Ocean Waves, known in Japan as I Can Hear the Sea (Japanese: 海がきこえる, Hepburn: Umi ga Kikoeru), is a 1993 Japanese anime coming-of-age romantic drama television film directed by Tomomi Mochizuki and written by Keiko Niwa (credited as Kaoru Nakamura) based on the 1990–1992 novel of the same name by Saeko Himuro.

The film is set in the city of Kōchi, and follows a love triangle that develops between two good friends and a new girl who transfers to their high school from Tokyo.

Ocean Waves was an attempt by Studio Ghibli to allow their younger staff members to make a film reasonably cheaply.

In the same year, a TV drama was produced mainly based on this work starring Shinji Takeda and Hitomi Satō.

In Kōchi, Taku Morisaki receives a call from his friend, Yutaka Matsuno, asking to meet at their high school.

After exploring Tokyo and catching up on sleep at the hotel, Taku receives a call from Rikako asking to be rescued from her former boyfriend, Okada.

The film is based on Himuro's novel which was first serialized, with illustrations by Katsuya Kondō, from the February 1990 to January 1992 issues of Animage magazine.

Their motto was to produce "quickly, cheaply and with quality", but ultimately it went over budget and over schedule,[2][3][4] and Mochizuki claimed he developed a peptic ulcer because of stress.

[7] The website Animé Café gave the film 4/5 stars, noting it to be "A graceful and mature offering from Ghibli's younger generation".

Following its initial premiere, the movie was released on VHS and Laserdisc by Tokuma Shoten on June 25, 1993, through the "Animage Video" imprint.

[15] Disney originally had the rights of distribution of Ocean Waves in United States,[16] but they never released the film onto any home media platform, likely due to its more mature content when compared to most Ghibli movies.

In 2016, GKIDS announced that they would release Ocean Waves in limited North American theaters starting on December 28 of that year and expanding during early 2017.

[19] The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by GKIDS on April 18, 2017, with only the Japanese audio with English subtitles.