Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

Tokyo Godfathers

Call No: TEMP 1333

I thought that I might as well review one more anime film before the end. And since my previous two anime reviews (Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away) were Miyazaki films, I decided to review one that wasn’t. The premise of the film is similar to that of an old Western called Three Godfathers, in which three gunslingers come across an abandoned baby and decide to try and raise it between the three of them. I was expecting something similar from Tokyo Godfathers. I was expecting more of a quiet and thought-provoking drama. While there is a great deal of drama, it’s not all subtle. There’s a shooting, a car chase, and more than one pursuit on foot. The film is a unique concoction of drama, action, suspense and silly fun, all told in a beautifully animated film.

When three homeless people find an abandoned baby while rummaging through the trash, they each have a different opinion of what to do. Miss Hana, the transvestite, has always wanted to raise a baby and wants to keep it. The cantankerous Gin wants to hand it over to the police. And the young runaway Miyuki doesn’t care what they do, so long as they can make the baby stop crying. Hana finally comes up with a compromise – let her find the baby’s mother to ask and understand why she abandoned her baby, and then she’ll turn it over to the police. The trio set out to find the mother, and find a lot more than they bargained for in the process.

One of the things I enjoyed about the film that I hadn’t considered was the number of different storylines that could be incorporated into the film. I naturally assumed that we would learn back-story about the three main characters as they travel on the journey together. This does happen, but it’s only the foundation of the story, not its entire development. Other characters come and go, the trio is separated more than once, and  storylines that seem to have no connection are resolved. This can be difficult to achieve without losing the audience all together, but the film manages this by not making every little encounter crucial to the plot or something to be remembered for later. You experience things are the characters do, knowing only as much as they know.

Gin and Miyuki try to convince Hana to let the baby go.

I’ve commented previously about how anime films have the convention of giving great attention to detail, and that follows in this film. Not only are the backgrounds well developed and detailed, but the stock characters used to fill out a scene are well animated. The film never forgets that its main characters are homeless, and the social impressions and attitudes towards them are present almost every time they walk through a door. The film doesn’t go out of its way to make us feel sympathetic for the characters – it tells it like it is, shows us what it’s like, and our sympathy develops naturally from that. The film doesn’t declare reasons why we should feel this way. We can easily figure that out on our own.

This film isn’t for everyone. It can go from serious and dramatic to quirky and silly within minutes. But if you’re looking for something offbeat, heartfelt, entertaining and stirring, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by this one. Don’t let the fact that it’s an animated film fool you – it’s the story that counts.