DVD Review (R2): TEKKON KINKREET & PAPRIKA
I used to watch anime when the Manga video label first launched in the UK. Not a huge amount, but I was a big fan of Akira, Ghost In The Shell was pretty cool and Fist Of The North Star was always worth a laugh. But, apart from Dragonball Z late at night & The Animatrix I haven’t watched an anime movie or TV show for at least 7 years. So I was really quite happy to receive check discs for Tekkon Kinkreet and Paprika (both of which we have competitions running for, by the way). But then the disappointment set in. First off, Paprika was only the second disc, containing the extras (ooh I hate it when that happens) and Tekkon Kinkreet – well, let me tell you about Tekkon Kinkreet.
First off, it is directed by Michael Arias, who was producer on The Animatrix and is based upon the manga by Taiy? Matsumoto. It tells the story of Black and White, two street orphans who live in Treasure Town, and protect the city from the criminals and punks who try and attack it. Black is a very violent individual while White seems to see how things should be rather than how they are and is able to see the best in everything but together they work well – Black protects White while White keeps control of Blacks worse instincts, and they are collectively known as “The Cats”.
But then a Yakuza criminal called The Rat returns to Treasure Town, and an “alien” called The Snake is also trying to take the place over and all hell is going to break loose as The Snake tries to kill The Cats.
Now, this sounds all well and good. It sounds like it should be an entertaining and violent movie. But it’s not. Sure, there are some moments of violence in it but they seem to be few and far between. Or maybe that was just the feeling I got because I was so Goddamned bord throughout the entire thing.
Sorry, any fans of the original manga comic book. This was one of the most boring anime movies I have ever seen. And it felt like you needed to know the original comic book to actually get a grip on what the hell was going on. And first and foremost of understanding this movie was “are these kids superpowered or not??”. I assume they must have been, otherwise the bouncing around on buildings during tracing is a bit bloody stupid. So that was one point that really annoyed me. Another was the animation. Don’t get me wrong, I love animation and drawings as the next guy but the animation in this movie I really didn’t like!
Since watching the movie I have seen some images from the original manga and I will agree that the animation team did a good job translating the still images into moving ones but the style of the drawings of the characters really jarred in me for some reason. I really really did not like them, and it just totally shoved me out of the movie “experience”. The backgrounds were beautifully realised but the characters looked terrible, in my opinion.
Another problem I had was, it made BUGGER ALL sense. I have a nasty feeling this might be to do with my age but be that as it may, I found it hard to follow what was going on, especially after about the half way point in the movie! There just didn’t seem to be any point to what was happening and I kept on hoping that something would be explained in the end, but sadly I was left hanging with no explanation.
You can argue the philosophical aspects of a movie until you are blue in the face, and I enjoy movies where you have to think about what’s happening on screen but some kind of resolution is always nice. Just something that will suddenly pop into the movie that can define the whole thing. It doesn’t even need to answer all of the questions that the movie has raised but some kind of answer is a good thing to include, especially when your movie is as hard to follow as I found this one. And no, I’m sorry, I do not buy into the whole “but if you’re a fan of the manga then you’ll be able to understand what’s happening” argument. Bollocks to that I say! I should be able to pick up the movie and watch it with absolutely no prior knowledge of the manga and be able to understand what’s going on. If this is a movie for existing fans only then they are missing a big portion of the market, surely?
The only other aspect of this movie that I haven’t really touched on is the voice work. The original Japanese dub with English subtitles and the English dub are both included here on the DVD and both follow the same script. And both sets of actors do a good enough job. Again, I had no real problem with the script – it’s just the animation!
Special Features
Commentary with Director Michael Arias, Screenwriter Anthony Weintraub & Sound Designer Mitch Otis:This chat track is interesting enough, but I was hoping that they might well explain a bit of the movie – thus making some sense of it but unfortunately they don’t. What they do do is spend a lot of time talking about the process of animating the movie, adapting the original manga, etc. Which is pretty interesting, actually.
A Conversation with Michael Arias & British Rock Duo Plaid: Michael Arias & Plaid are asked questions about the movie and doing the soundtrack and why Plaid got involved. Interesting enough.
Making of Tekkon Kinkreet; Michael Arias 300 Day Diary: A subtitled journey following Michael Arias from when he first started to adapt Tekkon Kinkreet through to the finish. Interesting enough, but a lot had already been covered by the commentary track.
Being perfectly honest, I was left pretty underwhelmed by this anime. I enjoyed The Animatrix so the fact that one of the people involved in that was directing this had left me pretty interested but in the end it was a bit of a let down for me. If you are a fan of the original manga then you might well find something to enjoy here, otherwise I would advise that you skip this release.
