Keiichi Hara to tackle suicidal young adult novel "Colourful" once again

by Chris MaGee

That's an attention grabbing headline, isn't it? A suicidal young adult novel? Yes indeed. Back in 2000 director Keiichi Hara (above right) helmed a film adaptaion of the 1999 Sankei Children's Publishing Cultural Prize-winning novel "Colourful" by Eto Mori. The film and original novel told the story of the disembodied spirit of a person who wins the chance to return to Earth in the body of a 14-year-old boy. The only problem is that the boy turns out to be suicidal. Hara 's adaptation starred Koki Tanaka from the boy band KAN-TUN and what's really strange was that it was described as a "heart-warming comedy". A heart-warming comedy about suicide? Ooookay... I'm thinking more along the lines of a very dark comedy seeing this poor bastard finally gets reincarnated but is in danger of getting sent back to the after life by some depressed teenager, but that's just me.

Now according to Anime News Network Hara, who has previously directed such popular animated films as "Summer Days with Coo" and a couple of the Crayon Shin-chan films has been tagged by Japanese animation studio Sunrise to helm a brand new anime version of Mori's novel. The announcement was made at this year's Tokyo International Anime Fair currently taking place in Odaiba with representatives from Sunrise saying they hope to have the animated "Colourful" in Japanese theatres later this year.