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GKIDS, Shout! Factory to Release Tokyo Godfathers Anime Film on BD
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
GKIDS and Shout! Factory announced on Monday that they will release Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers film on Blu-ray Disc and BD/DVD combo pack on June 2. The release will be the film's first on Blu-ray Disc, and it will also be available with both an English dub and the original Japanese audio for the first time. The anime film will debut digitally on May 19.
The release will include bonus features such as an interview with English dub cast member Shakina Nayfack (voice of Hana), featurettes about the film's creation, and Kon's "Ohayo" short film, which will be available on home video for the first time outside Japan. People who pre-order the film from Shout! Factory will receive a limited-edition lithograph of the anime's cover art while supplies last.
The 4K restoration of the film screened in the United States with English subtitles on March 9 and with a new English dub on March 11. The film earned US$131,297 on March 9 and US$100,461 on March 11 at the U.S. box office, for a total of US$231,758.
The anime film premiered in Japan in November 2003. Columbia Tristar opened the film in the United States in December of that year. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on DVD in North America in 2004.
GKIDS describes the film's story:
In modern-day Tokyo, three homeless people's lives are changed forever when they discover a baby girl at a garbage dump on Christmas Eve. As the New Year fast approaches, these three forgotten members of society band together to solve the mystery of the abandoned child and the fate of her parents. Along the way, encounters with seemingly unrelated events and people force them to confront their own haunted pasts, as they learn to face their future, together.
KON'STONE announced on January 8 that Tokyo Godfathers is inspiring a stage play that will begin its run at the New National Theater Tokyo in May 2021.
GKIDS and Shout! Factory released a remaster of Kon's Perfect Blue anime film on a Blu-ray Disc/DVD combo pack in March 2019. GKIDS and Fathom Events screened the film in 500 U.S. theaters for two days in September 2018. The screenings earned US$420,881 at the box office.
Source: Press release
