Satoshi Kons’s anime masterpiece Tokyo Godfathers will get 4K re-release
Just in time for the holidays, GKids, provider of animation from all over the world, delivered the perfect gift for fans of the medium.
The company announced on Thursday that it had acquired North American theater and consumer electronics distribution rights for Satoshi Kon’s Neo-Noir, Tokyo Godfathers, on Christmas Eve. After the revised re-release of Perfect Blue, another Kon masterpiece, in 2018, GKids will release a new 4K restoration by Tokyo Godfathers in early 2020. As part of the release, both an original Japanese version and an English version are expected.
“Satoshi Kon remains one of the animation media’s most famous and visionary storytellers,” said David Jesteadt, president of GKids. “With the republication of Tokyo Godfathers, a contemporary work of deep humanism and beauty, we are proud to make his legacy accessible to both old and new audiences.”
Like so many of Kons films, Tokyo Godfathers paints a simple premise with dimensional psychology and hand-drawn art. On Christmas Eve, three homeless people spot a little girl near a dump. With little idea of how to return the baby to their mother, Gin, a man crippled by a variety of additions, Hana, a former Drag Queen who was also abandoned as a child, and Miyuki, a high school graduate, escaped, tied together to solve the puzzle. As you navigate Tokyo’s cold streets, your ticking clock journey becomes a journey of self-reflection.
The re-release of GKids follows nominations for the International Animated Film Society’s Annie Award, which named Kon the posthumous recipient of the Winsor McCay Award, the organization’s award for her life’s work in animation.
