The Awesomeness that is Tekkon Kinkreet.

I recently came across a really nice encode of this movie and found out that there are no english subs for it anywhere! I did find a korean subtitle file, and decided to start translating (with every resource at my disposal) from that, seeing as that has the most potential for me at this point. It will probably take quite a long time, and I don't even know if I'll finish by the time someone else releases their own version.

I'll keep the progress posted, and also feel free to post a link to one if you do find one before I finish.

Tell us moar about it :D I know, I could look it up but I'm lazy. That poster looks hawesome though. Have funnn translating!! But don't forget to finish IN *MOKONA BOMBS* XD

That's cool to see someone else know about this movie! It's animated by Studio 4C, and it's the first japanese anime movie to be directed by a gaijin (a foreigner), Michael Arias, who was the producer of Animatrix. If you're interested about it there's even an interview (dated to april 2007) with him about this movie:

Awesome link ShiNN :D There's a link to the forum thread in that review you linked which was pretty interesting, where Michael Arias was there to answer people's questions especially towards the beginning which I also enjoyed:

We could almost say he's been adopted by the japanese culture, somehow, since he's now currently living there and it seems like he's also created a family as well. But in any case, it's indeed cool to see a foreign director collaborating with a notorious animation studio like Studio 4C. And the movie is pretty good, hence I do hope he'll collaborate again on more movies or anime-related productions. Oh, and I am tempted to actually buy the DVD of this (good work like this needs to be supported), especially if Na is going to release a subtitle file that I could eventually apply to the DVD itself. Although I am used to watch RAW anime without subtitles and understand most of it, having an english subtitle to complement that never hurts. Else, I'll have to wait for the european release of it (Sony bought the distribution copyrights apparently) which I don't really know whenever it'll be. There's going to be a north-american release as well by the way, in case you guys are interested in purchasing it. :)

Yeah I totally agree ShiNN. I must admit I've been a bit of a "purist" when it comes to anime. Like, anime for me means Japanese animation from Japanese studios, and I tend to stay away from anime/manga from other countries. Clearly not the case here though... after reading the article + the forum thread I have a lot of respect for what Michael Arias managed to achieve in this film. Plus it looks like pure visual eye-candy those movie screenshots :D

Well, in a way, it is anime. I mean, if you count him and the original scriptwriter out, the rest of the team is pretty much all japanese. But yeah, this is indeed a step towards more possible collaborations between western and asian universes, animation-wise.

[OT edit]test test, edit seems to be working now

its unfair to say that anime is only purely japanese. when most definitely like 90% of the manpower behind most anime productions are koreans. seriously i tihnk putting ethnic labels on anything these days is really inaccurate. culturally, this guy seems quite japanese so I would say its still "japanese animation". take for example one of the most successful taiwanese directors, Tsai Ming Liang....when in fact he is ethnically Malaysian.

It's true that a lot of anime japanese studios these days outsource part of the animation job to korean studios, but it's not always the case though. It usually happens when the budget available for production isn't big, which leads studios to hire korean contractors since they seem to "cost less" and still do a good job at it. But it's also a fact that most japanese studios, if provided with funds and money, will most likely try to rely only and almost entirely on a japanese group of animators. A studio who often hires korean collaborators, as far as I know, is Gonzo, for example. There's other studios that do that as well though I can't recall them (probably DEEN, and Satelight as well). It's not a bad thing to hire foreign animators (whether they're korean, or from whatever else country) if they're good, but as you know japanese have always been very proud of their own country's traditions, so it's not exactly easy for a foreigner to try to fit into a japanese working group, even in the animation field.

