REVIEW: Tekkon Kinkreet film

Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White (film)

By Taiyo Matsumoto,

Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White (film)

Originally opened in 2006

·         Unlike the manga, White is noted to have an orange shirt in the film as opposed to white clothing. Black, while keeping to his black attire, does not have the kanji for black on his back.

·         The film opens up with the brothers fighting another set of brothers as opposed to random gangsters.

·         It could be the American-style print of the manga, but Black’s scar is on the other eye in the film.

·         The atmospheric scenes of the film expand upon the more compact aspects of Treasure Town that the manga was limited to due to the medium of manga.

·         The reactions of the crowds are in the film towards the Cats and Chocolate’s gang and the other yakuza in Treasure Town, which is notably limited or excluded in the manga.

·         White’s innocence and slight mental challenges are more noted in the film than in the manga, which seems to center more on Black and his troubles with the city.

·         The hint of Black being one with the Minotaur is hinted at earlier in the film than in the manga.

·         Kimura’s relationship with his wife is also touched more in the film than in the manga, where she only serves to be there for him in the end and does not play too much into his development.

·         The nonsense language of the aliens sounds more Japanese than the implied Chinese-style of the assassins in the manga.

·         The Japanese theme of the town is made lesser with the graffiti being in English and the town signs also being in English. This could be due to the director of this film being not-Japanese and this film being geared towards an international release.

·         They include a Japanese shadow puppet thing in the film that wasn’t in the manga.

·         Suzuki dies earlier in the film than in the manga, where all the adult yakuza die about the same time.

·         The Snake character is notably blonde and looks foreign compared to the manga where he looks still Japanese though with bleached hair.

·         It is the death of Suzuki and not the killing of the two alien assassins that spurs the humanity in Black again in the film.

·         The foreign amusement part of Treasure Town is made more prevalent with Part 3 of the film than with the manga where it felt like there was little change in Treasure Town saves for which gangs were in power.

·         They include a hugely surreal scene where Black sees where the darkness of hate leads mankind by the semi-supernatural powers of White.

·         Suzuki survives by the end of the film, where he died by the end of the manga after killing Snake.

·         Overall, the film I felt was just as good as the manga if not slightly superior as the pacing of the manga seemed erratic at times yet the film fitted them more fluidly. Also, the mundane dialogue of the beginning of the manga was left out for more development of side characters though this story is still about the two boys.

Bibliography:

Tekkon Kinkreet. Dir. Michael Arias. Perf. Kazunari Ninomiya, Yû Aoi, Yûsuke Iseya, Kankurô Kudô, Min Tanaka. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2007. DVD.

REVIEW: Astro Boy Film

Astro Boy Film

Directed by David Bower, Original manga By Osamu Tezuka

Film distributed 2009

·         Unlike the original origin of Astro Boy, Toby (the original boy Astro is based on), does not die from driving a future car but rather an incident with a rouge robot with a red evil core. In addition, Dr. Tenma is more open to accepting Astro as his son in this film as opposed to other adaptations of Astro Boy where he rejects Astro but still accepts him as his creation.

·         Past some key citizens of Metro City who are actual side characters from the original Tezuka works (including a cameo of Tezuka himself as a scientist in the film), the other added characters to the franchise look nothing like the style Tezuka made for the series. In addition, the technology and the looks for the robots look nothing like the sci-fi look that Tezuka set for his series originally.

·         Metro City, despite having a distinct Japanese feel to it, is not noted to being part of any country specifically in the film. There are references to New Jersey and other non-Japanese locations and culture making this adaptation unfittingly feels less Japanese and more International.

·         Astro is noted to keeping a shirt and pants for most of the film as opposed to only having underwear like his original comic. In addition, he doesn’t use his signature blaster gun hands and machine gun butt until later on in the film.

·         This film was notably co-created with a Hong Kong animation firm as opposed to a complete Japanese animation house.

·         The film specifically focuses on robotics for the majority of its sci-fi element whereas the original source material had cyborgs, plant people and aliens more regularly in the plot.

