It has been announced that the visual book "Ocean Waves THE VISUAL COLLECTION" (Two Virgins), for Studio Ghibli's "phantom masterpiece" feature-length animation "Ocean Waves," will be released on October 25th. The animation was produced by Studio Ghibli as a TV special and aired on Nippon TV on May 5th, 1993, and now, after about 31 years, a visual book is being released.
The series is based on a novel by Saeko Himuro that was serialized in the anime magazine Animage (Tokuma Shoten). Set in Kochi and Tokyo, the film depicts the irreplaceable days of the protagonists Muto Rikako and Morizaki Taku, two high school boys and girls. The anime was produced under the name of the Studio Ghibli Young Production Group, with the young staff of the time, including director Mochizuki Tomomitsu, animation director Kondo Katsuya, and art director Tanaka Naoya, coming together. Since its first broadcast in 1993, it has been passed down as a masterpiece, and in recent years, it has been "rediscovered" by young audiences, mainly through the Internet. It was re-released in theaters at Bunkamura Le Cinema Shibuya Miyashita in Shibuya, Tokyo in March of this year, and became a hot topic as it became a long-running hit.
The visual book includes the film story, which is written with the best 30 cuts selected by Director Mochizuki, color illustrations, character settings, art settings, as well as about 140 illustrations by Kondo, including unused ones, drawn during the original serialization in "Animage". Character rough drafts drawn before the serialization and valuable materials from that time are also included from Kondo's sketchbook.
At the end of the book, there are posters, flyers, covers and jackets of past products, merchandise, etc. There are also interviews with Director Mochizuki, Kondo, and Producer Nozomu Takahashi.
A4 size, 160 pages. Price: 3,520 yen.