I did not finish this title. I'm sure the story is great for the right readers, but it's just not for me. The characters did not hook me from the first page, and I didn't like any of them.

I found an earlier edition of this book as a high school manga reader and was initially turned off by the cover. When I picked it up and read it, it permanently rewired my brain. There's a strong influence from Euro artists like Moebius, but the slow pace, sentimentality and shocking emotional highs are all him. It's part deconstructed hero tale, part crime saga, part coming of age story. You'll cry at a mafia boss slowly dying in an alley. You'll scream when the kid gets shot. Matsumoto's done great work since then--if you're looking for an accessible entryway, I'd go for Ping Pong myself. But Tekkonkinkreet can't be denied. (The movie's also pretty good, but suffers from over-compressing the material. Matsumoto's stories work better as manga or television.)

This was a pretty weird manga that might only appeal to fans of classic style. The illustration style was very interesting in that everything felt very kinetic, like it was moving around on the page. I couldn't really get into the storyline, though, as it felt very disjointed. I'm sure there are fans who read it in their youth who are going to be excited to have this edition, but I'm not sure this will have a wide appeal to today's readership.

This was an interesting blend of a book. Seemingly a child friendly premise of a group of friends trying to reclaim their town from the local gang trying to take it over, but these kids don't mess around!. Black and White are very different characters, but they bounce together nicely. If you want something more PG 13, this would be a good book to scratch that itch.