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GKIDS to Screen The Colors Within, Ghost Cat Anzu Films in Theaters This Winter

The Colors Within will 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. 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:

Shingo Mizusawa as the god of poverty
Skirt (Sawabe Wataru) as Tanuki, another supernatural creature
Ikue Ōtani as Pi-Pi-chan, the forest fairies

Shōhei Uno also contribute voices.

Cast 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.

Yukie Nakauchi are the animation directors, and Keiichi Suzuki is composing the music.

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…

Bakeneko Anzu-chan manga in 2007.

Source: GKIDS at AnimeNYC (Anita Tai)