Earlier last month, the Annecy International Film Festival brought plenty of Japanese animation in front of the world to discover upcoming releases. Among these projects, Crunchyroll News got the opportunity to watch The Last Blossom ( Housenka in Japanese) and sit with ODDTAXI director Baku Kinoshita to talk about the original movie, his inspirations and even yakuza. Being in Annecy, what is your favorite french dish? Baku Kinoshita : It’s something I ate last year [when the movie was presented as a work in progress], and I truly hope to find it again this year, it’s the lamb carpaccio. It was so good, it made me crazy. Couldn’t find it yet, but I hope I will. Could you speak about your inspirations and the production process of the movie? Kinoshita : Being an original film, there’s no adaptation process. I worked with Kazuya Konomoto ( ODDTAXI writer) and I offered him to work together again, which he immediately accepted. I gave him five or six ideas for a project to collaborate on, and among those six, he chose the story of an old man and a flower, now known as Housenka . How does the visual style of the movie reflect the story? Kinoshita : Are we talking about the characters? The background? Let’s talk about the characters and the vibrant color first. Kinoshita : The story is very simple, very pure. I didn’t want to ruin its purity. That’s why I chose simple lines. And since the story has that purity, I wanted to keep that even in the way we build it. I worked a lot on the character movements, and like the backgrounds, we observed a lot of real-life movements and scenery. This realism is essential to me. Speaking of purity and reality, how did you approach the yakuza research for your movie? Kinoshita : We couldn’t meet with real-life yakuza during our research process; it was mostly through books and movies that we got our inspiration from. Was it always the goal to portray the lives of yakuza and challenge the stereotypes we often see in shows/movies? Kinoshita : Indeed. We always see them as terrifying, very violent, earning money from rackets, but we also know that the yakuza need to adapt to the evolution of society and their time; otherwise, they won’t survive. It’s a universal matter; we can say the same about any job. I kind of wanted to show that being a yakuza could be a job like any other, and it's necessary to keep up with the times. Simplicity is the keyword of your production, yet it still manages to make the final turnaround quite complex. How did you manage to balance that? Kinoshita : My goal was to display that even someone who didn’t really succeed could have a turn of events and completely flip the script… I don’t think the audience expected this kind of movie. How did your previous experiences help you through this project? Kinoshita : What I learned from TV shows is the direction and staging. I really had a moment of reconsideration, rethinking my way of working, so I tried to improve my work. I also improved how I worked with my team. I used to work remotely and reach everyone online. This time, I really preferred having my team on-site and talking directly to them. How did you come up with those everyday moments, light moments, punctuated by characters enjoying the arts (singing, drawing)? Kinoshita : It really is Kazuya Konomoto’s idea, especially the scene we see quite early in the movie with the combination of duct tape on boxes, microwave and singing. RELATED: The Last Blossom Anime Movie Reveals Fall 2025 Release, Main Voice Cast Members Baku Kinoshita , who directed the original TV anime series ODDTAXI , directs and handles the character design of The Last Blossom , with Kazuya Konomoto ( ODDTAXI scriptwriter) writing the screenplay. Animation creator and game art designer Michinoku-toge provides the concept art. Anime production company CLAP ( Pompo: The Cinéphile ) works on planning and production. The three-piece Japanese band cero provided the soundtrack music. The movie has announced a October 10 release in Japan and was premiered at the Annecy International Film Festival earlier last month. The movie is described as such: Autumn 2023. Akutsu, an elderly inmate serving life in prison, is on the verge of a lonely death in his single cell. A talking Housenka flower says to him, "What a rotten life you had." Akutsu starts reflecting on his past. Summer 1986. Akutsu is living with Nana and her son Kensuke in a shabby apartment with a garden full of Housenkas. It is the tale of a one-night victorious comeback by a dying yakuza, and his family’s story told by a flower that blooms in prison.
