Light, sound, music, and adolescence collide in this intriguing coming of age anime.
How to watch The Colors Within in Australia
The Colors Within is screening in Australian cinemas from March 6, 2025.
What is The Colors Within about?
Shy high school student Totsuko can see people as colours (that’s a form of synesthesia, weird science fans) but she can’t play piano, which is a shame because the latter is what she uses as an in with her potential BFF/crush Kimi. Teaming up with fellow outsider Rui, they form a band, practicing in secret in a derelict church. Music bring our three social rejects together, as it is wont to do, but this is a somewhat bittersweet coming of age tale, so expect more than a few emotional twists and turns on the journey.
This one comes to us from director Naoko Yamada and screenwriter Reiko Yoshida via anime studio Science Saru, and the whole thing is a sensory triumph, beautifully weaving together sound and vision in a way rarely seen on screen.
The cast of The Colors Within
Depending on whether you get the Japanese original or the English dub, we have Sayu Suzukawa/Libby Rue as Totsuko Higurashi; Akari Takaishi/Kylie McNeill as Kimi Sakunaga; Taisei Kido/Eddy Lee as Rui Kagehira; Yui Aragaki/Eileen Stevens as Sister Hiyoshiko; Yasuko Hinano/Kuzukawa as Saku Momochi; Aoi Yūki/Eden Harker as Shiho Nanakubo; Minako Kotobuki/Maxine Wanderer as Sumika Yatsushika; and Keiko Toda/Lani Minella as Shino Sakunaga.
The Colors Within trailer
Why we’re excited about The Colors Within
Well, it can’t all be giant robots, pocket monsters, and tentacles, can it? The world of anime is a broad church, and some of the more interesting work in the field is being done in genres that western audiences don’t normally associate with animation (we know you’re ahead of the curve, weeaboos—you’re very special). Like the 2021 Beauty and the Beast riff, Belle, this one looks like it’s going to nail both the emotional impact and the visual spectacle, so hunt down a screening if you can.
