Some of this
will be obvious. Some other stuff won’t be. Enjoy!
(TW: Suicide, depression, OMORI spoilers)
White: Purity/ Sterility/ Dissociation
White is
the color of OMORI. The
game and the character. An oppressive white that banishes all impurities. White
space is a place to become nothing. White is not good. At least not
until later. White is simple like a tulip, and that’s probably why its
Sunny’s favorite color, but Sunny has taken simplicity to a toxic new level. We
also find another white flower, the Orchid Egret, a white flower that connects
the dream world to the real one. Almost acting as an anchor, grounding the real
world to Whitespace. At the end of the game, white and
sterility
is given a new meaning:redemption.It’s the sign of a clean slate. Sunny has come to
terms with Mari’s death, his part in it, and has confessed. He can move on with
his life.
Beige: The Past/
Dullness/ Decay
Beige is Sunny’s
main color.Maybe
even more than white. It’s the color that differentiates him from Omori.
Unlike his evil doppelganger, Sunny is a person with memories. At the end of
the game when the real Sunny explores his childhood home, all of his
memories are cloaked in a sepia beige.It’s the color of old photos and
old times. Towards the end, we seen the plant life surrounding basil’s
forest die and decay into a sullen beige. Showing how his attachment to the
past is stalling and killing his growth as a person. In the real world, Sunny
wears beige cargo shorts, in a empty house with beige walls and floors.
Lacking in color, the inside of Sunny’s house feels muted and dull in comparison to the
vivid blues and greens just outside his front door.
Orange & Yellow: Joy/ Excitement/ Agitation
Orange is
almost exclusively Kel’s color. Serving as a more fashionable alternative to yellow, it’s
a bright, happy color that conveys the same positivity. Its warm and
welcoming. It’s also the main color of the titular “Orange Oasis” an area of
Headspace that’s easy going. But even in such an area, there is a truth teller,
Mr. Outback, draped in orange. Poking holes in the fantasy and stirring up the
waters. Orange is a loud, aggressive color, similar to red.It annoys
and aggravates people. Just like Kel. But in doing so it can generate much needed
disruption to break stagnation. Kel
instigates the whole plot of the game, and in the end everyone is much happier
for it.
Yellow is
the game’s designated color for happiness, though sometimes it blends green into the happy symbolism
as well. A core example is the sunflower, a yellow and green plant that Basil
admires for its ability to see the bright side of things. There’s also Kel
and Hero’s parents. In their family photo the parents wear yellow and green, subtly
showing that the core value of the household is the happiness of the family
above all else.Finally,
there’s the Big Yellow Cat. The centerpiece of Sunny’s dream world, serving almost as an unofficial
ruler of Headspace. Protecting the very precious thing Sunny treasures most,
the happy memory of his old friends. It’s interesting to note that all three
of Sunny’s childhood imaginary friends are babylike pastel primary colors. The
cat is yellow, representing Sunny’s happiness in the dream world. Abbi’s tenacle
is red, the arm of the wisest who was discontent with that world. And then we find
Humphrey is a baby blue, the starving sadness that Sunny keeps tucked away at
the bottom of it.
Blue: Sadness/
Truth
Blue is
the color associated with sadness, and more importantly, the truth. All the horrific real world
nighttime scenes are portrayed in blue on black. Meanwhile, the final hospital scene
when Sunny confesses the truth is shown in blue on white. Visually showing
the importance of truth in the story, as well as the suffocating sadness of the
situation.
Hero is blue.
A color that accentuates his masculinity and dependability reflected in his manly can-do attitude,
though his conventional masculinity is often subverted by him wearing a feminine
pink apron while cooking. However, the main reason he’s dressed in blue is
because as mentioned before, it portrays his sadness. Hero is a character
that is perpetually depressed. His intelligent mind over thinks things and
blames himself. Mari’s death was no exception, so like Sunny, Hero seals
himself away in a cocoon of sadness. Consider Humphrey, the big blue whale (the
final boss of Headspace) that eats Sunny over and over again. Swallowing him
deeper in a devouring cycle of depression. By escaping Humphrey, Sunny gets a
chance to escape his depression and fantasy, just like Hero did before. Rejecting
his fantasy, Sunny can start reintegrating into the real
world outside.
Blue is
one of the two main colors associated with the Real World, along with Green. We see it most
prominently in the cloudy sky, showing the status of Sunny in the real
world on the final title screen. Unlike the oppressive purple sky of dream world,
the real sky is blue, wide and filled with many possibilities. It’s
reflected in the blue picnic basket at the secret lake, its blue and white
like the sky. Sunny describes it as “not as good as Mari’s” but it’s a real
picnic in the true world. The only world where Sunny can learn and grow.
