Director Yamada Naoko's newest movie The Colors Within (きみの色 Kimi no Iro) opened in Japan and I caught it on its opening day. At the same time, her short film Garden of Remembrance also started becoming available on streaming services. After watching both of them, I have some thought about what these two works are about.
First, Garden of Remembrance was unveiled in 2022 as an anime short film. Lasting 17 minutes, it has no real dialogue, with besides the music, has two songs playing in the background. It portrays a girl who has taken to alcohol after losing her boyfriend, as she tries to cope with the loss. Anemone flowers feature in this short film, and in general, anemone flowers in Japan symbolise "I love you", "transient love", and "forsaken". Specifically, the red anemone symbolises "I love you", the purple anemone "I am waiting with firm belief in you" and "strong promise". Meanwhile, the white and pink anemone flowers symbolise "hope" and "expectations".
When you see it this way, the boyfriend (who is represented by the blue anemone) is very special to the girl and they probably had a strong promise between them. This is further emphasised by the girl (the main character, or MC) being represented by the red anemone, showing that she continues to love him. Meanwhile, the other girl with the spectacles (the childhood friend, according to the synopsis) is represented by the purple anemone, and could be waiting for the MC to get back on her feet, firmly believing that she can overcome this loss. The white anemone sprinkled here and there hints at there being hope.
Watching this short film together with the feature-length movie made me see both works in a different light. To me, they both seem like director Yamada Naoko's tribute to the victims of the Kyoani fire. I see this message strongly in Garden of Remembrance, which is really about mourning the death of a loved one, trying to get through each day, and finding ways to connect with the memories of that loved one. And with hope that, someday, things will work out. Simply put, the MC represents director Yamada Naoko, the boyfriend represents the people she lost to the fire, and the childhood friend represents the people around the director offering her support in these sad times while believing in her.
Once I started seeing Garden of Remembrance in this light, I came to see the characters in The Colors Within in a similar fashion too. But it is not as straightforward, with the main characters all representing director Yamada Naoko, but a different aspect (role) each.
Kimi and her brother left their parents to go and stay with her grandmother. I see this as Yamada Naoko leaving Kyoani and being taken in by Science SARU. Kimi's brother could be a reference to Fujita Haruka (who directed Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll), who has also left Kyoani and has since then worked on a few projects with Science SARU and CloverWorks, including as a unit director on The Color Within. Kimi feels bad about keeping a secret (that she quit school) from her grandmother, and she also never really told anyone about why she and her brother moved out of their parents' place to go stay with their grandmother. This could be saying that Yamada feels bad about not letting Science SARU (or rather, the people who has since taken her in) know about the real reason why she left Kyoani.
Meanwhile, Rui is implied to have lost his older brother, and all hope are pinned on him now. I think this is like Yamada losing the people she looked up to at Kyoani, like director Takemoto Yasuhiro, Kigami Yoshiji, Ikeda Shoko, Ishida Naomi, Takahashi Hiroyuki, and Watanabe Mikiko. All hopes are pinned on her now to carry on their legacy. Even though she may want to pursue something else. From her recent works, we can see that Yamada wants to pursue a more artistic side to anime works, but Kyoani (as a for-profit company) is more focused on the commercial aspects. Just like Rui having a passion for music (an art) even though he knows he has the responsibility to take over the family business of being a doctor.
Like Kimi, Totsuko has moved out of her parents' place and is now staying in a dormitory. To be with Kimi and Rui, she formed a band and even told lies so that she can continue playing together as a band. She is the one that is not afraid to pursue her passion, as symbolised by her color red. She seeks to be with Kimi and Rui, and I see this as Yamada seeking to reconcile the three aspects of herself, and even telling some white lies in the process of trying to do so. Maybe she told a few white lies to Science SARU and others about why she left Kyoani?
Which could be why Christianity featured strongly in this movie. The act of confession to ask for forgiveness was touched on several times in the movie, and Totsuko was seen praying, saying the first line of the Serenity Prayer. "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change." Yamada cannot change the fact that many of her fellow coworkers at Kyoani had died. This was like a prayer for strength to accept that fact. But Totsuko was reminded by Sister Hiyoko that the prayer has two more parts to it.
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."
This brings me to Sister Hiyoko. She guides Totsuko along in the story, and was revealed to have formed a band herself in her younger days. It is almost like she represents Utsumi Hiroko, who used to work as a director at Kyoani and later moved on to become an independent director working for several studios. More generally, I think Sister Hiyoko represents the other senior figures in the anime industry outside Kyoani, such as Yoshida Reiko, who helped guide Yamada along as she embarked on her own path to pursue her passion of creating more artistic anime instead of commercial ones.
Well, these are my thoughts on who the characters in these two anime works represent. Please share your thoughts in the comments too! I may further update this post when I catch the movie again.
Official website for Garden of Remembrance
Official website for The Colors Within (きみの色 Kimi no Iro) (in Japanese)
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