Touka's Blog

Anime Relations: Tekkon Kinkreet, Ping Pong the Animation

Kanai-kun is a collaborative work from Taiyo Matsumoto and acclaimed poet Shuntaro Tanikawa, which explores attitudes towards death. It was released as a 48 page 'picture book' and was also presented as an exhibition at the Parco Museum in Shibuya, Tokyo.

The story - a collaboration from both Matsumoto and Tanikawa - is a heartfelt, affecting piece. Readers follow an unnamed male classmate of the titular character Kanai, who has passed away. The unnamed character observes his fellow classmates and the surroundings following Kanai's death, noting changes - some are deeply affected, others not so much - and the inevitable moving on. Skip forward sixty years; the unnamed character is now an elderly man on the brink of death himself. Suddenly, he remembers Kanai, and relays the story to his granddaughter. It's a bittersweet tale, tackled in a calm - but nonetheless emotional - manner. The writing is, as you would imagine from Shuntaro Tanikawa, poetic and thoughtful. It's a brief tale, but gripping, memorable and poignant.

The artwork - an aspect tackled by Matsumoto alone - is marvellous. Drawn over a period of two years without assistants, almost every page is in colour, with each section of the story presented in a slightly different tone; the beginning is mostly sepia, with the end displaying some beautiful snowy scenes. The artwork is soft, with brushstrokes and watercolours, not so dissimilar to the artists coloured work in Takemitsu Zamurai and Sunny. Matsumoto presents some superlative, appealing and beautiful work, with serene yet evoking visuals, in melody with the writing.

Kanai-kun is a concise, brooding piece from the minds of two masters. It's wonderfully illustrated and poetically written. Overall, a moving and highly satisfying work; stirring, beautiful and pensive. Highly recommended.

Anime Relations: Shinseiki Evangelion, Shinseiki Evangelion Movie: Shi to Shinsei, Shinseiki Evangelion Movie: Air/Magokoro wo, Kimi ni, Evangelion Movie 1: Jo, Evangelion Movie 2: Ha, Evangelion Movie 3: Q, Shin Evangelion Movie:||, Petit Eva: Evangelion@School

Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance
on the BIG SCREEN at London's BFI Southbank Cinema

It was Friday the 21st of May, the day after my Birthday. To my disappointment, it was unusually warm. Walking around London in the scolding heat isn't something I would recommend. I and the heat don't mix too well and before long, it was decided by the powers that be that I would have a headache. The pains came and went, unpredictably, like an English bus. Nevertheless, I wasn't gong to let anything get me down; in just a few hours I would be watching Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance at London's BFI Southbank cinema as part of their Anime Weekend event.

I and a friend arrived at the BFI cinema at around 6:00pm - half an hour before the first film was due to start. We collected our tickets and decided to have a look around. The cinema had much to offer; a free film screening near the entrance, a wonderful-looking restaurant and areas equip with game consoles where you could just drop in and play. Undeniably, it was the most impressive cinema I had ever been to. My friend had a little go on WarioWare DS while I took a few snapshots to capture the moment.

Before long, an announcement was delivered over the speakers; we could now make our way to the screen and find our seats. The screen room (NFT1) and the screen itself were incredibly large. We sat near enough in the middle of the room, on seats H13 and H14. Thankfully, we booked very far in advance and thus had many different seats to choose from. Turns out these seats were the perfect choice, plus the reclined. Thanks to this, I was able to sit back, relax and enjoy the fact that my headache had subsided.

After everyone had found their seats, the organisers appeared. They introduced themselves and announced they had some freebies donated by Tokyopop to give away, which was a little weird as Tokyopop aren't even involved with the Evangelion manga, let alone the anime. A few general anime/manga questions were asked to decide who would receive the freebies and despite knowing a couple of the answers, sadly I wasn't picked and so won nothing. But no matter, I didn't come here to win anything, I came for Evangelion.

Just before the film started, I had a look around the room to see what kind of people had attended the screening. It was both interesting and joyous to see such diversity in the audience; people of all ages and ethnicities had turned up to see the movie. It would seem Evangelion does indeed unite us all.


The lush, velvet curtains opened to reveal the screen; the first movie began. A group of people started clapping, which set off a chain reaction of applause. The silent opening credits ended and the Tokyo-3 lay before us in crisp, beautiful quality. It was a digital screening and contrary to what was advertised, we were watching Evangelion 1.11, not 1.0. The new (albeit short) sequences and retouched animation were a welcomed surprise.

The audience stay silent for the next hour and a half, their eyes fixated on the screen. The film was forever engrossing, the comedy well executed and the drama intense. Many - like myself - were already well acquainted with Evangelion, but clearly that fact had not hindered anyone's enjoyment. It's a whole new experience on the big screen.

The climax drew to a close, Kaworu has his first appearance, which was met with visible excitement by some, and the film ended. As soon as the credits started to scroll on by (accompanied by the wonderful sounds of Utada Hikaru), many burst into instant discussion. Upon turning to my friend, whose first experience of Evangelion has just ended, whilst still staring at the screen he expressed his excitement; "Wow, that was fucking amazing."

I had wanted to stick around until the very end for the preview of Evangelion 2.0, but we left during the credits as my friend wanted everything in the sequel to be completely fresh to him; no details, no previews. After exiting the screen room and finding a spot in the lobby, we discussed to film - like many others - for a wonderful ten minutes before a much needed toilet break. My friend compared his first Evangelion experience to the first time ever attending a cinema screening - he was well and truly blown away. I, too, despite having seen the original series twice and Evangelion 1.0 three times, was awed. What made the screening completely different to every other time I had seen the film was the atmosphere; watching it in a cinema full of die-hard Evangelion fans made for a very pleasant, friendly and unique experience. I even saw someone cosplaying as Mari; their costume was immaculate.


