In commemoration of the release of "The Color of Kimi no Iro", Naoko Yamada, director, and Minako Kotobuki (Sumika Yatsuka) have a special talk.

The animation production of this film is by Science SARU, the same company that produced the TV animation "The Tale of the Heike," and many of the main staff members continue to participate from "The Tale of the Heike," including Reiko Yoshida for the script and Kensuke Ushio for the music.

Totsuko Higure, a high school student who can see people in "color," meets Kimi Sakunaga, a girl who goes to the same school and radiates beautiful colors, and Rui Kagehira, a boy who loves music, and the three form a band. Kimi no Iro" is a refreshing animated film that moves the viewer with the sight of three people who, despite their troubles, truly enjoy music and connect with each other.

In this interview, director Naoko Yamada talks with Minako Kotobuki, who plays Sumika Yatsuka, Totsuko's roommate and a gal who loves her friends. They talked about the movie "The Color of Kimi no Iro" (The Color of My Heart).

How did you feel about the international response to "The Color of My Heart," which was highly acclaimed at the Shanghai International Film Festival, winning the "Golden Baron" award for best animation?

Yamada: I felt that people were more eager to enjoy the film than I had imagined. And they laughed a lot. I thought, "What?　I was so happy that I thought I had made a comedy (laughs). (Laughs.) They laughed so much, and during the serious scenes, they looked at me and enjoyed watching the film.

─ I have an image that their reactions are very honest. Were they laughing in a way that the director did not anticipate when he was making the film?

Yamada: Yes. I was happy to discover that this part was funny. I was happy to discover that.

Kotobuki: How did you feel when you saw the completed film?

Kotobuki: I watched the completed film for today's Japan premiere, and it made me want to watch it again in the theater! It was a film that made me want to see it again in the theater. I was able to hear the scenes involving Sumika and Totsuko, which I play, during the postrecording, but I was completely unfamiliar with the other actors' performances, so I was able to get into the film very easily. I felt as if I was one of the characters in "The Color of My Heart" and I was able to watch it from beginning to end, receiving warmth and tenderness afterwards.

After watching the movie, I felt like, "I feel refreshed! or "I cried so hard! I wondered what this euphoric feeling was. I felt that there was something that I could only get from Mr. Yamada's work, and I felt that I was taken to a new place.

Yamada Welcome! (laughs) I am glad.

─ ─ All of Director Yamada's works are really great, but this is your first original film that is not a sequel to an animated TV series.

Kotobuki: They are all so good that I really can't choose which one is my favorite!　Among them, this original film has so many questions that I would like to be an interviewer, wondering where you came up with this idea!

─ ─ So, taking over the question (laughs), where did you get the idea for this film?

Yamada: I think the biggest thing was simply that I wanted to make a film about people who play music.

Yamada──Since music is at the core of this film, we will talk about music a lot later, but from the title "Kimi no Iro" (The Color of You), I thought that color was also a major theme of this film.

Yamada: The color for this work is light, so I created it with the image of light decomposed. Therefore, the three main characters are made up of the three primary colors of light ("red," "green," and "blue"), and when they are all combined into one, they become white. I felt infinity there, and I hoped that the three of them would have that kind of relationship.

Also, since light was a key point, I was thinking of impressionist paintings, etc. By breaking up the light and placing many colors, I could make it look like one color. For example, I imagined something that looks green, but if you look closely, you can see pink and red in it, and we discussed this with Yuko Kohari, color designer; Yuna Murooka, art director; Aoi Shimada, art director; and Yoshimasa Tomita, director of photography.

─ Does this mean that you were more particular about the use of color than in your usual works?

Yamada: Of course, we were very particular about the use of color.

Yamada: I also like the composition of the people in your films, where you place them when you capture them with your camera.

Yamada In terms of cropping, there is a subject and the shape of the world surrounding the subject. When I use black and white, I try to make sure that everything other than the subject has a beautiful shape. Then there is also color. I place great importance on color, as I want it to be a strong form of information that is received unconsciously.

─ ─ Regarding the characters, please tell us how you chose Kotobuki-san to play the role of Sumika Yatsuka.

