God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
– The Serenity Prayer
There’s a frequently quoted adage “youth is wasted on the young.” The notion is that with age comes the wisdom (or, perhaps lived experience) to understand that which the young rarely do, that everything that feels enormous, impossible, forever, and/or devastating in our youth is merely a blip in a life filled with glories and regrets. There’s also the notion with youth that all we are is all we’re ever going to be, when, in truth, we often shift and change throughout our lives, potentially going and doing things or being things we never imagined we’d be. These are but a few things touched on in the new film from director Naoko Yamada (A Silent Voice; Liz and the Blue Bird) and writer Reiko Yoshida (A Silent Voice; Okko’s Inn) in their high school-set The Colors Within, given a limited U.S. release in December 2024 before the wider U.S. release January 2025.
Totsuko Higurashi voiced by Sayu Suzukawa in THE COLORS WITHIN. Photo courtesy of GKIDS Films. © 2024 Science SARU INC. / STORY inc. / TOHO CO., LTD. / JR East Marketing & Communications, Inc. / Lawson Entertainment, Inc.
High schooler Totsuko Higurashi (voiced by Sayu Suzukawa) has a condition known as emotion-color synesthesia that causes her to see those around her as colors. She sees trusted teacher Sister Hiyoko (voiced by Yui Aragaki) as orange and her three roommates as the collective colors of nature, though she cannot see her own. Her favorite color is blue and its appearance always draws her attention, which is why she becomes curious about classmate Kimi Sakunaga (voiced by Akari Takaishi) and the reason why Kimi drops out of school. After finding Kimi working at a local bookstore, Totsuko awkwardly comes up with a reason for being in the store, inadvertently giving the impression that she’s a piano player to Totsuko’s guitar player, which, when overheard by customer Rui Kagehira (Taisei Kido), causes him to ask the two girls if they’re in a band and if he can join. This impromptu meeting proves to be bashert as these three lost souls come together to use music to express their respective frustrations, fears, and lost senses of self into a collective creative pursuit that holds the potential to heal them in unexpected ways.
Kimi Sakunaga voiced by Akari Takaishi in THE COLORS WITHIN. Photo courtesy of GKIDS Films. © 2024 Science SARU INC. / STORY inc. / TOHO CO., LTD. / JR East Marketing & Communications, Inc. / Lawson Entertainment, Inc.
The world feels at once so small and intimidatingly big when young. We approach everything with the uneducated confidence, leading to resounding successes and devastating failures that coalesce into the self-identity that we bring to adulthood. This is a critical part of Yamada’s The Colors Within as the script follows the viewpoint of Totsuko as she grapples with her truth and the way that it grates against her faith. Her faith, which is a major part of who she is, though, impressively doesn’t define or restrict her. Put another way, The Colors Within is absolutely set within the world of a religious school and therefore does have religious, specifically Christian, iconography and language, but the film is not specifically about faith in the way one would expect. Yoshida’s script leans on gentle hope and understanding to get its points across rather than the harsh hand that some may think of when it comes to parochial school. Faith is intrinsic to who Totsuko is and the way she behaves at times might suggest that she’s grappling with her faith or finding ways to justify what some might see as rebellion; however, the way her faith is explored through the narrative is instead treated as a natural element of cultivating faith as a youth through the recognition of humility, grace, and humanity. As expressed by Sister Hiyoko, the rules which make someone pious does not mean being stoic or antimaterialistic, but understanding the context of a choice and the natural consequences that follow. Therefore, for instance, the way one treats someone who drops out of high school is going to be different than someone honor-bound to study medicine or someone who can see the color auras of those around them. If faith is belief despite evidence not seen, then stringent or ardent action is unnecessary where a gentleness can also exist. As Totsuko balances her faith and this band (two things that don’t need to be mutually exclusive), the script doesn’t treat it as a massive world-ending crisis so much as a reinvigoration via reinterpretation of what she thinks faith is. It not only lessens the predominance of faith so as not to deter the non-faithful from connecting with Totsuko, this approach actually endears her further, encouraging audiences to lean-in to her journey.
Rui Kagehira voiced by Taisei Kido in THE COLORS WITHIN. Photo courtesy of GKIDS Films. © 2024 Science SARU INC. / STORY inc. / TOHO CO., LTD. / JR East Marketing & Communications, Inc. / Lawson Entertainment, Inc.
