Inu-Oh review: Anime’s wildest creator is back with a weird, joyous rock opera

Given the free-spirited and forward-thinking nature of Masaaki Yuasa’s animation work, what makes his latest work interesting is the dog king, Start by looking back. Co-Founder and Director of The Science Saru studio Don’t touch Eizouken! When ride the waves Over Centuries in the First Minute dog king, which begins in modern times and rewinds hundreds of years in one place, where buildings are dismantled before the viewer’s eyes. This fast-paced deconstruction and reconstruction of history is just a small part of what’s to come. The film packs a lot into its compact running time. Explore the hidden and false histories of art and authoritarianism, dog king is an evocative, even depressing exploration of where these two elements overlap and collide. This is a psychedelic, bombastic rock opera, but in all its energy, Yuasa explores what kind of narrative fails as more dominant elements of society seek to control how art is created and distributed. I will ponder whether I was taken.

Yuasa has done music sequences before. mind gameextended play farce The night is short, walk-on girllooking back on lost loved ones ride the wavesHowever, traces of these past projects can be felt everywhere, dog kingit’s still fresh and original as it focuses on the director’s quirks and a shocking revisionist history that’s joy and tragedy at the same time.

Based on the novel by Hideo Furukawa. Heike Monogatari The basis for Naoko Yamada’s excellent anime adaptation (also known as Science Monkey), the film is set in 14th-century Japan during the Muromachi period, following the devastating Genpei War of 1180-1185. The clan works relentlessly to secure its power, quietly burying the Heike clan by controlling its history and censoring stories about it.

Young Tomona, one of the film’s two main protagonists, finds an artifact that reacts violently to their presence while taking a commission out to sea in search of Heike treasure. Tomona then loses her father and her sight, and soon after, her mother is also grieving. While preserving her Heike story through song, Tomona travels alone as a biwa monk. He soon encounters the exiled Inuoh (translated to “dog king” – the first time he was seen dining with hounds). Hiding face. Inspired by vague legends around a real Noh performer of that name, the film expands on scarce information and imagines Inuoh as a social outcast whose true achievements have been brushed off from the historical record. rice field.

The first meeting between the two immediately feels meaningful due to the way Yuasa uses his subjective perspective. Inuoh’s eyes are characterized by a sort of keyhole camera that shoots through streets and rooftops, terrorizing onlookers. It’s a parody performance of a monster, who reconciles to banishment by leaning into his alienating behavior. Tomona is calmer. His adaptation to the loss of sight is painted with broad oil paint his brush his strokes. While paying close attention to the details of people’s lives, Yuasa finds minor musicality in everyday activities. Appear.

It’s an early testament to the strength of visual storytelling, even in the euphoria of the film’s music. They learn from each other — Tomona takes in some of Inuoh’s wild spirit, and Inuoh picks up on Tomona’s sensitivities. At the time, it was common for traveling piwa monks to stage Heike tales, but together the two reinvented and revitalized this trend. When they meet the spirits of the deceased Heike, they find new stories to tell.

They find purpose in singing and acting out their clan members’ stories in a new style, and the film quickly digresses to its delightful premise: What if Beatlemania happened 600 years ago? ‘s Akiko Nogi imagines two outsized reactions to Inuoh and Tomona’s popularity. The public goes wild, and the government becomes suspicious, fearing overthrow, when music begins to spread a history that the government has consciously suppressed. dog king We also enjoy the liberation of pure performance.

Image: GKIDS

As a director, Yuasa is best known for the thrilling rubber-band flexibility of her characters and the way they seek the same kind of uplifting freedom that Inuoh and Tomona seek. dog kingYuasa, and Nogi have similarly liberated traditional Japanese performing arts from expectations of tradition. dog king It blends the more contemporary experiences of Noh and pop culture. Inuoh sings with a sharp high note (provided by Avu-chan of the band Queen Bee), and Tomona complements him with an equally grimy vocal (actor Mirai Moriyama). Electric guitar sounds are used in place of traditional instruments, and two men add Freddy’s Mercury-esque showmanship to his performance on stage. “Bohemian Rhapsody” lyrics and borrowed operatic harmonies.

Instead of a classic dance drama, the film’s musical sequences look like modern gigs, complete with light shows, crowd participation, and even black-clad security guards. Beyond the vocal track, the rest of the score maintains this playfulness, as instrumentalist and turntablist Yoshihide Otomo injects electronic sounds into the feudal environment.

Like a movie remaking a historical drama into musical theater, Inuoh and Tomona transform into rock stars in a Noh theater. Behind his back or while Tomona shreds a pipa with his teeth like Jimi Hendrix or spins like Elvis, he wears the king’s iconic rhinestone jumpsuit with flared legs and a deep V neck at his neck. He wears a biwa monk’s vest modified to resemble a pipa monk. He then wows the crowd with his androgynous fashion sense, confusing the Governor. Depictions of crowd reactions are anachronistic, like peasants breakdancing and dancing. soul train line. On the other hand, while Inuoh’s appearance was once despised and feared, his status as an artist reveres and mythologizes those same qualities. As he soothes the spirits of the Heike, Inuoh’s body also changes.

Image: GKIDS

While Yuasa enjoys Inuoh’s unconventional physicality, impossible dance moves, and angelic voice, he’s also heavily involved in the technical logistics and effects work for the concert, so it’s no wonder that the mechanics It feels completely real. He tricks the audience into looking for magic, as if they were watching a real stage performance. It’s a really amazing fantastical effect that gives the movie that extra immersion.that’s the only way dog king Even the patchwork look of the film’s on-screen title, which recreates the cobbled fabric of Inuoh’s ragged masquerade, shows a keen interest in different textures and perspectives from across history. I’m here. .

Yuasa builds his films through mixed media, exploring space with 3DCG animation or more tactile and pictorial imagery. Stage acts aren’t the only focus of the film. There are several slasher his types of horror his interludes, such as a mysterious figure sneaking up on a roaming biwa monk to kill him, as well as an out-of-body experience and some memories. 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It also rhymes in terms of Yuasa Devilman Crybabywith performances of Inuoh and Tomona’s rapport and fluid gender, pushed back to match Devilman CrybabyXenophobia Exploration. But rather than an eccentric, otherworldly look, DevilmanAkira and Ryo were designed by Taiyo Matsumoto. Ping Pong: Animation) dog kingThe characters feel both highly stylized and rugged humans. The stylization focuses on beauty, as the camera admires Tomona (now Tomoharu) and her lithe, muscular form and provocative rotational movements.

The two musicians are also witnesses to a hidden history, and there is something pathetic about them. dog king Because it tells the tale of the dead. Director Yuasa throws art against an oppressive government, but the film isn’t naive about the ceiling of such candor. I feel It’s both a tragic afterword to the end of the Heike reign and perhaps Yuasa’s rumination on the impact his work left behind, perhaps a lingering thought for any artist. The story concludes with a vision of the priest and the storyteller. The branches of history are severely cut by those who want to reconstruct the final product.But there are glimmers of optimism dog king Nonetheless, it is a story of growing beyond their creators, beyond anyone’s oppressive control, in the act of artists living for themselves, in the immortality of creating works that endure.

dog king It will be released in American theaters on August 12th.