![]() ![]() They like her for completely arbitrary reasons and project their idealized fantasies onto her. ![]() None of them know much about who she actually is as a person - besides the main two guys none of them have even spoken to her. The boys obsess over Rikako despite the fact that she has never said a nice word to them. In this movie the teenagers are hormonal. She has moved to a new town where she doesn't know anyone and doesn't fit in, and she is seemingly being ostracized by the other girls at school. But to put her life into perspective, she is a teenager going through puberty while coping with the divorce of her parents. She has little empathy or self-awareness and has little regard for how her action will affect those around her. She is immature and selfish, making decision purely driven by emotion. Yes, Rikako acts like a pretty terrible person. They complain that Rikako is a "bitch" and that Taku is spineless for putting up with her shenanigans. Most of the negative reviews I've seen for the film mention that they dislike the characters. This film is like the antithesis of the typical teen film - it clearly draws attention to the fact that the drama was all overblown and unimportant. ![]() Watching teen movies, I've always felt like I was watching a cartoonish exaggeration of reality and I usually find myself thinking "all of this drama is completely unimportant in the grand scheme of these characters' lives". I have always disliked the teen romance genre, because it has never reflected my own experiences. I was very surprised to find that the film is really good. Opinions I had read of the film online ranged from mostly ambivalent to negative, so I never felt that compelled to watch it despite being one of the very few Ghibli film's I'd never seen. I just watched Ghibli's Ocean Waves, after years of ignoring it. ![]()
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