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Cult animated sensation Adventure Time is getting even stranger, with an upcoming episode guest directed by Japanese animator Masaaki Yuasa.

Yuasa's episode, 'Food Chain', sees human Finn and his shape-shifting dog brother Jake turned into birds by recurring nuisance Magic Man, and forced to experience the circle of life first hand. Even for a show that features an entire society of living candy people and a psychotic lemon as a bad guy, it's shaping up to be incredibly bizarre. A preview can be seen here, showcasing a notable departure from the series' usual style. Yuasa was given free reign by Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward's Frederator Studios, and ultimately wrote, storyboarded and directed the entire episode himself.


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Adventure Time typically follows Finn and Jake as they quest through the magical Land of Ooo, crossing paths with the likes of the Ice King, afflicted by tragic madness and ever on the hunt for a princess bride, and Marceline the Vampire Queen, a rocker who lives on the colour red rather than blood. Despite its kid-friendly appearance and whimsical, episodic nature, the show has attracted countless adult fans thanks to a surprising level of continuity and an ability to pluck at viewers' heartstrings. It has a bleak side, too -- Ooo is eventually revealed to be the remnants of Earth after nuclear war, with Finn the last human alive.

Even to devoted fans of Japanese animation, Yuasa is known for his unusual approach, abandoning typical anime conventions in favour of abstract figures and bizarre uses of colours. Having started his career directing opening sequences for anarchic children's series such as Crayon Shin-chan, he worked as key animator on Studio Ghibli's My Neighbours the Yamadas under director Isao Takahata. The film is easily Ghibli's strangest, and lead to Yuasa directing his own series including cannibal horror Kemonozume, dark college drama The Tatami Galaxy, and his latest, Ping Pong the Animation. Yuasa was also the first Japanese director to embrace Kickstarter as a funding model, for his short film Kick Heart. The ten-minute film followed a Luchadore wrestler battling a masked nun to raise money for the orphanage he grew up in.

No air date has been announced for 'Food Chain' yet, but it will be part of the just-launched sixth season of Adventure Time.