Tekkonkinkreet

Believe the hype. If you see "ZOMG TEKKON KINKREET IS LIKE THE COOLEST THING EVAR!" Believe them. I had heard the hype about this anime for a long time, and I know to never take what people say about stuff like this seriously. However, I decided to go ahead and watch it, it couldn't be boring right? And I had seen a recommendation from Mind Game (another terrific anime) and so...I watched it. At first I was a little sceptical, the director is Michael Arias. This is the first thing he has directed. He produced the Animatrix, whichfor me made this film just a little sketchy, but believe me, it is definitely amazing. Arias is not Japanese, but he believes very heavily in quality. Story: Black and White, Kuro and Shiro are orphans, and they're the "Cats." In a word they're street thugs and it's mainly Kuro (Black) who does the fighting. Shiro (White) is missing something in his head and he constantly "phones" outer space to let them know how he's doing. The main relationship is between these two and it's expertly crafted. There are two police officers who really do a great job of balancing the anime. Their presence really keeps the movie level. The antagonist is Snake, he's trying to milk Treasure Town for all it's worth, to do this his plan is to create an amusement park. Kuro doesn't want that to happen. I'm finding it very difficult to explain the story and I really don't think that I can do it any justice at all. The story is multifaceted and multilayered. There are no scrap characters and every conversation is important. There are absolutely no wasted scenes in this anime. I was getting a huge Steinbeck vibe, I was feeling that this anime was doing a great job of channeling his "Of Mice and Men." White's dream of going to the ocean is a lot like Lennie's dream of owning a farm and tending rabbits. Art: The art is amazing. Every scene is breathtakingly beautiful. The backgrounds are detailed so well that I occasionally paused the screen just to admire their beauty. The art is probably the best I've seen in an anime and the details are beautifully rendered. The characters style is slightly minimalistic. Compared to the backgrounds the characters are very bare, but this suits the feel perfectly. The characters fit in so well with the backgrounds and interact with the world so well. The art is absolutely beautiful. Every scene of animation is beautiful. There are so many sequences that took my breath away, there is never a choppy scene, no scene feels clunky. The animation is so perfectly fluid and I cannot express how amazing it is, it has to be seen to be believed. The one thing that I thought was perfectly done was how the art and the mood of the anime clash wonderfully. The colours are very bright and vivid, and if you really weren't paying attention you'd think that this is a very bright and happy anime. But the anime is dark, it's quite dark and the art only shows that darkness at certain intervals, but for the most part the anime is bright and colourful, whereas the mood is dark. Sound: This is one of the first anime that I've seen where I was activally paying attention to the background music. It was all perfect, it was all fast and just amazing. I'm a firm believer in that music in anime does not make or break it, it either makes a good anime better, or worse; or a bad anime better or worse. In Tekkon Kinkreet, the music makes an already excellent anime even better. Character: Every character is incredibly, and sometimes painfully, human. With the exception of the alien assassins of course. The relationships between the characters, especially between Black and White are so beliveable and so incredibly real. I found myself caring so much about all of these characters, which is not something that I regularly do. It's amazing because every character changes and every relationship changes as well, it's rare to see how realistically each character's change is portrayed. Enjoyment: If you haven't noticed already, I love this anime, it's completely and utterly perfect. There is not a boring or meaningless scene. There are no pointless characters, every character is unique and human. Kinkreet is very original and it really does an amazing job of everything that it does. I cannot express how enjoyable this anime is, you really need to watch it for yourself. If this isn't at the top of your list, put it there. I believe that in order to appreciate anime you have to see both terrible and amazing anime. To me there are very, very few perfect anime, I would have a hard time listing them on my hands. However, this anime is so close to perfection that I would myself, call it perfect. Watching this anime reconfirms the reasons why I started watching anime in the first place.

