The Spring 2021 Manga Guide

Ride Your Wave

What's It About? 

New college student Hinako, who moved to a small seaside town to surf and have fun, finds herself falling in love with firefighter Minato after he saves her from a fire. Their young romance comes to an abrupt end when Minato drowns…but in her grief, Hinako discovers that singing a song they used to perform as a duet summons Minato into the nearest body of water–be it a puddle, glass, or bathtub. Will Hinako be able to reach Minato again?

Ride Your Wave is a manga spin-off based on writer Reiko Yoshida and director Masaaki Yuaka's Ride Your Wave anime film. The manga is drawn by Machi Kiachi and Seven Seas Entertainment released the volume in print for $12.99

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Ride Your Wave is an interesting exercise in how projecting the story doesn't necessarily make it less good. That the romance between Hinako and Minato isn't going to have a traditionally happy ending is clear from the moment they start tossing around the word “forever” – this isn't a bodice ripper or a Disney film, and that means that it functions as a death flag waving grimly over the book. What will happen to Minato is also not hard to guess – sure, Hinako could have died in a fire (he's a firefighter), but having him drown when she taught him to surf is somehow more poetic, especially since he's clearly been in love with her for a long, long time.

But being able to guess what's coming doesn't make the story all that much less effective. It's definitely a case of not what the story is but of how it is told, and this manga adaptation of the novel (which also has a film) is surprisingly adept at grabbing ahold of the heartstrings and giving them either a gentle tug or a firm wrench. The plot, it turns out, is not just about a tragic love story, but about how finding someone you love and who loves you truly can inspire you to do bigger and better things, even if one day they're no longer standing beside you. Minato's loss ultimately helps Hinako to become a stronger person in a turn that's both beautiful and utterly depressing.

And yet…the whole thing still feels at least a little emotionally manipulative. Granted, any work that's aiming to play on your feelings is going to be that way, but the way that Hinako is given just a bit more time with Minato's ghost and yet weakens him each time she calls him from his watery grave is skirting an edge that I'm not entirely thrilled with. By relying on him she makes him weaker (in the sense of maintaining his presence), and that feels contrary to what he does for her. It's tough to really verbalize what my issue here is, but at the end, even after the two cute side stories from earlier in their courtship, I'm left feeling sad and empty. It's a triumph of the storytelling that it can do that, but it's not what I look for in what I enjoy reading.