Ok. Tokyo Godfathers just about blew my mind. I still haven’t gotten used to the idea of Anime movies tackling subject matter that you’d expect to find in the realm of live action drama or action films. In my mind Anime still occupies a space reserved for more “children friendly” shows like Pokémon or Speed Racer, which only proves my ignorance. Unfortunately, I doubt that I am alone in this prejudice; I have a feeling that a large percentage of American viewers come to the genre with this bias. Here in the good ol’USA we are basically culturally conditioned to see animated TV shows and movies as well as graphic novels as something made for children which is a terrible shame.(I’d blame Disney, but I like them too much.)
I came to Tokyo Godfathers knowing only that it came highly recommended by both my Google search and the Netflix rating. (Yes I’m that lame.) I must have read the synopsis at some point, but I sure didn’t remember it, I thought it was going to be about the mafia or something. Which come to think of it was really stupid of me, just because the word “godfather” is in the title doesn’t mean that there is a crime syndicate. (Thanks Mr. Coppola for forever tying the two together forever in my mind.) What I wasn’t expecting was an incredibly touching yet incredibly entertaining and exciting romp through the streets of Tokyo with three bums and a baby. Of course that’s about as close to capturing what the movie is really about as saying Kill Bill is about a chick with a sword.
Tokyo Godfathers is all about human connection, worth, and redemption set in Christmas time Tokyo. Our teacher/heroes in this lesson just so happen to be three bums who find a baby on Christmas Eve. That’s all I’m going to say. Maybe I’ve said too much, you should definitely come to this gem (yes I just used the word gem) of a film with as little forward knowledge as possible if for no other reason than its so much more fun that way.
4 Meh’s out of 5