Inu-Oh Director Masaaki Yuasa Talks Japanese History And Rock 'N' Roll - Exclusive Interview

The most strikingly original and possibly the best anime movie of the year, "Inu-Oh" reimagines one of the founders of noh theater as a glam rock star singing the stories of dead Heike warriors to cure himself of a magical curse. Inu-Oh (the name means "king of the dogs") goes on his rocking tour of 14th-century Japan with a blind biwa player originally named Tomona (he goes by various different names over the course of the story). With incredible musical performances, stellar animation, and a story about speaking truth to power, "Inu-Oh" is yet another masterpiece from director Masaaki Yuasa, whose past work includes "The Tatami Galaxy," "Devilman Crybaby," and "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!"

Looper got the chance to speak with Yuasa in advance of the film's release on home video and digital platforms, which will also include the debut of its English dub. Speaking with us via an interpreter, Yuasa discussed a wide range of topics, including building connections between the fictional past and the real present, the ambiguous relationship between the film's main characters, and what other anime he's enjoyed the most this year.

One of the things that makes this movie unique is that both of the main characters have disabilities. What was your interest in dealing with this subject matter?

I wanted to have this really modern rock-and-roll music, although it's different. Everybody in this era doesn't even imagine that was actually played back then, but you never know. So the people would enjoy similar things, now and back then. I wanted to have that connection. [The] Muromachi era [was in the] 14th century. It's a long, long time ago, but maybe they enjoyed similar music [to what] we enjoy now.

In terms of [the] two protagonists, they had deformities or were physically disabled. Even in that era, 600 years ago, [it was] said that they could never be stars. It seemed impossible, but then they made it happen. They overcame their misfortune [and] their adversities. Back then, everybody wanted to be stars, these performing artists, and they had to have good music and good acts. And these two somehow [ended] up becoming stars together.

Some of the musical sequences in this movie are very long, almost mini-operas. "The Whale" is seven minutes long. "Dragon Commander" is 13 minutes. Is it harder to plan out the choreography for such epic songs?

Actually, it wasn't really difficult. Because we had to tell the story, each song had a story of the Heike clan. In order to tell the whole story, it was pretty much naturally long. Naturally, the music had to be long. Do[ing] that, wardrobe designing, [and] all these tricks that we made happen [were] a lot of fun. [With the] dance also, I didn't really find it difficult. It was more of [a feeling of] enjoyment.

What was challenging [was that] the music would be enhanced more and more and get more and more exciting. [When] the music goes up, we had to have [the] animation also go up higher and higher in terms of the passion and the enthusiasm. That was a little difficult.

Were there any songs or other scenes that got cut from the movie?

Not really. It was a lot to even just make the music that you hear in movies, so we didn't leave out anything.

Inu-Oh and Tomona play around a lot with gender presentation, and their music brings to mind queer rock stars, like Freddie Mercury. When watching the film, there were times I was wondering if the characters were gay lovers. Do you see their bond as romantic or just as friendship?

I actually avoided making it clear. I wanted it to be [a] gray area so whoever watches this movie can decide on their own. Just giving the personality to these characters — I thought that was enough.