Seeing Color and Humanity in The Colors Within (2025)

Totsuko Higarashi (voiced by Libby Rue) seems like any ordinary high school student at a Catholic school. However, she has synesthesia, or the ability to perceive people or objects as colors. Whenever she comes across someone, she’s amazed by how beautiful their colors can be. However, she can’t see her own color nor does she tell anyone about her synesthesia as no one can understand. One day, Totsuko meets another girl at school named Kimi Sakunaga (voiced by Kylie McNeill) who has the most beautiful and vibrant color she’s ever seen. Totsuko and Kimi form a band together, along with another boy, Rui Kagehira (voiced by Eddy Lee). Despite the various issues in their personal lives, their bond as bandmates helps them overcome these personal issues.

I’ve seen a couple of Naoko Yamada’s films, so I was pretty excited to watch The Colors Within. Known for her emotional, introspective storytelling and unique visual eye, her films have always left an impact on me. However, when I first watched it, I was a bit disappointed. I felt it didn’t have the same tear-jerking emotional depth as A Silent Voice nor the wistful and thought-provoking theme of connection and friendship seen in Liz and the Blue Bird. And I couldn’t relate to the Catholic setting, nor the characters on a deeper level. However, I gave it a second chance. But upon closer look, I realized that I was largely wrong.

The film never uses Catholicism as a vehicle for anything nefarious. In fact, you could even argue that it preaches the true teachings of Christ, rather than whatever narrow or dogmatic view the Church dictates. For example, when Totsuko is writing a song about her feelings for Kimi, Sister Hiyoko, asks whether she’s writing a hymn. When Totsuko hesitates, Sister Hiyoko doesn’t discourage her or call her feelings “sinful”. Instead, she encourages Totsuko to follow her heart. She emphasizes the importance of acceptance, saying that any song which “shows your heart” is considered a hymn. And when both Totsuko and Kimi are caught breaking the rules by the nuns, Sister Hiyoko has both girls share their punishment of community service, despite Kimi being a dropout, because she knows how much Kimi means to Totsuko.

Those who’ve grown up in a religious household might think of sin as black and white, right and wrong. But that’s often not the case in real life. Sister Hiyoko understands that better than anyone else. When Totsuko confesses that she lied to protect Kimi, Sister Hiyoko doesn’t think of her lie as a sin because Totsuko did it for the right reasons. And anything done in the name of righteousness is not considered a sin. I think this has a profound and prevalent message even outside of the movie and religion. If we take a look back on history, we can note how often law is perverted by those in power. It was legal to own a slave, yet the Underground Railroad existed, which allowed slaves to escape to the north. The Gestapos and the SS went door to door looking for Jews in Nazi Germany, yet some Germans would risk their own lives to shelter and shield them. Sometimes, doing what’s right according to principle supersedes what’s right written on paper.

I want to talk about Totsuko and Kimi’s relationship in more detail. At a glance, they appear to be very close friends who share a bond of keeping secrets from those they care about (Totsuko with her synesthesia and Kimi with being a dropout). Yet, they feel closer than just friends. When Totsuko first meets Kimi, she’s taken away by how beautiful her colors are. We are even given a visual from Totsuko’s perspective and it’s painted in a purely romantic light: soft and warm pastel colors, Sakura cherry blossoms falling ever so slightly and of course, the deep pink blush spreading across her cheeks. And when she finds out Kimi dropped out, all the color around her fades to grey. But that’s not where the infatuation stops. Totsuko specifically says that she wants to write a song that expresses Kimi’s colors, which prompts her to write the song “Amen, I’m Going Somewhere”, and if you read between the lines, it’s not hard to see the song as a thinly-veiled metaphor for her romantic feelings towards Kimi.

I can’t write a complete review without mentioning the music and songs themselves. And I have to say, it’s a genius move to cast Kylie McNeill as Kimi. For those with sharp ears, you might recognize her as Suzu/Belle in Mamoru Hosoda’s Belle. Her voice has this melodic and ethereal quality that lifts you up in a soft caress before gliding you through the air on a gentle breeze above an endless ocean. You can especially feel this with the song “Walk”, which easily feels the most “Belle-like.” But McNeill also adds more of her own musical and vocal style to the other two songs: “Apology Letter-The Good, the True, the Beautiful” and “Amen, I’m Going Somewhere”, showcasing how flexible and vast her artistic and vocal range is. Even though this is only her second major role in a movie, I already want to hear more of her and firmly believe that Kylie deserves greater recognition in both the film and music industry!

Now, this isn’t’ to say that The Colors Within doesn’t have its flaws. Totsuko’s synesthesia is said to be an important factor in the film’s beginning. But it disappears throughout the majority of the second act and only makes a brief return in the third act. Despite the film’s fleshed out and multi-layered characters, there is one odd one out: Rui. I felt like the film treated him as an afterthought rather than a main serving. Unlike the rest of its cast, Rui’s very first scene doesn’t even have his face in it. All we know about him is that he passionate about music, but he has expectations to go to college and become a doctor. And his resolution at the end is…to do both. Yay, I guess? This brings me to the film’s conflict resolution in general: there isn’t any major emotional tension. The three simply apologize to their parents/guardians and all is well.

Regardless of its flaws, Naoko Yamada’s The Colors Within is another powerhouse anime film under her directorial belt. And while it lacks the strong emotional and even heartbreaking impact that her previous films had, it’s much warmer and wholesome tone makes it a staple in my anime collection. Don’t let its Catholic setting dissuade you from watching it, the movie never feels like it’s preaching Catholicism, but uses the teachings of Christ to place an emphasis on humanism. Buoyed by incredible acting and musical performances, catchy and beautiful songs, and a strong core chemistry among its characters, The Colors Within goes to show how we all could use a bit more color in our lives.

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