Masaaki Yuasa has become one of my favorite directors over the last few years thanks to GKIDS and Shout! Studio releasing his films on Blu-ray. Now all five of his feature films are being boxed together for Masaaki Yuasa: Five Film. This is a retrospective that shows how his animated films cover a broad range of subjects and artistic styles. The boxset arrives right before Christmas so it’s the perfect stocking stuffer. Here’s the press release from GKIDS and Shout! Studios:
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| GKIDS Presents MASAAKI YUASA: FIVE FILMS The Brilliant Collection of Films by the Acclaimed Anime Auteur Masaaki Yuasa Arrives in a Stunning Box Set Available December 19, 2023 |
Highly Celebrated Films MIND GAME, The Night is Short, Walk On Girl, Lu Over The Wall, Ride Your Wave, INU-OH and More Feature in a Fantastic 6-Disc Set with Striking New Art Designed by the Legendary Animator Himself Masaaki Yuasa
Best known for his trademark blends of inventive visual artistry and emotion-packed, sharp narrative, the visionary animator and director Masaaki Yuasa boasts a captivating library of films that is beloved and acclaimed all over the world. Now from the ingenious filmmaker comes the exquisite collection Masaaki Yuasa: Five Films, available on December 19, 2023, by GKIDS with distribution from Shout! Studios.
Widely regarded as one of the most imaginative and influential filmmakers working in animation, Masaaki Yuasa’s energetic style has been compared to Tex Avery and Max Fleischer. He is one of contemporary anime’s most prolific auteurs and has lent his humor and dynamism to genres as diverse as psychedelic thrillers, transcendent rock-operas and sweetly subversive teen romances. This set includes Masaaki Yuasa’s five celebrated and industry-lauded feature films – 2004’s MIND GAME (Fantasia International Film Festival winner for Best Film, Best Director and Best Script), 2017’s The Night is Short, Walk On Girl (winner of the 41st Annual Japanese Academy Award’s Animation of the Year), 2017’s Lu Over the Wall (2017 Annecy winner for Best Feature), 2019’s Ride Your Wave (Fantasia International Film Festival winner for Best Animated Feature), and 2021’s INU-OH (2022 Golden Globe nominee for Best Animation) – along with a host of never-before-seen bonus features.
The treasure trove collection features stunning art newly designed by Masaaki Yuasa throughout the packaging, a 13”x21” poster of the new art and an exclusive 60-page book celebrating the work of this one-of-a-kind storyteller and featuring excerpts from the creative’s sketchbook. Fans of the animator’s award-winning projects can pre-order their 6-disc set of Masaaki Yuasa: Five Films on GKIDS.com/Yuasa and ShoutFactory.com.
Audiences will begin to grasp what they are in for early on as loser Nishi, too wimpy to try to save his childhood sweetheart from gangsters, is shot in the butt by a soccer-playing psychopath, projecting Nishi into the afterlife. In this limbo, God – shown as a series of rapidly changing characters – tells him to walk toward the light. But Nishi runs like hell in the other direction and returns to Earth a changed man, driven to live each moment to the fullest.
THE NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL
As a group of teens go out for a night on the town, a sophomore known only as “The Girl with Black Hair” experiences a series of surreal encounters with the local nightlife… all the while unaware of the romantic longings of Senpai, a fellow student who has been creating increasingly fantastic and contrived reasons to run into her, in an effort to win her heart. Featuring boundless imagination and visual wit, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl is a celebration of the unconventional, confusing routes that life and love can take, from one of the most exciting voices in anime today.
After his family moves from Tokyo to a small fishing village, teenager Kai spends his days sulking and adrift. When his classmates invite him to play keyboard in their band, their jam sessions bring an unexpected guest: Lu, a young mermaid whose fins turn to feet when she hears the beats, and whose singing causes humans to compulsively dance. But when an ancient prophecy threatens Lu and the village, Kai and his new friends must save the day in this toe-tapping adventure for the entire family.
