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REVIEW: WAVE!! Let's Go Surfing




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Zhou-BR



Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 1419
PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 11:40 am Reply with quote
Because I force myself to check out every sports anime, I watched this thoroughly mediocre show all the way through, but I can't recall what was the twist in the finale that tried to explain spoiler[Sho's baffling "suicide by surf"]. What was it again?
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 604
PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 1:33 pm Reply with quote
spoiler[He was in the crowd watching, still alive. Why? Who the fudge knows! But it made an already-cheap twist even more meaningless!]
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jtron



Joined: 03 May 2012
Posts: 183
Location: Chicago
PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 1:47 pm Reply with quote
This, this is good. So glad you're writing for ANN.
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MagicPolly



Joined: 26 Nov 2020
Posts: 1566
PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 2:10 pm Reply with quote
When the film series was first announced, I was really excited to watch them at some point. After reading reviews and the story of the gacha game, I'm staying very far away from this series unless I feel masochistic.
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1491
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 2:59 pm Reply with quote
Caitlin, your reviews for these niche multimedia cashgrab shows are some of the best I've read on this site as of late, and yes, that includes the Nekopara review I brashly made an assumption on before actually sitting down and reading it. Even in the more harshly worded portions - which, based on your experience, I'm sure are well-deserved - I don't feel completely put off by them. I don't plan on watching WAVE!! anytime soon, if at all, but if I ever do, I at least know how to approach it thanks to that. Keep up the good work!
all-tsun-and-no-dere wrote:
spoiler[He was in the crowd watching, still alive. Why? Who the fudge knows! But it made an already-cheap twist even more meaningless!]

Clearly he faked his death to teach Masaki a lesson about what not to do in such a situation. Clearly. Rolling Eyes
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Zhou-BR



Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 1419
PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 3:18 pm Reply with quote
all-tsun-and-no-dere wrote:
spoiler[He was in the crowd watching, still alive. Why? Who the fudge knows! But it made an already-cheap twist even more meaningless!]


Oh, I thought spoiler[it was just his ghost or something like that].
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 604
PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 11:46 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for the kind words, jtron and Takkun4343!

I didn't find this in time to put it in my review but apparently the Blu-ray sold only 154 copies. That's a hilarious flop by any metric, which would explain why they chose to euthanize the game instead of fixing it.


Last edited by all-tsun-and-no-dere on Sun Jun 20, 2021 12:01 am; edited 1 time in total
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MagicPolly



Joined: 26 Nov 2020
Posts: 1566
PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 11:59 pm Reply with quote
all-tsun-and-no-dere wrote:
Thanks for the kind words, jtron and Takkun4343!

I didn't find this in time to put it in my review but apparently the Blu-ray sold only 154 copies. That's a hilarious flop by any metric, which would explain why they chose to euthanize the game instead of fixing it.

Ouuuuuuuuuch. Yeah, this is a really interesting story of a massive flop. Though part of me wonders if things might have been different if it was a bishoujo series rather than a bishounen one (or maybe the lackluster effort would have killed it either way).
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joeydoa



Joined: 30 Dec 2014
Posts: 121
PostPosted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:07 pm Reply with quote
I totally didn't get the twist that the reviewer alleges in the anime. I really enjoyed it thoroughly and while watching I thought this really flows like a movie - maybe that would've been more ideal - in fact it was a movie makes so much more sense. I had this as one of the seasons best anime and totally didn't get the cash grab aspect. I'm a guy who really enjoyed it - counter to the reviewers assertion it is for girls who want to watch cute guys (which I usually avoid). Anyone who enjoys surfing and the surfing lifestyle should definitely seek it out - think Big Wednesday for the junior high crowd.
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noblesse oblige



Joined: 22 Dec 2012
Posts: 277
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 11:06 pm Reply with quote
It’s unfortunate that WAVE turned out so bland and uninspired. I was excited at the prospect of all these extreme sport anime, but it may be more accurate to call it a merchandising anime with an extreme sport skin.

The scriptwriter, Fudeyasu Kazuyuki, has a positive history turning questionable multimedia projects into genuinely funny, low budget animations like Miss Monochrome and Wooser’s Hand to Mouth Life. It seems some cash grabs are unsalvageable.

Also of note...I don’t think I’ve ever seen Asahi Productions as the lead animation on an anime before. They’re mostly a PR company. Whenever I see them in anime credits it’s usually as production assistance or in-between animation or something like that.

I guess this is what happens when creative talents don’t have ownership of their work and to survive they have to work on projects that are essentially just investments for some financial institution’s portfolio. On the bright side, they probably still made money off it taking the loss as a tax deduction. Hooray capitalisms.
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