From the start off it’s easy to see that there was a good amount of effort put into the visuals of the show. With a show with the name color in its name, it does make sure to bring it to the screen with a vibrant color pallet being applied to almost everything. However sometimes the vibrancy doesn’t work in it’s favor when it comes to the characters as they come of as glossy making them at time look a bit plastic like. What also doesn’t help for their characters is their designs, at least their faces. While i’m kind of fine with most shows and their minimalist design of the faces this show takes a it a small step more that ends up being to far. With the nose being far to small, and thanks to the glossy look of the show almost non-existent, and that could also play in part with now the eyes looking a bit far apart from the face that they start to look like fish people.
Anyway the main story is about Hitomi, a girl from the future, where magic is commonplace and not the type where technology is advance that it’s like magic, but actual magic. Due to her very strained relationship with her mother, she has lost the color in her life. I don’t mean in a metaphorically melancholic way, but she has honestly become monochromatic colorblind. Then her grandmother comes and has some inkling of how her granddaughter feels and then she just sends her to the past, after which this series of events happen. Hitomi wakes up in some guys empty room, she “secretly” leaves but forgets her earing, she is seen by some people who happen to be the friends of the guy living in the room, she realizes she lost her earring, she finds the guy who lived in that room with her earing, and finally the guys drawing are the only thing that Hitomi can see in color, and mind you that this is just the first episode. It’s not all the small conveniences that are the problem, but how they constantly stack up on one another that makes them so forced and so contrived. Events like these happen every once in a while in the show, and across multiple episodes that it is easy to be taken out of the experience that it is trying to sell.
Now i’m not going to get into the whole time travel thing since that’s a whole beast i don’t care enough to go into it, other than it’s just kind of dumb. The magic i don’t mind as much and i’m fine having it be somewhat ambiguous. However it’s obvious how these are used as plot devices and probably the main vehicle why so many parts of the story just feel so forced.
It just leaves lingering questions of why the creators of this work would go to such lengths to create such extraneous plot lines for a show about personal growth. Sure this is an anime original and it was trying to be original in its premise from other derivative Japanese high school anime. But that’s just how far they went, only the premise. Since outside of the whole magic and time travel thing all that’s left is a dull school romantic melodrama. None of which are bad elements but the show does nothing to make them work in its favor. There’s not much about the romance that makes it really endearing or compelling. Especially with how all the characters are “coupled up” with the main couple, the childhood friends, and the other two. None of them are in actual relationships with each other but the show still makes a point to make it overtly obvious. Even when there’s romantic conflicts which make up most of the melodrama portion. Most of it is just eye rolling and annoying and makes me internally scream, "get on with it already"! These problems probably had more to do with the characters themselves. There’s not really much to them when it goes to characterization and personality since it’s rather basic and on the surface and the few who do have some character development, it’s also rather basic and isn’t really that well done. There’s not much about them that makes them really compelling. Even the main character and her developing from her angst into a better person in end is still a dull character.
Now the whole show isn’t that bad. The theme of self growth is rather consistent across the show and it does have moments that are rather good and touching. It even hits a really good stride during the last two or three episodes, even if it’s undermined by more plot contrivance. The production value is fine even if there are some poor decisions with the directing of the show like when it the POV of Hitomi but from her perspective she can still see color and then a few seconds later it turns to monochrome to make a point that she’s color blind in case it wasn’t obvious enough times.
In the end there’s not much that is worthwhile about this show. With a cast of just boring 2-dimensional characters. A plot that could have gone down a more simpler road while still maintaining it’s core theme, but opted for a more convoluted yet easily convenient one. There’s not much that hides the intrinsic contrivances of the story. Maybe the show should have upped the plastic look of the characters so the writing could have something to match with.