·         The classic style of Tezuka interacting with the audience is left out in this adaptation past his cameo as a scientist, which seems lacking in how Astro Boy comics and Tezuka’s style normally is in his animated films and manga. Normally, Tezuka would interact with the audience early on in his works to remind people that what they are reading is fictional, a personal trait of his works after he had experienced the aftereffects of World War II in Japan and how that affected the Japanese mindset.

·         The rules or robotics is made clear that robots cannot harm humans save for an ancient robot ZOG, which sets up irrational situations where robots try to get at humans by circumventing the rules.

·         Instead of the Heart power that Astro gained in the manga and his slow coming to becoming more like Toby, the Astro of the film immediately was given Toby’s memories from a strand of hair DNA and powered by the plot-driven Blue Core.

·         The forced tension of romance with Cora with Astro was unnecessary.

·         Overall, the movie was indeed enjoyable save for the forced friendships that Astro gained with the kids from the surface world. The political tone of the film also drew away from the manga origins where Tezuka focused on human suffering as his subject to his manga and/or how people overcome hardships on a regular basis. Overall though, I enjoyed the film.

Bibliography:

Astro Boy. Dir. David Bowers. Perf. Freddie Highmore, Nicholas Cage, Kristen Bell, Et.al. Sony, 2009. DVD.

REVIEW: History of Anime

History of Anime

An article on Open Culture

First published online in 2012

History of Anime

·         The first animation and the animation on the Stolen Lump both are based on Japanese mythology while the last animation Private Norakuro is a satire on Japanese military.

·         The first animation and Private Norakuro both have a Disney feel to them while the Stolen Lump has realism feel to it based on art direction and the animation narrative.

·         The Stolen Lump is noted for using dialogue like a Charlie Chaplin silent film in that characters move their lips then black screen dialogue accompanied by music plays with spoken words. With the first animation and Private Norakuro, the words are spoken sometimes without regard to lip synchronization and such.

·         As early Japanese animation set in the late 20s and early 30s, it can be observed that the animation is similar to early Walt Disney animations not only in look but in how the protagonists of the cartoons act: the protagonists in all three animations act as jerks when confronted with their environments.

·         Narrative for the first animation is incoherent to some points as the fox-spirit samurai seems afraid of spirits at some points in the film even though he himself is a spirit.

·         Private Norakuro is noted to be a slacker and a bad portrayal of the Japanese militant man: which would not be allowed in animation once World War II became prominent in Japan.

·         The Stolen Lump is noted as a story to be printed on Japanese art paper as opposed to the animation paper that is used by the first animation and Private Norakuro, which uses normal animation black and white as opposed to the tan color of the Stolen Lump. This gives it a calligraphy look very much fitting to the Japanese classical art style of print block art.

·         Norakuro would ironically serve as a mascot to the Japan Self Defense Force, which given his origins as a satire to the Japanese military this seems unusual.

·         In the first animation, it is noted that they had the shadow raccoon’s move alongside the background corners of the room in one scene like a shadow fitting them to the shape of the scenery. This is notable as a feat of animation that is not used as much today.

·         Although these animations predate contemporary anime, many themes of anime and manga can be seen in these animations: most noted are the stylized proportions of the characters, the emphasis on backgrounds to play a major role in the narrative and the extreme expressions of individuals to convey emotions.

·         Save for The Stolen Lump, the majority of good protagonists are noted to be in a more blackened tone compared to other characters, which can convey that they are protagonists much like other blackened early animation characters like Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Rabbit and Felix the Cat

·         Overall, I enjoyed these animations and these animations clearly set the tone of what was to come for anime and other noted Japanese cartoon products.

Bibliography

"Japanese Cartoons from the 1920s and 30s Reveal the Stylistic Roots of Anime." Open Culture. Open Culture, LLC, 5 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2013.History of Anime

An article on Open Culture

First published online in 2012

History of Anime

·         The first animation and the animation on the Stolen Lump both are based on Japanese mythology while the last animation Private Norakuro is a satire on Japanese military.

·         The first animation and Private Norakuro both have a Disney feel to them while the Stolen Lump has realism feel to it based on art direction and the animation narrative.

·         The Stolen Lump is noted for using dialogue like a Charlie Chaplin silent film in that characters move their lips then black screen dialogue accompanied by music plays with spoken words. With the first animation and Private Norakuro, the words are spoken sometimes without regard to lip synchronization and such.