In terms of the music, created by kensuke ushio (A Silent Voice; Chainsaw Man), it’s neither as prominent nor complete as one may expect. Unlike other animated release from studio Science Saru Inu-Oh (2021) which contains several truly exquisite musical sequences, the audience is only treated to snippets of songs as they develop across an unclear period of time. Each member of the band is tasked with writing a different song, but each do contribute to the orchestration, whether with guitar, piano, theremin, or other instrument. So much of what we see during the scenes of them together is trying out portions, the full versions left to a single moment in the film when the characters are set to challenge themselves before their friends, family, and faith. Each song has its own flavor, but, in the parlance of the era, they are a bop, a banger, a song you’ll want to listen to separate from the film, though made richer by possessing context. Fans of the 2016 sleeper hit Sing Street may feel a sense of déjà vu between Rui’s costume and the orchestration of track “Amen, I’m Going Somewhere”, performed alongside ushio by shironeko dou, but that only aids the charm and enjoyment.
L-R: Kimi Sakunaga voiced by Akari Takaishi and Totsuko Higurashi voiced by Sayu Suzukawa in THE COLORS WITHIN. Photo courtesy of GKIDS Films. © 2024 Science SARU INC. / STORY inc. / TOHO CO., LTD. / JR East Marketing & Communications, Inc. / Lawson Entertainment, Inc.
Where the film truly impresses is in the character design and animation overseen by Takashi Kojima (Ride Your Wave; Look Back) and art direction overseen by Midori Shimada (Promare). These two work hand-in-hand to convey Totsuko’s perspective beautifully. The visual style of the film is lovely and artistic, but fairly muted overall. This means that Totsuko’s blue school uniform is less of a robin’s egg and more washed out, while her hair lacks the vibrancy one expects from a blonde and the skin color of all characters is a softer flesh tone. Even the lovely depictions of the cathedrals (one at school and one used for band practice) are toned down in their earthy notes. This allows the sequences in which we observe Totsuko’s perspective to be all the more powerful in conveying the richness of what she sees relative to each person. It’s one thing to hear how much she loves the color blue and another thing to see that represented in both a ballet dancer she adores as a child and Kimi. Sometimes the vibrancy is utilized during transitions, so that the auras of distance lights from homes warmly glow against the deep blues of the ocean and night sky or in one of several fade-to-white sequences, though a particularly special one has the white broken by a line of blue that serves as the transition to a new location. The juxtaposition between the muted nature of real life versus the vitality of Totsuko’s POV isn’t the only method of style incorporated into the film as the animation includes some traditional cinema camera tricks that infuse The Colors Within with a sense of tangibility beyond normal animation. This takes the form of camera shots tight on a character’s facial profile, such as Kimi, but where her visible nose and eye are clear, the cheek and ear are just out of focus. Likewise, in a few scenes involving character strife, the camera moves in and out of focus, helping to make the internal external to the audience. These technical tricks alongside the precise animation create an atmosphere that audiences don’t necessarily get lost in so much as forget the facsimile of animated versus real and just believe.
L-R: Rui Kagehira voiced by Taisei Kido, Totsuko Higurashi voiced by Sayu Suzukawa, and Kimi Sakunaga voiced by Akari Takaishi in THE COLORS WITHIN. Photo courtesy of GKIDS Films. © 2024 Science SARU INC. / STORY inc. / TOHO CO., LTD. / JR East Marketing & Communications, Inc. / Lawson Entertainment, Inc.
The biggest weakness with The Colors Within is that the marketing for the film implies a different kind of story than it ends up being. Totsuko’s synesthesia is a means by which to judge her own growth moreso than it is some major factor in intersection of her faith and music. It does create the catalyst to seek out Kimi, but it’s little more than that. Likewise, the inclusion of faith isn’t to provide opportunities to examine the frequent dissonance between art and faith, as if acts of creation (art, painting, poetry, music, etc.) aren’t directly connected to better understanding humanity and the things that bind people together as so many lessons within religious texts often espouse. But what The Colors Within actually is (an exploration of youth, friendship, and artistic expression) is quite successful in not only quietly creating an impact on its audience, but doing so through the slow progression of musical development so that, when the songs are performed, all that they mean can be felt. Being young is hard, especially when you lack the wisdom to understand that people will undergo many different lives in their existence, making the first time they come against hardship or personal questioning feel like being at the base of a mountainous wall that must be scaled and crossed when the truth is much simpler: no one knows what they’re doing and everyone is making it up as they go. But we get through it via faith, whether in ourselves or something else, and the friends we make along the way.
In select theaters December 13th, 2024.
In theaters January 24th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official GKIDS Films The Colors Within webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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