Tekkonkinkreet - Soli contro tutti

Hyperknetic animation helps along a sometimes too sprawling narrative of homeless street kids White and Black who leap from building to building in the neon streets of Treasure Town.

Treasure Town looks like an abandoned psychedelic amusement park that's been over run with urban sprawl (which is pretty much the center theme of the film, the lose of balance, lose of innocence, illustrated through the symbolically named White and Black). Actually almost all of the characters have names reflecting some kind of duality, "Choco" and "Vanilla", "Dusk" and "Dawn" etc.

Black is the muscle, somber and always ready to fight to defend "his town" While White is the more innocent, slightly brain damaged younger of the two who can't dress himself but can leap from the backs of moving cars, like la parkour runners bitten by radioactive spiders. "Chinese Monkeys can ride clouds" White states at the beginning of the film, referencing certain aspects of China's mythic "Journey To The West", before they begin their matrix leaps/gliding across the city. The first ten minutes of which, are the best moments in the movie(and no it is never explained how they can fly, leap, fight as they do, so much so it's easy to forget how vulnerable as children they are, which is used to get effect).

The trouble comes when there's too many Yakuza characters given too much back story, too much over inflated psychodrama with Black attempting to rid himself of his solitary monster like Minetaur persona (this time a Greek myth of the bull monster locked in the labyrinth), and not enough explanation of who the mysterious villain was, who were his henchmen refereed to as both "killing machines" and "aliens" more than once, and what if any connection did he have to re-developing the town, killing the kids, his mission from God, and the mysterious organization who lent him the monsters? That being said, I was emotionally absorbed into the film enough by that point, and satisfied with the unique fluidity and vividness of the color palettes, to ignore the weaker points of plot, til the movie was over. Enjoyable and unique anime, but like so many it reaches for seriousness, when whimsy would be a better fit.

Tekkonkinkreet opens this year's Animation Nation festival, running from today until 1 Dec 07, showcasing a selection of animated feature films, shorts and documentaries from around the world. Last year, the festival scored a coup in having Paprika screened just after its Japan premiere I believe, and had the noir styled Renaissance screened too. This year, both Tekkonkinkreet and the highly acclaimed 5 Centimeters Per Second were sold out in days when tickets when on sale, and it's a pity I may not be able to catch the latter due to conflict in schedules.

Nonetheless, Tekkonkinkreet lived up to its hype, although I found the story to be a little too perplexing for my liking. I guess with Japanese anime, some come with a huge dose of the fantastical, and you might not catch all in one screening, leading to longevity as you discover something new each time you view the movie. The story centers on 2 orphans, Black and White, who are essentially the Cat clan, guarding their city Treasure Town from perceived external threats. But they soon find that the big boys such as the Yakuza are slowly muscling their way in to establish money spinning business in the form of theme parks (heh), and inevitably discover they are within the crosshairs of a major turf war.

The attention paid to detail is simply amazing, as it seems like not a pixel on the canvas was wasted. Treasure Town itself is a sight to behold, with its dizzying levels that don't seem to end, and the camera playfully whizzing through buildings, bridges, nooks and crannies giving sense to claustrophobia. It's like Gotham City, only brighter, messier, and of course, without the Dark Knight, now instead, having Black and White play vigilante, Batman and Robin style. Being just boys, they possess (and here's where its fantastical) superhuman skills, putting martial arts swordsman to shame with their ability to scale buildings with the ease of a simple leap.

Yes, our boys have skills like the Yamakasi, only that it's magnified ten thousand times. The set action pieces are excitingly crafted with excellent sound effects and design going into overdrive. The action pieces are spaced out quite well, starting with the satisfying chase sequence with Dusk and Dawn, with the flight-for-your-life battles with robotic assassins, and topped off with the urban legend Minotaur justifying his status. In between the fights are the quieter moments of course, with subplots that put the spotlight on the myriad of Yakuza characters, and the brotherly love shared between Black and White, who share a dream of an idyllic life at the beach house, where they can live in peace from the unnecessary bustle of the city, and from the trouble that comes looking for them.

Based on the manga by Taiyo Matsumoto, I suspect there being a need to read up and do some research in order to appreciate this movie more. Akin to a cyberpunk movie where you can read its multiple layers, Tekkonkinkreet is first and foremost a visual spectacle, hands down, and doesn't fail in providing a Wow factor with its presentation.

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.

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.

