Tokyo Angel

Tokyo Angel (Japanese: ノーネーム, Hepburn: Nōnēmu, literally "No Name") is a 2022 Black-and-white animated neo-noir crime film co-written and directed by Robert Fredrickson. it focuses on a 16-year-old Boxer (Jack Dylan Grazer) who develops a relationship with a runaway daughter of a Yakuza boss (Anthony Michael Hall), leading to a deadly game of cat and mouse.

The film will be released in select theaters by GKIDS and on Hulu on May 27, 2022. The film received largely positive reviews from critics, with praise for it's story, characters, animation, in particular it's unique art direction compared to other films, and the voice acting.

Plot
TBA

English Version

 * Jack Dylan Grazer as Nonemu
 * Anthony Michael Hall as Boss Yoshi Oroku
 * Briana Denski as Saki Oroku
 * John Mulaney as Damī Henchi
 * Bob Saget as Goji Honda
 * Eddie Muller as American Tourist (cameo)

Japanese Version

 * Kotaro Daigo as Nonemu
 * Daisuke Ono as Boss Yoshi Oroku
 * Yukari Tamura as Saki Oroku
 * Kenta Miyake as Goji Honda

Development
Fredrickson first conceived the idea and story after the completion of Rulers of the City (2004) but decided to put it on the shelf, as he stated in an interview with Cartoon Brew "It would've been too similar to Rulers".

The project resumed in 2012 after purchasing a DVD set from The Criterion Collection consisting of Japanese made Noirs from Nikkatsu Studios, it was there he got the idea for the tone and feel for the film. He also gathered ideas from a couple of other pieces of media, in particular he got the idea to make the main character a part-time boxer from Osamu Tezuka's The Ballad of Tobio, which also had a young boxer as the main character. According to the same interview with Cartoon Brew, he said that the story's "root" came from when a friend introduced him to Sega's video game franchise Yakuza, which part of it's plot included it's lead character, Kiryu Kazuma, having to protect an orphan named Haruka from a yakuza who believes she has the key to their lost money, and he had a thought "What if it wasn't just a random orphan, what if this person was related to the yakuza?" It was then he finalized the movie's story as the neo-noir romance crime film it became.

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Release
Tokyo Angel premiered in Tokyo, Japan on May 20, 2022 and was released for streaming on Hulu and in select theaters by GKIDS on May 27.

Box office
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Critical response
Tokyo Angel received wide critical acclaim. It was praised for it's unique story and art direction compared to other animated films, along with it's characters, animation and voice acting. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 94% with an average rating of 8.00/10, with the critical consensus reading, "From it's stellar cast to it's unique art direction, Tokyo Angel is another achievement from Robert Fredrickson that'll immerse the audience into it's world and entertain and maybe even cause them to shed some tears." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 87 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim".