Anime Review: Tokyo Godfathers

Review Tokyo Godfathers

In the metropolis of Tokyo there are three homeless people, Gin, a fairly typical (but still very complex) drunkard with a sob story with details that change as the movie wears on, Hana, an overly dramatic drag queen, and Miyuki, a teenage runaway. On Christmas eve while looking around a pile of garbage for a present for Miyuki, they find a baby. After much arguing and grumbling over what to do with the baby whom Hana has named Kiyoko, it is decided that they return her to her parents to find out why they abandoned her.

Tokyo Godfathers is a warm and endearing movie. It manages to take on some heavy subject matter (namely homelessness) without either sugarcoating the matter and yet the movie doesn't leave the viewer depressed or preached to. The characters are very complex and very human. Thinking back on the movie I am somewhat amazed by how much character development was squeezed into Tokyo Godfathers.

The animation quality for Tokyo Godfathers is understandably high. My mom who I watched the movie with complained that it often looked washed out but I felt that it was necessary to capture the bleak environment that the main characters have to live in.

Tokyo Godfathers is a great movie. It is unfortunate that it will probably forever live in the shadow of Millennium Actress, Satoshi Kon's previous masterpiece. Still it is impossible to deny the quality of this movie. I give Tokyo Godfathers a rating of excellent.