Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White

I started reading Tekkon Kinkreet basically without any prior knowledge of what it's about and finished it over the weekend. I'm writing the review mostly just because there's currently only one review^^ Story: The story has a pretty straightforward pace to it and doesn't really play around with any overly elaborate or complex plotlines. A few of the different mini-plotlines actually have a bit of a lush slice-of-life feel to them, which I found mostly enjoyable. It's suprisingly unpredictable, though. There are a few absurd moments in the story, often related to the "abilities" of the main characters. It's not really clear to me whether all of thekid's "supernatural abilities" are actually real or whether some of them are just the characters living inside their own head and imagination. The way they live through their fantasies is presented in a way that often doesn't make it easy to distinguish what's real from what's made up, and while this sounds chaotic, I actually thought it really fits the athmosphere of the story well. Though I'm not sure if this presentation is always intentional, or if in some cases it's just due to some lackluster art and page construction. Which brings me swiftly to my next point lol Art: The art is not at all comparable to traditional manga art and probably not for everybody. I think it's biggest strong points are in the imaginative illustration of the environment and background panels. You can tell the mangaka created this with a lot of passion and creative juice. His drawings aren't the greatest, though. Movement isn't conveyed very well, gravely hurting the fight and action scenes, and I think the panel layout is a bit odd sometimes, throwing the readers eyes off from their tracks. Page structure in general is a bit of an issue here. Also a little tip for anybody planning to read this: Despite being labeled as a manga, it's actually read from left to right, like a western comic. Kinda threw me off in the beginning lol Characters: This aspect is really the meat and potatoes of the whole thing. The 2 main characters are unique and the driving forces for the story. Both present distinctly different looks at their environment, but work best when they're together (hence the names Black & White). The most important secondary character is the city itself, Treasure Town. Black claims it like a property (often calling it "MY city"), while White is often referred to as the "soul" of the city and his seemingly supernatural abilities are strongly linked to it. It's a fascinating and weird town, yet still has a cohesive internal logic to it that let's even the weirdest parts be believable. It's my favorite part of the story and arguably the most fleshed out "character". Essentially everything in the story revolves around the city's impact on the characters and how they react to it. The rest of the supporting cast is small, but mostly well grounded. They really only appear either speaking with/about Black & White or making refernces to the changes of the city, which I suppose is kind of the point (and part of what makes me list the city as a a character). Overall: Tekkon Kinkreet isn't really for everybody, but has the potential to really hit home strongly for some people. It's character driven and I love the presentation of the setting. The art is an acquired taste, so to speak. I have not seen the animated movie yet, but plan on doing so. Since most of what made me knock this down to a 6-rating relates to aspects that I believe video animation can "fix" easily, I'm expecting to like that version a lot more. So don't mistake the rating as a non-recommendation, I most definitely recommend you giving this story a chance!

It's pretty hard to find a work as disjointed as this one, mainly because many of its characters seem to love to just keep talking about whatever comes to their minds without even listening to what other people say in reply, so you can assume that the "dialogues" (if you can call them that) often make no sense. Add to that the fast and frequent scene changes (each one barely lasting a couple of pages), and a plot that becomes more "mystical" and confusing toward the end, and it's obvious that this manga doesn't stand out for being clear and coherent... To be honest, given the synopsisand the fact that it's a "seinen" with such a high score, I was expecting a realistic plot about some orphans having a hard life on the streets / struggling to survive, but instead I found myself with a nonsensical shounen about street fights. A huge disappointment.

Big fan of Taiyo Matsumoto here, but Tekkonkinkreet was kind of a letdown for me. The artstyle, drawings and so are still really good, but at the same time they seem too european without a personal soul. The narrative was probably the main flaw of this manga, I don't really understand what Matsumoto wants to convey, and I'm not saying what he want to tell or what story, since in his case he is not someone who creates impressive stories but feelings, emotions, beautiful moments and so, more related to poetry than narrative. But in this case I don't really find that narrative nor poetry (justin small moments). It has a feeling of being in your childhood and seeing and thinking like in that era, maybe a boy under 13 or so could like something like this, and if he does then props; maybe I can't connect with that mental frame anymore.