Inu-Oh (犬王) is an animated Jidaigeki ( Japanese period film ) musical directed by renowned director Masaaki Yuasa, whose long list of credits include Eizouken, Mind Game, Ping Pong The Animation, Devilman Crybaby and many more. A little while back I was lucky enough to watch the film and then attend a Q&A session with the director, both of which I enjoyed and I wrote about it here.

The Birth Of Inu-Oh (「犬王」誕生の巻) is a pocket sized visual guide/artbook for the film which, despite its diminutive format packs quite a punch with its contents, notably a very good collection of character design sketches by manga artist Taiyo Matsumoto, together with some select storyboards, background art and Masaaki Yuasa’s colorful drawings of his production workflow and thought processes.

As a musical inspired by the traditional Japanese performing art Noh, and a Jidaigeki at that, this film will probably interest only a specific, narrower demographic, but I really enjoyed it, in particularly Masaaki Yuasa’s unique brand of visual flourishes and Taiyo Matsumoto’s character designs. This small but bountiful visual guide is perfect for exploring these fascinating designs. Recommended.

There’s actually another book titled Inu-Oh Animation Guide that seem to cover some of the same contents as this book and seems to be pretty cool as well, but I’ve yet to see the contents in person so I cannot vouch for it’s quality. Probably worth checking out though !

Lastly, the Japanese blu-ray for Inu-Oh is set to be released in December 2023, but as usual for Japanese home video the prices are too steep for me, so I’m hoping the US distributor for the film GKIDS will release an English edition soon !

“The Birth Of Inu-Oh Visual Guide Book 劇場アニメーション「犬王」誕生の巻” details :

– Dimensions – 14.2 x 1 x 21 cm
– softcover, 128 pages
– Full color, in Japanese language

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