Anime 28851 Koe No Katachi Reviews

Koe no Katachi is dangerous because it is exploitative. I'm not going to pretend to know anything about deaf people. I don't. This movie certainly does not allow any greater understanding into the mind of deaf people is the point I want to iterate. It uses a serious problem as a plot device constantly and reduces Nishimiya to one-dimension. She is the textbook definition of a mary-sue as well as a damsel in distress. This is clearly troublesome when trying to explain deafness to an able-bodied audience.

Nishimiya's entire character is her illness. She is paper thin with her sole character trait being she likes ... to feed fish. She is so inhuman it is gross. Moe being used in this way is offensive. Including deafness or any other handicap into anime is an exciting idea, and I laud the attempt. Sadly, the execution is simply sickening. A personality-less self-insert male character who wants to repent for mistakes he made when he was a child falls in love with the object of his errs. It's inherently questionable to approach this topic from a romantic perspective because it's hard to sympathize with an object. And that is what Nishimiya is, an object. To be affected on, for us to pity, for us to see illness in a "new light," to justify against bullying, to see the indomitable human spirit. A show like Monster works this concept excellently because it uses the object of interest (Johan) as more of a symbol. This work tries to make Nishimiya a character as deeply developed as Shouya but they foist too many roles on an underdeveloped symbol, not even mentioning her role as a character.

Shouya, Ueno, and Ishida are all flat. Their motives are drawn to plot points not to logic. Ueno shows up when things finally start moving in a direction the audience would be satisfied with in tacky KyoAni fashion. Drama in this work is so over-the-top and predictable it's borderline cringe-worthy. Even if you could swallow the unbelievable developments that lead to the saccharine mid-section of the film the way it dissolves is so inauthentic. Shouya shows no signs of development and no effort to change throughout the work and then magically obtains a group of friends.

As for the abstract? The art? If you polish it up enough and use a voice technique the audience is unfamiliar with you have the safest ticket to visual and audio praise you can muster. Are there creative shots in this work? Impressive blocking of characters? Fresh setting or new takes on animation/style? No. This is a typical KyoAni work. They stuck with what sells.

What the point is thematically I can't tell you. I can tell you that this film is successfully doing what it wanted to do. Capitalize on disease using moe with the highest budget in the industry. This work is not even average, it is bad. Please stop and think about why you feel the way you do when you watch this work. If you're crying is it because Nishimiya is a person you have become endeared by or are you crying because she's like an injured puppy? Affection for things like this a wonderful human trait, but this work is dubious.

[Story] 7 - Plot holes and cut sub-plots, excluded from the original script/manga.
[Art] 10 - Characters true to their manga designs, high quality animation.
[Sound] 7 - Creative use of sound/music. Nothing too special and memorable besides theme song.
[Character] 7 - Side characters had their story severely cut. Leaving some with empty character.
[Enjoyment] 10 - Tears, sadness, anger, happiness and laughs, the whole package.
[Overall] 8 - Definitely would watch again.

For those wondering how and where I watched this film, I watched in Japan. At Keisei Rosa10 in Chiba on September 17th.

Having read the manga 4 times over and crying every time, I went into the theater ... not expecting much tears as I have pretty much dried up my emotional experience with this manga.

However, much to my surprise, it has been a very, very long time since I have cried that much while watching a movie. Even comparing to a similar anime film Anthem of the Heart, which surprisingly lacked the ability to really give me a tearful moment. Not to say it wasn't a bad movie, but if you liked that one, you will certainly like this.

Be prepared for a emotional roller coaster as the movie plays with your ever so weakening heart as the movie progresses.

That being said, this is no perfect movie. The story falls short, very short in terms of character/plot progression outside of the two main characters. Perhaps it was because of the limit of having to cram the story into a 2 hour film that the writers had to cut corners.

However, story/character development of Shoya was spot on. The movie clearly delivered his character and it was very easy to sympathize and relate to the character. Same with Shoko, though the film did leave out some specifics, the repercussions of Shoko's existence could be felt where one may even agree with Ueno who despised her.

