TEKKONKINKREET: Black & White by Taiyo Matsumoto Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of TEKKONKINKREET: Black & White
Book Review: Black and White in black-and-white
Summary: 5 Stars
Taiyo Matsumoto's wonderful underground manga is a much darker prospect than its flowing, full-colour movie adaptation by Michael Arias. Matsumoto keeps his vision of Treasure Town closer to the perspective its guardians Black and White, two young boys collectively known as The Cats who protect their district from rival gangs that threaten destroy its character in their competition for influence there. Matsumoto's artwork appears unconventional and almost hallucinatory in places, but the development of the story, the whole pace and perspective, is a familiar one in Japanese manga. Black and White obviously represent the yin and yang, the delicate ecological and psychological balance that is under threat from the ways of the modern world. Once that relationship is altered, events rapidly escalate and inevitably there are violent consequences. This all-in-one phone-book size edition, released to coincide with the release of the film adaptation on DVD, is beautiful, providing a wonderful opportunity to read one of the best manga books in recent years in its entirety.Book Review: A modern classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have just read this collection by Taiyo Matsumoto (I have not seen the anime based on the series) and i loved every bit of it. His style of drawing is a weird mix of European and Japanese, very much like Atsushi Kaneko (Bambi and her Pink Gun - shamefully only two editions translated into English by digital manga) which has a more organic `wobbly' feel unlike the usual pin-sharp lines of most manga.
If i had to describe his drawing style i would say it is very similar to early Robert Crumb (Fritz the Cat era) and early Moebius (Jean Giraud in a looser- more freestyle mood). At first glance it looks simple and almost child-like, but the more you look the more detail and background character there is. I especially love the way he plays with perspective.
I really loved the characters of Black and White and wanted more of them after the 600+ pages were finished. The city in the story is masterfully portrayed and adds a wonderful sense of mood to the piece. Like the artwork the story is a mix of dark, violent and cute! On the strength of this book i will be checking out the animated version. A+
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