Not in San Diego theaters... Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White (Aniplex/Sony Pictures)
I think it's a sad state of affairs when the hands down best animated film of the year is one released straight to DVD. When I say best animated, I mean that it is both technically and artistically the best animation, and it is the best animated film from the standpoint of storytelling and thematic content. The film is Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White (available from Aniplex/Sony Pictures on DVD, Blu-Ray and for PSP), based on Taiyo Matsumoto's comic that was serialized beginning in 1993. The title comes from an apparent pun on "Tekkin Concrete," the Japanese term for reinforced concrete, and Black and White refers to the names of two street urchins that are the focus of the story. To be accurate, the film did stop at a few big screens on its way to DVD. It's played in Japan, at festivals and had limited theatrical distribution in the United States, but is not scheduled for any big screen engagements here in San Diego.
Tekkon Kinkreet arrives on the screen by way of an interesting collaboration of talent. Director Michael Arias and screen adapter Anthony Weintraub are both Americans who worked on The Animatrix . Much of the music is from the British band Plaid. But the bulk of the creative team, most notably art director Shinji Kimura (of Steamboy fame), animator Shoujirou Nishimi and technical director Hiroaki Ando are Japanese. The result is an exquisite visual style that combines east and west; European, American and Japanese painting and animation styles; computer generated and hand drawn aesthetics.
Beth Accomando
November 09, 2007 at 07:22 AM
Good news: Tekkon Kinkreet qualifies and was submitted as one of the 12 animated features for the upcoming Oscars. Even though it's already out on DVD, an Oscar nomination but give it new life.
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jenny lawrence
December 19, 2007 at 02:54 AM
it has all the eerie and enormous and colorful and overwhelming aspects of paprika, but the parade is constant rather than only in certain parts of the movie. you are falling slowly through a vast city of carnival colors and beautiful street signs, wabi sabi and run down, cracked and dirty...just like black and white, dazzling but broken. this has deep themes rather than a shallow storyline barely supporting the animation.
Jen Barton from Northwest America
January 23, 2009 at 09:10 PM
TekkonKinkreet is easily the finest film, of ANY kind or genre, I have ever seen. The deep, beautiful backgrounds mesh well with the starkly contrasted character animation. I found the animation to be superbly different. The characters aren't the cliche, big-eyed and uber cute sort (which has put me off anime so many times before). They are gritty, real, and beautiful--Black (Kuro) is the most fantastic character I've ever seen, and his companion White won me over as well.
I'm a great lover of this incredible film. It may not be for everyone, but it was breathtaking.
Beth Accomando
January 23, 2009 at 09:50 PM
I'm so glad to hear that someone else has discovered this amazing film. Spread the word.
