Tekkon Kinkreet / Black & White

I consider this book the best graphic novel of all times.The style is amazing, the writing is strong, the story is multidimensional.One of these dimensions is the city - Treasure Town - which lives and breathes even if you remove main character from the book. All side characters have their purpose besides the main story. And protagonists themselves are just wonderfully well though. Black and White while being violent and cruel street rats are in fact very realistically portrayed and loveable children and in many ways remind me of my own childhood. Mister Matsumoto (author) mixes harsh reality with childish fantasies. The city is their playground. They call themselves Cats and they don't wag their tails for anybody, beating up anyone in their way, even yakuza members don't want to mess with them. But there's a new power that comes to town and tries it's best to change how everything in this city works.The style of drawing in this book is an amazing mix of skillful art and childish vision of the world. Matsumoto disguises his extremely mature skill with sloppy childish lines and is being brilliant at it.I say, everybody in the world must read this book at least two times.

A definitely good buy! I was so satified with the purchase.I saw the movie first and then became curious over what had the original work looked like... so I decided to buy the manga!If you've already seen the movie, you'll understand the dramatic undertones of the story.The manga isn't as great as the movie in the area of suspense but it is nonetheless still a great place to turn to if you've missed anything in the movie. The manga clarifies the fuzzy parts of the movie that was either unclear or not as detailed as it should be.The artwork in the manga is more detailed and dramatic than the movie. Same goes for the storyline. If you looked closely enough, you'll notice the subtle differences too. For example, Black/Kuro's scar over his eye is opposite to that in the movie. Same thing happened for White/Shiro's mole; it's on the other cheek than in the movie.Every manga and anime lover should definitely read this!! Whether it's before or after watching the movie, you'll still find the same satisfaction either way.

I came upon the Manga after watching the film, but I have to say it didn't disappoint one bit. It's a jam-packed adventure. You're immediately thrust into the action as things start to stir in Treasure Town. While no two characters are as captivating as Black and White themselves, the book is set up in such a way that as you go along you discover the various characters' past histories and perhaps the reason behind their conflicts. It's a power struggle for the city by the Police, thugs, the Yakuza and a new greater threat, with the two boys dead center of all the action. There are a lot of bigger themes one could write about from Black and White, but the basic conflict of friendship and devotion against all odds made it one of the most riveting books I've read in some time. If you need a departure from Marvel for a little while to discover something else, I'd say you can't go wrong with Tekkon Kinkreet.

During a trip to Japan recently I came across the film version of this book, which had just won many awards. When I learned it was based on a graphic novel, I scoured the bookstands here in the US for it to no avail. Luckily Amazon had it (along with the English-subtitled movie). Tekkon Kinkreet is a richly engaging graphic narrative, its visual language referencing French comics but with the horizontal, angled paneling of more traditional Japanese Manga. Though it's about two scrappy kids, this is most definitely NOT a comic book for children: it's full of violence and references to the seedy underworld of the city (gangsters, strip clubs, etc.). Though those things would usually turn me off, I found this to be a completely absorbing narrative. Beyond the violence it elegantly explores the issues of gentrification, friendship, identity, and change. The film's great too, but you should definitely read the book first. Totally different visual styles going on. Great stuff. Check it out.

Black and White is a masterpiece in form and content.The graphics rendered in black and white are a superb visual experience. A point of interest is that the figures are not your conventional manga style. The author has an unique - raw and very detailed - style.The narrative is clear, easy to follow in the sense that reading flows very smoothly and the layout is not marred with panel dyslexia. The storyline is not as simple as it may seem as there are some very unexpected twists and turns. Rich and dense, violent at times, Black and White's story is one like no other. Think Ranxerox w/o the drugs, Tank Girl without the Sex, Tarantino, Twain...Another review has accurately mentioned that this is not a bilingual edition. On occasion, some of the background lettering is Japanese, but all dialogues are in English.

Best manga out there. If Moebiua and Miyazaki had a baby,.it would.look something like this.

Fast paced violence along with a grounding sense of reality and fear make this one of the one of the hardest manga to put down. Also the art is phenomenally gritty with a sense of childlike wonder.

This just got delivered today and when it arrived it was pretty banged up. It has some discoloration like it has water damage. Overall it’s not going to impact being able to read and enjoy the book but I was a little disappointed that it was brand new and showed up damaged.

Matsumoto's art style is wonderfully unique, that of an auteur, and Tekkonkinkreet exemplifies that with page after page of vibrant, highly detailed illustrations, eccentric characters and an interesting narrative. Shiro & Kuro are brothers in their native Treasure Town, a sprawling Japanese city where gangs lurk and the police seem to have little say in who controls the streets. One brother, Kuro, is street-smart, violent and protective, the other, Shiro, dependent, naive but highly intelligent (autistic perhaps). Together they face up to a sinister group moving in to change Treasure Town forever, but the real story is the strain on their brotherly bond. The narrative is very much focused on boyhood and manhood, and on violence. There is a noticeable absence of female characters, and in that regard the picture of this universe is perhaps a little narrow, hampered by a masculine tunnel vision harking back to old fashioned crime movies where women were always in the peripheral. The dialogue rarely touches upon the deeper history of the town and its characters, too, so you don't necessarily get the level of narrative depth to leave you fully satisfied. But there's still plenty here to love, and in a time where Japanese manga/anime is painfully homogenous, Tekkonkinkreet's bold, confident art style is enough of a reason to read this. I also highly recommend the film adaptation, which in some respects exceeds the graphic novel.I bought the paperback version, which is a hefty tome (624 pages!), very nicely printed (most images in black and white) and certainly value for money at under £10.

Really amazing manga! A beautifully realised synecdoche of it's subject matter. The art style is loose and full of life, much closer to observational drawing than the precise lines and tones of mainstream manga.For those who have seen the film, the plot is pretty much the same but the tone entirely different. I found reading this after watching the movie I kept on thinking about what happened to the city and the point of what they did and if it caused any change, and if so was it actually detrimental?This is great and really worth a read. A great author to get started on.

After watching the movie I was completely enamoured with the story and was really excited to read the manga. It gives fans of the film even more detail to enjoy. The art style is kooky but beautiful. The book itself is massive, but it's like reading crack so it takes you no time to get through it at all. I'd recommend it to absolutely anyone because it's such an enchanting story. Also, it was delivered ahead of it's estimated time so I wasn't waiting too long for it.

I watched the film and loved it, so I bought this and love it just as much. It is slightly different to the film, but that doesn't take away anything from the story.I really love Taiyo Matsumoto's art style, it's not really traditional Japanese and that's one of the reasons that drew me too it.I purchased it because I loved the film and saw that it was a manga too and though "At this price, why not?". I'm really glad I did!

Amazing graphic novel. Beautifully presented. Made a great present but had to read it first.