Many a groan has been made when being told they have to watch a Christmas movie. There seems to be a certain kind of sappiness that can be excused for these kinds of movies. We all know the ones, the countless adaptations of A Christmas Carol, White Christmas, they’re all wonderful to watch, but only at Christmas, when we can once again excuse the sappiness. When I first sat down to watch Tokyo Godfathers, I wondered what I was about to witness. The director, the late Satoshi Kon had directed many other wonderful movies, like Millennium Actress, Perfect Blue, and Paprika, but all of those were dramas. Tokyo Godfathers was listed as a comedy. After a minute or so of debating, I had finally started the movie. The movie starts with our protagonists, Gin (voiced by Jon Avner), Hana (voiced by Shakina Nayfack), and Miyuki (voiced by Victoria Grace) watching a children’s Nativity scene at a local church’s soup kitchen. After looking through the garbage to find each other Christmas presents, they find an abandoned baby, whom Hana proceeds to name Kiyoko. After bringing the baby back to their tent, Hana tearfully decides that they should bring Kiyoko back to her parents. What follows are silly (but realistic) antics, and drama. 

The voice acting is really well done. I know many will scoff at me for watching the dubbed version, but I do believe that they did the story justice. Their emotions were conveyed clearly, and really brought the viewer into the movie. 

The animation is beautiful! It’s fluid all the way around, and elastic and goofy when it needs to be. I would dare say that the animation in this movie rivals even Studio Ghibli’s. I would also like to point out that Kiyoko is the cutest animated baby, period. 

The story, though, is the best part. The trio are dealt bad hands throughout the movie, and each time they think they’ll find Kiyoko’s real parents, something stands in their way. It makes the viewer want to see them succeed, and it brings them into the movie. The only thing I will say is there is a part where the baby speaks a full sentence and it caught me completely off guard and not in a good way. 

I think that people who enjoy anime or Studio Ghibli movies will enjoy it, and those who like heartwarming movies will enjoy it too! It’s not the best for young children, as they do swear from time to time, but older kids will enjoy it! 

Overall, I liked this movie and I feel that Kon’s foray into comedy was definitely successful. 

I rate it 8.5 cute anime babies out of 10 (seriously, just look at her, she’s adorable!)