Japanese production company Science SARU and production and distribution partner ASMIK Ace announced on Wednesday that Masaaki Yuasa will direct Inu-Oh, a musical anime feature film adaptation of Hideo Furukawa's Heike Monogatari: Inu-Oh no Maki (Tales of the Heike: Inu-Oh) novel.
ASMIK Ace describes the project's story:
Inu-Oh was a real-life figure, a Sarugaku Noh performer and playwright who was extremely popular in the 14th century. However, he is all but unknown to people nowadays, because very few documents about his life have survived. Now, around 600 years later, this Inu-Oh project portrays the tales of brotherhood between the legendary Inu-Oh, who vanished from history, and a certain Biwa player, and is full of music and dance sequences.
Manga creator Taiyo Matsumoto is drafting the original character designs for Inu-Oh in his second collaboration with Yuasa, who directed the anime adaptation of Matsumoto's Ping Pong manga. Akiko Nogi is writing her first anime film after scripting such live-action works as I am a Hero, We Married as a Job!, and Unnatural.
ASMIK Ace is presenting the project at Mifa, the market event tied to the 2019 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
Yuasa started as a key animator for such anime as Doraemon: Nobita's Animal Planet and The Legend of the Dog Warriors: The Hakkenden. He moved on to Crayon Shin-chan where he was animation director on a number of episodes, and did animation work on the franchise films.
He made his film director debut with the 2004 Mind Game film, and he went on to direct television anime such as Kemonozume, Kaiba, and Ping Pong. He has directed select episodes or specials of overseas series, such as Wakfu and Adventure Time.
Yuasa also directed the Kick-Heart anime short in 2013. He adapted Tomihiko Morimi's The Tatami Galaxy novel into an anime, and then directed a film adaptation of another Morimi novel, The Night is Short Walk On, Girl. Yuasa worked on the original film Lu over the wall, and recently directed the DEVILMAN crybaby anime series. The Night is Short Walk On, Girl won the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year, and Lu over the wall won the top "Cristal for a Feature Film" award at the Annecy International Film Festival.
Yuasa and Science SARU's new film Ride Your Wave (Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara) is competing at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June, before opening in Japan on June 21. Yuasa and Science SARU are also creating a Super Shiro anime spinoff from the Crayon Shin-chan franchise and adapting Sumito Ōwara's Eizouken ni wa Te o Dasu na! (Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!) manga into a television anime.
Source: Press release
Image © INU-OH Film Partners
