Wow, after all of the light frivilous anime i have been watching this one came down like a brick. THe film took on a heavy symbolist theme early on. Heavy metaphores that strike to the heart of the japanese psyche (i guess?) . Themes about urban renewal and the subsequent loss of humanity in the environment. These themes were linked together with an exploration about the human spirit; Light and Dark, introvert and extrovert, naieve and canny, Black and White (which turns out to be the names of the main protagonists).
The story follows a run down city 'Treasure Town', over which two young boys keep watch. There is a natural balance between the old fashioned Yakuza, street punks and the police. That is, until a new Yakuza boss with plans to redevelop Treasure town comes along. The new yakuza is laden with negative overtones and at times seems to have an inexorable, quasi religious menace.
This new threat begins journey of development for the town and its adults that ultimately condenses into a internal voyage for the two young boys.
A lot of the animation reminded me of Auon Flux at the beginning, except the backgrounds were significantly more sumptuously drawn. The old cityscapes were really lovely, but as the story pregressed from external to internal the animation became more expressionist until only broad naive watercolour was used in the final sequences.
Good artistic story and the usual japanime tropes seemed fresh.
4 stars
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