The Colors Within shine through in a musical slice-of-life anime

If there is one thing that director Naoko Yamada and writer Reiko Yoshida understand about teenagers, it’s that their inner lives are much more nuanced than outward appearances might suggest. Following their superb anime films A Silent Voice and Liz And The Blue Bird, The Colors Within is perhaps their most direct exploration of adolescent coming of age for how it draws those nuances from its characters to create compelling drama. Low on incident but high on emotion, The Colors Within poignantly draws a line from our most private selves to the art we create as an expression of who we really are inside.

Totsuko (Sayu Suzukawa), a high school student at a Catholic boarding school, has the unique ability to see people as colors, though she keeps this ability hidden for fear of how her classmates might perceive her. This lonely existence is interrupted when the aura of fellow student Kimi (Akari Takaishi) catches her eye, only for that aura to suddenly disappear when Kimi is expelled from school. Fascinated by Kimi’s unique shade of blue, Totsuko tracks Kimi to the bookstore where she works and practices guitar, only for Totsuko to end up implying that she knows how to play piano as she nervously picks up a book at random. This catches the attention of Rui (Taisei Kido), a boy who plays the theremin, and the trio comes to the impromptu conclusion that they should start a band.

What follows is an examination of secrets, both in how they bring these teenagers shame for needing to keep them and, more importantly, how they are the driving engine for the creation of their music. Each member hides the existence of the band from their loved ones for various reasons, with Kimi and Rui’s family relationships particularly strained by what they must hide to pursue this dream. They further keep the complexities of their individual circumstances secret from each other, and it’s only through their songwriting that they open the door for mutual support and truthfulness. The gradual revelation that art is the mechanism by which one may unburden themselves of their secrets is beautifully conveyed without a character ever needing to spell this message out verbally.

Strangely, despite being the ostensible protagonist, Totsuko has the weakest arc of the three, if only because it’s loaded with the baggage of excess symbolism. Much is made of Totsuko’s anxieties over being a sinner for stepping outside the bounds of her Catholic upbringing—it’s no coincidence that themes of shame are offset by Totsuko’s constant reaffirmation that she can confess her sins for forgiveness—but its connection to her aura-reading abilities is murky at best, while her background and future goals never fully congeal into a coherent picture. 

For as much time as is spent on Totsuko’s minor acts of rebellion, tacitly encouraged by the kindly Sister Hiyoshiko (Yui Aragaki) in spite of school rules, the ultimate resolution of Totsuko’s journey doesn’t carry the same tangible pathos as Kimi’s and Rui’s, making her feel less like a character with a clearly defined arc and more like a thematically poignant lynchpin that holds the plot together. Perhaps this is intentional, as demonstrated by Totsuko’s inability to perceive her own color, but given that her quest is for self-definition and purpose, it’s questionable whether The Colors Within fully grasps who Totsuko really is.

It is fortunate, then, that the gorgeous animation from studio Science Saru (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the criminally underrated Inu-Oh) is able to carry the emotional heft. Most notable for the naturalistic fluidity of character movements, the animation is equally adept at conveying the adolescent giddiness of a surreptitious sleepover, the still contemplation of a night spent huddled for warmth in a snowstorm, and the unbridled joy of an amateur dance recital. This is a gorgeous film to view in motion, with a gripping attention to detail from the chaos of a dodgeball game’s multiple moving figures, right on down to the subtleties of finger movements across instruments.

The Colors Within may be uneven in how it explores its characters’ individually, but the poignancy it achieves with them collectively is astounding. Yamada and Science Saru are no strangers to the potential of anime in tapping raw emotion through musical performance, so it comes as no surprise that the concert serving as the film’s climax is one of the rawest expressions of dialogue-free storytelling you’re likely to see all year. As a culmination of the characters’ journeys and a sensory representation of the film’s soul-bearing themes, it’s nothing short of masterful. In the face of such a wave of emotion, it’s hard not to sit back and soak in the colors.

Director: Naoko Yamada
Writer: Reiko Yoshida
Starring: Akari Takaishi, Sayu Suzukawa, Taisei Kido, Yui Aragaki
Release Date: January 24, 2025