Yamada: At first, Eriko Kimura, the sound director, suggested the name "Kotobuki-san.

Kotobuki Eeeeeee!　From Eriko-san!

Yamada At that time, I was like, "Are you sure? I was like, "Yes! From my point of view, it was like, "Yes! I also felt sympathy because Ms. Kimura had mentioned Kotobuki's name to me without me saying so.

Yamada: So I guess we were in agreement, but what did you see in Kotobuki?

Yamada At first glance, I wondered if she was a girl with a gal-like, modern flair. Yamada: At first glance, I thought she might be a girl with a gal-like, modern, and trendy style, but in fact, Sumika has a very strong sense of responsibility and is a very solid girl, so I thought she was a perfect match! I thought she would be a good fit for the job.

Kotobuki: That makes me happy!

─ Kotobuki, how did you decide to play the role of Sumika?

Kotobuki: Sumika is one of the "Three Sisters of the Forest," and Yasuko-san (played by Momochi Sakura) and Yuuki Aoi (played by Nanakubo Shiho) were cast as the three sisters. I was relieved to find that the cast was fun and cheerful, but since the recording was done separately, I later talked with Aoi about our role in the production, saying that our role in the production was to become familiar with the other performers and to connect with them. I had heard that Yasuko-san and Sayu Suzukawa, who played the role of Totsuko, were also making their first attempts as voice actors, so I somehow felt that I was in a position to connect them all.

During postrecording, Ms. Yamada said to me, "There are gals who look a bit scary or modern at first glance, but have a passionate heart. I instantly thought, "Oh, I get it! I thought it would be nice if I could differentiate myself from the other girls in the gal group by having a "gal" look, but not in a "I'm a gal! I wanted to play it in a natural way, not in a "I'm a gal!" way, but in a natural way, as if I was a nice girl who grew up in my hometown, even though I have a yearning to be a gal.

─ I could feel how much you care about Totsuko.

Kotobuki: Everyone loves Totsuko!　That's what makes it so warm!　I thought it was a very friendly world where everyone loves Totsuko and gets along with her in class.

─ I heard that the three main characters were chosen by audition.

Yamada: In this work, Totsuko leads the story, so I thought I had to decide on her first. So I focused on finding Totsuko first. From the tape, Suzukawa-san had a cute voice that sounded like a bell ringing, and the world she was looking at sounded very fun. I could imagine such a world from the sound. I actually auditioned in the studio and heard many different voices, but I could not get Suzukawa-san out of my mind. I chose her as my first choice.

Then naturally, we decided on Akari Takaishi for Kimi Sakunaga and Daisho Kido for Rui Kagehira. When I do interviews like this, I remember how hard I was trying to decide who would be the best choice, but now I think it was so well matched that it's a wonder I was worried about it at all.

─ So you had an image of the voice of Totsuko, and it was Suzukawa-san?

Yamada: Yes. However, I could imagine various images of Totsuko, so I was shaken. But after much consideration, I decided to be honest with my instincts and asked Ms. Suzukawa to do it.

─ Kotobuki, how did you like the performances of the three main actors?

Kotobuki: They were too good!　The balance between the three of them was wonderful. If I had auditioned for the roles of these three actors, I am sure I would have thought about the balance between them. Because I am working as a voice actor, I naturally think about my role in a moment. But I felt that in a sense, I was setting myself up for a template.

Totsuko, Kimi, and Rui could have been framed by the template if they wanted to, but the three members of the cast were so perfectly positioned in "the place where they seem to fit in but don't," that I felt that they were living beyond their characters. I felt it was more than a character, it was a living thing.

This sense of life is partly received from the animation and partly from the play, so animation is really a comprehensive art form. I was shocked that the play made me think so, and it made me realize that there were parts of me that were entrenched in the concept. So I have a feeling that I will meet these three people at some point.

─ ─ They have a very real sense of existence. In the story, these three form a band.　I thought it could have been three girls from a school standpoint.

Yamada I wonder why (laughs). (laughs) When I imagine myself at that time (when I was making the story), I think I probably wanted to depict a flat relationship even if the sexes were different. I think it was because I was aiming for a simple flat relationship between the three of us, not to be snobbish just because there was a boy.

