Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Tekkonkinkreet Blu-ray Movie Review

An intriguing, animated modern fable arrives on Blu.

Reviewed by Lindsay Mayer October 25, 2008

With Tekkonkinkreet, special effects artist Michael Arias has been bestowed the title of the first non-Japanese director of a major animé feature film. Moving to Japan in 1991, Arias fell in love with the film's original manga, and sorely wished to adapt it into a feature film. In 2003, Arias got his chance; the animé studio he worked for, Studio Studio 4°C, agreed to let him helm the then-shelved project due to his enthusiasm for the source material. Arias charged right in, creating an adaptation that was close to Taiyō Matsumoto's manga not only in content, but in the simplistic and unusual character design, as well. Three years and many travails later, Tekkonkinkreet was released to theatres. In the year following, the film would find an illustrious home on high definition with its Blu-ray release.

Black (left) and White diligently defend their adopted home of Treasure Town.

The film - its title a pun on the Japanese term for reinforced concrete - centers around two orphaned brothers. The teenaged Kuro, or Black, is cunning, volatile, and ruthless, while his more sensitive 11-year-old brother Shiro - White - is naïve, empathetic, and innocent. The pair are perfect complements, and as the film progresses, it becomes clear just how deeply dependent they are upon each other. Collectively known as the Neko, or Cats, Black and White are street urchins in a seedy urban Japanese district known as Treasure Town, the epitome of vice and the burlesque. The area is a run down, wall-to-wall entertainment center - full of bars, casinos, arcades, and grimy food vendors situated under the tracks of roaring trains. It is half-heartedly policed by a world-weary Fujimura, who is accompanied by a fresh-faced and self-described "frigid" rookie, Sawada. Of course, in Black's mind, the island city is "his town," and he violently defends it against any would-be invaders, kids and dangerous adult criminals alike.

Perhaps because of their youth, the deadly Cats still manage to endear adults from all sides of the Treasure Town fight; Fujimura is none too fussed about Black's ruling claim, the resident Apache gang are more protective than combative with the boys, and even the Yakuza either regard them as an idle threat, or gain the loose alliance of members like Kimura, leader Suzuki's right-hand man. The Yakuza gangsters descend upon the city in order to shake up the established forces there, but Black proves to be intimidating opposition to these criminals, utilizing his superhuman martial abilities to give them a clear warning of his intent to protect his town. But the Yakuza find they are not alone in their quest for power over Treasure Town. The devious developer and businessman Snake brings in a construction crew who, in a few months' time, build a sordid and garish amusement park called Kiddie Kastle, which Snake fully intends to use for huge profit margins, and eventually overtake the whole of Treasure Town. To do this, he enlists the aid of three otherworldly thugs, assigning them the mission of "cleaning up" the city, starting with the Cats. When White is gravely injured and separated by the police from Black as a result, Black slips into a dark spiral of ever-increasing violence and psychological instability. When Snake's thugs track him down on Kiddie Kastle's opening night, Black must choose whether to succumb to darkness, or keep a hold of his brother's innocent and stabilizing light.

Tekkonkinkreet can be added to the wonderful examples of animé films that utilize contemporary urban themes with great success, adding a touch of the fantastic to make the stories all the more intriguing. Black and White feel very real, with a plausible dynamic between each other that makes their plight heartbreaking. The film's bizarre character design oddly suits the film, feeling like the crude doodles of a young teenage boy. Even cooler is the quirky, yet addictive, rock score of British band Plaid. Overall, Arias certainly has succeeded in creating an engrossing modern fantasy, and it will be interesting to see if he produces further works in the years to come.

