Ride Your Wave (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray & DVD) Unboxing

Ride Your Wave (きみと、波にのれたら, Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara) is a 2019 original theatrical anime film by director Masaaki Yuasa, writer Reiko Yoshida and studio Science SARU. The film was released theatrically in Japan in June 2019.

Background:

“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?”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, December 2020.

Masaaki Yuasa has worked on a whole bunch of interesting and diverse projects over the years. There’s the adaptations of Tomihiko Morimi’s novels like The Night is Short, Walk on Girl and The Tatami Galaxy, original films like Mind Game and Lu Over the Wall, and with Inu-Oh getting released in 2022, Ride Your Wave is now a few years old which is a weird feeling.

I first watched Ride Your Wave as part of the Japan Foundation Film Programme back in February 2020 and felt it was a solid film, though my expectations were mixed given the direction of the story. Visually it’s still as good as his other works, but I remember watching the film comparing it to Lu Over the Wall for some reason.

Ride Your Wave is also in a pretty unique position. The film was licensed by Anime Limited, whom have acquired many of the director’s works and are a fan of him, for the UK & Ireland while in North America GKIDS took the mantle and provided an English dub. The film getting a dub is a big deal considering a majority of the director’s work are subtitled only with some exceptions like Devilman Crybaby, Lu Over the Wall and while it didn’t receive one at first there was also a dub produced for The Night is Short, Walk on Girl over time.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Like most of the Yuasa titles released by Anime Limited, Ride Your Wave is another film that receives the collector’s treatment.

This package offers a rigid box that houses the film with a digipack. Also included is a 24-page booklet and 7 vinyl stickers. The booklet includes pieces written by Andrew Osmond, Shelley Pallis, Jonathan Clements and a comment by the director himself. However, my copy’s booklet is defective as the first half was duplicated so the director’s comment section isn’t there.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray & DVD combo pack is limited to 1000 units for an SRP of £34.99. A standard edition Blu-ray is also available as it was released on the same day as the collector’s set.

While I didn’t pre-order the film, and it was also included in their Blue Mystery Box bundle for 12 Days of Christmas 2021, I finally acquired it from a discount on Zavvi (Amazon did price-match but they had no stock).

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with clean artwork and digipack packaging
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 24-page Booklet
• 7 Vinyl Stickers

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 14th December 2020

The collector’s edition release for Ride Your Wave contains the film on a single Blu-ray and DVD disc using the GKIDS encode/author. The audio options available are Japanese with English, French & Spanish subtitles and the English dub with English Hard of Hearing subtitles.

The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B and DVD players set to 2.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English, English HoH, Spanish, French
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	1 BD-50

DVD Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1
Video	Standard Definition in NTSC format 1.78:1 aspect ratio
Region	2
Subtitles	English, English HoH, Spanish, French
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	1

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

• Animatics
• Gallery
• Interview with Eunyoung Choi
• Trailers & TV Spots

DVD On-Disc Extra Features:

• Animatics
• Gallery
• Interview with Eunyoung Choi
• Trailers & TV Spots

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Ride Your Wave is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition Blu-ray & DVD combo pack can be ordered on Amazon UK and Anime Limited’s store.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)