Hello everyone and welcome to another installment of Definitive Anime Review. In recent days a visitor from another world ended up visiting the Magical Stage HQ and she’s already acting like she owns the place, telling people to “do journalism”, whatever that means. She keeps asking for ice cream to be delivered to the office which is costing me a fortune! Hopefully one day she becomes obsessed with food that doesn’t cost the Earth.
In any case, she became our mascot and she quickly discovered that I had bought a ticket to go to the UK Premiere of The Colours Within so she insisted that I write a review of it for everyone. I figured that since people would love a review of the film on this website, I’ll give in to her demands.
Don’t say I don’t think about you lot!
The Legend of Ymdnok
You’re probably thinking, “Who the hell is Ymdnok? This film is directed by Naoko Yamada!” and yes, you’d be right but you also fail to understand that sakuga people like to do funny things and despite Ymdnok being the same amount of letters as Yamada, they like referring to her in that way.
Naoko Yamada, no matter what way you swing it, is an incredibly talented anime director. After making an explosive start in the industry doing…checks notes…uncredited inbetweens on Inuyasha, Yamada quickly rose up the ranks becoming a Series Director on K-ON! in 2009 and since then, Yamada has been known for directing very good anime. She wasn’t just content on being Series Director on one internationally renowned anime, she just kept doing it.
Now Yamada is no stranger to directing films either, having directed several of them already and yep, all of those are amazing too. Is there anything that won’t be turned into gold by Naoko Yamada? Quite a lot actually, because she doesn’t have the ability to turn things into gold but her films are still pretty golden regardless.
Exclusive Spoiler-free Review of The Colours Within!
The film is very good.
Though to expand on that point just a little bit, I think it’s a bit difficult to rank Yamada films. I honestly couldn’t tell you which one I would say is “the best one” as I like them all for completely different reasons. I went into this film without having seen any trailers, read any articles or any blurbs about the film. All I went into the film with, was the expectation of a good movie directed by Naoko Yamada and I certainly got that!
Everything below this point is spoilers for The Colours Within!
Right, now that I got the Spoiler Free review out of the way, let’s talk about the film in a bit more detail. Or at least everything I can remember about the film from last Saturday! I’m sure I’ll do alright though!
First of all, let’s talk about how incredibly pretty this film is. I don’t think it’s out of the question that Yamada has probably seen some lovely gardens in her time, just take any storybook scene from Liz and the Blue Bird and you’ll absolutely get the idea that Yamada likes her flowers. Very colourful ones in fact. It’d be a bit silly if they were all greyscale in a film like this. I would have certainly gone to the box office to demand my money back for false advertising.
Also we have to talk about the comedy in this film, because this might actually be Naoko Yamada’s funniest film to date. She’s not really a stranger to humour but her recent films may have led to redundancies in the silly gag department, thankfully Yamada has been hiring and the gags are on full display in this film! The Colours Within has a good mix of both slapstick and what I call “the silly voice” humour. There are numerous scenes of characters flopping around, looking sick and best of all, being brutally attacked in games of violent sports.
The thing is, I don’t really think Liz would have been improved if Nozomi or Mizore were slide tackled in a game of football or if Tamako was rugby tackled in Tamako Love Story. Humour fits this film well. Though now, I have to address the elephant in the room and no, it’s not because Mii-chan’s pet elephant is pooping plastic beads again, it’s because you will want me to compare The Colours Within to Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.
Now I don’t expect Whoopi Goldberg to appear in any role in the dub for The Colours Within, though who knows maybe she’s a huge Tamako Market fan! There are in fact some similarities between the two films which I really need to let people know about. First of all, both of them take place in Christian schools where nuns are teaching staff, imparting their knowledge of the Bible as well as everything else that their students need to make it in life.
The other similarity is that both films revolve around music in some way, though it’s how they approach the music. While Sister Mary Clarence finds out that her rough round the edges class are actually talented singers and attempts to nurture their talents in a direct way, Sister Hiyoshiko guides Totsuko in a more passive way, instead using the teachings of the Bible in an attempt to guide Totsuko in her journey. The other difference is that while I can listen to the soundtrack of Sister Act 2 at my leisure, I cannot at the time of writing listen to the bangers that are included in The Colours Within, which is a great shame to be honest. I really liked the planet song.
