Life is art and our bodies are the canvas – A review of Inu-Oh

”And they’re being very brave and they’re investing a lot in these changes, especially these ones that are not reversible, which most of them aren’t. I say, go ahead. This is an artist giving their all to their art.” – David Cronenberg (1)

My favorite anime of all time is Ping Pong the Animation. This is a statement I say proudly and daringly, because I’ve put a lot of thought into why that is the case. Rewatching it earlier this year confirmed it for me more than ever. This is to explain why I find the works of Masaaki Yuasa so important.

I try to avoid idolizing artists, especially directors. Because directors don’t make art like anime on their own. Art like that is a collaborative effort of many passionate and talented people coming together. But with Masaaki Yuasa, I find his ability to find those people very impressive.

It’s peak.

Be it Devilman Crybaby or Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, I’ve kept a close eye on Yuasa’s works and enjoyed them. His most recent work I was the most interested in was Inu-Oh.

I waited quite a long time for an opportunity to see Inu-Oh in theaters, but the opportunity never rose. I try to see as many anime films as I can in local theaters, to support the importing of more varied anime movies near me. For example, I went to watch both the Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen movie in theaters, despite lacking interest in those works otherwise. Seeing well animated movies on the big screen is a treat on its own, despite what I think of the source material.

How am I supposed to laugh? There is no Zoro!

After all my wait for Inu-Oh I am happy to report that it greatly succeeded my expectations. As I thought, it had some of the most interesting art direction in an anime film I’ve seen, which I’ll elaborate on later. Alongside that I was happy to see one of the most beautiful stories of creating art with one of the greatest scores I’ve heard. Inu-Oh is a film about art that perfectly captures the beauty of the creation of art in multiple mediums.

For a short synopsis of the plot, Inu-Oh takes place in 12^th century Japan, a time after the Heike clan and Genji clan’s decisive Battle of Dan-no-ura. On the beach of where the battle took place, a young child and his father are tasked with retrieving a sword that was carried by the child emperor as he drowned. The father and child are not aware of the power of the sword, as it robs the father of his life and the child of his sight. On the now blind child, Tomona’s, search of answers he finds a troupe of blind biwa players. As he joins their ranks, he dons the new name of Tomoichi.

The blinded Tomoichi, now as a biwa player.

Meanwhile, a Noh family troupe’s third child is born. However, that child is born deformed, with his father hating him enough for him to be forced to always wear a mask. This doesn’t stop the child from being inspired seeing his siblings dance and begins practicing himself. The blind Tomoichi then meets the deformed child, not fearing his appearance, and they befriend each other. In this moment the deformed child calls himself Inu-Oh. Inu-Oh first tells Tomoichi that he can see his dead father’s spirit, and then notices countless spirits of Heike warriors, who want to tell Inu-Oh their stories. Now Inu-Oh and newly named Tomoari begin their own dance troupe, telling the stories that the dead can’t tell.

Their fateful encounter

If you have a particular interest in queer readings of stories like I do, you have quite a few bells ringing in your head already. And if you can from that guess where the story goes, I am happy to tell you that you are right and you should go watch Inu-Oh immediately. I am about to go into a deeper reading and review of the film and will describe later plot points, so you have been warned for spoilers from now on.

First, I would like to talk about how Inu-Oh has portrayed a blind hero of a story better than any I’ve ever seen. Often the question between whether a film is live action or animated is the question, which medium can tell the story better. Quite often critics, and admittedly I, watch animated films and at the end we think “this could have just been live action.” Animation doesn’t need a specific reason to exist, but animation as a medium can bring to live stories that couldn’t be told otherwise, and we yearn for those stories to be told.

Inu-Oh perfectly gives a reason for it to exist in animation. The way the film portrays Tomoari’s blindness is something only an animated film could do. In the film we see things from the point of view of the blind Tomoari, so instead of seeing the way people who aren’t blind can we see abstract shapes and colors of what Tomoari smells, hears and feels. The way Tomoari’s “view” of things change as he feels them in different ways is breathtaking and an innovative way to display such things. Scenes such as Tomoari and Inu-Oh’s first encounter where he feels parts of the latter to try and understand what his deformed limbs are a part of is magnificent.

Tomona reading text through feeling. At first, the images are blurry, as it’s based on what he hears and imagines, but as he begins to touch it, the object takes form for the viewer.

Inu-Oh’s physical disability is beautifully captured on screen through animation at first. As you may first be scared or confused as to what he is, as you get to know him more you begin to see his disadvantages as strengths. The dances Inu-Oh performs as beautifully animated, and him pretending his real limbs are props to not make the audience not scared of him is upsetting, but another element that makes the portrayal of the marginalized that much more realistic.

My beautiful son.

The musical performances bring us to the performers in the film. The difference in how Japanese animation and western animation treat their voice cast is quite well known and often joked about. If you’re invested in anime at all, you most likely know the pedigree of the Japanese voice acting industry, the amazing performances that come from them and often perfect casting. Whereas in western animated movies there is a trend to cast whoever has a big name and no voice acting ability to bring in viewers.

Unrelated image.

