DISCLAIMER
When this movie was released I coincidentally was in Japan so I decided to give this movie a watch before I come back. While my Japanese is good enough to understand most of the movie there were certain words and dialogues where I had to throw multiple guesses so take this review with a grain of salt as I could be missing out on the bigger picture. https://www..com/shorts/QkFBKNGFrw
Directing
Yamada Naoko has always been notoriously known for meticulously crafting authentic character interactions and bubbly moments to radiate that sense of realism and earnesty within each frame. With this movie she was able to exceed every single one of her works with the subtle way the characters move emotes and choice of words the characters utters to one another paired with incredible detailed animation that is reminiscent of Liz and the Blue Birds Quality.
Theme
The whole entire point of this review is for me to gush on how much I adore the story that is being presented so Ill be nerding out for a bit in this section.
To me what this movie hammers on the most is the idea of how lying could cause harm to us and other people. Of course lying is technically a bad thing like you could get scolded by your teacher you could be sent to detention or you could lie to yourself by gambling away all of your earnings to get some PNGs in a gacha game COUGH COUGH.
And while those aspects are inherently true The Colors Within talks about how lying to other people lying to yourself or simply running away from our problems could easily rope in good people in helping you protect that lie putting them in harms way for you or making them worry over you.
By continuing to run away we would grow anxious and uncertain over our actions. Guilt would start to pile up until it reaches a point where were completely overwhelmed to the point that we would get lost in what we have to do going forward.
While everything I say sound like this movie is a major deal even though it is with how much I LOVE this movie I would like to clarify that this movies overall tone is still really wholesome. Every single drama that occurs in the narrative doesnt have the characters slapping each others faces and running in a rainy storm just to express their true thoughts. Every character is uncertain anxious and tries their best to approach their problems in their own ways without being overly indulgent in their friends personal struggles which makes every development come from the characters desire to be better people.
Totsuko Rui and Kimi arent overly complex characters but theyre just normal people that are facing normal problems with all of them pushing each other to face their problems from their collective struggles and personal drives to be better people and I personally love relationships like this be presented in anime as I feel a lot of them feels like OMG SHES DEPRESSED AS AN EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE MAN I SHALL FIX HER
Conclusion
I know that this review isnt necessarily a review but I never intended this thread to be a review in the first place. I wanted to express my love for this movie how much it impacted me and how much it helped broaden my view towards human relationships. Of course I could talk about the technical aspects like how the visuals are filled with warmth and kindness the comforting OST coming from Kensuke Ushio and the songs that they play are an absolute vibe and I could go on for hours with how incredible the song compliments the characters feelings and perceptions but Ive already gone on a pretty long rant and Im sure you could tell that the songs are really good from the trailers.
Finally I want to further clarify that EVERYTHING I WROTE ARE BASED OFF OF MY PERSONAL FEELINGS .
I feel that I really have to enforce this as I dont want people to blame me that the movie isnt as good as I make it sound to be. If theres even anyone that are interested in reading this review
This movie is incredible well made really wholesome and it will make you feel warm and fuzzy by the time youre done with it so please keep this in mind
95
/100