a review by s2m: Tekkonkinkreet

[slr2moons]

I had intended for my next review to be of Stephanie Meyer's novel Twilight, but I didn't feel up to writing it when I finished the book, and now it's been too long since I read it. :P I do intend to share my thoughts on that novel, it will just have to wait until I read it a second time. Which hopefully won't be too long. For now, I submit my review of the unusual manga, Tekkonkinkreet, by Matsumoto Taiyo.

I first heard of this title when Animation Magazine Online printed a short article about the movie that is based on this manga. Intrigued, I made a note to myself to check out the movie at a later date. About two weeks ago, I was in the manga section of my closest Borders when a giant book caught my eye. You can guess which one. I pulled it from the shelf--marveled at its size (7.25 by 10.25 inches and 622 pages long. Ooooh...) and found a chair to give it a try. Twenty minutes and $30 later, I walked out the door with the latest addition to my English-language manga collection.

First up, that movie blurb I read is completely misleading--at least about the original manga. This story isn't about two street urchins fighting aliens to protect their city. It's a moral struggle between doing right and wrong, and how different people have different views of what is right and wrong. Of course, that doesn't make nearly as enticing a movie blurb as "two street urchins fighting aliens to protect their city". *snorts* The shallowness and predictability of your average North American grates on me. But then, that blurb is what made me want to give the story a try, so....*cringes* (It was the protective street urchin bit, I swear!) But I can honestly say I am very glad that the story is not about fighting aliens. In fact, aliens aren't in it at all.

The most striking thing about this book--aside from the huge size and occasional color pages--is the artwork. Typical manga-style it is not. It reads "normally", as in left-to-right. And I believe this is how it was original drawn, judging by all the signs and whatnot in the backgrounds. The mangaka's bio says he studied in Europe, and that is how he draws. Wobbly, heavy lines, straight-forward panel layouts with almost no overlapping images, and a childish drawing style that disguises a definite knowledge of drafting, human anatomy, and portraying emotion. Once I became acclimated to the weirdness unconventional manner, I noticed the artwork is very really expressive. And more importantly, it works.

As an interesting note, the mangaka loves to place random animals in almost every page. Of course, the two main characters, "Black" and "White", are often pictured with appropriately colored cats in the panel. This is because the pair's nickname in the city is literally "the cats". However, Black--the leader, the intelligent one, and ultimately the one who has to choose between good and evil--is often shown with a large crow nearby. Other animals appear seemingly at random. Sometimes just walking down the street, sometimes as part of the landscape on posters or as kiddie toys, sometimes taking the place of people by driving a car or drinking coffee. Hippos, cows, penguins, lions, dogs, turtles, frogs, fish, etc etc etc. If there's a hidden message to these random animals (above the obvious use of cats and Black's crow), it wasn't apparent to me on the first reading! Perhaps when I read the book a second time, I'll figure it out. But some of these animals aren't so random--again, not counting the cats and the crows. These animals are brought into the story by White, which I'll explain in a minute.

The two boys appear to be about 10 years old. With an old broke-down car as their home base, they roam Treasure Treasure Town, protecting their interests guarding their streets from thieves, yakuza, and rival gangs. They are respected and feared by the cops and civilians for being incredibly violent, strong fighters--and their amazing ability to "fly"...meaning they can really jump and "fall with style". Not to mention with excellent aim, since tThey're very good at landing on enemies.

As mentioned earlier, and as is reflected by their names, Black is the brains, but White is the heart. White is simple and not self-sufficient, relying on Black to help him get dressed, keep him clean, and provide food and guidance. In one touching scene, White reveals how much he wants to go to school. So Black breaks into the local elementary and lets him explore as much as he wants. Black sees the surface problems, the obvious changes in their precious corner of the city. White is the one who can feel the depth and and significance of those changes--even though he doesn't have the intelligence to know out what it all means. Together, they are complete. It's when the pair is separated that things really happen.

We only know as much about the two boys as is needed for the story. Their back history--how they ended up homeless, if they are brothers, why Black can read and so intelligent yet White is not--none of that is explained. The same goes for the regular supporting cast. Aside from the odd reference and flashback, we are given no clarity. In classic manga style, these unimportant background facts are left to the reader to decide for themselves.

Overall, the series style of storytelling has a disjointed and surreal aspect that reminds me of Cowboy Bebop and Kon Satoshi's works. The CowBe aspect is from the story bouncing around from scene to scene in a series of vignettes and individual episodes that slowly reveal an overall message, and that occasionally bring consequences many pages later. The surreal Kon Satoshi feel is part of those not-quite-so random animals I mentioned earlier. White talks about Black being surrounded by fish, and lo--we see it. Fish swimming through the air around Black, many pages later. White will describe a bizarre dream, and lo again--many pages later, we see references. I'm sure I'll notice much more of this symbolism upon rereading.

Content-wise, the manga is rated M for a reason. Blood, severed appendages, iron pipes slamming into people's heads, nudity, the works. The only thing really missing is a sex scene. But if it's gore you want, it's gore you'll find here! Hardly surprising in a story about two vicious little street rats, ne?

Now for something I have a different perspective on than most people--the lettering. The manga's art style is so lose and informal that the manga lettering standard for sound effects, which is morphing type, would look jarringly sharp and out of place. Thankfully, all the sound effects are hand-lettered and fit nicely into the original style. As for the dialogue...unfortunately, the same font is used for everything. Dialogue, narration, and differences in volume--with the addition of bolding for the latter. Changing fonts is an important visual cue in manga, so I'm disappointed to see the same font everywhere. Particularly in flashbacks. Those can be confusing without the use of italics or a different front to cue the reader that "Hey, we've left the main story timeline! Pay attention!" until the context and artistic clues (like black surrounding the panels) finally make things evident. Changing fonts and remembering what font to use where can be a pain (I should know...) but in my opinion it's definitely worth it.

To conclude: I am very glad that I pulled this book off the shelf to give it a try, and I do not regret the price of $30. I like having an entire manga series in one lovely large book. And the color pages! Fabulous! I would love to see more manga series collected just like this. My only worry is that I would miss out on the cover artwork for the other volumes. If we are ever given more volume compilations, I certainly hope the missing artwork would be included in a nice gallery in the back!! 

Oh yes, and the aliens reference from the movie blurb?? That's how White described a particularly nasty set of enemies. They talked in gibberish, they looked rather odd, they were very tall and strong. So to his simple mind, they were aliens.

I hope the movie didn't take him literally. :P