Synopsis
TEKKONKINKREET combines the imaginative fantasy and action elements of the best Japanimation with a dark and modern children’s story. A hybrid of cutting-edge 3D CGI technology and traditional Japanese anime, TEKKONKINKREET is unlike anything ever seen before, combining dynamic action, virtuoso visual treats, and heart-rending tragedy.
TEKKONKINKREET’s child heroes, BLACK (Kuro) and WHITE (Shiro) nearly defy description, each blending equal parts superhero, hardened street urchin, and innocent child. They rage by day and disappear by night. They can fly. And their deftness with a kick, pipe or bat is unmatched. More importantly they are searching, fighting for the next adventure but knowing deep down that times are changing (and for the worse).
Black is the “man with the plan”, older, hardened, and always ready for action. The lost innocent, aggressive, an impetuous force of violence, Black is the child forced to grow up. If there is no turning back for Black, his goal is to save what’s left of White’s innocence. Far from pure, White is clearly still a child, helpless, emotional, and open to the world, but paradoxically all-knowing, in tune with the poetry of streets. These two love each other, but it’s deeper than that: they cannot live without each other. White needs Black to survive. Black needs White to feel worthy, and to maintain hope in the world.
TEKKONKINKREET opens as the two boys kick and fight their way through daily life. We meet White as he communicates in singsong to an imagined command center in the sky and reports that he has again kept the world safe from ‘bad guys,’ then retreats into a dream of a better life on the seashore. Meanwhile, perched on a telephone pole high atop Treasure Town’s streets, Black watches the action with the eyes of a hawk zeroing in on his next kill, rival kids from another neighborhood. A madcap chase ensues, with the boys hurtling down Treasure Town’s alleys and flying over its rooftops.
But all is not fun and games in Treasure Town any longer. When Yakuza chieftain THE RAT arrives back in town, Black knows something is cooking. The Rat brings a new breed with him, led by an evil Lieutenant, KIMURA. They’ve been entreated by the BIG BOSS to clear the streets of Treasure Town for a new development, and Kimura relishes his newfound mandate. Much to the Rat’s dismay though, the Boss has wrecking plans for the old city, and he’s enlisted foreign influences to carry them out. Then SNAKE enters the mix. More deranged then all of them combined, Snake commands a band of treacherous and all-powerful ALIEN ASSASSINS. Life will certainly never be the same in Treasure Town.
As the tension builds to a violent climax, the action shifts between the boys’ sweet, caring relationship and the encroaching violence of Snake and his assassins. Snake is greedy with violence, and he has the plan, the will, and the firepower to take over Treasure Town. With the prescience of a soothsayer, White senses this danger in his gut. And only Black has the ability to stop it. The table is set for a battle royale.
Central to the soul of the piece, Treasure Town is a major character in itself, a jarring visual metaphor for the war between good and evil, darkness and light, between retaining innocent ‘treasures’ versus losing them to the guilt of greed. Treasure Town is Old Tokyo on steroids, with smiling moons, expressionistic clouds, and whimsical blimps always floating somewhere behind a city piled on top of itself- the dream city floating behind the invading nightmare.
TEKKONKINKREET is a classic tale of innocence lost, and Treasure Town the perfect visual manifestation of this age-old theme. An amusement park taken over by a new, more corrupt and chaotic megalopolis, like Black and White Treasure Town rests perilously on the precipice of despair.
United as one, preserving the balance of the city together, all turns to hell when Black and White are separated and the assassins increase their hold on Treasure Town. Bit by bit, things fall apart, and each of the brothers enacts his own unique and characteristic descent into madness. At the same time, White falls further and further into his dream world. Black, forever the savage, completes an even greater transformation, turning into the MINOTAUR, a violent beast, a dark demon capable of the most extreme evil. Reason, purity and lucidity disappear, and only darkness remains. Black vanquishes the aliens, but it may be too late to save himself. Momentarily switching their roles, it is White who now must save Black from his self-imposed prison. Peace returns to the city, and yet somewhere deep down the evil is waiting, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.
