nekotaaiji

There are lives that begin in black and white, waiting only for a single color to set them ablaze. In the misty mountains of Shima Onsen, Iro has grown up between the steaming baths of his family's inn and a paintbrush he was taught to put away. A sacrificed son, an artist without a school, he silently carries the weight of a dream he thought long buried, until the red of a maple tree in autumn strikes him like a revelation, and an unexpected scholarship finally opens the doors of Paris to him. But Paris is more than a city: it's a crossroads of destinies. There, Iro's path will cross those of three other young people, Hakim, a law student torn between his family's grocery store and the polished halls of the Sorbonne; Camille, a literature student who prefers Flaubert to the future her banker father has already mapped out for him; and Finch, a former skinhead turned quiet record-shop owner, hiding an old wound with the father he still hasn't made peace with. Four souls, four wounds, one shared longing: to escape what was expected of them and finally become who they are. The Dream in Iro's Colors is the story of a generation learning to paint its own life, through heartbreak, unexpected friendships, love that upends everything, and the question that haunts every character: do we have the right to choose our own color, when everything around us has already been painted by someone else?

Iro's dream in color