Sometimes unexpected things happen that make us happier than before. Watching this anime, Iroduku: The World In Colors (Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara), was somewhat of a similar experience for me. A simple story executed amazingly is what this anime has accomplished, making it a joyful experience altogether. Here I will review this anime in detail.

This is based on my personal opinion, and I understand that you may have different opinions, which is fine! I just wanted to review this good but underappreciated anime.

This review is entirely spoiler free.

The story revolves around a 17 year old girl, a mage, Hitomi Tsukishiro, who had lost her sense of seeing colors in the world at an early age due to some incident, and has now grown up to be a girl devoid of emotions. For her, the beautiful world full of colors is now only monochromatic (black and white), and thus she is unable to perceive the happiness surrounding her. Seeing her condition, her beloved grandmother Kohaku Tsukishiro sends her 60 years back in the past in the year 2018 through time magic, during the time she was in high school, when she was an aspiring mage. When she arrives back in the past, she is soon befriended by the members of the Photography Arts club, and soon Kohaku joins in. Hence their stories begin.

The story, although simple at its core, is beautiful in its own right. It is a slice of life, describing the various activities of the club and the members, while also combining elements of drama and romance, with a sprinkle of magic. Although being supernatural, the series ended up being pretty real for me, because of real-like characters and their emotions. They are imperfect, and they struggle to make their lives better while also trying to make others happy. All the characters were likeable indeed, which makes the story enjoyable.

This story primarily focusses on mental depression and through its use of magic, makes us understand the inner emotions of someone who is suffering from the same. I found this aspect of the show pretty impressive. All the machinations related to this concept was done in a good way, and it felt relatable to me, and hence I found this anime to be heart-touching. The take on depression in a new light was good to experience.

Hitomi, who cannot see colors, becomes a member of the club which focusses on photography and drawing. For someone like her, it is a difficult task to do, but still she tries her best always. She soon finds the drawings of Aoi Yuito to be something special. We see her character gain momentum eventually in the show, and this made me happy because I wanted her to be happy as well.

The story was very good, while not being very complex. This is what I liked about it. Sometimes you do not need a mind bending time travel series but a simple one like this to make you appreciate the importance of friendship, family, love and time itself.

The finale of the show was good. Although it was somewhat bittersweet, it was decent enough. I do not mind it, as I think this was necessary to conclude the story properly. I appreciate the fact that it did not shy away from a sad part, as I believe life is not perfect and you cannot always have the "happiest ending possible". Anyways, the ending was satisfactory.

Hitomi's character was given great development, as we got to know her journey in detail. The way she progressed through the story was a good thing to see, and by the end you can definitely appreciate the struggles of living a life such as the one she did.

Aoi Yuito's character also goes through major development. At first he also seems to be having some negative things in his life. When the story progresses, we get to see some major changes in his character.

Kohaku is a very likeable and sweet character and her efforts to be a great mage in order to help and make others happy is highlighted throughout the show. She is also given proper time in the show in order to make us appreciate her support to Hitomi.

The other members of the club are also given time, but considering this was a short anime, we could not see everyone's story, which is something I would have loved to see. Although their love interests were shown, they were not properly given time to develop. But at the end, you can appreciate everyone's help in making Hitomi feel better. As friends, they were pretty good.

Given its short run, I could expect only this much character development from the series. But anyways, it did a good job in developing the main characters which is enough in itself.

The animation of this show was fantastic. P.A. Works did an amazing job at animating this series. This is a show about colors, and they did a good job on the visuals - from the night skyline to the illumination of Hitomi's room at night, from the colors of the star-sands to the spells the mages cast - the vividness of this show impressed me a lot. Having great visuals was important for this show, and thankfully the animation was amazing. It brought out the beauty in the day to day things we see.

Music in this show was good. It was good enough to complement the scenes and the emotions of the characters. The opening and ending songs were also good. Combining with the great visuals, the musical scores indeed create a beautiful experience and can help you get lost in what you are seeing. Improves the intensity of the scenes.

This is a type of anime not everyone would like, I believe, because it does not contain anything groundbreaking. The reason why I liked this anime so much was because of its simplistic but beautiful way of expressing things, combined with great animation. It was a short but sweet experience which made me happy and feel better after finishing it. I was looking for something like this for a long time.

This anime is underappreciated in my opinion, and I can see the reason why: because of its simple plot and execution. But those who like it will know how good it really is. If you are thinking about watching it, I will recommend you to do so. Sometimes a simple story is all you need, which may turn out to be pretty good, as what happened in my case. This was a good anime.

As this anime contains the topic of depression, I will advise you to think about it before starting, after assessing your current headspace. It also contains some sad elements. If you are alright, then I would recommend this show for you to watch and enjoy.

Thank you very much for your time in reading this. I hope you have a great day, and like always, keep watching anime!

[Image Source: Pinterest]

Written by: Sekhar08
April 26, 2021