Tekkon Kinkreet took me by surprise. At first I noticed the superb art and choice of colour, but then the story evolved and it completely took me of guard. Story: It's sad and dark but not too heavy due to its more comical scenes. The only thing I could've wished for was more backstory as well as explaining more in depth of Kuro's feelings, why he did the things he did etc. Art: Simply amazing. My eyes had several orgasms watching this. I also like how they chose to colour this, it is very colourful and happy for such a sad story, but it really works! Ithink it was intentional to do so, I think that all the details and happy colours were there to show us the false image of reality, how we see the world. The story and the art clashes, but in a way that made me think. I thought that maybe this is a cheerful story watching the first minutes; but the further I got the more I felt like something was wrong, the story didn't match, life in this city wasn't as easy as what met the eye, it wasn't pleasant or beautiful, it was ugly and full of hatred, sorrow and dysfunctional living conditions. The false image gave a pleasent rethinker and a very interesting feel to the movie, it was almost as if you were confused but understood everything. Colourful art that feel sad isn't and everyday experience. Sound: It fits the story and didn't feel repetitive, but nothing that really stuck with you after it ended. Character: Oh damn do I love Shiro! My heart broke when he screamed that heartclenching scream while being taken away from Kuro. Shiro has a Asberger's feel to him(but that's not confirmed), very childish for his age but also very wise, he's accurately pictured as a child but also someone who has been abandoned, living on the street and been forced to grow up too quickly. Kuro acts like the parent, taking care of Shiro and putting him above everything; without Shiro he feels no reason to live. What I like about Kuro's character-display is that we are shown that he's vulnerable as well, that he too is still a child and not always the strong tough guy saving the day. Enjoyment: I loved it, it had me glued to the screen the whole time and not because the story was fast and you had to try and keep up with it, but because it was so utterly beautiful. Overall: This was a fantastic ride and I'm so disappointed for not taking it upon myself to watch this earlier. The characters were so real with flaws and feelings and actions based on real thought and emotions; everything isn't perfect, sometimes you don't make the perfect decision and sometimes your feelings aren't rational but that's human. When the characters expressed feelings they expressed it in a realistic way, I could literally feel Shiro's pain in my bones. And all this while this beautiful artwork is doing it's thing, being colourful was a bold move but also the right move, I don't think the story would have been as good if it was dark through and through. I'd recommend it to everyone, even if you aren't a sucker for sad animes this is worth your time, it's the perfect amount of sad and happy. And if that STILL doesn't float you boat, watch it for the art and visuals, so so beautiful! The art man, THE ART!

Tekkonkinkreet is a film from Studio four degrees Celsius. A studio that I have watched nothing whatsoever from but have heard of a lot of their work. I'm not sure if this is a good introduction to them or not so feel free to enlighten me about how typical of their work it is. The story is pretty simple. Two orphaned boys, Black and White, claim control over a small town and that's when the Yakuza try to muscle their way in. It probably sounds like more happens than actually happens. The film's biggest problem is that it's tedious. Really, really tedious. There are longstretches where nothing of interest or relevance happens. Then there are story segments that drag on far longer than they need to and some of the worst action sequences I've ever seen. Seriously, those scenes that aren't over within seconds are padded with the characters running away from each other. The longest action sequence involves Black and White running away from a huge assassin who could've killed them both with ease if he wasn't the slowest person on the planet when it comes to unsheathing his blade. Seriously, it takes him a good minute to get around to it. There are some less pressing issues, there are some side-story plots that don't go anywhere or that receive very rushed and unsatisfying conclusions. The entire ending is rushed, for that matter, and pretty lazily done. The characters in this are dull and one-dimensional. The villains are evil for the sake of being evil. Black and White are pretty clearly supposed to have a symbolic as well as a literal connection, but the symbolic connection is really over-stated. That type of thing just isn't interesting when they beat you over the head with it. And they're too one-dimensional to make them interesting aside from that connection so it's just unsatisfying to watch. The side characters are barely worth talking about. Most of them just represent very shallow stereotypes like the gangster seeking redemption or the elderly mentor. The art... Well, I have to split it into two categories. The backgrounds are decently done with some good details. The characters look terrible. Their proportions are way off and not in a good, stylized way and their faces just look bizarre. The voice acting is pretty emotionless. The actors mostly sound like they're reading the script instead of, well, acting. I'm not sure whether to blame the direction or the actors themselves for that one. Either way it doesn't sound good. The music does little to help with the tedium, generally blending into the background noise. The yuri factor is a 1/10. There's no yuri here. My final rating for Tekkonkinkreet is a 3/10. I really can't recommend it to anyone unless you're having trouble sleeping. I almost fell asleep several times while watching it so it just might be good for that.

The movie starts off strong, with an interesting but not quite unique story of two street orphans, forced to protect the town that simultaneously sustains them, and abuses them. They are the protectors and protected by the system that has been created between the gangs, the police, and the Yakuza who roam Treasure town. And like their names designate, Black is harsher, rougher, more prone to violence, while White is up beat, cute, and creative. They complement each other and balance the others eccentricities. With fabulous animation, strong voice acting (at least in the Japanese), and a solid score, this movieambles along enjoyably, until the more surreal aspects of the story kick in. About halfway through, the movie shifts from two kids trying to protect their home turf from new developers/gangsters into a surreal melodrama about the spiritual separation of the two leads and the physical manifestations of the separation. From Kubrick-esque extra-dimensional visuals, to metaphorical, and not so metaphorical battles in the hyper-reality in to which they are dragged kicking and screaming. And to me that's when it loses steam. It changes from a well grounded story with characters we want to follow into meandering esoteric romp with little but very obvious conclusions that occur between the two leads, while killing off any loose ends and characters that seemed so promising in the start of the film. Flights of fancy, and beautiful animation aside, the film doesn't quiet hold up towards the end.