Inu-Oh however is another example of how often even anime films do not cast notable voice actors. Inu-Oh’s scornful father is played amazingly by Kenshiro Tsuda, but that’s about it for recognizable names. Though as the credits rolled my girlfriend was elated to tell me of Inu-Oh’s voice actor. Avu-chan is the talented artist who brough the titular king of dogs to life. I was fascinated to learn of the intersection of Avu-chan’s identity as a transgender person of African American descent living in Japan. And when it comes to casting, I feel someone like Avu-chan is the perfect choice to tell the story of Inu-Oh, as I think the story of the movie is about people of intersectional prejudiced backgrounds telling their stories.

”Inu-Oh is very similar to me, so I really wasn’t that conscious about showing myself through my performance. I was able to play the character straight. I only realized when you brought up that we’re both not public about our personal stuff, but that is a good point. Although I show my face and Inu-oh doesn’t, we both prioritize the performance and our skills over everything else. We give it our all through that, so in that sense, we’re kindred spirits.” – Avu-chan (2)

I was even half as cool as they are.

The story of Inu-Oh, as said before, takes place around 13^th century Japan. As portrayed in Inu-Oh and Tomoari being a noh dancer and biwa player respectively. However, as the duo take the stage, what is closer to hair metal is heard in the music. Tomoari also dons the look of an androgynous glam rock star, performing in a way that would make 1970s parents worried if their child was listening to such a person. Through this contrast, the very formal performance art of Japan is challenged by the punk aesthetics of Tomoari and Inu-Oh.

In this artistic way Inu-Oh portrays counterculture to traditional Japanese arts in a way that’s easy for foreigners to understand as well. Artistic shorthand like this is often used in the movie, which leaves very little to dialogue heavy monologues, and instead shows what is happening in compelling ways.

And people thought Elvis’s hip thrusts were too much.

As mentioned previously, Inu-Oh himself has a deformed body. He wears a mask to hide his face and has one extremely long arm. These physical features that at first get him ostracized by his village end up as his powers, as he reclaims them on stage. Inu-Oh builds a suit that makes it seem like his one large arm is a prop that he is using to not scare the onlookers, but through masking this feature of himself is able to perform in ways nobody except he could. At the end of each performance, Inu-Oh’s body begins to morph. He begins to have what society would consider a normal body, as he is literally reclaiming his role as an ordinary person like any other through his performance. This could be compared to olden carnival freak shows, where people with what society considered to be physical faults were made to perform for them. Though unlike those, Inu-Oh performs because it’s what he wants to do and has a message to say.

The flamboyant and gender defying performances both Inu-Oh and Tomoari put out in very expressive outfits you wouldn’t expect of such a period piece also harken back to things such as drag performances. Drag shows were originally invented specifically by black trans women, to use their gender identity as performances to make a living. Through making their identities what is hip and cool with the village, Tomoari and Inu-Oh make a slice of society for themselves to live in. Though like many arts invented by people in lower echelons of society, it hardly ever stays as the art of the people who invented it.

Of note is also the communal form of their art. They unite people no matter their origin to be part of their art.

What most directly upsets the audiences of Tomoari and Inu-Oh is their battle against the Japanese folklore canon. As Inu-Oh can communicate with the fallen soldiers Heike warriors, his performances revolve around telling their stories that the government has whitewashed to create their own version what truly happened. This is another example of the communal beauty of marginal art. Inu-Oh and Tomoari both understand what it means to not be accepted by the society that shunned the dead spirits of the Heike warriors, so they take it on as their mission to bring to light what truly happened to them.

The government won’t have this though. After the final performance of Tomoari and Inu-Oh they are both threatened. They can no longer perform as themselves or tell the stories of the Heike warriors. Both characters then take a different approach to this, as Tomoari sacrifices himself, as he isn’t himself without the art he creates with Inu-Oh. But Inu-Oh himself agrees to join the lord’s troupe and tell what the government has deemed the real story of the Heike. This heartbreaking climax almost paints Inu-Oh as cruel, but then the narrator tells us of how Inu-Oh and his stories were completely forgotten by time, almost like the real story of the Heike. In the end, neither of the two heroes are remembered.

In the end, both of our heroes are forced to submit in different ways.

Until the end reveals to us that the narrator was Tomoari, who has now gone back to the name of Tomona. Earlier in the film, Tomoari’s father begged him not to change his name, as he, his remaining family, would forget him and not be able to follow him. Then the familiar voice of Inu-Oh calls out to him and points out how he would have found him sooner if he had kept his name the same. This shows us how the bad end of our heroes came from them not being true to themselves, Inu-Oh continuing to perfrom not as himself, and Tomoari going back to his birthname rather than living on as Tomoari. I don’t think I need to elaborate on how easily Tomoari choosing to stray from his family given name to be true to himself in the end can be read.

Now as spirits the two of them can be reunited and play once more, as their true selves.

I cried.

Inu-Oh is one of the most exceptional movies I’ve watched in a long time, if it wasn’t obvious from the previous 2000 words I poured into explaining it. I think the film is a must watch for fans of animation, as I can’t think of any other film that so beautifully uses the art of animation to tell a story only it could tell. Inu-Oh, like its titular hero, has made its body into an art piece, being one of the purest stories of creating art. I have previously explained quite a lot of the movie’s story but left out bits and pieces. This is to make you more interested in it, as my own words aren’t quite enough to portray how truly beautiful the story is to see animated. I hope as the movie inspired me to make my own art, the writing you have just finished, the movie will inspire you as well to create your own art.