GKIDS Announce Re-Release Of Satoshi Kon's 'Tokyo Godfathers'

2020 will mark the tenth anniversary of the untimely death of anime auteur Satoshi Kon.  Despite his reputation, most of his work has remained out of print in the US for much of this time. This has been changing over the past couple of years, with Perfect Blue getting a 20th-anniversary re-release from GKIDS Films, and Millenium Actress getting re-released by Eleven Arts this year. GKIDS Films have announced that they will be picked up the rights for his third feature Tokyo Godfathers for release next year.

Originally released in 2003, Tokyo Godfathers stands out in the director's oeuvre as his most light-hearted film. Set at Christmas time it follows three homeless people- a middle-aged man, a transgender woman and a teenage runaway who discover an abandoned baby, and set out to find its mother. It's an extremely heartwarming film and definitely Kon's funniest, but it also shows us a side of Tokyo we never see, in unflinching style.

GKIDS have acquired North American theatrical and home entertainment rights for the film, and will release it in a brand new 4K restoration in US cinemas early next year.  It will be released both in subtitled form and with a brand-new English dub.

"Satoshi Kon remains one of the animated medium’s most celebrated and visionary storytellers,” said  David Jesteadt, GKIDS’ President. "With the re-release of Tokyo Godfathers, a timely work of deep humanism and beauty, we are proud to play a part in sharing his legacy with audiences old and new."