In the new anime film “The Colors Within,” teenage girl Totsuko can see people’s auras as vivid watercolor silhouettes. She befriends former classmate Kimi and music lover Rui, forming a band and playing at a festival. The movie follows their growing friendship, with themes of independence and rebellion but lacks urgency and depth in character development.
Each member of the band has their own struggles – Rui with his mother’s expectations, Kimi hiding her dropout from her grandmother, and Totsuko’s aspirations to be a ballerina. The movie focuses more on their love for music than their shared sense of alienation or personal motivations.
Directed by Naoko Yamada, “The Colors Within” has a quiet, insular quality, capturing the characters’ facial expressions but lacking depth in storytelling. While the electro-pop songs performed by the band are infectiously catchy and reflect Totsuko’s faith and affection for her friends, the film ends without resolving the characters’ futures or the fate of their band.
Comparable to coming-of-age musical films like “On-Gaku: Our Sound” and series like “Carole & Tuesday” and “Your Lie in April,” “The Colors Within” falls short in providing a more profound exploration of its characters and the music-making process. While visually striking and musically engaging, the film could benefit from a broader palette in terms of narrative depth and character resolution.
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