Tuesday, March 17, 2020 — 6 Arts The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Two-and-a-half months in, and 2020 has given the world a lot of things to consider. An impeachment. The rumblings of war with Iran. A whack-as-hell primary season. An online- school-inducing, business-closing, all-around- scary pandemic that maybe makes reviewing theater-exclusive movies a public health hazard? But never mind all that. The first quarter of 2020 has also given US-based anime fans some interesting, maybe perplexing, things to chew on: namely, a trifecta of water-themed fantasy teen anime movies, only months apart. This aquatic trio started off in January with Makoto Shinkai’s “Weathering With You,” a movie featuring a mythical “sunshine girl” with the ability to dispel rain. The end of April, barring postponements, will bring Ayumu Watanabe’s “Children of the Sea,” which tells the tale of two young boys raised by dugongs (yes, by dugongs). But in February and March, in the midst of global strife and confusion, anime and surfing fans alike can take some measure of glee in the US release, “Ride Your Wave,” from the famously idiosyncratic director Masaaki Yuasa (“The Night is Short, Walk on Girl”). Seemingly the hot new thing to do after the record-breaking success of Shinkai’s “Your Name,” “Ride Your Wave” tells a syrupy love story between two budding adults set to a soundtrack of bubbly J-pop tunes. The love story part is pretty standard romantic fare: college student and avid surfer Hinako (Rina Kawai, “Ajin: Demi-Human”) meets firefighter Minato (Ryota Katayose, “Ani ni Aisaresugite”) after he saves her life in the course of his manly- man firefighting duties. As they bond over their shared appreciation for omurice, pop music and finless porpoises, the film swiftly falls into a procession of tried and true romance scenes that may be too cloying or cringey for some viewers: handholding, tandem surfing, starlit walks and even some PG-13 sexy times. “Ride Your Wave” takes said “bubbly J-pop tunes” from the “Your Name” formula a step further. Where “Your Name” and “Weathering With You” had Radwimps, “Ride Your Wave” has the boy band Generations from Exile Tribe. One of its seven members is even the voice of Minato, and their song “Brand New Story” figures heavily into the film, shifting between diegetic and non-diegetic as Hinako and Minato alternately sing along. This may prove overbearing for some (you hear “Brand New Story” just about a hundred times), but it serves as an interesting plot element — it’s not just there to underscore the romance and maritime themes. You see, “Ride Your Wave” isn’t just a love story. It’s only after the first act that you get to the sunshine girl, raised-by-dugongs element, but it’s there. In a selfless at-sea rescue attempt, Minato loses his life. But he’s not really gone! Any time Hinako sings “Brand New Story,” his spirit manifests in some nearby quantity of water, whether it be a river, a simple glass or a big inflatable porpoise (that last bit leads to a cute parody of the aforementioned standard romantic fare). It’s here that the film begins to prove itself as a brand new story. The film’s not so much about Hinako being saved by the manly-man firefighter, or even really about their love at all. It’s about grief, grappling with loss, learning to move on. About finding one’s own strength to be a better version of themselves. In short, it’s about riding your own wave. Pretty on the nose, right? That’s also the film’s biggest flaw. It won’t let the audience figure this out, despite it being the actual title. Instead, it inflicts a fusillade of cheesy, water-themed lines like “I just don’t know in which way I should be paddling,” “if you stay with your head underwater, you’ll never learn to ride the waves,” and “the next wave is always just on the horizon, waiting to be caught.” At one point Minato tells Hinako that he “can be like (her) harbor.” Google tells me that “Minato” does, in fact, mean harbor in Japanese. And as fun and refreshing it was to see a romance movie about grief set to scenes of dancing porpoises possessed by ghost boys, the film doesn’t handle this tonal balance well; the shifts from gooey romance to quirky grief story to all-out-fantasy in the final act come off as uneven and a little confused. That being said, it is a romance story about a ghost boy possessing an inflatable porpoise. Uneven, overwrought and way on the nose, yes — but fun, gutsy and incredibly earnest as well. Pair this earnestness with the soft, delicate and easy-to-look-at animation style, along with the giga-jolt of optimistic and effervescent J-pop, and “Ride Your Wave” isn’t the worst thing to watch in the middle of a pandemic. ‘Ride Your Wave’ dips its toes in love and loss alike JACOB LUSK For The Daily TOHO Megan Thee Stallion