Iroduku: The World in Colors

“Iroduku: The World in Colors” – Youtube review

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Spoiler Alert – many spoilers follow

“Iroduku: The World in Colors” is for this reviewer, a very special story, and it is a story.

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Our lead, Hitomi Tsukishiro, is a witch in 2078, but she suffers from total color blindness due to the extreme trauma of being abandoned by her mother. Due to this loss, Hitomi inflicts upon herself a spell which causes her to go color blind and she loses all interest and love of magic. Everything she sees is shades of gray, and one could even say that her life is a living gray.

Hitomi’s grandmother, Kohaku Tsukishiro, decides to invoke time magic, and she sends Hitomi back to 2018 to meet up with her younger self. This does not cure her color blindness, but in meeting and living with Kohaku, Hitomi begins to learn about herself. She is quickly gobbled up by the Photography and Arts Club and there she meets a young artist, Yuito Aoi, who has deep emotional trauma himself. This causes problems with his creativity but Hitomi can see color in his work, especially a giant Golden Fish who swims throughout this story.

As one might expect Hitomi and Yuito are time-crossed lovers separated by 60 years when Hitomi will have to return to her own time. This is a love never meant to be! “Iroduku: The World in Colors” was written by Yūko Kakihara who also wrote “Aquatope on White Sand”.

One Easter Egg is the paper airplane made from one sheet of paper, White on one side and Blue on the other which Hitomi attempts to fly to Yuito’s house. The same airplane occurs in both works and is almost like an artist signing her own art. The airplane seems to connect the lovers in both stories.

Iroduku is a beautiful and loverly story, which has a slow Slice of Life feel and pace to it. But plot issues are resolved which is the trauma afflicting both Hitomi and Yuito.

Many criticise the lack of complete narrative when Hitomi returns to 2078, and we share in that frustration. Many serious issues in the story are left dangling so the ending is less than satisfactory. But the story is so well told, and the characters all appealing that the journey was well worth the trip even if our destination was somewhat oblique.