It was time for 2.0. The cinema was a lot busier now; apparently more people had turned up for the sequel in addition to those from the first screening. This time our seats were E13 and E14 - exactly three rows in front of where we had sat during the first movie. These, too, were very good seats. When everyone was settled, the lights faded and the film began, this time without and introduction and without applause. A couple of people made unexpected noises when the film opened in English, not knowing it was part of the original Japanese audio. Upon noticing the 'Engrish' and Kaji's dialogue in particular, many laughs were had. It was incredibly difficult to understand what he was saying.

Chuckling soon turned to silence, however. The opening sequence was nothing short of breathtaking. Following an enjoyable scene with the charismatic Mari - the newest addition to the cast - getting to grips with Eva Unit 05, an Angel rampages out of NERV's arctic Bethany Case and happens upon some phenomenal scenery. The location was a giant, circular fortress (seemingly in the middle of the ocean), rimmed with huge pillars and shrouded in a violent storm - it was an ever-impressive sight on such a large scale. After dying to see the film at the cinema for so long, it was finally happening.

Shortly after the opening sequence, the film moved swiftly on to Asuka's introduction. There were many laughs to be had during the next thirty or so minutes; the audience were in hysterics during Asuka's meeting with PenPen, which mirrored Shinji's scene from the prequel. Gendo's triple "yeah" in reply to Rei's dinner time questions and Asuka's flying kick to Shinji's jaw also gathered many laughs, but Kaji's pretend kiss to Shinji topped them all.

The audience remained consistently silent the rest of the time, clearly engaged by the plot and admiring the spectacular action sequences. Sahaquiel's sequence stood out to me as particularly captivating. Watching all three main Eva Units dash towards the Angel at breakneck speeds, hurling themselves over obstacles and trashing their surroundings as their shock-waves demolished cars along the way was a magnificent sight on the big screen, as was the Mari vs. Zeruel sequence later on.


I wondered in particular how audiences new to Evangelion would react to Eva Unit 01 demolishing Eva Unit 04, now piloted by Asuka. The sequence was accompanied by a rather ironic piece of music, in contrast to the brutality of the scene. The cinema remained silent. Audiences watched with shock and awe as Asuka was seemingly killed.

The climax drew close; this almost two hour long film had flown by. Everyone remained dead silent during the final battle, me and undoubtedly many others were lost for words. After the stunning culmination, the final dialogue wad spoken and the screen went black. The film ended in true Evangelion fashion, massive cliff-hanger in tow. The credits were met with a thunderstorm of applause, whistles and cheers, followed by an all encompassing flow of discussion. A couple of before left during the credits, but most stayed until the very end. The credits finished with 'Chief Director - Hideaki Anno', which received massive acclamation.

Following the credits was a short sequence with Kaworu. His appearance was met with a loud cheer by a man near the back, which was followed by a series of laughter that amplified itself following Kaworu's dialogue; "Shinji-kun, this time I'll definitely make you happy." The scene was no more than twenty seconds long and presented us with a shocking revelation. A Lance of Longinus descended to Earth, piercing Eva Unit 01 and stopping the near-deity in its tracks. Kaworu had effectively thwarted the Third Impact.

The preview for Evangelion 3.0: Q Quickening followed immediately; gasps mixed with a sense of surprise and relief accompanied the appearance of the eye-patch clad Asuka. At the end, Misato, in proper Evangelion fashion, promised more fan service next time, as the audience applauded and cheered like crazy. Everyone was, without a doubt, ecstatic.


Watching both films back-to-back made me realise just how different in tone they are. Evangelion 2.0 can almost be split into two halves; the first presenting viewers with light-hearted, comical moments, with the second bringing the intensity and drama. Whereas the first film very much sticks to its sombre tone.

Another realisation that came to me was how brilliant the score and sound mixing were. Viewing the film with surround sound was remarkable; the volume was especially high and the explosion Ramiel's beam produced as it disintegrated a mountain in Evangelion 1.0 made our seats rumble. The boomed sound may have been too loud for some, but I thought it produced amazing results. Furthermore, the acoustic version of Utada Hikaru's 'Beautiful World' - which played during the credits of Evangelion 2.0 - was a wonder to listen to in such high quality.

I, my friend and probably almost everyone else, left the cinema extremely satisfied, with humongous smiles on our faces. Never before had we experienced anything quite like that. I had seen Evangelion 1.0 at the cinema last year as part of an Anime All-Nighter event, where five anime films of differing genres were screening from midnight to morning. The audience were very much general anime fans who didn't attend specifically for Evangelion - plus 1.0 was shown last, by which point many were out for the night - so the atmosphere wasn't particularly notable and was, needless to say, blown out of the water by the Evangelion double-bill.

If I had to hazard a guess, pretty much everyone who attended the screening were long-time Evangelion fans. They contributed a great deal to what made the day and the experience so fantastic; setting an unbeatable atmosphere. I only spoke to two other attendees, besides my friend, but it's wonderful going to see a film with an audience who you know are going to adore is as much as you.

I am very grateful to the institute for providing the opportunity to watch such marvels in such a great venue. I hope I am able to repeat this experience in a couple of years, should the BFI screen Evangelion 3.0 and 4.0 in all their glory. It's a moment I look forward to with the utmost joy. I will cherish this experience for years to come.