Seattle Film Critics Honor The Colors Within Anime

The Seattle Film Critics Society (SFCS) announced on Friday it has nominated The Colors Within (Kimi no Iro), the latest anime feature film by Science SARU and director Naoko Yamada, for Best Animated Film for the 2025 SFCS Awards. Other nominees include Arco, KPop Demon Hunters, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, and Zootopia 2.

The film opened in U.S. theaters in Japanese with English subtitles and with an English dub on January 24.

The Colors Within opened in Japan in August 2024. The film was originally slated to open in fall 2023, but it was then delayed to 2024. GKIDS has acquired the film for North America, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand. Anime Ltd. has acquired the film for Europe. PLAION PICTURES handles Italian- and German-speaking territories, and CHARADES manages sales for the rest of Europe, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand.

GKIDS, Annecy, and Variety magazine’s Animation Is Film festival in Los Angeles hosted the film’s North American premiere screening in October 2024. The film won the festival’s’ Audience Award.

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. Mr. Children performs the theme song “in the pocket.”

GKIDS released the film on Blu-ray Disc on May 27 and on digital platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Fandango, Microsoft, and iNDEMAND on April 1.

Sources: GKIDS‘ Bluesky account, Seattle Film Critics Society’s official website