Inu-oh
GKIDS | Release Date: August 12, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
ColliderChase HutchinsonAug 9, 2022
Ambitious yet focused, it is a film that draws from both history and fantasy that it then shapes via joyous music. The result is an epic that makes the most of its magic, eschewing the regrettably typical constraints of the form to become something that is both deeply reflective and beautifully realized. Read full review
90
PolygonKambole CampbellAug 18, 2022
It’s a psychedelic, bombastic rock opera, but amid all the energy, Yuasa ponders what stories have been lost as society’s more controlling elements attempt to control how art is made and distributed. Read full review
90
IGNRafael MotamayorSep 18, 2021
Inu-Oh is the electrifying, headbanging animated rock opera that film has been sorely missing, with a poignant message and unrestricted animation that reaffirms the visual prowess of director Masaaki Yuasa. Read full review
87
Paste MagazineMax CovillAug 10, 2022
Adapted from Hideo Furukawa’s novel The Tale of the Heike: The Inu-Oh Chapters, Inu-Oh is a true evolution of an ancient artform while also emphasizing friendship, legacy and who has the right to tell the stories of the departed. Read full review
85
SlashfilmCaroline CaoAug 15, 2022
It becomes futile to resist the intoxication of Otomo Yoshihide's rock music and the visual excess. Yoshihiro Sekiya's cinematography dances with Inu-Oh's supernatural ballad, extending and sprawling across the lakes and stage. Easily, those concerts are the most enthralling and splashiest sequences, recreating the adrenaline of witnessing stagecraft, all culminating into a hell-raising musical finale. Read full review
85
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiSep 18, 2021
Inu-Oh may get messy with its plotting, but that never dulls its impact. It’s a siren scream of a musical: angry and beautiful, rapturously animated and highly infectious. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 18, 2021
At heart, Inu-Oh is a film about storytelling’s power to keep the past alive, and while Yuasa’s carnivalesque extravaganza can be too slippery to hold onto at times, it always proves unforgettable in a way that serves that ultimate purpose. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhil HoadSep 28, 2022
Retrofitting medieval Noh as a world of guitar gods and cavorting dancers, Inu-oh has its two disabled lead characters make a psychedelic plea in favour of slipping loose from dominant narratives, told in a fecund patchwork of styles by Yuasa that asserts its own outsider credentials. Read full review
80
Little White LiesDaniel SchindelSep 28, 2022
Inu-Oh plays out as if it is a modern version of a song by an itinerant musician, relating a blend of history and folklore to us in terms we can understand. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangAug 12, 2022
A rich, unstable alloy of history, legend, musical pageantry and cinematic psychedelia, it mounts an argument for mind-expanding, complacency-rattling art in a world that often prefers the opposite. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 18, 2021
It’s fair to say that in this singular piece of filmmaking, with its dense deep-dive into arcane legend and mythology, selling out is certainly not on the cards for Masaaki Yuasa right now. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAug 11, 2022
[Yuasa's] latest, magical and bloody historical musical drama Inu-Oh, is a rock & roll, stadium show, pyrotechnic extravaganza. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 14, 2022
Basically, Inu-oh is to Noh as spray-painted graffiti is to traditional Japanese calligraphy. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 12, 2022
Even as Yuasa’s approach changes from section to section — as he plays with texture, volume and hue and gently shifts the balance between the figurative and the abstract — his extraordinary touch remains evident in each line and in every eye-popping swirl. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsAug 12, 2022
Yuasa's adaptation of Furukawa’s book is half-thrilling and half-underwhelming. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithAug 11, 2022
Those who’d like to take their more mature children to an animated feature with considerably more imaginative richness than, say, “DC League of Super-Pets” will find that the Japanese anime movie “Inu-Oh” fits the bill: How often do you get a chance to take in a medieval rock opera? But an imaginative hook isn’t everything. Read full review
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