However, when it starts introducing a bunch of side characters, that’s where the focus gets wonky. They may not understand all of his isms, but hey, can you blame a kid for wishing for something better than what he has?
And everyone is so accepting that it’s just how Shiro sees the world. What is concrete is that his optimism has this likable charm to it where it warms everyone’s hearts, even though the reality of their environment says otherwise.
I’m not entirely sure how to feel about this depiction since it focuses a lot on making him childish, but since he’s orphaned and homeless, you can argue that may be the point since he’s never had parents, and Kuro can’t be a parent for him. It’s also fascinating to see a character like Shiro with heavy autistic coding where no one’s trying to fix him. Their relationship has a bit of obvious symbolism, but the animation and voice work do amazingly well to show their reliance on each other. Just as Kuro protects Shiro from dangerous yakuza, Shiro’s optimism keeps Kuro grounded so he fights with a purpose instead of just mindlessly picking fights. Shelter and food seems easily obtainable to survive, but what matters more is maintaining connections and sanity, especially with kids this young who have no one else in the world.
Kuro and Shiro make this film with the focus on how they balance each other out like Yin and Yang. Much like Ping Pong, the style is an acquired taste that not everyone is going to like, but I think it’s much smoother here, and you can tell the animators had a lot more to work with in the style. In contrast, the character designs are an odd combination of sketchy realism and minimalism which focuses more on their expressions and movements than detail. Not a single detail goes untouched in the backgrounds, and it’s incredibly colorful even with the horrible conditions of Treasure Town. It’s interesting to see a different director’s take on Matsumoto’s surreal art style. And Kuro takes it upon himself to fight anyone to drive out construction while protecting Shiro from harm’s way. But that’ll soon be disrupted with plans to turn Treasure Town into an amusement park and drive out the rampant delinquent children. Despite their opposing personalities, they balance each other out for emotional survival. Meanwhile, Shiro daydreams of a life outside of Treasure Town and is often off in his own little world. Kuro spends most of his time pick-pocketing and maintaining reputation as a Cats gang member and always itching to fight.
Kuro (Black) and Shiro (White) are two orphan kids living as street thugs in Treasure Town. Let’s see how Arias fares in his directorial debut. Not only does this film have a different director, but he’s also American, making Michael Arias the first non-Japanese director of an anime film. Bit of a personal silly moment, I honestly assumed this film was animated by the same director as Ping Pong: The Animation and The Tatami Galaxy because the styles were so similar. **Reposted from my Tumblr, elizas-writing, as of December 6th, 2018**įrom the same mangaka, Taiyo Matsumoto, who brought us Ping Pong, we now have Tekkonkinkreet, the 2006 film adaptation of his manga of the same name.