_Tokyo Godfathers_

The Christmas Anime that people actually recommend.

You can watch this on Netflix.

(But not in the United States.)

We open on a nativity play. A children's chorus sings Silent Night.

The pastor says Jesus was born to bring salvation to those with no place in the world. It's very hard to have no place in the world.

A homeless man sitting in the back of the church agrees.

Joy to the world, the food has come!

Our homeless guy, Gin, is only here for the soup kitchen.

His companion, a homeless trans woman, says if god can make Mary pregnant with a miracle, why not her?

This may be a scam to get an extra serving of soup.

Do not expect alignment with current American leftist mores here. Gin has already called her a faggot and said women can get pregnant, and she can't. (This instigates her comment about Mary.)

(Reminder that actually poor and oppressed people are not politically correct.)

Our girl is Hana, and her extra serving of soup is for Miyuki, a teenage (?) Runaway that they are looking after.

Hana has found Miyuki a Christmas present: someone has thrown away a whole set of World Literature for Children.

While searching the trash, they find something they did not expect.

An abandoned baby.

Hana names the baby Kiyoko, and claims she's a gift from God.

But can a bag lady who lives in a cardboard box adopt a baby?

Hana agrees that they'll take the baby to the police tomorrow. But they'll look after her tonight.

Gin seems to have a better understanding of babies than you might guess.

He had one of his own, once.

She got sick. He was a racer and thew a race to get money for her treatment.

He was caught and lost his job. She died anyway. His wife died of a broken heart soon after.

They acquire a bottle and some milk and feed her.

In the morning, Hana and Kiyoko are gone.

But not far. Gin and Miyuki follow her tracks.

Gin suspects the parents regret abandoning the baby already. They should take her to to police.

Hana wants to know _why_ someone would do this.

She didn't know her mother, and was brought up in the foster system. She wants to know why. For Kiyoko's sake, and her own too, she wants to find the mother.

They have only one clue: a locker key that was wrapped up in the blanket with Kiyoko.

They find a travel bag with some sexy clothing, a few pictures, and some business cards for a hostess club.

With that clue, they take a train in that direction. But when the trains are stopped by snow, Miyuki is spotted (by someone from her old life?) and they abandon the train.

No food is hard enough for adults, and Kiyoko doesn't like it at all.

Gin swaps a grave offering of liquor, but you can't give that to a baby.

Someone has left an offering of baby supplies. (Guess why.) Their loss is Kiyoko's gain, I guess.

Now here's a man who's having a bad day. This gangster has managed to run over himself with his car.

It got stuck in the snow, and when he went to see what the issue was, he didn't set the parking brake. When it shifted, he got trapped.

Our heroes push it off of him.

He feels like he owes them a favor.

Why not cash it in right now? Does he know this club?

Know it? The owner is marrying his daughter today.

(Ohta has joined the party.)

And everyone goes to the wedding.

The groom IDs the mother from the photo.

But Gin knows the groom. He's the one who arranged his fall from grace.

Gin goes to kill him with a bottle, but is saved from his own rage when one of the caterers pulls a fun and tries to shoot Ohta, and the groom jumps in the way of the bullets and gets himself killed.

The fleeing gunman take Miyuki and Kiyoko hostage and escapes via cab.

The gunman only speaks Spanish, which makes things more difficult. But he can recognize a needy baby when he sees one.

He takes Miyuki and Kiyoko home, and his wife, who is breastfeeding her own baby, has enough for two.

Hana attempts to track them through the cab company, while Gin abandons them to go die drunk in a gutter.

But he finds a man who's further along on that then he is.

Gin takes the old man back to a shack to die in piece. The old man gives him a bundle and asks him to hide it.

When Gin steps out of the shack, he sees something. That piece of skyline matches one of the photos from the locker.

Too bad he's attacked by some punks.

Hana has tracked down the cabbie, who has only just realized that he's helped a criminal escape and not a young foreign couple.

Miyuki has bonded some with the lady of the house, and across the language barrier, has told some of her story.

Miyuki's father was a police officer.

Miyuki had adopted a stray cat. Something went wrong; maybe her father got rid of the cat, or maybe something else happened, but she ended up stabbing her father.

She ran away after that and has been on the lam ever since.

Hana, Miyuki, and Kiyoko have all re-found each other and now attempt to find Gin.

Gin has been beaten severely attempting to recover the photo from the punks, and is missing.

Just as he's about to pass out in the alley, he is rescued by an angel.

Hana, with nowhere to stay for the night and no other options, calls in her last favor.

She goes to the drag club where she used to perform: the Angel Club.

And what do you know, Gin is convalescing there. His rescuer was that kind of angel.

"Mother", the owner of the club asks Hana why she's hanging out with a homeless guy.

Well, she's homeless too. Really ever since Ken died, she's fallen apart.

Ken died? Was it AIDS?

No, he slipped on the soap in the bath.

I guess we're always one bad step away from death.

Over the next day, they check and double check the photograph until they find the house.

It's a ruin.

The neighbor knew them though. He was a gambler and a mean drunk. Ran up a bunch of debt, then they had to leave town.

She was violent too. He had bruises on the regular.

Miyuki has found something on a newspaper in the wreckage. It's a personal notice.

Miyuki: Angel has come home. - Dad

(Angel was her cat's name.)