2016-2017 was post Studio Ghibli grandeur from Japan’s animators, producing 3 of the best films of the year. Makoto Shinkai followed up Your Name with Weathering With You, which was lovely…but not quite up to the level of his 2016 perfection. And Sunao Katabuchi hasn’t made a follow up to In This Corner of the World yet (don’t worry, my expectations are lowered sir). Bringing us to The Colors Within, Naoko Yamada’s 2nd follow up to A Silent Voice. Lesson here: beware the movie after the masterpiece.
We open in a Catholic High School in rural Japan. Innocent, sweet teenager Totsuko (Sayu Suzukawa) is praying, holding in her big secret: she sees people in colors, not as normal kids do. She becomes enamored of the blue aura around Kimi (Akari Takaishi) a classmate in her all girls school. Kimi vanishes one day, prompting Totsuko to go find her; and apparently, find her playing a guitar. Desperate to hang out with her, Totsuko exaggerates her piano playing ability, and says they should form a band. A green aura’ed boy named Rui (Taisei Kido) overhears, and offers his musical talents to the girls, who find themselves learning about writing songs, guitar licks, and theremin solos.
Ok, beware is too harsh for The Colors Within. Naoka Yamada proves here she can’t make a bad film…just a less good one. Though the biggest failing of The Colors Within is its marketing. I was expecting this wonderful teenage fantasy about a girl who sees the world through colors. We get pieces of that brilliant idea…but only pieces. The movie only plants us inside Totsuko’s point of view when the plot demands it, making that part of the story a bit of a gimmick. At least the premise makes Yamada really pay attention to the animation of the film: awash in yellows most of the time, occasionally sprawling out in random bursts of color from all over the screen. Turns out you won’t need the “colorview lens” because The Colors Within are the colors without, emotionally guiding you along, but there’s still a little pang of what could have been.
So what do we get instead of a teenage fantasy? Well, we get A Silent Voice’s strength: complex character introspection. Totsuko is that innocent 11 year old getting the life lessons in the film: the Corey Matthews if you will. The naivete borders on strange a few times, but generally it comes from a place of empathy, as the girl transitions from kid into a real teenager. You can tell Naoka Yamada is more interested in Kimi than Totsuko though, as she takes the film from the supposed lead about 30 minutes in. Kimi is a great character example for teenagers, showing how you can be a mostly sad person day to day, but find ways to overcome that and get more happy, little by little. Rui gets enough of a backstory to make him interesting as well, showing teens how to balance a life of passion and responsibility. But the sneaky winner of the movie is the head nun at the school, Sister Hiyoshiko (Yui Aragaki). Every Catholic School should not only show this movie to kids, but also watch it themselves, to remind themselves how religion works at its best: helping guide people through their problems with love and empathy.
Don’t worry y’all. For a movie with a band, The Colors Within ends with not just 1, but 3 bangers, one representing each of the teens in the group. This is the sweeter side of Naoka Yamada’s teenage fables, more generically useful than the deep desolation of A Silent Voice. I also got inspired to research Japanese Catholic history, something I didn’t really know existed until this film. Father, Son, Holy Spirit: 3, 2, 1!!!!!!!