Verdict (out of 5):
Paprika
So moving on to the other anime release I was sent – Paprika! From director Satoshi Kon, the guy behind Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers, this anime looks amazing! Here’s the plot from IMDB:
In this Japanese anime epic, humanity’s last bastion of privacy has finally been infiltrated by technology, the world of our dreams. The story centers on a new invention called the DC-Mini. With this revolutionary device, psychiatrists are now able to enter a patient’s dreams in a therapeutic setting. But when an unknown assailant steals all of the devices, using them to enter peoples minds enacting mind control, chaos ensues as dreams begin to bleed into reality, and the thin line between the conscious and the unconscious begins to blur. Enter a young female researcher named Chiba, who takes it upon herself to delve into the newly anarchic dream world in order to set things straight. In this surreal realm her name is Paprika, and she’s out to save the world. Bursting with fantastic imagery and breathtakingly innovative animation.
Having watched the trailer I have to say that this really does look like a good movie, but unfortunately all I can tell you about are the special features as that was all that I had to watch! 
Tsutsui & Kon’s Paprika: (30 min) Tsutsui, the writer of the original manga, and Kon, who directed the movie, talk about the differences between the two mediums, motivation behind the adaption and a lot more. Well worth a watch.
A Conversation About The Dream: (29 min) Voice actors Megumi Hayashibara & Toru Furuya, author Yasutaka Tsutsui & director Satoshi Kon “discuss” Paprika, from the original manga story to favourite scenes, feelings about the movie and a hell of a lot more. Even without watching the movie, this actually does add a new dimension to the movie and makes up for me not being able to watch the commentary track yet!
The Dream CG World: (15 min) Cinematographer & CGI Director Michiya Kato talks about the CG used in Paprika, and how they tried to make sure it was used correctly. An interesting insight into the CG process of the movie.
The Art of Fantasy: (12 min) Art Director Nobutaka Ike talks us through the techniques employed in making the visual distinction between the “real” world and the dream world in Paprika, how they utilised computers and how being able to use digitised backgrounds helped change the drawings feelings etc.
This impressed me a lot. It’s not usual that I would recommend a DVD from only watching the special features but in this case I will. The extras included on this disc are very interesting and entertaining and do a good job of showcasing what looks like a fantastic movie! The only anime DVD I have on my shelves is Akira and this one is going to be joining it as soon as I find it in the shops. If you have already seen Paprika then getting this DVD is going to be an absolute must for you and if you haven’t and are a fan of animes like Spirited Away (which is what this most put me in mind of) then you should seriously think about getting Paprika on DVD.
Verdict (out of 5)
(it would have been more, I think, if I had seen the movie as well!)
5 Responses to “DVD Review (R2): TEKKON KINKREET & PAPRIKA”
dude, you just cited the very reasons I was hesitant to see Tekkon Kinkreet. Ugly characters, uninteresting looking story. Thanks for saving me from losing $4 on a rental!
Paprika, though, is very good. It’s a shame you only got the extras disc. You’ll love the rest!
Wow, you know **** all about anime .A very nice and unique movie with great style and story gets a shitty review
(it would have been more, I think, if I had seen the movie as well!) i missed that idiotic comment,you reviewed something without watching it !!! lol,get a clue about reviewing stuff
Dave – try reading everything before commenting and making yourself look like an idiot. In the review for Paprika I stated:
“Having watched the trailer I have to say that this really does look like a good movie, but unfortunately all I can tell you about are the special features as that was all that I had to watch!”
Guess what? I was sent the second disc which only contained the special features but, as they were kind enough to send it to me, I reviewed them – but how could I review a movie I hadn’t seen? Hence why the score for Paprika was based on the EXTRA FEATURES and not the movie. Surely it would have been more remiss of me to give the score I did without actually seeing the movie & explaining as much?
As for Tekkon Kinkreet, I stand by my review – as a non-fan of the comics or someone having no knowledge of them I felt bored by the whole thing. Maybe as a fan you’re of a different opinion, but I stand by mine.
Just like I stand by my choice to review the EXTRAS for Paprika & not the movie itself – but nowhere did I state that the score for Paprika was based on the movie as I didn’t watch or review it.
So please, before mouthing off & calling me out for my opinion or reviewing techniques how about you do me the courtesy of actually READING THE REVIEW COMPLETELY!
As someone who’s never read the manga to Tekkon Kinkreet either I thought it was pretty interesting to read your review.
I think the main reason you thought it was boring (but I’m only going from what what you wrote) Is that you aren’t really interested in that type of genera. From how you descried expecting there to be more violence i’m pretty sure your expectations were completely different from what it is that the film centres around (well what I feel about it anyway), but fair enough, reading the blurb doesn’t really help understand it too much and is a bit misleading.
I got from the film that it focuses more around the relationships between the brother’s mainly and the town and people involved with it. The parts of violence were just a means of developing the emotional plot.
I agree that the super powers was a bit confusing but I never thought that the kids DID have then, you just have to slightly relax your attitudes when anime is involved.
The one thing that did confuse me however were the weird assassins which did seem to have super powers. They were a bit out of place for me.
All in all I think it was more of an emotional film about the struggles of the children and not really an anime about fighting yakuza or that kind of genra.
In the end, different generas, different audience market and opinions…
I thought it was a beautiful film, even though I am more inclined towards films like Akira and on the whole can see this film being related more to films like Grave of the Fireflies than something like The Animatrix.
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