It has been an eventful decade for Naoko Yamada, the talented animation director behind the TV series K-On! and the high-school drama Liz and the Blue Bird.
In 2013, her second feature, A Silent Voice, became one of the biggest-grossing animes of all time, outpacing several Studio Ghibli and Evangelion titles with a haul of more than $30 million worldwide. The Japanese Movie Critics Awards named Yamada’s acute tale of a bullied deaf girl the best animated feature of that year.
In 2019 she survived the horrific arson attack on the Kyoto Animation studios that killed 36 of her colleagues and injured many more.
Perhaps that accounts for the earnest religiosity at the heart of The Colors Within, which opens with a prayer for serenity before a statue of the Virgin Mary.
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The Colors Within review: The story of a socially awkward Catholic student and her friends
Totsuko, a Catholic student, is socially awkward and solitary. She also has synaesthesia, although she keeps her ability to see people as colours secret. She is especially dismayed when a special-hued classmate called Kimi drops out of convent school. A white cat and a misunderstanding bring Totsuko, Kimi and Rui – a boy who plays the theremin – together to form a band and start writing heartfelt tunes.
Yamada, who “method” writes every character, captures all of the yearning and discomfort of adolescence. Each of the teenagers struggles with familial expectations: Kimi has failed to tell her doting grandmother that she has dropped out of school; Rui, who is expected to take over an island medical practice, conceals his musical interests from his mother.
The young and kindly Sr Hiyoshiko – a sweet and accidental corrective to Emily Watson’s fearsome mother superior in Small Things Like These – provides a sounding board for Totsuko as she slowly blossoms among her new chums and interests.
The Colors Within is Yamada’s first feature film for Science Saru, a production partner in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and a contributor to Star Wars: Visions. The partnership yields lovely swirling pastels and low-angle shots, reflecting the heroine’s ability and her floor-staring shyness.
There are no big dramas, save for a call up to the office for skipping a school trip. Reiko Yoshida’s script instead foregrounds sincere friendship and the joyful mechanics of songwriting.
In cinemas from Friday