Hinako is a surf-loving college student who has just moved to a small seaside town. When a sudden fire breaks out at her apartment building, she is rescued by Minato, a handsome firefighter, and the two soon fall in love. Just as they become inseparable, Minato loses his life in an accident at sea. Hinako is so distraught that she can no longer even look at the ocean, but one day she sings a song that reminds her of their time together, and Minato appears in the water. From then on, she can summon him in any watery surface as soon as she sings their song, but can the two really remain together forever? And what is the real reason for Minato’s sudden reappearance?
Born to an esteemed family, Inu-oh is afflicted with an ancient curse that has left him on the margins of society. When he meets the blind musician Tomona, a young biwa priest haunted by his past, Inu-oh discovers a captivating ability to dance. The pair quickly become business partners and inseparable friends as crowds flock to their electric, larger-than-life concerts. But when those in power threaten to break up the band, Inu-oh and Tomona must dance and sing to uncover the truth behind their creative gifts.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- English-language dub of The Night is Short, Walk On Girl for the first time on Blu-ray
- Two short films by Masaaki Yuasa: Happy Machine (2007), and Kick-Heart (2013)
- Filmmaker commentaries for MIND GAME, Lu Over the Wall, and INU-OH
- Scene breakdowns and commentaries from each feature film
- Masaaki Yuasa draws characters from MIND GAME, Lu Over the Wall, and INU-OH
- Filmmaker interviews about Lu Over the Wall, The Night is Short, Walk On Girl, and INU-OH
- A Night Out with Yuasa: An exclusive interview with Masaaki Yuasa at a Los Angeles speakeasy, where he discusses his inspirations, favorite type of restaurants, perfect vacation, dancing, and more
- A 60-page book featuring an essay by Emily Yoshida and excerpts from Masaaki Yuasa’s sketchbooks
- And more!
About GKIDS
Celebrating its 15th anniversary, GKIDS is the producer and distributor of artist-driven and award-winning animation from around the world. Since 2010, the company has scored an astounding 12 Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations with The Secret of Kells in 2010, A Cat in Paris and Chico & Rita in 2012, Ernest & Celestine in 2014, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya and Song of the Sea in 2015, Boy and the World and When Marnie Was There in 2016, My Life as a Zucchini in 2017, The Breadwinner in 2018, Mirai in 2019, and Wolfwalkers in 2021. GKIDS also handles North American distribution for the famed Studio Ghibli library of films, one of the world’s most coveted animation collections with titles Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and others; as well as the critically acclaimed television series, NEON GENESIS EVANGELION.GKIDS also hosts ANIMATION IS FILM (AIF), an annual LA-based film festival which embraces the highest aspirations of animation as a cinematic art form, and is a vocal advocate for filmmakers who push the boundaries of the medium to its fullest range of artistic expressions www.gkids.com
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About Shout! Studios
Launched in 2003, Shout! Studios is a multiplatform media company specializing in film and TV distribution, development, and production. The company has evolved with the changing entertainment landscape to excel in all forms of content distribution, including theatrical, digital streaming, broadcast and in-flight licensing, physical media, and more. Shout! Studios owns and manages a large portfolio of contemporary and classic feature films, series, animation, and documentaries. The company’s creative acquisition mandate has established it as a leading independent distributor, with partners and properties including Aardman Animations, ALF, The Carol Burnett Show, Stephen J. Cannell Productions, The Johnny Carson Show, the Roger Corman New Horizons Pictures Library, GKIDS, ITV Studios, LAIKA Studios, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (in partnership with creator Joel Hodgson), and Sesame Street, alongside many others. Shout! Kids focuses on live-action and animated kids and family properties including anime, and the company releases genre and horror films and television shows under the Scream Factory imprint. Shout! Studios also produces, acquires, and distributes new films, and operates the acclaimed streaming service Shout! TV and its family of FAST channels. Shout! Studios is based in Los Angeles, California. For more on Shout! Studios, visit ShoutStudios.com
