From Studio Ghibli, the team that brought us Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, comes Ocean Waves [Umi ga kikoeru], an underrated gem that has never been available before on DVD outside of Japan. Ocean Waves was the first Ghibli production not directed by the studio's creators Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Directed instead by Tomomi Mochizuki, best known for his work on Here is Greenwood and Kimagure Orange Road: I Want To Return To That Day, and made with the colloboration of up-and-coming animators from the Ghibli studio. The film is therefore very much a product of the nurturing, teaching environment that the old masters had always envisaged the studio being.

Ocean Waves is a look back at the halcyon teenage years of Taku as he journeys to a high school reunion, reflecting upon the way on love, friendship and a fateful class trip to Tokyo. Fusing a naturalistic neo-realist style with nostalgic recollection of the anxieties of first love, it is an accomplished and hugely enjoyable addition to the Studio Ghibli cannon.

Ocean Waves will be released on UK DVD on 25th January 2010 from Optimum Home Entertainment at the RRP of £19.99. In japanese with English subtitles, the only listed extra is a trailer.