The highly-anticipated feature film from acclaimed Japanese director and animator Naoko Yamada is here. In theatres now, The Colors Within is an animated coming-of-age drama that poignantly explores the powers of music and friendship.

Totsuko is a young girl with the ability to see the ‘colors’ of the people she meets. Kimi, one of her classmates, gives off the most beautiful color of all. Intrigued by the color she sees, Totsuko forms a band with Kimi and Rui, another music enthusiast. As they practice for their first live performance, the trio grows closer. But all three are keeping secrets…until they let their true colors show.

“I wanted to challenge myself to make a film that expresses emotions in a nonverbal way,” says Yamada. “I wanted to use color, music, animation/movement, and time for the viewers to be able to experience this movie.”

Yamada is one of the most revered female directors in the Japanese animation industry. She is well known for her moving feature film A Silent Voice, which earned international acclaim, grossing 2.3 billion yen. She made her debut as a director with the hit TV series K-On!, about four Japanese girls trying to save their high school’s music club.

 Like K-On!, and Yamada’s 2018 feature film Liz and the Blue Bird, music is a central theme in The Colors Within, allowing the characters to connect with each other and process the struggles in their own lives. 

“Music really has no language. It’s a universal language, and I think it’s able to overcome a lot of things like nationality, age, and gender,” says Yamada. “Music is something to have fun with, but also it’s a tool that you can use to relate to one another. So I wanted to use that in the film.”

Known for pulling on the heartstrings of viewers with subtle yet impactful details, Yamada beautifully depicts the budding friendship that forms between Totsuko, Kimi, and Rui. “I really wanted to focus on the positive relationships that these kids could have,” she says. “Their hearts accepting and recognizing each other was really important to me.”

The Colors Within was released in Japan in August 2024, and arrives in North American theatres on January 24. The film currently has a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Yamada told us about the reaction to the film she’s received so far from audiences.

“The reaction that I got from a lot of people was: it’s verbally hard to explain what I watched. But I actually like that reaction,” she says. “I don’t think there’s a need to put a name on everything that you experience. Feeling an emotion and thinking about what that emotion is is part of what watching a movie is about.”

‘The Colors Within’ is out now in theatres across Canada.