Thanks to WordPress blog Black Century for sharing with us some excellent art of imagined post-apocalyptic Tokyos.
Shibuya is destroyed and retaken by nature in beautiful, imaginative, and inspiring work by Tokyo Gensou (東京幻想), brought to us by the masters of Japan weird at Pink Tentacle.
I really like the colors in these, evoking the idea that these might be from an animated film by one of the anime greats, such as Kon Satoshi or Miyazaki Hayao. Brilliant, bright, vivid colors combine with incredible detail and a dark topic to make the viewer excited and interested at what the story behind these may be. If this were from a film, what’s the plot? Who are the heroes? What sort of adventures are they having in this environment, depressing in its destruction, but uplifting in the beauty and power of the green slowly creeping in.
Lithographs of a different imagined post-apocalyptic Tokyo, by Motoda Hisaharu. courtesy, again, of Pink Tentacle. The black and white images look almost like photographs, making them feel so much more real, and recalling black and white photos of pre- and post-war Tokyo.
Whereas I’d say the key word to describe the Tokyo Gensô works is “beautiful”, the words for these would be “impressive” and “powerful”. The colors and styles in the first imply an anime, and thus a story, and thus heroes and an adventure. New life is born from destruction. In these, however, the silence is deafening. Places normally (in real-life contemporary Tokyo) filled with people are shown so completely empty, it goes beyond being eerie, and into downright scary. This is impressive not only in the extent of the destruction, but in the impressive architecture that is destroyed; the impressiveness of the city’s size, power, and population before its destruction in this hypothetical post-apocalyptic future scenario.
Thanks for the re-post!
Thanks for these great photos, for introducing us to such great artists. I’m quite new to the blogosphere, and I’m never quite clear if it’s cool to repost like this – as if I’m claiming the credit for your work. Thanks for your approval and support.
Yeah man, that’s how it works! Look forward to regularly reading your work…
tokyo is freaking destroyed