"Tekkonkinkreet", literally translated as reinforced concrete, is an hypnotic experience set upon the kaleidoscopic drop of some truly gorgeous drawings which tells the tale of two street urchins as they do battle with an array of colourful characters in order to defend their city from being taken over. Adapted from the three volume manga series by Taiyo Matsumoto, the film doesn't usually carry the infuriating hallmarks of a manga-to-anime switch over, which can often make the film an unenjoyable experience as the viewer struggles to come to terms with the story and characters and in the process miss the film. In this instance, any preconceptions are staved as "Tekkonkinkreet" absorbs the viewer all but instantly in a cacophony of animation, sound and, perhaps surprisingly, emotion.

Tekkonkinkreets original manga form is what is known as a "seinen" manga, which is a subset of the animated genre which targets males, usually, from between the ages of eighteen and thirty, and as a twenty-four year old male myself, I perhaps enjoyed it more than others outside my demographic bracket. Ostensibly, it is a boys film as the premise bases itself on gangster films as our two street urchin protagonists, the aptly named "Black" and "White" find themselves coming into contact with an ever escalating array of Yakuza as they try to take over the ridiculously sublime "Treasure Town". There is a great deal of violence within the film (which while in my eyes completely justifies the progression of the film is incredibly misleading when you look at the UK Film Certificate Branding of a mere 12) as the battles waged become more intense, more bloody and more important to the survival of our two heroes. Tekkonkinkreet also utilises a much more avant-garde style of animation which we are currently beginning to see more of in the western world as an increasing acceptance of things which are outside of the "norm" are filtering through, and it is certainly befitting of the style. Tekkonkinkreet successfully delivers on appeasing any and all who are looking for high quality hand drawn animation which surpasses the eternally vapid conveyor belt of repetitiveness that is Pixar, but it also delivers on being more than just a "fighting" film.

The intrinsic parts of Tekkonkinkreet prove in being the messages the director and original creator are wishing to convey to their audiences, of which there are two major points. Firstly, we have the ying and yang nature of Black and White, how their coexistence is precisely that, how they are mirror images of each other, how in essence they are two parts of the same hole and that you could be forgiven for thinking someone spliced a singular entity at birth to form two. "Black" is the streetwise member of the "Cats", as they are known within the city, as he has a savvy and cunning which has enabled he and white to be high on the Treasure Town food chain. As expected for being orphaned children, each have their issues, and with Black it is the impression that he is only one bad day away from total insanity and mental breakdown, while with "White" the issue is if he were to have a mental breakdown it wouldn't have much to break. White is stated as being eleven within the film yet quite clearly finds it difficult keeping a grasp on reality and his surroundings as his mental age is quite obviously, less than that. However, it is not merely how much White relies on Black for survival with the treacherous confines, but it is also how much Black relies on White, as the director twists the uses of Black and White and indeed Good and Evil as roles interchange in all quarters. Secondly, we have yet again another confrontation, another coming together of two forces yet this time it is more theory based. Treasure Town is a gloriously colourful island sitting sedately in the centre of a river yet its buildings and inhabitants for all their grandeur seem incredibly outdated. Treasure Town isn't exactly a time warp but you could be forgiven for thinking so, it is a place contented in its own time, but for the Yakuza this is not acceptable as they wish to bring Treasure Town forward into the 21st Century, to update the scenery, to turn it into a money making venture of epic proportions . This second theme resonates with a fear of old replacing new, yet the new not being perhaps as grand as everyone believes it to be, it is a fear of traditions being eradicated by a machine which has no need for sentiment, and this feeling, from both points of view, is embedded within characters on all sides of the battle.

Tekkonkinkreet is a highly charged emotional film, which looks at characters interactions and dependence on each other the yings and yangs within the city itself, the coming together of old and new and more evidently, people's desire for power. The phrase "my city" is uttered on numerous occasions as individuals all attempt to lay claim to the treasured turf, yet none truly understanding what the phrase means or why they are saying it. Tekkonkinkreet is a highly successful anime, which blends together elements of crime, violence, humour and fantasy creating a cerebral journey for the senses as director Michael Arias superbly transcribes this moralistic tale with an energetic style of directing which perhaps possesses some of the best and "coolest" "reveal" shots in recent times. Tekkkonkinkreet is an absorbing adventure which transcends genres and blurs styles in a hot pot of beautiful angst and proves itself to be worth a watch for any who allows themselves to be enveloped by a world which is never told in black and white.