Unfortunately, Sister Act 2 was a bit of a flop for some people, while The Colours Within is anything but. We now must talk about something else that I think some of our readers may be very impressed about, the instruments! I’m sure our readers are the sorts of people that love Sound! Euphonium for its incredible attention to detail in its musical instruments as well as the public transport that Kumiko and friends use on the daily. Though there was one instrument that stuck out to me, the Theremin.
Now I don’t claim to be a musical expert, but when I saw the Theremin on the screen something jumped out at me. No, I’m not talking about the guy in front of me who tipped all their popcorn on the floor. I’m talking about the fact that I’ve never seen a Theremin in my life and that it was manufactured at the legendary music instrument production company, headed by Dr. Robert Moog. Moog.
Rui was specifically using the Moog Etherwave Theremin, released in 1996, the Etherwave was seen as a celebration of the instrument that first got Dr. Moog on the map before he created his legendary Moog Synthesizer. You control a Theremin without touching anything and it’s pretty surreal to watch as you wonder how Rui (or anyone else playing one of these) create the tunes from it. You need to manipulate your hands between the two antennae on either side of the Theremin and if you do it just right, you can make it sing!
Moog products were famously used by the famous composer, Wendy Carlos, who in her early career famously used the Moog Synthesizer in her Grammy award winning album. Switched-On Bach. With her detailed input and advice through her extensive playing of his instruments, Wendy was able to help Dr. Moog further improve his synthesizer systems. Moog systems were also famously used by Snow Miser, but I don’t think the readers of this website are ready for that story just yet.
The Colours Within is an excellent film and one that I think everyone needs the opportunity to watch in the cinema while they still can! Though there’s just one thing that’s left unanswered, what’s up with the title of this article?
Naoko Yamada and the Marmite
Now as some of you may know, Naoko Yamada is a big fan of Scotland. In fact, I actually sat at an Inteview/Q&A session of her, at Scotland Loves Anime when I got lucky and watched Garden of Remembrance before any of you lot (or most of you lot, I can’t remember how many of you went to that)! Before you ask, no, I didn’t ask her any questions. Now that I think about it, I really should have asked if she was into gardening herself. It would have helped quite a bit with this article. Go figure.
In that interview, Yamada revealed that she got a taste of something, that as an Italian, I hold very closely to my heart. She likes Nutella. As she mentioned that, I could feel a huge swell of national pride, that one of my favourite anime directors, is a big fan of chocolate hazelnut spread.
So the story continued that one day, Yamada was getting herself ready for breakfast and got some toast and a jar of Nutella but when she bit into what she thought was Nutella on toast, she bit into something disgusting. She had accidentally spread Marmite on her toast. A disaster. Unfortunately for her, some members of the audience actually liked Marmite, which prompted her to question how that was even possible.
Yamada is a big fan of Scotland, so I do imagine she has at least tried Irn Bru, but unfortunately due to scheduling and logistical issues, I can’t make the trip to Glasgow to ask her the question. Bit sad about that. I’m sure someone is brave enough reading this to not only ask the question, but to endure the disdain that Jonathan Clements will have of you for asking it to her.
Do you do scores for your reviews?
No.
Alright, got any final thoughts?
The Colours Within is a great film and one I will be happy to watch again eventually. I also had a nice day out! Watching anime films in the cinema is pretty neat, you know. Anyway, I’ve got to get back to watching anime at home because I don’t own a cinema myself.
I thought the film was very good as well. I was surprised too that the theremin was included, and I don’t think I’d heard of it before. It was an interesting choice. I really appreciate the history you included about it and the Moog synthesiser. Sister Act 2 also sounds relevant to the film. There’s so much stuff about media that I still don’t know.
As for nutella and marmite, I don’t even remember if I’ve had marmite before. I’ve had vegemite years ago though. Nutella is probably better. Irn Bru is also a decent drink.