Tekkonkinkreet Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Released to Blu with a high bitrate AVC encoding that averages 30 Mbps, Tekkonkinkreet is another fine example of hand-drawn animation in high definition. Treasure Town comes alive with a garish and chintzy look, sporting vivid hues that span the entire spectrum. The clarity and sharpness of the character line art is superb, while the highly detailed, hand-painted backgrounds and layouts can be studied by viewers even at a great distance. Contrast is excellent, and the film's whimsical look is reproduced beautifully in this transfer. Intentional "blotchy" effects akin to paint crawl can even be seen in White's daydreams and on Black's dark companion, the Minotaur. Black levels are deep and rich, while whites are bright and without bloom - an important technical detail given the film's abundant black vs. white symbolism. No compression artifacts were apparent in the film's entirety. Being a digitally finished film, the Blu-ray transfer was completely free of physical film flaws, as well. Overall, Tekkonkinkreet boasts a lively and beautiful picture that makes the film all the more entrancing.

Tekkonkinkreet Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tekkonkinkreet is supplied with three tracks on this release. The primary mix is a lossless PCM 5.1 option in the film's original Japanese language. Two Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in Japanese and English, respectively. In addition, English SDH captions, appearing as white text within black blocks, or English subtitles are supplied with a literal translation; the English dub does not come transcribed. Spanish, Portuguese, and French subtitles also literally describe the spoken dialogue. The Japanese PCM audio is a full an impressive mix, made all the better by the trippy rock scoring of British band Plaid. The music is well mixed into every channel, enveloping the viewer into the urban world of Black and White. Dialogue is normally reserved to the center, though it follows the characters at times on the fronts. Even in quieter moments of musing, the characters' words are clear and easy to hear. As mentioned, the rears pick up an impressive amount of information, and the mix is livelier than most Blu-rays I have sampled recently. The LFE does its fair share as well, lending a good boost to the stylized fight sequences or the opening musical flyover of the city, for example.

Tekkonkinkreet Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Tekkonkinkreet comes with a very light helping of supplements, all of which have that obligatory, promotional air to them. The Filmmakers' Commentary features director Michael Arias, writer Anthony Weintraub, and sound designer Mitch Osias meandering on about various subjects related (and not-so-related) to the film as it plays back for them. The three rarely discuss the particular sequences that they and the home audience are viewing, but instead drift from one topic to the next, resulting in a rather dull and disjointed experience. Two featurettes are also included on the disc in high definition MPEG-2 and Dolby Stereo sound. A Conversation with Director Michael Arias and British Rock Duo Plaid is an 11½ minute piece consisting of generic promotional questions for the director and the film's two music composers, Andy Turner and Ed Handley. Though they may be artistically and musically talented, Arias and Plaid respectively have not an articulate bone in their body. Arias seems to strain to get a single sentence out, whilst the musicians almost act as if they've been caught off guard - pulled aside by some camera crew and asked to opine on the scoring of a random film they may or may not have seen. Nothing of substantial worth is discussed in the piece, and one would be better off skipping it.

The Making of Tekkonkinkreet – Director Michael Arias' 300 Day Diary follows an increasingly strained Arais as his years-long ambition to adapt his favorite manga comes to fruition. Having moved to Japan in 1991, the then 24-year-old special effects artist took a shine to the film's original graphic novel and vowed to produce a feature-length animé film from the material. Working at Studio 4°C, he and a staff of 500 took three years to bring the book to life, though the path was not easy. Going from March to August 2006, a camera crew follows Arias as he toughs out the final stages of the film's production, which at one point looks particularly grim when the crew view a badly composed rough cut of the film in its entirety only three months from production deadline. Much blood, sweat, and tears were clearly poured into this project when one witnesses the high levels of stres the crew works under by crunch time. Finally, high definition Previews for other Sony Blu-ray releases are provided, including a "Coming to Blu-ray" montage, Paprika, Ghost Rider, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Hostel Part II, Underworld: Evolution, and Ultraviolet.

Tekkonkinkreet Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Engrossing, highly imaginative, and populated by plausible personas, Tekkonkinkreet is another trippy, awesome animé feature lucky enough to find its way to Blu-ray. A modern fable centering around two polar opposite siblings, the film is made all the more unique with its unique musical flavor and simplistic, doodle-like character design. The Blu-ray features excellent picture and a full sound mix, boasting imagery that only the Japanese can seem to accomplish. This release is highly recommended for any fan of animation, and definitely for all who are curious enough to take a closer look.