Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

 Tokyo Godfathers

I have been aware of this film for awhile, but I never chose to watch it until my roommate was telling me how it is one of their favourite Christmas films, so they gave me a copy of it and we watched it together.  I was super impressed by this amazing anime film.  Though it was released in 2003, it was only available in the USA with English Subtitles until 2020 when G-Kids re-released the film with English language dubs.  Now I full well know that most anime fans will shun me for preferring dubs over subs, but being that I don't speak Japanese, and when I watch with dubs I end up missing some of what is going on in the images, I end up getting more enjoyment from a dubbed version than a subbed version, however if I am watching a live-action film it must be subbed, because dubs on a live-action film makes it unwatchable for me.  Not sure if that makes sense to anyone else, but that's my preference, so therefore we watched the 2020 G-Kids version with English language dubs.

Tokyo Godfathers was directed and written by Satoshi Kon, and co-written by Keiko Nobumoto.  The story is loosely based on Peter B. Kynes 1913 novel Three Godfathers, which was made into a film in 1916 starring Harry Carey.  Tokyo Godfathers was distributed by Sony Pictures, and in March of 2020 was re-released by G-Kids (G-Kids has also re-released Studio Ghibli films).   The film has done well with the critics and the fans alike and has high scores on film review sites like Rotten Tomatoes.  

The English language voice actors for the film are Jon Avner as Gin, Shakina Nayfack as Hana, Victoria Grace as Miyuki, Kari Wahlgren as Kiyoko, Jamison Pierce as Oota, and Kate Bornstein as Mother.   This film is excellently cast, and I appreciate that for the transgender character of Hana that they cast a transwoman to play her, and they also cast a gender non-binary person to play Mother, which fits the character really well.   The voice actors all did an excellent job at bringing their characters to life, and were perfectly cast. 

The story is about three homeless people, who serve as a surrogate family for each other.  On Christmas Night the three main characters find a baby in a garbage pile while looking for some books, and Hana who has always wished she could have a baby, but will never be able to wants them to keep the baby, though both Gin and Miyuki feel like it is a terrible idea, and Gin proposes that they take the baby to the police station.   The next day they end up deciding to  try to find the baby's parents, and an epic adventure ensues.  A combination of dumb-luck and constantly narrowly escaping tragedy leads to one of the most amazing, fun, and exciting adventures in anime, and creates one of the best Christmas movies that I have ever seen.   The film combines elements of comedy and good fortune, with heartbreaking tragedy.  This is a film that will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions, I actually laughed out loud and cried as I watched this film for the first time. 

I highly recommend Tokyo Godfathers, it is an amazingly well done animated film, and one that can be enjoyed by the whole family, though there are some elements that might appeal more to adult audiences.  The animation is clean and beautiful, the story is expertly crafted, and the English language voice acting is wonderful.   There really isn't much to not absolutely love about this film.  Also if queer representation in films is important to you, then I recommend this film.  I also really appreciate that the main characters are homeless, the character of Miyuki who is one of the heroes is a little chubby and not a super skinny stereotypical anime girl, and then of course Hana being trans, and then there is the character Mother and the people who made up Hana's "family" who are all queer.   This film shows the darkness of the traditional family, and shows the beautiful way that we create out own chosen "families", which I think is really nice to illustrate, because a lot of us don't know the perfect happy family that is the model in most media.   This is just a great film in pretty much everyway, and one that I know I will be watching often in the future.   I also really want to point out how impressed I am with the amazing releases that G-Kids has been putting out, I have yet to be disappointed with any of their DVDs, they are high quality re-releases.