Unfortunately, the remaining characters were pretty much left out. And the overall story was ultimately incomplete because of this. With audiences who hasn't read the manga asking why some characters were even there. Character development with the side characters were very lacking and a lot of important details were stripped apart leaving a big hole in the story.
The only character who avoided this cut was Yuzuru who retained a lot of her details and character development.

This meant that people who haven't read the manga can be very confused by the end of the movie. As I had heard people talking about while leaving the theater.
Many details were left out, but the film retained a lot of the core elements from the manga in puzzle pieces, allowing those who read the manga to fill in the gaps to understand what it means. But that also meant those who haven't were left scratching their heads.

Besides the emotional road trip of your lifetime, Nagatsuka's moments in the film are very comedic and actually funny in a lot of ways. Often when the audience was laughing, it was usually when Nagatsuka was at his antics.

As for the art, no complaints here. Besides having some overally familiar Kyoani characters faces, Kyoto Animation has done a excellent job in representing the characters true to the manga. It's no Makoto Shinkai film, but the quality is nothing to scoff at. The high quality is retained throughout the entire film and no lazy production was visible.

Voice acting was top notch and sounded very familiar to daily Japanese life. Though overall sound was okay. The creative use of music in the film is a bonus. Besides that, not much to write home about.

The movie tried to stay true to the manga as best as it could and in the core elements in delivering the original message that the manga had, it succeeded. But unfortunately while following the path, they dropped a lot of it's side content.
The movie was able to deliver the core plot of the manga.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable film and I can't wait for the disc release.

Note: I watched it at the Toho Cinema Complex in Ario Nishiarai (*I had thought I could have been the only person on this review list who had really watched it at a cinema in Japan after reading a particularly harsh review, but I was wrong).

A quick overview: Koe no Katachi is a very well done film, although not without shortcomings, and which has dealt with (a) complex issue(s), and which leaves the viewer with questions but no easy conclusions. It is a powerful enough film to remember and ponder over, and people may draw different lessons, or perhaps none.

Pros: The sound and vision (KnK ... is top-notch Japanimation. I dare say that in some aspects, it is better than a Ghibli film). The ambient piano background music really matches with parts of the film, and the use of marimbas and even silence at the dramatic climax worked out well. Shoko Nishimiya is adorable when she has that half-proud and half-shy face when she does ponytail. Cute, but elegantly done and not unpleasant. However, was this better than Tamako Loves Story - I cannot tell. There were recognizably magical rooftop sequences in Yamada's K-On! and at the classroom and school ground with Midori in Tamako Love Story. I am not sure whether KnK had such "magic" moment despite its very fluid art.
Voice actors have all done a great job. Saori Hayami, Yuki Aoi, Miyu Irino were expectedly good, and Kaneko Yuki (who played Midori in Tamako) was a great pick for Ueno, another difficult character.

Con: I feel that the original manga's theme was very challenging for a very young manga artist to deal with; I also felt that some themes weren't fully explored or developed properly. Besides the bullying/redemption theme, there is an attachment/detachment in relationship theme, and on top of that, a male-female friendship and romance theme. Those themes coexisted and had resonated against each other for sure, but it's not done in a well-calculated and clear-cut way. That was the main issue of the serial manga, and to explore those themes, the manga author had to involve the characters to comes to terms with each other in a slightly forced situation (like the movie club and the event of going to a theme park).
Although the story line of the movie club was completely cut and altered, the theme park sequence was saved for the film- which still felt forced. However, I felt that Reiko Yoshida has done a nearly perfect job with script-writing and editing the story to be able to fit in for a two hours film. My only grievance is that the reason behind Nishimiya's decision at the climax was not convincingly told (which was as in the manga- but the Manga fully told Shoko's mother's sufferings of being divorced because of her child's disabilities and sis Yuzuru's side story of being bullied because of the same reason- so there was a more natural reason why Shoko should have cumulative feeling of guilt that she was making other people involved with her unhappy [and not just that sense of guilt towards breaking up Shoya's relationship with others]). Viewers might be puzzled then why Shoko had to make that decision in the climax (as it was already not exactly written convincingly to start with in the original manga).

