovery.

Hinako is a surf-loving college student who has just moved to a small seaside town. When a sudden fire breaks out at her apartment building, she is rescued by Minato, a handsome firefighter, and the two soon fall in love. Just as they become inseparable, Minato loses his life in an accident at sea. Hinako is so distraught that she can no longer even look at the ocean, but one day she sings a song that reminds her of their time together, and Minato appears in the water. From then on, she can summon him in any watery surface as soon as she sings their song, but can the two really remain together forever? And what is the real reason for Minato's sudden reappearance?

Ride Your Wave opened in Japan on June 21 and ranked at #9 in its opening weekend. The film won the Best Animation Film award at the Shanghai International Film Festival's Golden Goblet Awards on June 23.

Reiko Yoshida (Lu over the wall, A Silent Voice, Liz and the Blue Bird) wrote the film's script, and Michiru Oshima (Patema Inverted, The Night is Short Walk On, Girl) composed the music. GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE performed the theme song "Brand New Story."

Source: GKIDS' website