Tekkon Kinkreet (or Tekkonkinkreet, a pun on the Japanese phrase for reinforced concrete) is a feature length anime (Japanese animated film) that has attracted a good bit of attention since its release in Japan in 2006. I haven’t seen the film yet, though I’m looking forward to it, but I came across a trove of wonderful background images from the film and wanted to share them with you in case they disappear.
Adapted from a manga (Japanese comic story) by Taiyõ Matsumoto, the film is a combination of 3-D CGI and hand drawn animation. The backgrounds are stunningly rendered, filled with lavish detail in an evocation of the fictional city of Treasure Town, a thinly veiled alternate Tokyo.
The streets and buildings are presented with an uncanny eye to the minute details and textures of the city, carried over into equally detailed portrayal of imaginary structures.
Audrey Kawasaki has posted some images from the film on her blog i_seldom_do, evidently taken from a Japanese book of art from the movie that is not available in the US (as far as I can tell).
Worth a look both for the imagination, scope and visual splendor of the images; and for the direct observation and beautiful renderings of buildings and streets in sunshine and artificial light.
[Link via MetaFliter]
The movie was great! It took some time for me to get used to the character style, but it really grows on you.
Great movie and great artbook.
It is available in the US, I got mine from Kinokuniya. They have several stores on the west coast of the US and one in New York.
http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/guest/cgi-bin/wshoseaohb.cgi?W-NIPS=9981555126&AREA=02&LANG=J
These books are great, one called Kuro(Black) and one called Shiro(White). The Kuro book is concept sketches of the backgrounds and Shiro is the background paintings. Both great books and can be found on various websites as well as kinokunyia as Tom mentioned. If your around the bay area theres one in SF Japantown and San Jose. Happy Shopping!
http://store.animebooks.com/teartboshkib.html
http://store.animebooks.com/teartboshkiw.html
OMG, these backgrounds are simply amazing!
For me, Tekkon Kinkreet is remarkable in that both the original manga and the film are obsolutely astonishing for similar and yet also quite different reasons. For almost anyone who has scant evidence that comics can actually outgun the novel as a published form, Tekkon is, I think, that rare example. Equally, anyone left cold by animation in general, maybe doubting its ability to present a genuinely mature and layered drama, need look no further than its filmic sibling. Probably the best movie I’ve watched in over a decade and the DVD release has a particularly excellent/slightly harrowing making of.