Three leaves, three colors. The central trio of girls in Three Leaves, Three Colors fit the name quite well indeed. All three of them are the agreeable sort, friendly and with matching energy levels, so it’s no wonder they work well as friends. Their conversations are organic, and they seem to always be on the same page. But three colors doesn’t just refer to the color of their hair; outside of their friendship they seem to be as diametrically opposed to one another as possible. Futaba is a black hole, endlessly swallowing all food in reach and racking up notoriety around the neighborhood for crushing timed eating sales to the point where she is banned from most of the restaurants around. Hayama is the class president, seemingly light-hearted but serious, while in actuality her sadistic personality is rotten to the core, in contrast to her obsessive love of small animals. Youko was a rich lady until her family went bankrupt, and now her high-class language and connections with her former servants bely her dependence on bread crusts to make it through the day.
It’s interesting to see how the writers subdue their extreme personalities when they get together. Any one of them could have been handled in an overbearing way, but when they talk they seem like normal high school girls, their characters slipping into the conversation more through what they talk about than how they talk. Interacting with the rest of the cast they are portrayed in a fairly down-to-earth manner, but with their classmates and family being more caricaturized we see more of a slip into typical personality-clashing antics, which the show does fine but not fantastically. Again though, when all three of them get together, even if they are focused on conversations with the other characters they seem to magically keep each other under control.
And in that capacity of keeping each other under control we get to see the more naturally comical parts of each of them, as well as the interplay between them as people rather than as stereotypes. Despite being a former rich lady Youko never acts superior or overly dramatic, but the conflict between her speaking style and the poverty she subtly asserts through her mindset towards food and money is naturally amusing, especially put right next to Futaba who doesn’t bat an eye downing twice the amount of food Youko gets in a week over one lunch break. The shadow of Hayama’s toxic personality looms oddly over their mealtimes, given that all three of them are friendly with one another; suddenly she’ll turn around to the next person over and torture them just to see their reaction. There is a recurring joke with Youko’s former servant Yamaji constantly stalking the group and popping out to aid her at a moment’s notice, which would get tiring if it weren’t for the fact that Futaba and Hayama slowly start getting used to it and even leveraging it themselves.
More than the animation or the music, I was impressed by the quality of the voice acting, particularly since all but two or three of the cast are relatively new and inexperienced and a handful who have never played a role in anime before. Imamura Ayaka’s voice for Hayama’s is unassuming but can change from sinister and cruel to excitable and doting in an instant. Futaba’s voice is distinctive, particularly how voice actress Kanazawa Mai speaks in a flat tone of voice before shifting to a higher tone at the end of her sentences. Wakui Yuu sounds perfect for the upper crust lady Youko, speaking in an exaggerated but easily understandable manner. One more especially noteworthy performance is Momokawa Rika as a former maid of Youko’s family; her voice is a dead ringer for Arai Satomi, the actor for Kuroko from A Certain Scientific Railgun, who has one of the most distinctive voices in the industry. To hear Momokawa’s voice used so perfectly for the pint-sized maid with a costume fetish and an indomitable personality is both a treat to listen to and an exciting prospect for her future works.
In the end the show is carried by the three main girls though, as the side cast exists either to accentuate their personalities individually or to spotlight their friendship as a whole. Here is a work that remains fairly under control as far a slice of life goes, without any crazy adventures or wacky happenings outside day-to-day life. Why it works is no more or less than solid writing and acting between the leads, less of a matter of standing out from the crowd more than being exceptional within it. It goes without saying that people who tend away from the genre will find nothing to grab on to or enjoy here, but fans will find themselves pleasantly surprised by how much enjoyment can come from three very different, very compatible friends.