User reviews

Considering their target audience, youth issues tend to be a major theme in manga and anime. The animated format moreover tends to give creators rather more freedom to experiment with fantasy elements that can explore deeper underlying issues. Directed by veteran animator, Keiichi Hara, COLORFUL for example manages to touch on an important subject with a message that is perhaps rather more difficult to reach a younger audience through conventional live-action drama. That subject is teenage suicide.

Passing through the transit between life and rebirth, a dead soul in danger of obliteration is given another chance to reform and regain the right to rebirth. Brought back into the realm of the living, the soul is reborn into the person of Makoto Kobayashi, an artistically-inclined 14 year-old boy who has just attempted suicide. With the assistance of Purapura, a guide in the afterlife, the 'new' Makoto considers why someone from a seemingly happy family attempted to kill himself and tries to pull the young boy's life back together. COLORFUL is literally a 'finding yourself' film that considers the challenges facing young people who are finding it difficult to cope socially, to fit into the world and deal with the problems of friends, family and relationships.

The fantasy element of the film isn't the most convincing, but it does have a powerful pay-off at the end and it undeniably finds a unique way to tap into the mind of a young alienated individual and how he might respond to the world, particularly one who has been driven to attempt suicide. Keiichi Hara uses an animation style that is reminiscent of GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES in how it touches obliquely but incisively on the challenges facing youth. One seemingly irrelevant sequence based around the disused 'Tamada' trolley car, for example, is just beautiful and transformative. Using such techniques COLORFUL manages to cover a wide range of difficult issues and personality types in a realistic fashion and offer some measure of sympathy and understanding for its characters. It manages to do so moreover without ever becoming sentimental or talking down to its audience.

This movie does have it's issues. For example the story is rather predictable and the protagonist at times it a bit too unlikable, however this doesn't stop this movie from being entertaining.

The overall concept is a a really great idea, but is not executed very well story and dialogue wise, as alot of characters feel archetypal and unlikeable and the story is very predictable. I will say some of the animation and scenes in this movie are great, i especially like the beginning scene and it's the most memorable thing about this movie. I just wish it was less surface level and explored it's themes and characters more.

Based on the novel, by Eto Mori, Colorful is made by the veteran animation director Keiichi Hara. The movie was a project suggested by Sunrise's president Kenji Uchida to director Hara, and took five years in the making, beginning from their first meeting.

The movie is absolutely stunning in its production. I give lot of credit to director Hara for all the attention to details he's put in. His experience shows, and his clout in collecting the best talent is also evident in the people he's gathered to make this movie.

You really need to see this movie to appreciate the story, and the artistry. Never since the days of original Disney's animation, have an old school animation movie made with such high level of artistry.

This is a modern day classic, and worth every minute of your time to see it.

Not every anime movie has to be good. This one has very good backgrounds but they look like photographs. Not even that is good.

• the plot does not advance at all.
• feelings are all ankward. It doesn't make sense why he behaves the way he does. How he talks to people and why he hurts others.
• animation in sometimes very very bad.
• the motivation of the main character is never explained. His coldness is also never explained.
• the reason why he gets friendly put of the blue with his only friend, when others treat him the same way, and why he laughs at him anyway, is never explained.
• the reason why he is cruel with the rest does not make sense.
• fake feelings, cheesy. Anime is in general that way but this one goes too far.

We have to be critical sometimes. Not all full length anime movies have to be good, even when they try/fake to be deep, they are terribly shallow and weird. Maybe people can think it's because Japanese people lacks sensibility, but as you can see on Ghibli's films, it is nothing like that. This one is a terribly boring, ilogical film, that fakes to be a great movie. I give it a three start because the artists at least did a good job.

This movie is about a soul that gets a second chance to reform from its deadly sin and earn a rebirth by inhabiting the body of a teenager, Makoto, who committed suicide. The movie covers the pursuit of the soul to find out why Makoto attempted suicide and his own deadly sin to reform.

