Inu-Oh: a rock opera spectacle

I’ve seen a fair few anime movies this year, and Inu-Oh quickly became my favourite. It’s a historic rock opera fantasy movie directed by auteur Masaaki Yuasa, best known for The Tatami Galaxy, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

While the majority of his works are psychedelic and bizarre, Inu-Oh strikes a happy medium with its creative visuals and streamlined story, the latter of which has plenty of heart and easy to decipher meanings and messages for everyone to enjoy.

Inu-Oh is based on the book Tales of the Heike: Inu-Oh by Hideo Furukawa, and it’s inspired by a real 14th century Japanese figure. While we’ve had a few opportunities to watch it on the big screen here in the west, the movie debuted at 2021’s Venice International Film Festival, and bagged a nomination for the Venice Horizons Award. This latter point is noteworthy, as it’s the first time an anime has ever been nominated for this award.

It also won the Feature Film category at the Bucheon International Animation Film Festival’s international competition. So it’s certainly critically acclaimed — but it’s still a long way from the appreciation it deserves from mainstream audiences. So let’s look at why it’s worth your attention.

Visually breath-taking, narratively intriguing

Inu-Oh was fully released outside of the Venice Film Festival on May 28 of 2022 and, for my money, achieved what Belle failed to do. As yet another music-focused anime movie — one of several that released in our cinemas this year — Inu-Oh packs excellent visuals, gorgeous vocal tracks and a charmingly appealing storyline that makes the entire package an unforgettable experience.

Clocking in at just over an hour and a half, its story follows Inu-Oh who is born impaired, and is treated as a monster due to his appearance. The adults around him cover him up, and as a village outsider, he observes the art of dancing from a distance, picking up a keen interest in it.

Eventually, as Inu-Oh does his best to keep himself entertained on his own, he crosses paths with the story’s other main character: the blind biwa player Tomona. The pair instantly become the best of friends and strike a deal to form a duo, intending to obtain notoriety by performing tales of the Heike clan within Genji-controlled territories. I knew my otome gaming hobby would pay off one day. (PC Engine fans will be right in there, too – Ed.) This partnership opens lots of doors for the pair, allowing them to keep the stories of the past alive while discovering the truth behind their disabilities.

The two stars of the movie are Mirai Moriyama as Tomona and Avu-chan as Inu-Oh. You may know the former as Jesus from Saint Young Men or perhaps even the Champion of Justice from Fish Story, one of the greatest Japanese movies ever. The latter, meanwhile, is the leader of JRock band Queen Bee, and the performer behind music heard in Dororo and Tokyo Ghoul:re. Even if you don’t plan checking out Inu-Oh itself, be sure to take a look at Avu-chan’s musical output; she’s incredible.

Being true to your own unique qualities

The structure of the movie is an intriguing one. Its first act is very slow with the clear intent to effectively setting up the world, character motivations and plot threads involving a variety of side characters. The ball begins to well and truly roll once the two main characters first meet, and then all the musical performances start to appear, almost playing out back-to-back until the final couple of scenes wrap up the previously established story.

This chaotic progression may not to be everyone’s liking, but sticking with it provides plenty of great payoffs — with one of the best being the clever reveal of the main antagonist.

Studio Science SARU has gone above and beyond for the visuals of the movie. There’s a certain scene that makes particularly striking use of camera panning, and is especially notable in how it captures the sheer excitement of Inu-Oh’s impending performance. It’s very well timed as part of the climax of the movie, where the main duo give their final performance.

Other scenes are highly imaginative, providing a feeling of settling down and being told a story, as characters indulge in lengthy monologues about past events.

Obviously, the greatest scenes in the movie are the performances. Each one captures the essence and authenticity of the musical unit, and highlights how the years they spend performing together help them be consistent with their own sound. All of them are stunning, and just one listen to the vocal tracks will leave you unable to forget them.

Matching the gorgeous production of the musical numbers, the visuals are delightfully fluid and creative to help maintain a sense of energy. Its very first number, Burial Mound of Arms, helps prepare you for the rest of the movie and its evolving stage shows. They continually increase in grandness as the duo become all the more famous — and the modernisation of the choreography even brings to mind more recent artists such as Michael Jackson.

Everything about Inu-Oh leaves a strong impression, be it Taiyo “Ping Pong” Matsumoto’s character designs, or the sound direction of Eriko Kimura (Devilman Crybaby, Tiger & Bunny, The Tatami Galaxy). Even its splendid music, reportedly drawing influence from prog rock legends Foreigner, Queen and Deep Purple, complements the modernisation of the story’s presentation, including flashy spectacles and crowds singing and dancing in unison.

This constant mixing of old and new makes Inu-Oh feel truly unique, truly capturing the messages it hoped to deliver to us. It wants us to never forget or replace the truth about the past — and for us to embrace who we are for our own distinctive characteristics, whatever they might be.

It may be too late to catch this one in cinemas now, but it’s definitely worth watching when it becomes available for home viewing. It’s one of the most distinctive anime movies to have come out in a while, and I sincerely doubt we’ll see anything quite like it again for a long time to come.

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