Popular reviews

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  Review by Rosie Knight 5

  psychedelic gay glam rock opera romance with monsters whats not to love?

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  Review by esther ★★★★½ 17

  absolutely spectacular. i think my favorite Yuasa is still Devilman Crybaby but this is his most stylistically sophisticated work to date. certain visual touches (specifically the way the film depicts the perspectives of blind characters) are just ingenious, and the performance sequences only get more and more breathtaking as the film goes on. i absolutely adored this film.

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★½

  Masaaki Yuasa has long established himself as one of the most creatively unbridled minds in all of modern animation — his expressionistic films (“The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl”) and television shows (“Devilman Crybaby”) alike exude a shape-shifting fearlessness that allows them to address old strifes with new sensitivities — but not even his die-hard fans could hope to adequately prepare themselves for the head-scratching, jaw-dropping, head-banging freak-out of the director’s latest and potentially last feature, “Inu-Oh.” An anime rock opera about a blind 14th century biwa player who becomes a massive star after teaming up with the “uniquely talented” Noh performer who lends the film its title (read: a hideous demon from hell who hides his disfigured face…

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  Review by flowerstemms ★★★★½

  I'm adding this movie to my gender identity

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  Review by reibureibu 25

  Something I've found in Yuasa's most inventive works, as unfair as it sounds, is that by inundating the viewer with psychedelic imagery for the entirety it exhausts the viewer and stylistically starts to become redundant; truly suffering from success. So it's high compliment to Yuasa when I say that this is perhaps my favorite animation he's done, visually-inventive while vacillating between the surreal and the real which lets the beauty of each half play out in full without ever wearing thin.

  It is also his work that is the most audio-focused, for better and for worse. Other reviewers aren't wrong when describing it as a literal concert movie, and if you're not prepared for that it can be strange to…

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  Review by mesrayures 1

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  i too would go ham if Queen toured in feudal japan

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  Review by merritt k ★★★½ 1

  We love to see freaks winning and shitty dads exploding don’t we. The boys should have kissed tho

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  Review by cinemonika ★★★★★ 1

  So much better the 2nd time around, mostly because it’s such a complex story with tons of layers and history that I could now underatand it more and grasp it as a whole even more. Honestly in awe of the animation style, THE MUSIC, and how unique and original it feels. A breath of fresh air and like no other anime movie I’ve seen! It felt so grand, so powerful, so fun. I really can’t stop thinking about it.

  Also it was such a treat to watch it with Masaaki Yuasa in the audience followed by a Q&A. I even met him and was able to tell him how much I love his movies 🥲 10/10 experience, will never forget it.

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  Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★ 3

  Yuasa Masaaki continues his winning streak: he’s probably been the best director in the world over the past five years, or at the very least the most productive great director. Since 2017, he has produced three acclaimed TV series (Devilman Crybaby, Japan Sinks 2020, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!) along with four feature films: the definitive One Crazy Night romance Night is Short, Walk on Girl, the off-beat Little Mermaid variation Lu Over the Wall, the heart-breaking post-romance Ride Your Wave and now Inu-oh, a medieval rock opera about the power of rock and roll to connect us to our past, find our true selves, and help us overcome our terrible fathers.

  Review at Seattle Screen Scene.

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  Review by Tony Gupta ★★★★★

  not even a minute in, Yuasa hit a match cut time-lapse through 600 years IN REVERSE. and i knew this was the one that i’d been waiting for my entire life. dudes… rock.

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  Review by Corwyn ★★½ 10

  Unfortunately, this never comes close to the promise of its fascinating "14th century Japanese rock opera" logline.

  The music here is the film's greatest asset; indeed, it may very well be its sole asset. It also ends up being its greatest liability. The songs are good, but they also go on entirely too long; a fact made worse considering the characters are performing them for audiences, so the songs themselves aren't moving the narrative forward; what they're singing about doesn't really matter much.

  The biggest problem with this movie is that, at some point while you're watching it, you're going to realize there isn't really a story. At one point, our blind protagonist befriends a cursed creature named Inu-Oh, and…

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  Review by Natalie ★★★★½

  Fellas, is it trans to be considered monstrous by normative society because your appearance doesn't conform to the standards and then find acceptance through your undeniable talents that help others see you as you truly want to be seen, while your best friend and implied queer lover finds freedom in experimenting with their gender expression and choosing a name for themselves rather than living by the obligations others impose on their namesake?

  Absolutely jawdropping expression of animation throughout this, from the ways it empathetically depicts blindness in a visual medium to its lush and captivating performance sequences. Gripped my heart, broke it, and made it whole again in a way that feels utterly special. One of the best this year—a comforting reminder that those that mean the most to us will always remember us by our true names, that we will never be lost to them so long as they keep the truest memory of us alive.