Tekkon Kinkreet

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Sawada: Cats? What cats? Fujimura: Strays. Orphans. Delinquents who rule Treasure Town. They live by the law of the jungle. The city is their playground. Underestimate them and you'll kiss asphalt.

Black: This is my town.

Tekkon Kinkreet is an anime film by Studio 4°C, the animation studio known for creating The Animatrix. It was adapted from a manga called Black and White.

The plot centers around two delinquent brothers called Black and White. Black acts as the tough, streetwise leader, while White is the childish and innocent half of the pair. Together they form the gang known as the Cats and rule Treasure Town, a decaying metropolis that is both peaceful and dangerous. However, the Yakuza known as the Suzuki the "Rat" and his boss move in and their plans change Treasure Town with negative consequences for the Cats. With the yakuza's appearance come even bigger threats to Black and White, including superhuman aliens charged with hunting them down and a creature called the Minotaur with a reputation for cruelty.

One of the central themes of the film is the duality of the orphaned brothers. White needs Black to help protect him and Black needs his young brother White to remind him of his humanity. Once separated from White, Black slowly succumbs to his inner darkness and White must bring him back.

The film is notable for having an American director, a fellow by the name of Michael Arias, who previously produced The Animatrix.

Tropes used in Tekkon Kinkreet include:

• Ambiguous Disorder: White, definitely. It's made clear early on that he's somehow... different, with his immature and occasionally obsessive behaviour.
• Anti-Hero: Black has a reputation for violence.
• Amazing Technicolor Population
• Arc Words

Suzuki: At least believe in love, Kimura. Love is all you need.

• Arrow Catch: The Minotaur performs one, then uses the arrow to stab an alien in the eye.
• Asexuality: Sawada says right out that he's asexual. He bucks the common stereotypes about asexuals (cold, uncaring, etc.) in that he's the most compassionate character in the movie.
  • When he mentions it at a strip-show, Suzuki calls it a "sign of the times."
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: The strip club scene.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind
• Beauty Mark: Several characters have one, most noticeably White.
• Big Bad: It's complicated. Snake is the most obvious, but he states that he is taking orders from "the ultimate authority" then directly states he means God. The Minotaur is a good contender, he nearly takes away Black's humanity.
• Bizarrchitecture: Treasure Town is a peculiar mix of early 20th century Japanese architecture and absurdly elaborate examples of classic Middle-Eastern, Indian and Chinese architectures.
• Blood Knight: Black is very... eager to defend "his town".
• Bathroom Stall Graffiti: The entire film is covered in graffiti, and the bathrooms are no exception.
• Catch Phrase: "Hello! It's Japan, planet Earth calling! Agent White reporting! Do you read me? This is a very peaceful planet. Agent White: Keeping the peace, doing my best to fight the bad guys, wherever they may be. Over and out." ...And different variations of that throughout the movie.
  • Also, white's attitude towards life can be summed up as: "Be happy, be happy"
  • Black also insists that Treasure Town is "his town".
• Cheerful Child: White
• Children Are Innocent: Harshly averted. Black has a little too much fun beating people with a steel pipe and White burns one of the aliens ALIVE.
  • One could argue that they are capable of these frightening acts because they are so innocent that they don't fully grasp how horrible they are. White especially is described as a true innocent by one of the secondary characters.
• Conspicuous CG: Noticeable still, but mitigated thanks to a blend of traditional graphics with 3D animation, and the appropriate use of cel shading (for vehicles) that goes fairly well with the design of the characters.
• Conveniently an Orphan
• Cloudcuckoolander: White, big time.
• Decoy Protagonist: Dusk and Dawn who provide exposition for the Treasure Town and the Cats at the beginning of the film, only to be thoroughly trounced by Black. They reappear later in the film to give the first warning about the Minotaur's approach.
• Defector From Decadence: Suzuki, and later Kimura.
• Delinquents: Well duh.
• Deranged Animation: Most notably during the Minotaur sequence.
• Disney Death: For a few minutes you really do think White is going to die.
• Dissonant Serenity: White, when burning one of the aliens to death and almost getting Black burned as well.
• Dramatic Shattering
• Earn Your Happy Ending
• Constantly Curious: White.
• Enemy Without...Or is it Enemy Within?
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Black and Kimura.
• Goggles Do Nothing
• Growing Up Sucks
• Heel Face Turn: Kimura
• Heroic BSOD
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Scott Menville is Black, Maurice LaMarche is Yujimaru, and Steven Jay Blum is various minor characters including a few Yakuza and the Surgeon.
• Hope Sprouts Eternal: After failing to grow for much of the movie's duration, White's apple seed finally sprouts and blossoms during the end credits, after the brothers are reunited.
• Idiot Savant: White.
• Kill It with Fire: One of the aliens' weaknesses.
• Le Parkour: And also plenty of Roof Hopping.
• Living Emotional Crutch
• Made of Evil: The Minotaur
• Madness Makeover: Black becomes more and more unkempt and deranged looking after being separated from White.
• Madness Mantra: "Be happy be happy."
• Magic Realism: The main characters are able to jump over buildings and fly, which is given no explanation whatsoever. The aliens aren't explained either.
• Mind Screw: It seems at first that the initial acrobatics and flying is just White's fantasies. Then the flying purple men show up...
• Morality Pet: White, for Black
• Nice Hat: White is seen with a myriad of quirky hats throughout the film.
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: White's manic rendition of The Minotaur later in the storyline.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Black's cat and raven. Possibly Bond Creatures.
• The Power of Friendship
• Production Throwback: Scenes from the "Time Boy" anime from Mind Game, an earlier Studio 4°C production, show up on television in Suzuki's safehouse as he leaves for the last time.
• Promotion to Parent: Black to White, although their status as siblings is unclear.
• Psychic Link: Implied.
• Ravens and Crows
• Redemption Equals Death
• Retro Universe: The aesthetics of the city strongly evokes urban Japan in The Fifties and The Sixties (with a dash of pan-Asian elements mixed in), complete with period everyday items and vehicles.
  • A minor hint of the years in which the show takes place does surface early on, explaining the aesthetics. Suzuki is depicted reading an astrology book for 1967/Showa 42, implying the storyline unfolds between the summers of 1967 and 1968.
    • However, there's a scene from an arcade that has games that seem to belong to the 1980's.
• Room Full of Crazy: The room that is given to White at halfway through the movie goes from being full of ordinary drawings to crazy towards the end.
• Satisfied Street Cats
• Scars Are Forever: Kimura, after having his ass handed to him by Black. Also, Black has a scar over his left eye and another under his chin.
• Scenery Porn: Up to Eleven
• Shout-Out: At one point, we see a back-alley doctor with a scar dividing his face, with one half darker than the other.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Black and White, obviously.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids
• Sociopathic Hero: Black can somehow pull off an array of brutal assaults and still be sympathetic.
  • It helps that a lot of people he attacks had it coming. Like the yakuza he beats up early on.
• Super Speed: The alien assassins and the Minotaur
• Super-Powered Evil Side: The Minotaur to Black
• Worm That Walks: A peculiar variation - a giant crow made out of hundreds of ordinary-sized crows flying in precise formation.
• Yakuza