I can just sit back and enjoy the visuals. But in this case, I want to talk about when color is directly enhancing or adding to a narrative. Color theory is a relatively new branch of science, but the basic gist of it is that color can directly effect our opinion or perception of certain things, and I'll elaborate more on that as the post goes on. If you want to research it more in depth yourself that's great; it's actually pretty fascinating, but me being me, I wanted to relate this to anime somehow. So, I decided that I would choose a color, then find an anime that perfectly represents that color, whether it be simply the tone, or how it uses that particular color in its narrative.
So with that, hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, and today we'll be looking at an anime for every color. Now, let's get started.
RED - Akira
Well this was an easier one. Akira certainty likes some red, so much so that other colors that are not red are muted to grainy and bland tones. In the story of Akira, red seems to signalize power and dominance over all other things, much like how all other colors are dull compared to it. Things of great importance in the film are always red: most notably, Tetsuo(as seen above) wears a red cape after he goes completely drunk with power upon realizing his immense psychic powers(spoilers for an over 25 year old movie, by the way), all promotional art for the film always has red in it somewhere, and even the bikes the bikers ride in the film are a bright shade of crimson. It gives the film its unique aesthetic when paired with the exemplary animation, which still looks fantastic after over two decades. And if you are one of those people who haven't seen Akira, go watch Akira for heaven's sake.
ORANGE - Now and Then, Here and There
Now and Then, Here and There, is actually an anime that lacks color. It's a very desolate and depressing series, and to compensate for that, colors are dull and grainy to bring the appropriate atmosphere to the world of this anime: a world that could be defined as one where the last humans battle for what's left at the end of history. However, besides from the desert setting being a shade of orange, Now and Then, Here and There uses the color in a very particular way to symbolize a very particular thing: Hope, at least I think so. Well, one thing is for certain. When our protagonist Shu sees the orange sunset at the beginning of the anime, it's the end of his peaceful world, and when he sees it at the end, it's the start of a new one.
PURPLE - No Game No Life
Purple has almost always been used to make a given setting more surreal, or at the very least, very detached from the commute of everyday life. Mirai Nikki used purple in the world of Deus Ex in order to reflect the other-worldliness of the god's realm, for example, but no anime has used the color quite like No Game No Life. Nearly everything in the anime is outlines in some sort of red, magenta, or purple, since Studio Madhouse clearly wanted to make the world of No Game No Life feel as "fantasy" as possible. They certainty succeeded.
WHITE - Wandering Son
At first, I was a little annoyed by the art-style of Wandering Son. The narrative was intriguing enough, but I was having a hard time actually seeing it, since the whole anime was so... bright. Everything was outlined in white, and whatever wasn't the characters or the immediate setting was almost impossible to see thanks to all the white. But gradually, I began to realize this undefined art-style of no primary color was actually meant to reflect the themes of transexuality that Wandering Son is so completely saturated with. Colors are undefined in this anime... just like the characters themselves, and unless it was my imagination, I think everything started becoming easier to see by the end of the anime... and I don't think I need to explain the metaphor behind that.
BROWN - Attack on Titan
I understand that this connection may be a stretch for some, but beside from the fact that Attack on Titan definitely likes to use brown, terracotta and earthy colors throughout its world designs, I would like to put out here, that it actually connects to the narrative. However, in order to do so, I'll need to give a quick lecture, so, stay with me here. Now, the word "naturalism" has two different definitions depending on whether you're talking literature or philosophy, but a blanket statement would be that you can regard naturalism is the direct opposite of romanticism; naturalism being an idea that argues that the world is only governed by natural laws of nature, that the supernatural does not exist, and that things such as "Darwinism" are the rules of the universe. The strong beat the weak in a naturalist text, and while Attack on Titan doesn't completely falls under the rules of the philosophy(especially with some of the crap going on in the later episodes), I think you can see how it applies. Now admittedly, this may be a byproduct of the show just trying to be "dark", but I can't help but feel that the choice of brown in AoT is meant to amplify the visceral brutality of this universe. But it's also entirely possible I'm looking too far into this, Attack on Titan isn't exactly known for its subtlety.
Goodbye for now guys, and thanks for reading.
Click here for an anime review of Gatchaman Crowds.
Can fan-service be used to served the narrative. Click here for my thoughts on it.
Click here for a countdown of My Top 5 Other Wishlist Anime.
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| https://hummingbird.me/users/Quan |
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| https://twitter.com/QuanReviews |
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| Email Me At: quanqreviews@gmail.com |
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