You can't really separate ethnicity from anime/manga when it's such a popular cultural phenomenon from and heavily based on Japan. Especially when so much of the content conveys "Japan," that's largely where the appeal comes from and what many people will identify it as, regardless of who's behind it. Anime/manga is definitely being appropriated by artists in other countries... I've read a few mangas by Taiwanese mangakas, which I'm usually indifferent to. I'm sure there are good anime/manga produced completely outside of Japan, but I can't recall anything particularly memorable... YET. I'm definitely not saying that "foreigners" can't produce good works in this medium, but I also think it's a hard one to appropriate well. And definitely for me the Japanese cultural aspect of it is one of the main appeals of anime/manga... that should be true for most fans :P I thought it was interesting how in the interview Michael Arias sort of dismisses the ethnicity-anime ideas as mostly artificial constructs, but at the same time he stresses that he has extensive ties and experience in Japan so that he has "paid his dues." Not really something that you can completely dismiss :D

i dont tinhk ive honestly ever seen a single anime where half the names in the credits werent korean honestly. You cant forget theres alot of koreans living in Japan and just generally alot that go into animation. Of course they get overshadowed as much of the positions that matter are held by japanese.

and flyin, i tinhk your mixing ethnicity and culture. anime is "culturally" japanese, but it is no longer ethnically japanese as it now has both a global audience and not solely housed within Japan. Point being, it doesnt work to simply say "oh hes korean or white, so its not really anime....."

well if the work is still culturally japanese and reflects the views of a member of that society then why wouldnt it be? some of the greatest directors of their respective countries, werent even from that country "ethnically". Take Ang Lee for example, are we going to simply say he is a "Taiwanese" director when in fact he grew up in the states for a large part of his life and also learned film at NYU? In reverse, a film like say...Wonderful Days is not anime, simply because its completely made within Korea and has little to do with anime except production style, and possibly an attempt to cater to the same audience.

Yes crap, but what I was referring to is that most of these korean contractors are usually people who work on an episode, or two, and very rarely you get to see them as part of the "main crew" who works during the entire serie on every episode. If you check most of the shows' credits at ANN you'll see that the main animation staff (the one that sticks around from ep 1 to end) is mostly (if not completely) composed by japanese animators. Right now korean contractors are mostly hired for single episodes, but yes it is true that they have been more frequently requested than it used to be in the past. But we still have to see most of them becoming stably and permanently part of the main animation crews, which is not an easy job since all these positions have always been covered by japanese animators so far. For instance, Gurrenn Lagann's team at Gainax is entirely composed by japanese animators (even young ones who have been "tutored" by the veterans of the studio) although they could have always hired korean animators (or foreign animators in general) to help them out on certain episodes (like episode 9, or episode 6). And mind you with "japanese" I am not referring to the ethnicity, but to the cultural side of it. A korean or any other person with a different ethnicity who was "raised" or who has lived for quite a while in Japan, getting to know the place, the people, customs and traditions, the culture and becoming part of it, is qualified to be labeled as "japanese", in my eyes.

I'd say ethnicity is naturally tied in with culture as it simply conveys an individual's origins, and "race" would be the more static term. Actually it's weird to say ethnicity for anime just because I associate that term with people, but anyhow. I don't think that the fact that "Japanese" anime has a global audience and has Korean (or Korean Japanese if that's more appropriate) animators changes the fact that most of what we consider anime has it's origins, vintage, vision or whatever you want to call it, FROM Japan. Yes there are many offshoots of animation, and anime has been influenced by different cultures in the past (i.e. Disney) and will probably continue in the future. But yeah, seriously just to re-emphasize I don't think anyone is arguing here that Tekkon Kinkreet isn't a Japanese anime just because the director is American. Regardless of the ethnicity of the director and screenwriter or even the rest of the crew which as ShiNN pointed out ARE Japanese, they took so much care in preserving and staying true to the original (Japanese) manga that for all intents and purposes, it's a Japanese anime film.

The movie will be released here in Germany on October 25th 2007 (according to Sony). I'll definitely buy or rent it, I love Studio 4°C.

Well I've gotten to just about the halfway point, but I'm wondering if it's even worth finishing the translation. Translating from a translation can be a bit awkward (have had to come up with english equivalents to korean idioms and such), and although the general point is conveyed, I think a direct translation would be more accurate. In any case, I've seen the first half of the movie enough to almost memorize the lines by heart, so I think I'll be taking a break regardless.