'The Colors Within' Review - A Celebration of Inner Beauty (2024)

It’s now more cliché than ever to praise any film as “transcendent.” The overuse of the term from festival-goers hyping up movies they get to watch before everyone else or from online stan accounts describing their favorite celebrities has robbed it of its ability to describe a transformative experience when experiencing great art. But the very reason why we obsess over art, like cinema and music, is because of that initial transcendental experience, and we religiously follow new release after new release, chasing that high. The Colors Withinisn’t trying to make you see another plane of existence. Instead, it’s an animated film celebrating the joy of experiencing art and its transcendental properties.

The all-girl Catholic high school setting of The Colors Within might throw off fans of director Naoko Yamada’s past work. Her past two masterpieces,Liz and the Blue BirdandA Silent Voice,embody their modern high school settings. However, Yamada understands the familial relationship between art and spirituality. An opening-second shot of Mother Mary makes for a perfect backdrop to a story of three kids finding peace, freedom, and transcendence through friendship and music.

Our gleeful high school student protagonist, Totsuko Higurashi (Sayu Suzukawa), has a synesthesia-related condition that allows her to see people as different colors. She comes across the most beautiful color she’s ever seen when meeting Kimi Sakunaga (Akari Takaishi), a depressed classmate who appears as an engulfing yet gorgeous shade of blue. Totsuko is immediately swept away, further intoxicated by the colors of bliss and serenity that begin to appear around her after meeting Kimi. The image of her metronomic swaying, as she sports a face of pure delight, is an early indicator of her character — a lovable weirdo whose specific quirks make her feel all the more real.

Rounding out the friend group is Rui Kagehira (Taisei Kido), a quiet music enthusiast and theremin player who accidentally lays the groundwork for the trio to start an impromptu band. As someone who constantly sees stunning colors, Totsuko is the perfect foil for Kimi and Rui. Kimi is trapped by what’s expected of her, pushing against who she truly is. Meeting someone who doesn’t need to say a word to see her inner beauty paints an enchanting tale of self-acceptance that feels incredibly genuine. Implied in The Colors Within‘s narrative, as with Liz and the Blue Bird, is a queer romance existing between the main characters, something Naoko Yamada is seemingly exploring more and more in each consecutive project.

Director Naoko Yamada’s depiction of religious devotion is fascinating and adds more layers to Totsuko’s character beyond her unending optimism. Rather than showing Catholicism as a stifling presence in Totsuko’s life, the character is instead given the opportunity to find the grey areas within her faith. A key discussion dives into the meaning of the word “hymn,” eventually described as a song that is both a celebration of joy and a vessel for the sorrow of the soul. This revelation allows her to bring more to her bandmates than just optimism.

The visualization of Totsuko’s specific brand of synesthesia takes on many different forms throughout the plot, from blotches of paint on a canvas to streaks of color across a landscape to people’s entire bodies radiating that specific tone. This aspect of The Colors Within begs for it to be described as the type of story you can only tell through animation, its biggest visual strength being the cherubic beauty it lends to the mundane.The stakes of the story never reach beyond sneaking around the nuns at school or preparing for a performance at the Christmas fair, and the movie is better off for it.

The Colors Within is yet another star above the badge of Japanese animation studio Science SARU, whose work on Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Dan Da Dan, and The Tatami Time Machine Blues cements them as one of the most exciting international groups working in animation today. The film’s visual palette absorbs your complete focus, sweeping you away into a hazy, dreamy reality where every prop, building, and person is an artistic triumph. Science SARU’s input is clear when comparing the already stellar visuals of Naoko Yamada’s past efforts. The captivating 2D animation on display in The Colors Within has an immersive quality unlike any other animated movie released in 2024.

The Colors Within is far more naturalistic than the flashy technological achievements of Sony Pictures Animation’s two Spider-Verse movies, DreamWork’s The Wild Robot, or even Hayao Miyazaki’s bold and bright fields of green and blue. Instead, we are treated to paintings of a regular modern cityscape. Alluring details and visual elements like unevenly stacked bookshelves walling off the frame, chipped-away paint on the walls of an abandoned church, and words etched into a wooden bed frame in a small Catholic girls’ school dorm further build upon the authentic storytelling of writer Reiko Yoshida’s script.

'The Colors Within' Review - A Celebration of Inner Beauty (3)

Another of Naoko Yamada’s superpowers as a filmmaker is how she imbues the viewer with an attachment to fictional locations. Though nothing here garners the emotional resonance of the bridge from A Silent Voice, you still grow attached to Totsuko’s high school dorm, the used bookstore where Kimi works in the far corner of town, an old church Rui discovers on a remote island, and the sea sickness-inducing ferry Kimi and Totsuko ride to band practice every weekend.

So many animated movies try to be as broad as possible, attempting to reel out sadness, laughter, joy, and whimsy from spectators within a couple of hours. However, The Colors Within specializes in providing warmth. This anime film embodies its message of finding freedom and beauty in everything, with the transcendental nature of friendship, love, and creating art all colliding inside the characters and the audience simultaneously. That’s the feeling we chase when we walk into a cinema.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Colors Within hits theaters on January 24, 2025!

Release Date: August 30, 2024 (Japan) & January 24, 2025 (North America).
Directed by Naoko Yamada.
Written by Reiko Yoshida.
Produced by Eunyoung Choi, Yoshihiro Furusawa, Genki Kawamura, & Kôhei Sakita.
Executive Producer: Wakana Okamura.
Japanese Voice Cast: Akari Takaishi, Sayu Suzukawa, Taisei Kido, Yui Aragaki, Yasuko, Aoi Yūki, Minako Kotobuki, & Keiko Toda.
Composer: Kensuke Ushio.
Production Company: Science Saru.
Distributors: Toho (Japan) & GKIDS (North America).
Runtime: 100 minutes.
Rated PG.

'The Colors Within' Review - A Celebration of Inner Beauty (2024)
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