by Rob Kohr
Going into the theater I really didn’t know much about this movie other than it was written by and directed by two Americans, Anthony Weintraub and Michael Arias respectively. I also knew that it was animated by the studio that made the really wonderful film “Mind Games” which I also saw last year at the same venue, the MOMA. What I didn’t expect was a film that was over all disappointing and dull to the point that people were walking out early.
 
 
 

First off I have to say that I was impressed by the work of Studio 4˚C, their animation is always top notch and the character designs by Shoujirou Nishimi, though different from Taiyo Matsumoto European-esc styles, were wonderful. Nishimi was also the character designer on Mind Game and has an excellent sense of how to design a character for animation. The original comic art is to the right, for contrast. The backgrounds were a character in of themselves, you are pulled though the city over the buildings and down the alleyways. It was nice too to see that the art of multi-planing backgrounds is still not lost and replaced with making everything 3D.

The downside to all this, I am sad to say was everything else. The story was droll and predictable, the story of kids versus the industry that hopes to wreak their city in hopes to revitalize the economy is such and over told tale. What’s worse is the two main characters named Black and White, were annoying, to the point that you just wanted them to die. However, one character, a conflicted “bad guy” nicknamed Rat was really the only interesting character. The main villain was so unbelievably weak and hard to understand that you didn’t really know if he was bad or just trying to be a tragic hero. The film over all just felt like it was a condensed version of an episodic comic, but unlike a film like Akira or Nausicaa, both were based on episodic comics, Tekkonkinkreet tried to do too much in 90 minutes.

I do want to say though that it was a really admirable attempt Michael Arias part, who as a first time director, still managed some amazing moments and shots. I feel that the weakness might lie more on the lap of Anthony Weintraub and the original comic by Shoujirou Nishimi. I have never read the comic, though I might assume its well written, it alone has received good reviews. As bad as the story might have been it still falls on the director to pull the film together and either get better writing or make due. Arias didn’t make due.

Other reviews:
[ Village Voice ]
[ Anime News Network ]