In 2016, anime director Naoko Yamada released A Silent Voice — a coming-of-age youth drama that deftly handled themes relating to disability, bullying and personal redemption. Yamada’s upcoming film, The Colors Within, similarly explores the complicated world of high school adolescence — only this time by using music as a key narrative device.
Per Mantan Web, The Colors Within (titled Your Color in Japan) will arrive in Japanese theaters on Aug. 30 (JST). As detailed on Anime News Network, GKIDS, an anime distribution company that also handles North American releases for Studio Ghibli, announced its acquisition of The Colors Within at AnimeNYC 2024, with the film given an official North American release window for Winter 2024. Recently, Mantan Web conducted a lengthy two-part interview, during which Yamada explained what elements inspired her during production, along with what she hopes audiences will take away from The Colors Within.
Naoko Yamada’s ‘The Colors Within’ Gets GKIDS Release in North America
Anime News Network describes the film’s plot: “The story centers on Totsuko, a high school girl who can ‘see’ the colors of the emotions in people’s hearts. She attends a mission school in Nagasaki. In order to keep her friends and family from feeling dark feelings, she worries, reads situations, and even lies to smooth things over. At an antique bookshop in the corner of town, she meets Sakunaga Kimi, a woman with an incredibly beautiful color and music-loving Kagehira Rui, who are trying to put together a band…”
After meeting these two, Totsuko decides to help their endeavor, beginning a story that, according to Yamada, focuses on modern-day adolescence. “I was very interested in the secondary sexual characteristics that occur at this age, when people are on their way to becoming adults both mentally and physically, and there are still many ‘firsts’ to come, so it was a theme that I found very appealing. I think that the people you meet and the things you fall in love with at this age will remain as important things to you even after you become an adult, so I wanted to burn that into your memory,” Yamada stated.
Yamada has previous experience with the concept of high schoolers forming a band together. In 2011, she directed the first film adaptation of Kyoto Animation’s popular K-ON! series. In K-ON! the movie (2011), the main characters collectively decide what dreams and ambitions they hope to pursue after graduation. In The Colors Within, Totsuko, Sakunaga and Kagehira support one another in a similar manner. “They’re not the kind of kids you can describe in some powerful words,” Yamada explained. “They just exist in a subtle way. They care about each other, but they also have their own strong wills and the courage to see things through. It’s like a really mysterious power.”
According to Yamada, the choice to unite three characters over their shared love of music was inspired by his own childhood fascination with the subject. “I’ve always had a respect and admiration for music. I grew up in a house where music was playing all the time, but I wasn’t [initially] allowed to go to piano lessons, so my admiration only grew…eventually, I started learning the piano [and] I felt the joy of making sounds in life.” Ultimately, Yamada gave up playing the instrument but decided to use anime as an alternate means of creating music. “I thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore on my own,’ so I began to think it would be nice if I could make sound through my artwork.” In the band performance scenes, Yamada uses soft colors and “simple” musical pieces to create a “comfortable” environment for viewers. “I wanted the scene to be firmly grounded, with sound, color, movement and the character’s emotions all layered together, so I tried to create a balance between making the music stand out, but not lacking in anything,” Yamada said.
‘The Colors Within’ Aims to “Protect the Dignity” of Its Teenage Characters
Toward the end of the interview, Yamada discussed the importance of granting “dignity” to each character, no matter the context or situation. “One thing is to always protect the dignity of the characters; to not be rude. Even if there is a character who has thoughts that I don’t understand, I must be willing to listen and understand their reasons, to not control them arbitrarily.” In addition to drawing inspiration from modern youth, who manage to retain a “sense of self” — despite having access to social media sites and online games where people frequently adopt alternate personas — Yamada also focuses on creating mature, responsible characters as positive role models for the audience. “The main theme of the work was that I wanted to portray children who don’t blame others for their circumstances…that goes for adults too.”
Source: Mantan Web’s Naoko Yamada interview (Parts 1 and 2), Anime News Network