intended on dropping Suga on May 2, her late mother’s birthday; however, the project was released prematurely on March 6. Suga was supposed to be an attempt at a debut album following her rising popularity as a 2019 XXL Freshman with last summer’s mixtape, Fever. “I’m still working on my ‘album,’” Megan said during her most recent interview on The Breakfast Club. She bent her fingers into air quotes around the word “album.” “I had to hurry up and put out an EP.” So why the rush? On Mar. 1, Megan Thee Stallion took to Twitter with #FREETHESTALLION. She revealed that her record label, 1501 Entertainment, was blocking her from releasing music. Not fully understanding the onerous terms she signed onto as a 20-year-old, Megan attempted to renegotiate her situation, only for 1501 to freeze further music releases. She filed a lawsuit against 1501 the next day to try to get out of the contract. Megan points to her label not being up to par with industry standards. The lawsuit claims that her label attempted to “literally do nothing, while at the same time taking for themselves the vast majority of Megan’s income from all sources.” A Texas judge granted her a temporary restraining order that forbade 1501 from blocking Megan’s future releases. Despite the legal tribulations and corresponding change in Suga’s release and structure, the nine-track EP is a minor win for Megan. Her struggles echo those of many other women of color in music, such as Kelis and SZA. And Megan’s level of candor is just as rare as it is admirable. Suga is just as thematically defiant as its existence. The opener, “Ain’t Equal,” is hard- hitting and determined. Megan raps over a fast-paced, abrasive trap beat and isn’t fazed by the conflict between her and her label. “Bitch, I been popping, doing numbers, been lit / And since the n**** think he made me, tell him do it again,” she raps at the end of the second verse, an obvious shot at 1501 label CEO Carl Crawford. The third verse is just as scathing and unsubtle: “Ni***s tryna get some fame off my name, that’s a shame / When I started making money, that’s when everybody changed, huh.” Despite her label’s attempt to take credit for Megan’s efforts, she knows her merit and worth. Starting Suga off with “Ain’t Equal” emphasizes Megan’s realness, her inability to give into peer pressure and scrutiny. The rest of the album is classic Hot Girl Meg. Despite not as many obvious shots at her label, her creativity and unapologetic sexiness shine through to show 1501 Entertainment exactly who they’re messing with. “Savage” goes toe-to- toe with the sound of Fever. The track rides off the classic southern rap sound that established her. “I’m that bitch (Yeah) / Been that bitch, still that bitch (Ah),” she raps in the intro. The rest of the lyrics stick true to that sentiment, often referencing her past songs. “Bad bitch, still talking cash shit,” she raps in the first verse, an obvious allusion to her summer hit with DaBaby, “Cash Shit.” “Captain Hook” is raunchy and graphic, down to the title. Following a year in which she’s been romantically linked to various other artists and athletes, the song is fitting — she is confident in her sexuality and doesn’t care what the media has to say. She puts it simply: “I like to drink and I like to have sex.” The nearly three-minute-long track packs an onslaught that lets Megan’s deft lyricism shine in all its R-rated glory. The EP harkens back to the Southern influence and self-awareness of Fever, but Suga doesn’t run the risk of being too similar to its predecessor. Alongside Megan’s classic Southern sound, there’s some West Coast flair. Most notably there’s “B.I.T.C.H,” an homage to West Coast legend Tupac Shakur. Using the same sample of Bootsy Collin’s “I’d Rather Be With You,” the song flips the sentiments of Shakur’s “I’d Ratha be Ya N.I*.*.A” on their head to better fit the song to her situation. Whereas Shakur sang a song of devotion and striving for a relationship the other partner doesn’t have faith in, Megan isn’t one to beat around the bush — she’d rather be called a bitch than involved in an uneven relationship that gets nowhere. Despite the change from her classic sound and demeanor, Megan sounds assured and in her element. Her uncharacteristically breathy vocals carry the sensual, synthy layers and West Coast bass brilliantly and with ease. The elements carry on into “Hit My Phone,” a collaboration with Kehlani. Whereas “B.I.T.C.H” is more of a banger, “Hit My Phone” is a funky slow track. The song is fun, sexy and addictive with a sticky chorus. Meg is bittersweet on ‘Suga’ DIANA YASSIN Daily Arts Writer 300 ENTERTAINMENT ALBUM REVIEW ALBUM REVIEW FILM REVIEW Suga Megan Thee Stallion 300 Entertainment Ride Your Wave Michigan Theater Science Saru Productions Read more online at michigandaily.com