Tsunami Jones' Weekly Anime Review: Tokyo Godfathers re-post

[Tsunami Jones]

Well, since the DVD of this is being released tomorrow, I decided to repost this, which I believe was the first thing I reviewed when I started this up a couple months back (so I doubt that the part about going to see it in theaters is relavent anymore).




Tokyo Godfathers (spoiler level = light -moderate)

This is the story about three homeless people (a young runaway girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged man who’s been living on the streets for years and claims that he used to be a professional bicyclist), who find a baby girl who has been abandoned in the trash. They decided to take care of the child, and begin to attempt to find her parents.
While this seems simple enough, the three homeless friends go through strings of coincidences (and meet some very interesting characters along the way, such as a crime lord; a Latino-family who lives in Japan, but can’t speak a word of Japanese; and a cab driver who I feel very, very sorry for), which lead up to finding the child’s parents.

Now, I’m sure most of you are familiar with Satoshi Kon for his work on “Perfect Blue,” and “Millennium Actress,” but “Tokyo Godfathers” is a distant cry from his previous works. For one, this film is hilarious. Now, I know that “Millennium Actress” has it’s comedic parts, but Tokyo Godfathers is humorous the whole way through. I can’t remember when I last saw something that I smiled and laughed through so much while watching it.

The other thing that happened while I was watching this film was that I was “drawn in.” Which is something that has never really happened to me while watching, well, while watching anything. At least not on this level. I found myself constantly reacting to events in the film the whole time, and I was immediately “connected” to these homeless men and women. I could almost feel if I was right there next to them. And this effect is helped by the fact that nothing in the entire movie distracts from the atmosphere at any point, not even when the scenes change, in fact, everything felt, “seamless.”

Now, one of the first things that I immediately took notice of while watching this was the visual impression that was created by Kon and his team of animators and everyone else that was involved in the of this amazing film. And it’s not just the animation (which of course, is wonderful) that helps create this. Soon after the movie opens (which by the way, it opens with a Christmas pageant) , you get to see Tokyo. Some of the scenes of the city are so well drawn, that if someone came up to me and said, “Here’s a photo that I took of Tokyo,” I would believe them, not even considering to think for a moment that the city-scapes weren’t taken by a camera. You can see just how meticulously, and how much care was taken when animating this film and designing the backgrounds. All in all, it creates a very unique, realistic visual experience.

The other thing that is noticed right off the bat is the music. Christmas carols are throughout the film, and the rest of the music fits perfectly (even when Hana the transvestite, begins to sing a number from “The Sound of Music”)

Now, what makes this movie great isn’t the comedy, the visual expression, or the music. It’s the human element. This is one of the most heart filled movies that I’ve ever seen. It’s about hope, joy, sadness, friendship, and just how precious life really is.

Truthfully, I must say that I was very surprised by how this film turned out. I truthfully had no idea what to expect from a movie that was about three bums and a baby, and was done by Satoshi Kon, especially when you consider his previous work. So I recommend Tokyo Godfathers, as this is one of the best movies that I’ve ever seen, and I give it 5 out of 5 stars. If you have any chance to see this film in a theater, I suggest going to see it ASAP. My only regret about this film is that I’ll only be able to see it in on the big screen once before it leaves my area (I didn’t know it was being shown here in Denver until way late, so I got to see it yesterday, which turned out to be the last day it was being shown).

And one last thing, if you’re ever just going around, and you perhaps see a homeless man or women, remember, they aren’t just some trash to let die in the gutter. They’re people, the same as you or me, who’ve just perhaps happened on hard times. So treat them with the respect they deserve. Especially since there are too many people nowadays that have seemed to have forgotten this.

So once again, I give “Tokyo Godfathers” 5/5 stars.