Green: Growth/
Change/ Basil’s Envy
The color
of growth. Plants are the keystone metaphor the story. In the duet sequence we see the
plants growing, and the children alongside them. OMORI atits core is
a coming-of-age story. One that homes in on the worst part of growing up:
facing traumatic catastrophe. And being able to grow in spite of it.
One of
the kids hit hardest by this trauma is Basil. The gardener. A boy with a green thumb and green
eyes (not literally, figuratively.) Note that Basil’s envy is never a malicious
thing. But its made clear that he was always questioning his place in Sunny’s
friend group. Taking photos but never feeling apart of them. Basil wants to
be someone else. Someone loved. He wants to change. Lacking options, he
turns to gardening, so he can make something beautiful to add to the world. Hoping
that maybe he can change along the way.
As mentioned
before, Green is portrayed as a happy color too. And is almost always portrayed
in a positively light, being thesecond main color of the Real World.
Though it also has a place in the dream world as well. It’s the color of the Vast
Forest. The one that reminds Sunny of the tree that changed everything. It’s
even the color of Space Ex-boyfriend’s hair, where its made abundantly clear
that green is the inverted color of pink. If green is the color of growth
and change. Pink is quite the opposite.
Pink: Innocence/ Childishness
Aubrey’s
color. Her punk pink
hair, originally meant to be a testament of her girly innocence, has since become
a symbol of defiance. But this is only one instance where innocence is defiled
by the toxicity of their shared catastrophe. Pink is the color worn by
Sally the baby, the most innocent character in the story. But most pink
characters appear as obstacles. Aubrey is the most obvious example,but
pink is also featured on all three of the major Headspace bosses. Spaceboy’s
pink hair. Sweetheart’s strict adherence to pink attire. And Humphrey’s monstrous
parasite form is a sea of pink. Each character once had innocent origins but
are all lashing out from an unwillingness to move on. For Aubrey, its from
Mari. For Spaceboy, its Sweetheart. Sweetheart can’t move past her heartbreak to
love anyone. And Humphrey fights to maintain the “blissful ignorance” of Whitespace
itself, refusing to let Sunny wake up from his childish dreaming. After all,
the very floor of the Neighbor Room is pink. Pink almost appears as an
antagonistic unnatural color. Or rather, pink is the childishness Sunny and
Aubrey need to overcome to mature and grow.
Though for
Aubrey’s case, there’s a second meaning. Pink and purple are considered a feminine
color, though purple is decidedly more mature of the two. Growing up, Aubrey
didn’t have many feminine role models. Since Aubrey’s mother is emotionally
unavailable, Mari is the only other girl Aubrey has to relate to. So they planned
to style their hair to celebrate this connection. By asking Mari to dye their
hair pink and purple, it appears that Aubrey is seeking to share her feminine experience
with Mari.
Purple: Lavishness/
Love
Mari’s
color. Purple is a color that exalts femininity and abundance. Traditionally associated with royalty
and luxury, purple provokes a feeling of richness. Although in Mari’s case,
this richness is not material wealth but rather takes the form of doting and
indulgence. Representing how Mari goes out of her way to express her love
to others in the form of gifts. This is also the main color of Headspace,
since the color black is missing from that world replaced by infinite purple indulgence
of an escapist fantasy.
Black: Mystery/
Repression/ Fear
Black is
not evil in this game. It’s simply darkness. Hiding something important from
sight. Something,
the ghost, is black. All of them are. And of course there’s Black Space itself.
All of it hidden, all of it pushed down. Black is also the exclusive color
of fear, and is tied explicitly to the Truth. In earlier versions of the
game, Fear was going to be just another emotion. In fact, super early concept material
even indicates that somethings and black space were just going to be a haunted
level. Not so in the final game. Black stands out as a special nightmare,
that not only encroaches on the dream world, but even the Real World.All
colors are swallowed by a darkness that torments Sunny and hides something
awful.
Red: Anger/
Guilt/ Trauma
The color of
blood. Of her blood. The color of guilt. Of being caught red handed. The color of
unbridled fury for doing something awful to someone who loved you dearly. Across
the game, we see Sunny being lured into the red lights. Red is the destructive impulse
to seek revenge for Mari’s sake. Take from himself what he took from her. In
Red Space, Sunny fights Omori. He faces his own self-hatred and overcomes his darkest
impulses.
Anyway, I
think that’s all the main colors. Happy Birthday Sunny! I try to make time for lore posts like these whenever I find time.
