GKIDS announced on Wednesday that it will release INU-OH, Masaaki Yuasa‘s musical anime feature film of Hideo Furukawa‘s Heike Monogatari: INU-OH no Maki (Tales of the Heike: Inu-Oh) novel, digitally on December 20 and on Blu-ray Disc and DVD with distribution by Shout! Factory on January 24. The home video release will include the film in Japanese with English subtitles and an English dub. The company streamed an English trailer:
The English cast includes:
GKIDS licensed the film, and it describes the film’s story:
Inu-Oh is born with unique physical characteristics, and the horrified adults cover every inch of his body with garments, including a mask on his face. One day, he meets a boy named Tomona, a blind biwa player, and as Tomona plays a delicate song of tangled fate, Inu-Oh discovers an incredible ability to dance.
Inu-Oh and Tomona become business partners and inseparable friends, using their creative gifts to survive on the margins of society, as song after song gain them notoriety and propel them to stardom. Through the songs, Inu-Oh mesmerizes his audiences on stage, and gradually begins to transform into someone of unequaled beauty. But why is Tomona blind? Why was Inu-Oh born with unique characteristics? It is a story about the friendship of Inu-Oh and Tomona, who dance and sing to get to the truth and break each other’s curse.
GKIDS began screening the film in U.S. theaters on August 12, and the movie earned US$97,062 on its opening day. The film screened in approximately 350 theaters. The movie earned US$293,754 in the U.S. as of August 18.
The film opened in Japan on May 28. ASMIK Ace released the film in Asia, North America, France, the U.K, and Benelux. ASMIK Ace and Fortissimo have sold the screening rights of the film to Sun Distribution for Latin America, Rapid Eye for Germany, Front Row for the Middle East, and Cinemaran for Spain.
Avu-chan of the Queen Bee rock band plays Inu-Oh, and Mirai Moriyama plays Tomona. Tasuku Emoto, Kenjiro Tsuda, and Yutaka Matsushige play Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Inu-Oh’s father, and Tomona’s father, respectively.
Yuasa (DEVILMAN crybaby, Ride Your Wave, Japan Sinks: 2020) directed the film. Manga creator Taiyo Matsumoto drafted the original character designs for the film in his second collaboration with Yuasa, who directed the anime of Matsumoto’s Ping Pong manga. Akiko Nogi wrote her first anime film after scripting such live-action works as I am a Hero, We Married as a Job!, and Unnatural.
The film won the The Satoshi Kon Award for Best Animated Feature at Montreal’s 26th Fantasia International Film Festival.
Update: Added English dub trailer.
Source: Press release
