Writing for SFGate, Jeff Yang compares and contrasts Taiyo Matsumoto’s Tekkon Kinkreet with a Disney cruise and the Magic Kingdom. Really:
Together, the yin of Black’s chaotic ruthlessness and the yang of White’s blissful simplicity represent a face of childhood that acknowledges that kids can be cruel and vicious and thoughtless and deliriously destructive, because that’s the way the world is too. The difference is that when kids act like that it’s by instinct and nature, while when adults do it’s in the service of an agenda, a strategy, a business plan.
But Matsumoto places no judgment on the kids or even most of the adults in his tale. They are all soiled, in various ways, all broken, and yet somehow all worthy and capable of redemption. They’re human. They’re real, or as real as crudely drawn two-dimensional figures can get. In fact, Tekkon Kinkreet‘s only true villain is Serpent, who wants to take over Treasure Town by changing its “essential character,” eliminating the refuse and rabble, organizing it and prettifying it and populating it with fanciful animal mascots. “This is my city,” he declares. “We keep the streets clean!”
Uniformity and cleanliness, as well as the purge and reinvention of folk tales into “new classics,” are primary Disney tropes, of course. And honestly, is there a parent in the world who doesn’t find the Disney vision of innocence appealing when Junior is setting fire to the cat or drawing on the TV with permanent marker, or when stories of children missing or abducted or preyed upon by Internet pedophiles come flashing across the airwaves?
Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White was released this week by Viz Media.
