Satoshi Kon really was a great filmmaker that sadly left us before he had a chance to properly build his career in the Anime Industry, despite having made memorable films such as Perfect Blue & Millennium Actress as well as having some involvement in other works such as Roujin Z & Katsuhiro Otomo’s Memories in the 90’s, Satoshi Kon’s filmography is rather small. As a director he was better known for his realistic style of look for characters as well as often experimenting with surreal and very unusual imagery in his later works, one film however stands out from that. It’s not a fantasy and there’s only very minimal surrealistic imagery, it’s a story about humanity but also about family, redemption, the act of human kindness. Apart from that however, it’s also a Christmas Film.
Tokyo Godfathers is extremely simple in it’s plot. One winters eve in Tokyo Japan, 3 homeless people discover an abandoned new-born baby girl underneath piles of trash and attempt to reunite the baby with her family. But what proceeds to happen despite the film having a very simplistic story is why this film is very memorable and what it manages to convey which is why Satoshi Kon was the best at what he did.
We are focused on 3 main characters.
Gin – A man ashamed of his past
Miyuki – A teenage runaway afraid to go home because of a past event with her father which led to her being homeless.
Hana – A former drag queen who became homeless following the death of a boyfriend.
Gin – A man ashamed of his past
Miyuki – A teenage runaway afraid to go home because of a past event with her father which led to her being homeless.
Hana – A former drag queen who became homeless following the death of a boyfriend.
But what really makes this film special in this process of character development is that each of these characters are likeable and fun to follow and you really want to see them succeed. Hana, Miyuki & Gin each play off each other in a comedic but also dramatic and very engaging family dynamic which sits very well into some of their personalities and how they behave, most notably Hana who despite being a Trans character she behaves and acts over emotional because of wanting to have a child but is unable to and therefore plays the role of mother figure to Kiyoko. Gin on the hand falls into the trope of “Jerk with a Heart of Gold”, someone who despite coming across as dis-interested and more focused on drinking really does care for the other members of the cast and falls into the category of a Father figure and how that plays into what happened in his past. For Miyuki, her past (most notably the incident with her Father) plays a huge part in her character and how she interacts with Gin, but despite coming across as a bratty teenager living with 2 other homeless occupants she opens up and starts to become a very likeable leading protagonist and someone that fits well into the Daughter figure of the story to the Hana & Gin.
Aside from the three main leads, Tokyo Godfathers is unique because of this wide variety of characters. Forgetting for a minute that our focus of is 3 different stories of 3 different characters, once Kiyoko steps in it becomes several other small stories because of who comes and goes over the course of the film. Background characters who only shout 5 word sentences or even characters that don’t show up till the very end of the film each play an integral part to the plot, which is why so much of this movie relies purely on chance, coincidence and fate. All of it occurring during the Christmas Season.
Production for this movie is wonderful; Animated by Madhouse this film manages to capture the city of Tokyo during a winter season. With a great majority of the story taking place mostly in the evening, the movie is very dark or very dimly lit in the places we look at. The homeless shelters to alleys or even cramped apartment rooms are designed to where very little light gets in but we can get a clear idea of how this environment looks, but even seeing large areas such as parks or bustling city centres manage to depict Tokyo spot on with its population. Character animation is incredibly vibrant and electric in how it manages to deliver elements of comedy and drama, As a movie this gives us more chance to see the characters emote very expressively and burst out into fits of sadness and anger but also do everything it can to be funny and fluid with it’s animation. The timing is just right for each character when they need to do something or say something and the movie moves at a very even pace where not a single frame is wasted or appears boring or stale.