·         As early Japanese animation set in the late 20s and early 30s, it can be observed that the animation is similar to early Walt Disney animations not only in look but in how the protagonists of the cartoons act: the protagonists in all three animations act as jerks when confronted with their environments.

·         Narrative for the first animation is incoherent to some points as the fox-spirit samurai seems afraid of spirits at some points in the film even though he himself is a spirit.

·         Private Norakuro is noted to be a slacker and a bad portrayal of the Japanese militant man: which would not be allowed in animation once World War II became prominent in Japan.

·         The Stolen Lump is noted as a story to be printed on Japanese art paper as opposed to the animation paper that is used by the first animation and Private Norakuro, which uses normal animation black and white as opposed to the tan color of the Stolen Lump. This gives it a calligraphy look very much fitting to the Japanese classical art style of print block art.

·         Norakuro would ironically serve as a mascot to the Japan Self Defense Force, which given his origins as a satire to the Japanese military this seems unusual.

·         In the first animation, it is noted that they had the shadow raccoon’s move alongside the background corners of the room in one scene like a shadow fitting them to the shape of the scenery. This is notable as a feat of animation that is not used as much today.

·         Although these animations predate contemporary anime, many themes of anime and manga can be seen in these animations: most noted are the stylized proportions of the characters, the emphasis on backgrounds to play a major role in the narrative and the extreme expressions of individuals to convey emotions.

·         Save for The Stolen Lump, the majority of good protagonists are noted to be in a more blackened tone compared to other characters, which can convey that they are protagonists much like other blackened early animation characters like Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Rabbit and Felix the Cat

·         Overall, I enjoyed these animations and these animations clearly set the tone of what was to come for anime and other noted Japanese cartoon products.

Bibliography

"Japanese Cartoons from the 1920s and 30s Reveal the Stylistic Roots of Anime." Open Culture. Open Culture, LLC, 5 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2013.

MoMA: The Quay Brothers Exhibit

The Quay Brothers Exhibit

A Museum of Modern Art Exhibit

An event of 2012

The Quay Brothers Exhibit

·         I liked the exhibit a lot for its macabre tones.

·         The exhibit was on two floors, the second floor and the basement, of the MoMA

·         There were noted displays of the puppets and the diagrams of the works they have made, and they also included the short films that the Quay brothers directed, animated and/or were influenced by.

·         The exhibit starts with a biography of them and their relations to their hard working mother, in addition to the artists that influenced them greatly.

·         The Quay Brothers notably studied in their home state of Pennsylvania but had to find work in England by the BBC as their work was deemed too macabre for American tastes at the time.

·         The entire exhibit was in a dark lighted room where the only light sources were from the displays with their own distorted lenses to look into or the films to which the Quay Brothers worked on.

·         The tones of the works that the Quay Brothers worked on were mostly on the macabre and the tragic, as a more horror themed work was what they were aimed towards.

·         Of the films that they worked on was the acclaimed “Street of Crocodiles” which was supposed to convey the cultural decay of the metropolitian life.

·         Other films that they did were a dance choreography work that a male and female dancer performed in the recording and several commercials with bleak themes like the tragic death of the weeds in a “Raid” commercial.

·         The figures on display had noted wiring and photorealistic eyes on the figurines, in that most of the figures were made of wires or realistic looking porcelain and had eyes which were shaped with irises and such to a fine detail.

·         They made a tribute piece to the Metamorphosis where a man became a giant cockroach and hid under his bed.

·         Most of the attending patrons were there on Friday due to an event the MoMA was hosting, but the majority of the viewers to the Quay Brothers exhibit were young adults to much older adults.

·         The Quay Brothers were in fact rejected once by the BBC for a work relating to pens that they made as it was deemed too bizarre even for British tastes.

·         One of the commercials for Doritos in a theater had a couple, a young boy and various other adults watching pornography in a nonchalant manner.

·         There were included post-modern displays as with a display of a deer with antlers sticking out of the painting and a chimney area with a viewing scope with maid shoes on the top of it where one watched a recording of a maid heating a building.