Takashi Shimura
"Tora-san Goes Religious?" was the fifth highest earning film at Japanese box-offices in 1984. Stuart Galbraith IV ranks the film as one of the best in the series, noting that the "performances are excellent all-around". Galbraith observes that the film's storyline was probably inspired by the recent death of the great film actor Takashi Shimura who had played the role of the deceased Hyoichiro Suwa in three previous "Otoko wa Tsurai yo" films. The German-language site molodezhnaja gives "Tora-san Goes Religious?" four out of five stars.