Inuyashiki
2017
Original language: Japanese
- animation
- drama
- sci-fi & fantasy
- action & adventure
The story
Aliens replace middle-aged Inuyashiki's body with a combat robot. He uses it to fight high schooler Shishigami, who's using the same power selfishly.
What it’s like
Drab suburban streets, cramped interiors and grey overcast daylight give this its base, with night scenes lit by sodium streetlamps and the cold blue glow of screens. The camera leans toward handheld urgency during fights and settles into quiet, close framing for the scenes of ordinary family life, so the contrast between the two registers does much of the work. The sound is built on hard metallic clanks, gunfire and sirens, with sparse melancholy music that thins out when the characters are alone. The vibe is bleak, weary and tragic: a middle-aged man's ordinary life abruptly rewritten, and the sour, cynical mood of a city where power is used for spite. Violence is frequent and graphic, with gunfights, gore, bodily harm and disaster-scale destruction, and the cruelty of certain characters lands hard. The pace moves between slow, mournful stretches and sudden bursts of action. This suits viewers who want dark, morally heavy superhero drama, not gentle comfort, and who are comfortable with sustained brutality and despair.
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