Devilman Crybaby director Masaaki Yuasa is returning to screens later this month, but don’t expect another surrealist, horrifying anime masterpiece. Instead, Yuasa is going for something much more lighthearted with his new film, Lu Over the Wall.
Lu Over the Wall is a unique spin on the classic tale The Little Mermaid, updated to take place in modern-day Tokyo. Kai, a high schooler from Tokyo, finds himself bored in his new town, where the only thing to do is fish and stare at the water. After joining a band — the only people he deems cool enough to hang out with — he ends up meeting an actual mermaid named Lu, who can go between the wet and dry lands.
It all looks and sounds more like Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo than it does Netflix’s Devilman Crybaby, but two things: There’s nothing wrong with a little more Ponyo, and Yuasa has never been known to shy away from wild visuals and storytelling (watch Mind Game or even his Adventure Time episode, for instance). Expect this movie to go to some weird places.
We’ve got a clip above of the upcoming English-language debut of the film, which will come to select theaters on May 11.
