The Colors Within is not your standard coming-of-age anime for one simple reason: the complete and total lack of melodrama. No dark secrets are hiding in the wings and no painful love triangles to get caught up in. There are no moments where the characters scream and cry as the music swells in an attempt to drain us of tears. Rather, this is easily the most grounded anime of this type I have ever seen.
Set mainly within a Japanese catholic girls boarding school, this film does a good job of showing the boarding school life—and I say this as someone who attended (a non-religious) one. Things like sneaking people into dorm rooms for sleepovers and teachers trying to walk the fine line between rule enforcers and understanding adults rang perfectly true for me. Likewise, the lack of an antagonist is a boon to the film. There’s no random group of one-dimensional bullies or a kid-hating teacher to intrude on the actual conflict of the story—the personal battle taking place in our protagonists’ hearts.
This film is centered around a group of kids struggling with the idea that their wants and their authority figures’ wants are not the same thing. Totsuko is dealing with the fact that, for her friends and herself, she often does things that the church considers sinful. Meanwhile, Kimi has her dreams but feels trapped by the expectations of the kind Grandmother who raised her—leaving her feeling like a terrible, ungrateful child. Lastly, Rui is grappling with the idea that following his dreams means leaving the small island he grew up on—thus, in his eyes, abandoning his mother to a life of loneliness.
Simply put, The Colors Within is the tale of these three kids growing up enough to tell the authority figures in their lives what they truly want and value. Of course, as you’d expect of kids, they do some foolish things along the way. They lie to their various authority figures constantly and break rules that could get them into “big trouble.” However, this is largely their way of subconsciously stalling for time—coming to terms with their guilt and working up the courage to say what they need to.
The three can do this through the band they create: Each writes a song for the band to perform. These are their true feelings in song—and in writing said songs, the trio learns not only to accept their feelings but also gains the medium to communicate them to those they care about most.
As you would expect from this kind of story, the music is vitally important—though not in the way you might think. This is not the story of a group destined to become rock stars. A film like that requires music that makes us believe they could do such a thing—and writing such a hit for a fictional band is often a futile task.
However, this is the story of three people who play music as a hobby—simply for the love of it. Thus, the diegetic music we get in the film sounds like something a teenage amateur would make. Each song is in a different style and uses an odd collection of instruments (like mixing the theremin with an electric guitar. However, that’s not to say the songs are bad. Each is just catchy enough to be enjoyable and do their true job—conveying each character’s true feelings—excellently.
On the visual side, things range from competent to truly inspired. As is par for the course for Science SARU, the more surreal things get the better the film looks. The shots of how Totsuko views the world are breathtaking and there is some top-tier directing to compliment it. And even at its worst, the animation quality is still average for an anime film.
For all the positives to be said about this film, there are also some negatives. For one, the lack of melodrama is a double-edged sword. While it makes the film feel more like reality, it also means lacking access to many of the tricks of the trade that keep a story interesting. Chunks of this film feel like aimless meandering rather than moving towards any conclusion.
Yet, the most jarring aspect of the film comes in the big concert scene. While it’s great to hear the songs in the final forms, the point of the songs is to express how our heroes feel to the people they care about. Yet, not only do two of the authority figures inexplicably show up late, one misses the song they’re supposed to hear—and yet this is somehow not even mentioned. It makes me wonder if some shots were re-ordered in editing, accidentally causing this narrative and thematic pitfall in the middle of the climax.
While I wouldn’t call The Colors Within anything groundbreaking, that doesn’t mean it’s not an enjoyable little coming-of-age film. The colorful visuals and unique music make the film worth a watch all on its own. Moreover, while the story is a bit meandering, is far from bad. In the end, I’m left feeling that with just a slightly tighter script and a few more scenes utilizing the surreal, this film could have been an instant classic.
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