Tekkon Kinkreet

I saw this movie a couple of days ago. I thought this one is one of the best in the recent anime films including Miyazaki's. Even satisfied more than 007.

Based on the comic by Matsumoto Taiyo (also Ping Pong), Michael Arius, who joined Animatrix production, directed the film. As he knows many Japanese old downtowns and landscapes, his way of constructing the imaginary town is so real though many Asian tastes are added, and I believe the town in the film must attract Americans too. The story is basically fights between two boys and intruders, old traditions and new. I also impressed how this Anime can express things which I have not felt in the other Anime films. Michael gathered many best creators in Japan and the world. I really recommend Tekkon to you all.

By the way, MOMA's Artforum picked up this film as #1 in 2006. http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=12076

A moralistic fairy tale set in modern day. Brothers Black and White are orphans and run the streets of Treasure Town, doing what Cats do best, stealing and running. The Yakuza show up and start causing concern. Leaving little Black and sort out the situation. It is unbelievable how good this film is. Nuanced interesting characters are a vehicle for a over arching moral diatribe on cities, the people in them, and how we all deal with each other. White is purity, he's naive, but has a general sense of good, which is married to his seemingly stunted educational and emotional growth. His older brother, Black, on the other hand, is smart, streetwise, good in a fight, and has lost the innocence that White still possess. And we are able to interpret events that occur during the film through both of their eyes. This film had very interesting art, childish of a sort, but designed for the sake of experimentation, and to remind us that we're in a story that is seen and narrated by children. It used a full palette of colors and symbolism to help extend the story to the viewer and it succeeded masterfully. All said, this film broke my heart in a million different beautiful ways. I loved this film, and not since Hotaru no haka (Grave of the Fireflies) has a film been able to effect me so profoundly. I know I will never forget this film. When this comes out of DVD, rent it, or, if you're lucky, run to the theater and catch this before it disappears.

Tekkon Kinkreet is the most stunning visual anime that I seen since Akira. Director Arias, use of colors and directing style is nothing short of genius. The best part of this movie is its heart felt story between the two brothers Black and White. Black is the older more responsible brother, who is tough and violent, while White is the younger, off beat, childish brother. Black and White watch over the city they live in called Treasure City, in a gang called the cats. But it's the duality of the orphaned brothers that makes this story so touching. The tough older brother, Black, needs his young brother White to remind him of his humanity and White needs his brother to help protect him.

As the two brothers protect Treasure City, the evil developer Snake moves in to take over. As he vows to kill Black and White, the brothers bonds are tested. Black is faced with his dark inner demons of hatred and violence and White must bring him back.

There are no giant robots in Tekkon Kinkreet or magic. Although the brothers Black and White seem to be able to fly on and off rooftops, it seems to be the limit of any type of super powers. This anime is amazing purely for its story and visual look. If you are a fan of anime or cartoons, rent this movie. You will not be disappointed.

"Tekkon Kinkreet" is a sporadically engaging, though frequently confusing, anime gangster film from director Michael Arias. The story, based on the comic book by Taiyo Matsumoto, focuses on two homeless orphans, one named Black and the other White, who live on the streets of Treasure Town, a seething cauldron of criminality, vice and corruption. Black fancies himself a superhero crime-fighter, while White, who is given to extrasensory knowledge and visions, dreams of one day moving away from the city and getting a home of their own on the beach. Thanks to Black's insistence on taking on the bad guys, both youngsters get caught up in a turf war between the Yakuza and some robot-like killers who are duking it out for ownership of the city.

Fans of anime will find much to enjoy in this film, which is marked by beautifully detailed urban landscapes, exciting action and chase sequences, occasional lyrical flights into fantasy, and a sometimes touching tale about commitment and friendship centered on the two young boys. On the other hand, the plethora of characters and occasional narrative incoherence can make it difficult at times to understand what exactly is going on, particularly when the story takes a decidedly metaphysical turn (with imagery taken straight out of "Contact") in the final half hour. Still, the visuals alone make it worth a gander.

Eye-watering Japanimation might not have all the spit-shined polish afforded a Miyazaki production, though any excuse offered from the same studio that provided many eclectic animated thrills with the Animatrix compilation could only be explained by admiring their unabashed passion for detail. Nearly every frame of this marvelous, Manga-adapted feature is littered with an unprecedented level of specific illustrations that really aims to set the bar for sheer artistic commitment. It is the city itself that rules the film, and these passionate animators do not disappoint when it comes to delivering scene after scene showcasing an unfathomable detail rendered in these massive, severely inspired cityscapes.

First time Director Michael Arias does stumble a bit at times, making the episodic material feel that way, but we do see a compelling fusion with CGI effects in many of the action scenes that make this visually stimulating feast rise to fluidly spectacular levels. Despite many pratfalls found in the script, sometimes silly voice acting (common in the genre), and some (at times) counter-intuitive pacing, scene-for-scene Tekon kinkurîto (US title is Tekkonkinkreet) will probably remain the most compulsively rewatchable, primarily hand-drawn work of art to be savored by pencil-aficionados until the next driven team of artists desires even more.