The North American anime licensing company Sentai Filmworks announced on Wednesday that it has licensed the Colorful anime film. The company will release the film on bilingual DVD and Blu-ray Disc and through digital outlets "soon."

Colorful follows a person trapped outside the endless circle of life and death. Thanks to winning a lottery in the angel world, the protagonist is brought back to inhabit the body of a 14-year-old boy — who just committed suicide. Thus, the protagonist begins a new life. The film is based on Eto Mori's young adults' novel of the same name, which won the Sankei Children's Publishing Cultural Prize in 1999.

Colorful received an Award of Excellence in Animation at the 34th Japan Academy Prizes in 2010. The film won the Best Animation Film Award at 65th Mainichi Film Awards in 2011, and also won the Mention spéciale (Special Distinction) and the Prix du public (Audience Award) in the Feature Film category at France's Annecy, the world's largest animation film festival, in 2011.

Keiichi Hara (Summer Days with Coo, Crayon Shin-chan films) directed the film at Sunrise. Miho Maruo (Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, The Dog of Flanders) wrote the film's screenplay and Atsushi Yamagata (The Tower of Druaga: the Sword of Uruk) handled the character design. Ko Otani (Shakugan no Shana, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Hakuōki) handled the music.

Update: Background information added.