The story has a good plotline to make an intriguing, inspiring movie with high emotions. The story arc is written well as the soul tries to learn about Makoto, his family, his usual routine, and how his relationship with everyone. There were some good add-ons like, the interaction of the soul and the guiding angel, Purapura with their difference, others reacting to the change of Makoto's character, his realisation of life's importance and to cherish it even how bad things turn out, the soul makes the first friend for Makoto, the soul finding his deadly sin and the reason of Makoto's suicide.

The climax was satisfactory and inspiring, with a major reveal of the guiding angel's final words to the soul. The drawbacks of the film are the slow pacing and narration dull the fulfilling experience. The scenes of the soul neglecting the few characters instead of dealing with them were monotonous.

The Voice acting was good as they emote their emotions and make them connect with me. The animation and frames were good. The music was minimal, the emotions would have heightened if it had been used well.

In conclusion, I like this movie as it describes the importance of life and inspires me to cherish life without making any wrong decisions. I recommend everyone to watch this movie once.

Great movie regarding mental health💫 and commitng suicide. Simply people who die by suicide don't want to end life they just want to end pain but it only passes the pain to people who cares for you. People are no just monochromatic, they all have so many colors...it's fine to have many beautiful colors, ugly colors... And it's good to be colorful!!

All I learnt is that one good thing can change everything for someone, just have to good side of life.... 🌼

Some movies are never worth to write a review, I learned that today!

Second Chance.........

We all wish that, to have a second chance to renew our life again.But do we really get that?Probably never.All we get to run in a new way, not looking behind.Road is pretty big right?

This movie made me regret on what I did to my life, my failure, my hope, everything.

Again it made me feel that nothing is never over.We have to live on.Doesn't matter roads we have passed were broken.We still need to keep walking!

"No need to kill yourself when you are already dead" :-)

Hence, I continued to live like a Zombie from now on........

Not only children but also adults make themselves hard to live. Everyone is desperate even to live.

A message from this said "Are you getting hung up on the narrow world?" Although this movie showed that simply, it was pretty good. I remember when I finished watching it, I felt I was happy to be alive!

Live colorful life.. Man has many color beautiful and ugly also.. accept it

First, the story is kind of unique. Maybe too melancholly. But, the story has wonderfully been drawn into scenes and animations. Well, the animation itself is not perfect, but still can represented what the story want to tell.

Second, the perspective of story is also a great idea. It is a thoughtful imagination that been translated into scene by scene. Somehow, I just really appreciated the story been telling from this perspective.

This movie opened up a lot in me (for real), it was just that good. Words can't express how good of a story this was.

The story revolves around a spirit who got an "internship" to get into the body of Makoto Kobayashi who just committed suicide. The spirit must make use of this internship for his good and find out the reason why Makoto committed suicide. This game of internship gives us a colorful story of that family and how it revolves around the emotion of MC.

The movie is a glorious one, the story is beautiful. At first, you may seem to hate MC(the reason why many drop this) but he gradually grows in us in a very good way, the story shows us the value of life, friendship, and forgiveness. You may feel uneasy in the beginning but it ends in a much satisfying way.:)

This movie really blew me away. It isn't the typical fantasy or violent anime most of us watch but, it is really powerful. To start i'm going to say that not everybody will rate it a 10/10. The meaning of it will be interpreted in different ways, and depending on how much you can relate to it will impact your rating.

The animation is beautiful, with many colors and cool locations to look at. The story can be very dark and unusual but also fun and playful at times. I recommend everyone watch this movie at least once, to get the full meaning out of it. To me I really felt it was trying to teach me to be thankful for what I have, and to value my life even at the worst times.

I honestly did not expect to dislike the movie, particularly this much. The plot is a sequence of cheap ideas badly sticked together, and the main glue that should come from the characters is appallingly weak. The characters feel terribly flat, and worst of all they behave unrealistically and inconsistently with their imaginary background. Dialogues and general script feels cheap, childish at times, often cringy. This made me feel interest in the plot and in watching the movie after less than 30 minutes.

I usually like good Japanese anime films and this is one of them. Detailed drawing, well defined characters', original story. Young troubles are described with deep attention and all the plot looks believable and amazing. Obviously it is NOT recommended to people that like action!

This Was A Great Movie Of Course.. The Storyline Was Made Perfectly And It Was So Enjoyable... I Really Suggest You To Watch This Movie.