Kimi no Iro

This is a beautifully animated film about self-discovery, connection, and creativity through music. The characters are super expressive, and the animation is colourful and vibrant in all the right ways. The relationships are a joy to watch, especially between our two main girls: Totsuko and Kimi. The music is great too, with a strong score and a fantastic performance at the end.

What keeps it from being truly amazing is that it tries to juggle too many storylines without giving them enough time. Totsuko’s Synesthesia feels like it’s just there rather than something meaningful to her character. Kimi hiding the fact that she dropped out of ... school from her grandmother never really pays off, even though it builds a lot of tension. Rui, the third member of the trio, is the least developed, he barely gets screen time compared to the girls, and his conflict between music and inheriting the family clinic isn’t explored much at all. The Catholic school setting brings up an interesting angle of religion versus creativity, but the film doesn’t really dive into it. There are even some pretty clear lesbian undertones in certain scenes, but they stop short of moving into romance.

Because of all this, the film ends up feeling more like a solid, serviceable story rather than something special. But honestly, it’s still really enjoyable. It’s well put together, the music is excellent, and it’s just nice seeing a couple of teens dealing with relatively normal problems while still creating something beautiful together.

Personal Opinion

"You see colors in other ... but do you ever see the color in yourself?"

So, I’ve been going through Naoko Yamada’s older works recently, really wanting to study her style—and I was super happy this film came to theaters in Thailand (2024). And honestly? Yamada-sensei hasn’t lost her touch at all.

The title is The Colors Within, so of course color is a major element. The film mostly uses pastel tones, though it mixes in some brighter, more saturated colors here and there. But even the vivid scenes feel toned down or blended in a way that keeps the pastel vibe consistent. It’s super soft ... on the eyes and honestly beautiful to look at.

When it comes to visual storytelling, this is classic Yamada. For example, her signature use of low-angle shots focusing on feet or shoes. Yamada once said she uses feet to express nervousness—how people shift or fidget when they’re anxious—and it really shows here. You can also spot her usual attention to composition, balancing symmetry and asymmetry to create interesting visual contrast between characters, colors, or actions. For me, the visuals are easily the best part of this film.

And from visuals, we go to sound. I really liked the score it mainly uses electronic instruments with a bit of acoustic here and there, which fits the whole "starting a hybrid music band" theme really well. There’s also this neat connection between sound and color: since color is basically how we perceive different light frequencies, the film ties that into the main character Totsuko, who can see people’s emotions as colors. Almost every time she sees an emotion-color, you hear a kind of frequency tone. That sound design idea? Super cool. The only downside is... they kinda overused it to the point it got a bit annoying. (Or maybe the sound mix in my theater was off? Who knows 🤔)

Story-wise, I’m not against a Traditional Linear structured narrative. Plenty of great fIlms follow familiar formats. I actually loved the first act it grabs you right away by explaining Totsuko’s powers and makes you curious about how she’ll use them. It felt very character-driven. But in Act 2, that balance started to shift. The conflict introduced was weak, and it belonged more to the supporting characters than Totsuko herself. So instead of being the lead, she kind of turned into a lens to view others’ emotions which was interesting but made her feel a bit sidelined. Act 3 brought it back a bit, shifting focus to Totsuko again and wrapping things up nicely. It’s like she started as a guide, became an observer, and then reclaimed her voice by the end.

One thing I loved about the writing though: the way it took a concept from a Christian chant and used it as a central conflict resolution way. That was clever. Even when the plot felt weak, the visuals kept everything engaging. Oh! And I’m pretty sure there was a little Easter egg for K-ON! in the final act a nod to Yamada’s roots, since K-ON! was her first time directing.

Also, the Christian school setting and the use of an instrument like the Theremin really gave the film a unique vibe that stood out to me.

So yeah—this film isn’t a masterpiece, but it’s warm, sweet, and full of charm. The music’s great, and the visuals. A lot of Youthful feeling. ❤️🌸

P.S. Totsuko is seriously adorable.

PREMISE

Yet another band anime this time in the form of an original movie directed by Yamada Naoko. The twist is that the MC has synesthesia and goes to a Catholic school neither of which are portrayed which much weight.

VISUAL

This part is at least okay. The synthesia bits have some nice abstracted water color animation and the production quality of the realist scenes is high – they even manage to have fairly long and detailed dancing and a band performances with no CG but you can’t help but think you are looking at the least imaginative way to portray something so fundamentally based in ... imagination. Character figures can be expressive but rarely have anything interesting going on so it doesn’t matter. They don’t stand out or look attractive and you have the common Yamada problem of all the characters looking the same age. The portrayal of the background environments is technically fine but higly forgettable.

STORY

This part on the other hand is just bad. The synthesia premise is basically forgotten after it gives the MC an excuse to care about someone she doesn’t know and has no real reason to be interested in (apart from a potential, and if present completely gutless yuri interpretation) and then gets replaced by a series of school life scenes that gesture towards the idea of a coming of age story about the MC negotiating between her own desires and the school rules and how much she really believes in them and/or Catholicism. We are led to believe this is a lot more than typical for a Japanese girl but then get shown that she (or less forgivably, the movie’s staff) doesn’t know much about Catholicism with the inclusion of distinctly Protestant prayers, a totally cynical interpretation of confession, NICE nuns (suspension of disbelief can’t excuse something that unrealistic!) and then this all also gets dropped in favor of a profoundly boring band narrative. Like much of the animation, everything about the story ends up feeling like mere decoration on top of something that just isn’t worth caring about.