What really makes this film stand out to why Satoshi Kon was a unique director in Anime was that his work is purely Japanese, This is a director who was heavily inspired by outside sources in Western Entertainment and was largely unfamiliar with Japanese film as whole, yet his films because of the setting and the characters are uniquely and directly aimed for the Japanese. The character designs accurately represent what a Japanese person is supposed to look like in animated form rather than the standard routine of having every anime character look western. Despite that though the writing by Keiko Nobumoto (Wolf’s Rain, Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, Space Dandy) is really the selling point of the movie which what makes it work and stand out because of its characters. This film relies heavily on so many scenes where there is little to no action involved and the characters are just sitting down and talking as we are breathing in the atmosphere around them, seeing as Keiko Nobumoto also worked with acclaimed director Shinichirō Watanabe a majority of works of his are character driven stories. Focusing on the characters and their development, where they are going, how they got to where they are and what lies for them through their progression of maturation. What action there is in this is spread around very sparsely through the film and is really only used when it is needed.
As for the audio, it’s a complicated issue. Rather than have the score be done by usual composer who would later work with Kon, Susumu Hirasawa. Instead the score of this movie is done by Keiichi Suzuki (Uzumaki, Outrage, The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi) who is also known for being the occasional leader and regular singer of the “Moonriders”, one of Japan’s most innovative rock bands. The score in this is an unusual one but it works for this story, it’s a mix of progressive rock with tiny elements of organ playing away. It’s nothing too unusual and it’s nothing too distracting.
Another more memorable thing about this movie is that there is no English dub for this movie whatsoever. Tying into Satoshi Kon’s style as a film maker his works are purely and uniquely Japanese and only a few of his works have ever been dubbed into proper English, Tokyo Godfathers is a movie significantly important to the culture of Japan and how it’s characters are written into the story and setting and by having no dub for this, the movie is better off for it. But what makes it difficult however whereas with most Anime and most dubs the audience is relying so much on hearing the characters speak in English and knowing what they’re saying than what is going on in the background and because this is a movie where your only form of translation is reading subtitles it really is hard to stay at focus on two things and once. This is movie has so many “Blink and miss it moments” that you will really be lost with watching this at times.
The leading Seiyu (Voice Actors) for the three main leads are rather good at playing off each other. Tōru Emori as Gin manages to play him exactly as the “Jerk with a Heart of Gold”, by not only being warm and friendly but also displaying hilarious fits of comedy but also concerning elements of drama to his performance, Yoshiaki Umegaki as Hana does a very good job of being both very effeminate and very masculine as he slips back and forth in his performance while being both very humorous and very dramatic and finally Aya Okamoto plays Miyuki as your typical bratty teen, brash and very uptight but she manages to give some level of humanity and also playful dry wit to her character and instantly makes the character she is playing likeable and very enjoyable to follow. Additional Seiyu that have appeared in countless Anime such as Shōzō Iizuka, Yūsaku Yara, Satomi Kōrogi, Kyōko Terase, Hiroya Ishimaru, Seizō Katō, Akio Ōtsuka etc play each of their roles perfectly and manage to create some wonderful and unforgettable characters.
When all is said and done however Tokyo Godfathers really is a lovely film. The cast is likeable, the story is likeable and you really are quite surprised by a so much that goes on that your awareness needs to kick in at all times to really fully appreciate the story in full form, that said though this is not just a good movie or even a good anime. It’s also a good Christmas film that really puts you into some perspective as to what the holidays are about, putting aside our differences and coming together for a cause (even if it’s for one day) and puts you in the right frame of mind that at Christmas we want something cheerful and optimistic and that gives us hope and even the people we don’t like hope. It makes appreciate the holiday season so much more and hopefully bring out the best not only in other people but ourselves.
This really is a masterpiece and an outstanding movie directed by the late Satoshi Kon.
Highly Recommend.
This really is a masterpiece and an outstanding movie directed by the late Satoshi Kon.
Highly Recommend.
Sami Sadek is a lifelong Transformers and Anime fan, and can often be found propping up bars or appearing in the background of Auto Assembly vids. He has also talks on Youtube, Tweets on Twitter, doodles on Deviantart and is a regular co-host on this very site's Cyberritz. He has never had a swordfight atop a church whilst a crow watches. Honest.
