The Colors Within
Colour and music combine to unite three teenagers in Naoko Yamada’s unusual anime drama.
Image courtesy of Anime Limited.
This Japanese anime film undoubtedly has a very individual character but I wonder if it is one that will appeal to all. It offers a strange blend with some ingredients that are unusual and some that are all too familiar, albeit rather less so in the context of animation. In the latter category we find the basic plot line, for this is the story of three youngsters who achieve a real rapport by forming a band leading ultimately to the trio performing in public. This happens at a Valentine's Day celebration at the Catholic boarding school for girls where one of them, Totsuko, is a student. The other girl who is part of this trio, Kimi, has also been a pupil there but has dropped out, her disappearance leading to Totsuko looking for her and discovering that she is now working in a bookshop. The young male who joins these two is Rui and we follow their progress as they bond through music and attempt to write their own songs. In fact, this is the old, old tale of friends who work together to put on a show and ultimately do so with the big night providing the film’s climax.
Familiar as this storyline is, it certainly remains a popular one. But one does expect such material to feature the music strongly and to opt for the kind of songs best suited to the taste that prevails at the time. Here, though, The Colors Within surprises by rather limiting the emphasis on the music until the school performance (an extensive sequence with several numbers) and also by featuring pieces in assorted modes that extend from rock to ballads. Furthermore, if Kimi’s guitar and Totsuko’s keyboard playing are to be expected, it is a novelty - and not an unpleasing one - that Rui should favour the theremin.
Regardless of any more contemporary touches, The Colors Within comes across as being in many ways an old-fashioned piece and indeed a film that could have been made years ago. These days it would certainly not be unusual for a Catholic school to be portrayed critically being seen as an environment holding back these youngsters. But the religious setting is fully respected here. The school figure who plays the strongest part in the tale is a teacher, Sister Hiyoshiko, who is supportive of their music making even when their need to practice encourages Totsuko to lie about her health to avoid going away on a school field trip. In time the sister will reveal that in her youth she had been a member of a rock band and the film consequently has a tone that makes one think of that distant age of the 1960s when, despite all the changes in social behaviour, Debbie Reynolds had a popular hit film when taking the title role of The Singing Nun. When it comes to the religious element here it should also be noted that a famous prayer is seriously evoked more than once: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.
Another strange feature of this film lies in the fact that it also incorporates a second and quite distinct theme. Given that this film is called The Colors Within and given also that the opening voice over is concerned with it, one might expect that it would be crucial to the tale that Totsuko has synesthesia which causes her to see the people around her in distinct colours related to her sense of their personalities. It is the appealing colour of Kimi that encourages Totsuko to go in search of her when she ceases to attend the school. This condition of Totsuko’s is taken into account in the film’s colour design which is by and large light and airy in its use of pastel shades and which incorporates abstract elements too. In plot terms once it is known to others her synesthesia encourages Totsuko to be treated as an oddity and for a film made in 2024 one might expect that bringing in this unusual state would be a tactic to find a symbol that would signify concerns with diversity and the attitudes often taken to those who are in some way different. It would not even have been unexpected if the closeness that the outsider Totsuko feels for Kimi had been intended to be read as an indication of latent lesbianism. However, the film's tone is never modern enough to support any such possibility and incorporating synesthesia into the story leads nowhere and comes to seem an odd irrelevance.
Ultimately The Colors Within comes across as a film about adolescent friendships which deserve to be savoured and remembered even though time may well end them (in the film’s concluding scenes Rui leaves the area to go to college). Gentle in tone and non-insistent in the way that it handles its themes, the film nevertheless concludes with the definite sense that time brings changes but also for our trio the opportunity to find and develop their true selves. Even so, its sensitivity over this makes less of a mark than it should have done because, despite the competence of the animation, the central trio never convey the emotional depth that actors in these roles might have done. Nevertheless, whatever its shortcomings, The Colors Within has a tone and approach that is all its own. But it does feel ironic that when one considers the film’s musical appeal much the best song is the one heard over the end credits, a time when many viewers choose to walk out and may consequently not even hear it.
Footnote: I viewed this film in its subtitled version but there is also one dubbed into English.
Original title: Kimi no iro.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Voices of (Japanese version) Sayu Suzukawa, Akari Takaiski, Taisei Kido, Yasuko, Aoi Yûki, Minako Kotobuki, Keiko Toda, Yui Aragaki, Evie Hsu.
Voices of (English version) Libby Rue, Kylie McNeil, Eddy Lee, Maxine Wanderer, Lani Minella.
Dir Naoko Yamada, Pro Eunyung Choi, Yoshihiro Furusawa, Genki Kawamura and Kôhei Sakita, Screenplay Reiko Yoshida, Ph Yoshimitsu Tomita, Ed Kiyoshi Hirose, Music Kensuke Ushio, Animation Takashi Kojima and others.
Toho Studios/East Japan Marketing Communications Inc/LawsonGroup/Science Saru/Story (II)- Anime Limited.
101 mins. Japan. 2024. US Rel: 24 January 2025. UK Rel: 31 January 2025. Cert. PG.
