Kimi no Iro

This movie is very pretty, thats originally why I decided to check it out even if the synopsis didn't convince me. Safe to say I was not dissapointed, this movie is everything I didn't know I needed. It's slow, it's fun, it's very cute at times. It isn't really sad but it made me cry. It made me yearn the kind of relationship we can only have as childs, one without judgement and stress, a friendship that warms your heart. Just with the plot this movie could really move my heart, the thing is, the plot is not alone, the OST that Kensuke Ushio made ... to accompany every important moment is incredibly well made, and fits it perfectly. For me that would be enough, but once again the plot and the music are not alone, the visuals for this movie are incredible, even if I think the weird kind of synesthesia Totsuko has is an excuse to add stunning colours, I'm really glad they made that decision.

Overall, this movie is perfect for anyone that would like to experience a warm feeling in their heart, while they watch the marvelous animation Science SARU made.

I was enamoured by the trailer for this film and waited for it to be screened internationally for many months and I really did enjoy watching it but it left much to be desired.
I didn't realize the film would focus so much on Christianity. Although I'm not a Christian (I practice a Dharmic faith), this wouldn't bother me as long as the story is good and the characters are well developed but there was a lot set up in the first half of the film that was never fully resolved in my opinion. [Spoilers] Each of the main three have something that they hide from ... the world and end up lying.
For Totsuko, it's her synesthesia-like ability and also being in a band with Kimi and Rui- her desire to be in a band with them causes her to lie several times throughout the film for which she seems to be constantly repenting.
For Kimi, she dropped out of school- the actual reason for which is never mentioned- and she's unable to tell her grandmother (who previously attended that very school herself) and ends up lying about it. She also feels guilt because she believes she's making Totsuko lie as well.
Rui hides from his mother that he's passionate about music and that the responsibility of continuing the legacy of the clinic is burdensome to him.
I really enjoyed watching the three of them grow closer and especially liked seeing Totsuko and Kimi's relationship but the way the film attempted to resolve each of their problems left me pretty unsatisfied.
Kimi and Rui coming clean about their lies was very anticlimactic- almost as if their worries did not actually hold any significance. Especially with Rui since he ends up agreeing to continue the clinic and going off to college despite the reluctance he shows towards this at the beginning of the film.
Kimi was also apprehensive about showing herself to her ex-classmates and for a good reason because they do spread rumors about her in the beginning but when she later performs at the school festival, it's like none of that ever happened. It's the same with Totsuko- she's apprehensive about being friends with a boy in the begging because of the strict nature of her school but by the end of the movie, nobody in the school cares that she's performing with a male bandmate and a drop out.
Overall, it feels like the movie was set up to want to say something about the environment that each of them exist in but ignored that entirely by the end to just have them perform wholesome songs on stage.
Either way, I still did really enjoy the film for the beautiful animation, colors, character design, and catchy songs. I absolutely loved seeing Totsuko and Kimi's relationship unfold and especially loved watching Totsuko sneak Kimi into the dorms.
I don't know if I would wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone but I enjoyed watching it nonetheless.

PREMISE

Yet another band anime this time in the form of an original movie directed by Yamada Naoko. The twist is that the MC has synesthesia and goes to a Catholic school neither of which are portrayed which much weight.

VISUAL

This part is at least okay. The synthesia bits have some nice abstracted water color animation and the production quality of the realist scenes is high – they even manage to have fairly long and detailed dancing and a band performances with no CG but you can’t help but think you are looking at the least imaginative way to portray something so fundamentally based in ... imagination. Character figures can be expressive but rarely have anything interesting going on so it doesn’t matter. They don’t stand out or look attractive and you have the common Yamada problem of all the characters looking the same age. The portrayal of the background environments is technically fine but higly forgettable.

STORY

This part on the other hand is just bad. The synthesia premise is basically forgotten after it gives the MC an excuse to care about someone she doesn’t know and has no real reason to be interested in (apart from a potential, and if present completely gutless yuri interpretation) and then gets replaced by a series of school life scenes that gesture towards the idea of a coming of age story about the MC negotiating between her own desires and the school rules and how much she really believes in them and/or Catholicism. We are led to believe this is a lot more than typical for a Japanese girl but then get shown that she (or less forgivably, the movie’s staff) doesn’t know much about Catholicism with the inclusion of distinctly Protestant prayers, a totally cynical interpretation of confession, NICE nuns (suspension of disbelief can’t excuse something that unrealistic!) and then this all also gets dropped in favor of a profoundly boring band narrative. Like much of the animation, everything about the story ends up feeling like mere decoration on top of something that just isn’t worth caring about.