[MANGA] Manga Review: Tekkon Kinkreet: Black & White

May 15, 2008 by Dennis Amith

In a review by James Hadfield for Japantoday.com, Hadfield recently reveiwed “Tekkon Kinkreet: Black & White”.

Hadfield wrote, “Taiyo Matsumoto doesn’t do cute. His characters are spindly grotesques, complete with scars and runny noses. Yet they’re not, it must be said, without their own considerable charm: when the Uniqlo UT Store in Harajuku released a line of T-shirts featuring Black and White, the protagonists of “Tekkon Kinkreet,” they sold out almost immediately.”

“Originally released in Japan in 1993-1994, “Tekkon Kinkreet” (the name is a pun on the Japanese for “reinforced concrete”) still holds a special place in the hearts of the nation’s more discerning manga readers. This long overdue English version, compiling all three volumes of the original, comes hot on the heels of Studio 4°C’s visually stunning anime adaptation. Hopefully it’ll go some way to getting Matsumoto the overseas recognition he deserves.”

“The comic is set in Treasure Town, a fictional metropolis that condenses the scruffiest elements of Tokyo and Osaka. Black and White are a pair of orphans who lord it over the city’s streets, thrashing anyone who pisses them off or has a wristwatch they like the look of. The two enjoy a ying-yang relationship: White is a sing-song savant, naive and emotionally pure; Black is older, wiser and a heck of a lot moodier. Both excel at beating the bejeezus out of people—some of the manga’s most thrilling sequences have them quite literally soaring over rooftops before crashing down on some unfortunate’s head.”