News
GKIDS to Screen The Colors Within, Ghost Cat Anzu Films in Theaters This Winter
posted on by Anita Tai
ANN's coverage of Anime NYC 2024 sponsored by Yen Press and Ize Press!
The Colors Within will open in Japan on August 30. GKIDS has acquired the film for North America, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand. Anime Ltd. has acquired the film for Europe. PLAION PICTURES will handle Italian- and German-speaking territories, and CHARADES will manage sales for the rest of Europe, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand.
The story centers on Totsuko, a high school girl who can see the "colors" of the emotions in people's hearts. She attends a mission school in Nagasaki. In order to keep her friends and family from feeling dark feelings, she worries, reads situations, and even lies to smooth things over. At an antique bookshop in the corner of town, she meets a beautiful woman with an incredibly beautiful color and a music-loving boy trying to put together a band. The story follows these three sensitive people who gather together to play in a band.
Yamada directed the film at Science SARU. Story Inc. is credited as planner and producer. Reiko Yoshida (K-ON!, Girls und Panzer, Ride Your Wave, Violet Evergarden) penned the script, and kensuke ushio (Space Dandy, A Silent Voice, Liz and the Blue Bird, Chainsaw Man) composed the music. DaisukeRichard drafted the original characters, and Takashi Kojima designed the characters and also directed the animation.
The film held its premiere at this year's Annecy International Film Festival earlier this year in June. The film also won the Best Animation Film award at the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival in June.
The film stars:
Mirai Moriyama as titular Anzu
Noa Gotō voices Karin
Munetaka Aoki as Tetsuya, Karin's father
Miwako Ichikawa as Yuzuki, Karin's mother
Moonriders' member Keiichi Suzuki as Oshō, Anzu's foster parent
Shingo Mizusawa as the god of poverty
Skirt (Sawabe Wataru) as Tanuki, another supernatural creature
Ikue Ōtani as Pi-Pi-chan, the forest fairies
Mutsuo Yoshioka and Shōhei Uno also contribute voices.
Cast members also acted as the characters in footage that served as a reference for animating the characters, with their spoken lines during the filming of their movements also being used in the film.
Yōko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita are directing the film, and Shinji Imaoka is writing its script. The film is 90 minutes long and utilizes mixed animation techniques combining 2D digital animation with rotoscopy. Yōko Kuno is the character designer, Julien De Man is the art director and color key artist, Namiko Ishidate and Yukie Nakauchi are the animation directors, and Keiichi Suzuki is composing the music.
Chiaki Satō (A.S.A.B) performs the theme song "Matatabi."
The film screened as a work-in-progress at the Annecy Animation Festival in June 2023. The Paris-based CHARADES company will handle international sales. GKIDS has acquired the North American rights to the film.
Miyu Productions describes the film's story:
Karin, 11 years old, is abandoned by her father at her grandfather's house, the monk of a small town in the Japanese countryside. Her grandfather asks Anzu, his jovial and helpful although rather capricious ghost cat, to look after her. The meeting of their strong characters causes sparks, at least at the beginning…
Kodansha published the one-volume Bakeneko Anzu-chan manga in 2007.
Source: GKIDS panel at AnimeNYC (Anita Tai)
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history