Inu-Oh: What to Know About a Legendary Anime DIrector's Upcoming Final Film

gamerant.com:

In the often-uniform world of anime, the most endearing projects are often those unafraid to experiment and march a little more to the beat of their own drum. While anime has had no shortage of its iconic directors ranging from Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, Satoshi Kon, Katsuhiro Otomo and more, one director who has truly stood out in the contemporary anime scene is Masaaki Yuasa. Known as the co-founder of the Tokyo anime studio Science Saru, as well as the director of works ranging from Netflix’s Devilman Crybaby to Ride Your Wave and Lu Over the Wall, Yuasa’s protean body of work is characterized by multiple styles and techniques, abstractly freewheeling plotlines and visuals, and a celebratory examination of the quirks of the human condition.

Across his career, Yuasa has previously directed four anime feature films as well as several cult-classic anime series like Kaiba and Ping-Pong the Animation. Much of his work is characterized by unique aesthetics, ranging from the hyperactive mixed-media of Mind Game to the saturated Flash animation of Lu Over the Wall and more—each of Yuasa’s films is a unique experiment that all manage to share the director’s distinctive touch. Although his contributions to anime as an art form have earned him renown in Japan and abroad, his most recent project is on record as marking his retirement from the industry. Described by its distributor GKIDS as Yuasa’s “parting statement” on the world of anime, the rock-opera Inu-Oh first premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, finally making its debut in Japanese theaters in late May of this year and currently eyeing an American wide-release this August. In taking a look at what we know about the movie, it’s plain to see that there’s a lot