Treasure Town is dying – the quaint streets are strewn with litter, and the bright lights of commercial enterprise are threatening to engulf the struggling metropolis. Two street orphans, Black and White, are racing to protect their territory from the Rat – a property developer with gang connections, who will stop at nothing in his quest for dominance. What starts off as child’s play quickly spirals into something much more sinister, as they become embroiled in a fight against greed and corporatisation. Aesthetically, Tekkonkinkreet is proof that you don’t have to be Japanese to make good anime. American director Michael Arias (with art director Shinji Kimura) creates a stunning, haphazard world that at once owns, and is owned by, the two young boys. As their names suggest, they represent two of the opposing forces in the film, a classic good vs. evil tale that will be familiar to anime fans. Their friendship brings a warm heart to the unforgiving city, but also creates the most tension in it, with each one pulling and pushing the other to the point of destruction. The admirable characterisation makes even the most fundamentally menacing ones believable. The film is much darker than other well-known anime releases like Howl’s Moving Castle – dangerously too dark. The fantasy sequences, while dramatic, slow the narrative down too much. The film’s story and its message could have been delivered far more effectively without half an hour’s worth of fire and monsters. It’s a shame, because it’s so textured with symbolism and allegory that it would easily stand up to multiple viewings otherwise.—Kim Choe