General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Colors Within (きみの色)

The Colors Within (Kimi no Iro, きみの色) is a 2024 Japanese animated feature film directed by Naoko Yamada, in which a high school girl who sees people as colors forms a band with two classmates she meets at a used bookstore. It was produced by Science SARU, distributed by TOHO in Japan, and opened on August 30, 2024, with a running time of 100 minutes.¹ The film is an original work with no source material, Yamada's first original feature, and it won the Golden Goblet Award for Best Animation Film at the 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Japanese release	August 30, 2024 (TOHO); running time 100 min; genres romance, youth, animation¹
Director / writer	Naoko Yamada (director and storyboard); screenplay by Reiko Yoshida¹^•³
Studio / producers	Science SARU; produced by STORY inc., with Genki Kawamura among the producers¹^•⁴
Main cast	Sayu Suzukawa as Totsuko Higurashi, Akari Takaishi as Kimi Sakunaga, Taisei Kido as Rui Kagehira, Yui Aragaki as Sister Hiyoko¹^•⁴
Theme song	"in the pocket", written for the film by Mr.Children⁵
Festival honors	Golden Goblet Award for Best Animation Film, 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival; Annecy 2024 Feature Films Competition; Locarno 2024¹
North American release	GKIDS, limited theatrical from January 24, 2025; rated PG⁶^•⁷
Worldwide box office	$2,485,281, of which $1,452,726 came from Japan⁸

Spoilers

Story and characters

Totsuko Higurashi is a student at an all-girls Catholic boarding school who experiences people as colors, sensing them like an aura rather than simply seeing them; she perceives colors of bliss, excitement, and serenity, plus a favorite color of her own, but cannot see her own color.⁴^•⁵^•⁷ Her classmate Kimi Sakunaga gives off the most beautiful color of all.⁴ After Kimi drops out of school, hounded by rumors of a boyfriend, Totsuko seeks her out and finds her working at a used bookstore, strumming an electric guitar.⁷

There the two meet Rui Kagehira, a quiet music enthusiast who plays the theremin and dreams of composing on analog synthesizers, though his mother expects him to become a doctor.⁷^•³ Although Totsuko plays no instrument, she blurts out that the three should start a band, and they do.⁴^•⁷ They practice at an old church on a remote island, which Kimi and Totsuko reach by ferry, and as they make music together, friendship and hints of romance begin to grow.⁴^•¹ Each carries a secret: Kimi has not told the grandmother who raised her that she left school, Rui hides his music from his mother, and Totsuko cannot see her own color.⁵^•⁷ The story builds toward the trio's first live performance at a school festival.⁵

The kindly nun Sister Hiyoshiko (Sister Hiyoko in the GKIDS cast list), voiced by Yui Aragaki, voices much of what the three leave unsaid; she tells them, "We can chart a new course any time we wish."⁷^•⁴

Production

The film reunites Yamada with the staff of her earlier work. Screenwriter Reiko Yoshida has collaborated with her since the 2009 television anime K-On! and on A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016) and the television series The Heike Story (2022); composer Kensuke Ushio has scored Yamada's films since A Silent Voice.⁹^•⁵ Takashi Kojima handled character design and served as animation director, with original character design by DaisukeRichard and color design by Yuko Kobari.¹^•⁴

The project began from a memo in which Yamada described the kind of story and characters she wanted; from discussions of the setting, the two settled on a three-piece band and a mission school as the story's spine, then built the characters and plot together.⁹ The three lead voice actors, Sayu Suzukawa, Akari Takaishi, and Taisei Kido, were chosen from an audition pool of about 1,600 people, joined by a supporting cast including Yui Aragaki, Aki Toyosaki, Asumi Kana, comedian Yasuko, and Keiko Toda.⁵^•⁹

The film was first announced for autumn 2023 and was postponed to 2024, as announced through TOHO's official account.¹⁰ In Yamada's project notes printed on the official site, she describes wanting to portray adolescents whose overflowing feelings can be sublimated in a positive direction, and the strength to be able to say "I like what I like."⁵

Synesthesia and color design

The premise draws on synesthesia, the phenomenon in which stimulation of one sense, such as hearing, is accompanied by an experience normally belonging to another, such as seeing color; a Media Arts Current Contents essay on the film uses it to frame how the movie turns Totsuko's perception into animation expression.¹¹ Composer Ushio has described being able to perceive music's noise as color and using those colors in his work on the film.⁹

The color design carries the conceit beyond Totsuko's visions: cinematographer Yoshiyuki Tomita has said that the director's intended color palette and imagery were largely fixed at the color-design and art stages, and that Yamada asked that shadows not dull the colors or make scenes feel dark when darkened.¹² The Associated Press review describes the result as painted with a light, watercolor-like brush and softly impressionistic.⁷

Release and reception

After its Japanese opening on August 30, 2024, the film screened in the Feature Films Competition at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and at the 2024 Locarno International Film Festival, in addition to winning the Shanghai festival's Golden Goblet Award for Best Animation Film.¹ GKIDS released it in limited North American theaters on January 24, 2025, rated PG for mild thematic elements.⁶^•⁷ It later streamed on HBO Max, with digital purchase from April 1, 2025 and Blu-ray from May 27, 2025 in North America.¹³

Box office totaled $2,485,281 worldwide, with Japan contributing $1,452,726, South Korea $293,079, and the North American domestic run $557,116.⁸ Critical response was broadly favorable: Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 92% Tomatometer from 50 reviews and a 91% audience score, and Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 76 based on 17 critic reviews.⁶^•¹⁴ Reviewers praised the fusion of image, music, and emotional expression; the Irish Times noted that the script "foregrounds sincere friendship and the joyful mechanics of songwriting" rather than large dramas, while the New York Times found the deeper motivations and stakes too lightly sketched to create urgency.¹⁴ The Associated Press called it a "gentle stunner" in which, at the climactic concert, Yamada lets the dialogue subside and the music do the talking.⁷

Reported running times differ by source: the Japanese Film Database lists 100 minutes, Annecy lists 1 hour 41 minutes, and Rotten Tomatoes lists 1 hour 50 minutes for the North American release.¹^•³^•⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 2014 to 2026

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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