Cocolors

I decided to make this review since there are only 2 other reviews, both of which give this short movie an 8/10. There are fundamental flaws present in this work that I strongly consider bar it from such a rating.

These are that the story is dull and the animation is trash.

The story revolves around a mute, sickly boy, bullied by his peers and with only one friend. He is passionate about art in an apocalyptic grey world. You see the problem here? It's like I'm reading out of a checkbook of pity tropes. The main issue is that a fat half of the runtime is ... spent on telling you just this. As a result none of the characters have any depth, even for something of this length. The paper-thin story isn't surprising when you consider it was created by a studio best known for Poputepipikku and goddamn Ninja Batman.

The animation reminds me of Malice@Doll, primarily because both works intentionally structured their character designs to be easier for 3D animation. In Malice@Doll all the characters are lifeless, decrepit sex dolls, matching perfectly with the OVA's horror themes. In Cocolors all the characters are empty-faced cosmonauts, devoid of any emotions, matching perfectly with it's themes of...friendship and perserverance? Doesn't really work the same does it. It seems to me that Kamikaze Douga simply couldn't be bothered with character design, which by the way Malice@Doll does have and it alone is 10 times better than this mess. Did I mention Malice@Doll enough? Here's another fact about it, it was made in 2001. Cocolors is from 2017.

Tl;Dr it's japanese oscar bait don't bother