─ ─ The term "flat relationship" fits me perfectly. I had received the impression from watching the film that such a thing is irrelevant to enjoying music.

Kotobuki: Did you naturally decide who was in charge of which instrument?

Yamada: It just kind of happened.

Yamada──It is true that the guitar seems to be played by a boy.

Yamada: And aren't there any drummers? Yamada And there are no drummers?

Kotobuki I wondered where theremin came from. I wondered.

Yamada That was something I was struggling with even as I was storyboarding the piece, and after some hemming and hawing, I said to Kensuke Ushio, who was in charge of the music, "This is the kind of composition I want! (laugh), so it was really a composition that was created while I was worrying about it.

(Laughs) I was really worried about the composition as we were working on it.

Yamada: It's a guitar that my brother used to use, not because Kimi herself is very particular about it or anything. She is a child who is troubled by the gap between who she sees around her and who she thinks she is, and she is still not able to see herself clearly. She is still struggling with the gap between who she sees around her and who she thinks she is. She is trying to make herself by watching her older brother, and she wears the same T-shirts and other live costumes that she got from her older brother.

The reason why I chose Rickenbacker is simply because I thought it would definitely suit Kimi-chan's appearance (laughs).

I wondered if she chose it because it looked cool. (laughs).

Yamada I think that sometimes the right choice for a guitar is to choose one based on how good it looks.

─ ─ I am told that the appearance of the guitar is important when choosing a guitar (laughs). Also, it is not easy to come up with the idea of using a theremin in a high school band, is it?

Yamada: When you form a band, you think of a drummer, a guitarist, and a bass player, but I was hoping to create a sense of a group of kids who are interested in something other than those things. I felt that it would be great to meet people who could still resonate with each other in this way! I felt that it would be great to meet people who could still resonate with each other.

I was making this work under the slogan "the strength to say you like what you like," so I thought it would be great if we could resonate with each other in other ways, even if we can't always understand each other clearly.

─ ─ You have high musical specs, don't you, Rui? His arranging ability is also very high.

Yamada: Your love for Louie really exploded.

I wondered if Louie is so good with the theremin because he has time in his environment. I wondered if that was the reason he was so good with the theremin.

Kotobuki: Indeed (laughs). I feel like he practices a lot.

Yamada I think it is a tremendous feat in reality. The person who played Louis' theremin was a French musician, Gregoire Blanc, and I thought, "It has to be his theremin! I thought, "It has to be his theremin! He changed my concept of what I thought a theremin should be. I was really surprised at how well he could hit the right notes and play the melody. I had the impression that the theremin was more like a sound effect, and I enjoyed the instability of playing a melody, so I didn't expect it to be like playing a musical instrument like that.

Kotobuki It was like a string instrument, wasn't it?

Yamada I thought this was special, and I think Louis' theremin was born because of him.

Kotobuki: What was your impression of the music in this work?

Kotobuki In that sense, I had the opportunity to work with Mr. Yamada on "K-ON! I had the opportunity to work with Mr. Yamada in "K-ON!" and we were playing in a band at that time. 15 years have passed since then, and now that he is going to write music again, I wonder what kind of music will be played?　I was looking forward to seeing what kind of music would be played and how the band would be organized. I was looking forward to it. I was looking forward to seeing what kind of music would be played and how it would be orchestrated!　But I was impressed by the way the music came in and didn't leave me behind.

─ I don't think you will be able to get "Water, Money, Earth, Fire, Wood, Earth, Heaven, Amen" out of your head when you leave the theater (laughs).

Kotobuki: Really!　I sang it at home too (laughs)!

Yamada That makes me happy. When Keiko Toda (who played Shino Sakunaga) came out of the recording studio, she came out of the booth singing, and Eriko Kimura and I ran to her and said, "Were you singing?　Just now! I couldn't help but ask her (laughs). I was so happy to hear that.

─ By the way, do you have a favorite character, Kotobuki?

Kotobuki: In terms of Sumika, I love Totsuko and want to protect her, but as for me, I loved Sister Hiyoshiko (CV. Yui Aragaki). In "K-ON!" there is a person who looks out for you, who may or may not be around, just like Sawako-sensei was in "K-ON! I wonder if that person will have a great impact and change everyone's life from now on. I also wanted to see what everyone will be like in 5 or 10 years from now.

