Studio 4°C’s “Tekkon Kinkreet” (directed by Michael Arias) is one of the most visually astounding anime films I’ve ever seen, period. The sheer quantity and quality of jaw-dropping artwork created for this film is just unbelievable. In this post, we delve into the first of a two volume book set “Black” and “White”, named after the two main protagonists in the film.

The first volume “Black” showcases the image boards and concept art created for the film under the supervision of art director Shinji Kimura, ( he also served as art director for Otomo Katsuhiro’s Steamboy – read about it here. ) who himself is one heck of a background artist.

These image boards establish the look and feel of the film, and the background artists fall back on these boards as references when they are working on the actual background plates used in the movie. ( we’ll look at the background art in an upcoming post )

Tekkon Kinkreet is adapted from Taiyo Matsumoto’s popular manga of the same name, check out the original here. In an earlier incarnation of the film that was eventually abandoned, Koji Morimoto was set to be the director and the film was to be done in 3DCG; if you’re lucky you might be able to find some clips of it on youtube.

(above) Folks who are familiar with many of Tokyo’s popular spots will recognize that the drawing is based on a narrow shopping lane in Shimo-Kitazawa. In fact, Takaramachi, the fictional town in the film is an amalgamation of several real locations in Tokyo, including Nakano, Shimo-kitazawa, Ueno, Tokyo train station, just to name a few.

(above) I was lucky enough to procure a copy with Kimura Shinji’s autograph, awesome ! ( this is only available in Japan )

Also read the review for the companion Shiro/White art book.

“Tekkon Kinkreet Kuro Side Art book” details :

– Dimensions – 10.4 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
– Hardcover with jacket, 208 pages
– Full Color / B&W, Japanese text

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