Last year around this time I got it into my head to do a seasonal review and watch a Christmas anime. I quickly discovered that while we here in the west we keep Christmas movies in a genre all their own, Japan doesn't seem so enthusiastic about the miraculous birth of Our Lord (tm). Instead of a real Christmas story, what I managed to dredge up was Love Hina's Christmas special, which is a Christmas story in the sense that it takes place around Christmas, I suppose, but that's kind of like saying To Kill A Mockingbird is a book about mockingbirds because the word happens to be in the title. In other words, true in only the broadest sense of the word.
Characters:
Leader of the pack (so to speak) is Gin, who is the oldest and gruffiest of the three. Gin's story is that he was once a professional bicycle racer who risked his career on a one-shot get-rich-quick scheme in order to make enough money to save his ailing daughter's life. Of course he got wrangled up in his own gambit, lost his daughter, lost his wife, lost his everything and ended up on the streets. Gin's role is to be jaded and hopeless... the unwitting father figure. Scruffy and lonely and almost irrevokably sad, Gin has leveled off on a grim acceptance of his state of affairs. Hana, who is the "main" character if any of them are, is a creepy old woman stuck in the body of a creepy old man.
The youngest of the family, and the only female (despite Hana's best intentions) is Miyuki, a detached teenage runaway. Miyuki has the luxury of being the only one with the ability to improve her station in life (after all, she can always just go home) but for some reason she refuses to do this. Miyuki tries her best to be hardened and streetwise, and seems intent on settling in for a long life of hobo goodness. Only when she's alone to we see glimpses of the torn, frightened child she really is; dissatisfied with her lot in life but deathly afraid to go home. Rounding out the core cast is baby Kiyoko, an infant Hana finds while rooting around in the trash. Kiyoko isn't so much a character as she is a plot point; she actually sleeps most of the way through the movie. But without her we wouldn't have a story, which is actually a nice way to segue into the next part of the review.
Story:
It's Hana's idea to take the baby "home" and care for her; Gin and Miyuki would rather just drop her off with the police and call it a night. Only by protesting profusely and blubbering on about how he's always wanted to be a mother does Hana gain the opportunity to care for little Kiyoko for a single night. The next day, however, Gin and Miyuki awake to find Hana has run off. They follow his footprints through the snow
From then on it's a series of lucky breaks, split-ups, tearful reunions, dead ends, and astronomical coincidences. The misadventures of our lovable bum family include, but are not limited to: a mob boss, a wedding, an assassination attempt, a winning lottery ticket, a dying man's last request, a hostage situation, a severe beating, a car crash, grave robbing, a hospital visit and a deadbeat dad. And along the way, of course, each of our heroes are forced to face the ghosts of their pasts and the circumstances that dropped them on the streets. So the creamy center of Tokyo Godfathers is a sweet tale about a group of unlikely heroes trying to rescue an abandoned baby. Worth six hamhams in and of itself, really; I'm a sucker for these kinds of stories, especially around Christmastime. But on top of that chocolatey center is a delectable cookie crust of hilarious mishaps, endearing sidestories and lots of heartwarming minor characters. Just when you think you know where Tokyo Godfathers is going to go next, something ridiculous or unexpected happens to switch things up a bit. Just the intangibles dressed up in the subplots of each character are worth six hamhams for themselves. A truly remarkable story all around, and from all fronts.
Animation:
Like any good Christmas movie, this one is full of small miracles; some obvious, some not, some the heroes even disregard...
So is the artwork of good quality? Absolutely. There's just nothing I can say about it; it serves the nature of the plot. The characters aren't attractive, but then they're hobos (and even then, Miyuki is kind of a cutie). It's set in Tokyo in December, so everything's buried under a foot of snow. Amidst the grey and the murk, however, are the little gems I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Really, watch the movie; you'll see what I mean.
Culture Shock:
The only thing keeping Tokyo Godfathers from a full six hamhams is the curious lack of an English dub. I'm quite used to anime DVDs offering both voice tracks now (I usually watch snippets of both and then decide which I like better), with the rare occurence of having just the English track. So poking around the DVD and finding only a Japanese voice track was a little surprising. Now, I don't sit avidly in either camp in the eternal sub vs. dub war; I prefer the English dubs when they're available but sometimes only the original voice track will do. I absolutely do not mind subtitles as long as they're readable and the translation is sound. But the lack of English voice acting will alienate a great portion of Tokyo Godfathers' potential audience, including young children, and that's a real shame. It's a rarity I find an anime that people well outside of the range of anime fandom will really enjoy, so to find one that doesn't offer an English option is disheartening.
Really, Tokyo Godfathers is an amazing story, and if you can stomach the subtitles it's a worthy viewing any time of year. It's easily become a classic in my eyes.
Overall Rating:
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Home sweet box.
"Can you deliver that to the phone booth outside Craig's Discount Appliances?"
"Dude, if you can bench that you are totally the man!"
I'm not going to try and explain this screenshot, but it does make sense in context.
"Wait a minute, pre-op or post-op?"