──I feel that Director Yamada has a great love for all the characters, even when I watch his other films.

Yamada One of my policies is that I do not exist in my films. I think some directors put themselves in the characters, or put their souls somewhere in their works, but I, on the contrary, have always been stuck in the idea of being the one who is watching the work. As I get older, and I start to think about more and more things, and things change, perhaps my approach to my work will change, but for now, I am still more interested in borrowing the eyes of others and letting them look into my work to see what they are thinking and so on. I'm interested in that, so I'm not in the works.

─ ─ Finally, who would you like to see the film and what would you like them to see in the film?

Kotobuki: It's not for me to speak highly of the film, but I really understood the slogan "the strength to say you like what you like" that the director mentioned earlier, and that's why I felt affirmed when I saw this film. I remember that.

I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Or, "Is my sense of self different from the majority? Some people may feel guilty about it, but it's okay! I hope that you will feel a gentle back massage at the theater, and feel the urge to go out into the world.

Yamada Thank you for your wonderful words. When I was making this work, I strongly felt that as a human being, I was concerned about other people, anxious about fitting myself into a certain shape, and disliking myself because I am not like this! I think we are often categorized by appearance, personality, and so on.

So, I would be happy if people who are anxious about these things, or who are wondering what to do if they don't fit in, could relax and watch the film. I think you don't have to name everything so much. I hope that people from all walks of life will watch this film.

(Interview, text, and photography by Junichi Tsukagoshi)

Minako Kotobuki STAFF

Hair and makeup: Kaoru Nakahata

Stylist: Takashi Shimaoka, Azusa Kitamura (Office Shimarl)

Costume:

Cape, sleeveless cut and sewn, skirt, all by AOIWANAKA

Pumps: Ginza Kanematsu

Earrings COTOMONO MARCHE/COTOMONO MARCHE Hands Shinjuku

Naoko Yamada STAFF

Hair and makeup: Ai Miyamoto (yosine.)

WORK INFO

The Color of Kimi no Iro
Director: Naoko Yamada "聲の形" "Liz and the Blue Bird" "K-ON! The Tale of the Heike
Voice Cast: Sayu Suzukawa, Akari Takaishi, Daisho Kido, Yasuko, Aoi Yuki, Minako Kotobuki, Keiko Toda, Yui Aragaki
Screenplay: Reiko Yoshida, "The Cat Returns," "Violet Evergarden," "The Young Ones Are Elementary School Students!
Music, Music Director: Kensuke Ushio "The Form of the Film" "The Chainsaw Man
Theme song: "in the pocket" by Mr. Children (TOY'S FACTORY)
Character design, animation director: Takashi Kojima
Character design draft：Richard Dieske
Production: "Kimi no Iro" Production Committee
Planning, Produce: STORY inc. "Kimi no na wa. The Weather Child" "Suzume no Dokkomari
Production, Producer: Science SARU "The Night is Short, Walk away Otome" "Don't Mess with the Film Lab! Heike Monogatari
Distributor: Toho
Release Date: August 30, 2024 (Friday) in Toho theaters nationwide

＜ Story.

What attracts me is your "color.
Totsuko, a high school student, sees people in "color.
Happy colors, joyful colors, peaceful colors. And her favorite color.
Totsuko decides to form a band with Kimi, a girl who goes to the same school and radiates beautiful colors, and Rui, a music-loving boy she meets at a used bookstore in a corner of town.
Kimi has not confided in her family that she has stopped going to school.
Rui, whose mother expects him to become a doctor, is hiding behind his musical activities.
Each of them, including Totsuko, has their own problems that they cannot tell anyone.
The band practices at an old church on a remote island.
As the three of them find their way to each other through music, feelings of friendship and even a hint of love begin to emerge.
They are too much in tune with their surroundings, hurt by themselves, and pretending to be something they are not.
Eventually, the school festival and their first live performance arrive.
What "colors" do the three of them show in front of the audience?

©2024 "The Color of My Heart" Production Committee