Final verdict: Having written down the cons, this is a very challenging work of art (yes, "art", which is not simple "entertainment"), and it did choke my heart at several moments. This won't be everyone's favorite, as it deals with a serious and dark issue, and as it's not all straightforward (as in Tamako Love Story) - but it leaves viewers questioning about their own relationship with other people in the past and present.

MAY CONTAIN SLIGHT SPOILERS!

Watched it two days ago at TOHO Cinema in Tokyo.

I remember that I was reading manga, but at that time it wasn't coming out frequently and scanlating wasn't going good either, that's why I read about 9 chapters, so I barely remember any events expect the beginning of the story and main characters. But I was waiting for anime adaptation since that time. Even though kinda hoped for series, not just a movie.

I must say that I was a little worried about it airing at the same time with Kimi no Na wa, but it still seems alright, box office going good, ... even though it is three times less than Kimi no Na wa (but don't compare original movie made by Makoto Shinkai with manga adaptation, even from KyoAni).

But for the first half an hour (or maybe more) I was sitting quietly, being afraid to move even, cause it grasped me completely. I was feeling anger, pity, shame, a whole parade of emotions. Story felt good and dramatic, as Japanese like to do. Never ending and always sharp problems of bullying in school, attitude to people with disabilities who are trying to fit in the society.

Animation was great. This is what you should expect from Kyoto Animation. And don't try to compare it to Kimi no Na wa, it is really just on different level from the very beginning. And camera work! It was really incredible, I loved tons of shots, how they tried to accent on legs and lower parts of the body (I mean shots excluding characters' heads :D).

But as for characters and their development, movie had some problems. Both two main characters were shown great. But such a large amount of, probably, interesting supporting characters weren't developed good enough, even though the movie is more than 2 hours. Like Mashiba (red-haired guy in anime), for instance, he said just few phrases and felt really left out. And two ex-friends of Ishida from elementary school seem to have been forgotten at all, even though there were at least two scenes with them. And there were some shots that I didn't quite understand, like, for example, why Shouya's mom was bleeding and looked really beaten up, after she gave money to Shouko's mom? She beat her, really?

In general, I enjoyed it a lot, and can say that it's the second best movie by KyoAni (after Haruhi, obviously) and it is definitely worth watching. And I probably should finally read manga completely.

Overview:

A Silent Voice is a VERY popular anime and I can see its appeal. This is an anime that is beautifully animated by the much beloved Studio Kyoto. It has a soundtrack featuring The Who! It promised to actually address the issue of bullying far better than previous anime and give it the serious look it deserves. It promised to be a beautiful redemption tale and love story all in one. This anime SHOULD have been amazing. Sadly, I was really not a fan of this film and was badly disappointed to say the least. I'm not trolling. I'm not being contrarian for the lulz. ... I'm quite serious and I'll explain why.

Warning! There will be some spoilers!


Bullying and its portrayal in anime:

Before discussing the technical things like art and music, I really need to cover this topic. Bullying is a real world issue that effects millions of people around the world and contributes to suicide, depression, eating disorders, etc. Unfortunately, anime has a long and generally horrendous history in terms of tackling this topic. Bullies in anime tend to be like bullies in a Stephen King novel. They tend to be 1 dimensional bastards that exist solely to torment our heroes and eventually get their grisly comeuppance. When I heard about an anime that would finally give this topic the respect it deserved, I was thrilled! Finally an anime could help redeem over 40 years of the medium doing it wrong. Here are some reasons I feel this film fell short.

A deaf girl named Shouko transfers into a 6th grade class and immediately the whole class start tormenting her and treating her like shit. Our MC Shouya repeatedly yanks out her hearing aids and destroys them in front of everyone. He does this EIGHT TIMES in 5 months and even makes her bleed out of her ears. The teacher just ignores this abuse until Shouko's mother complains. The teacher then singles out Shouya and only Shouya to be the fall guy. Does he get expelled? Suspended? Detention? Nope. His mother is told and she scolds him. Shouya doesn't take his loving mother's lesson to heart and physically assaults Shouko. The school STILL doesn't do anything against Shouya. Kid doesn't even get detention. I know Japan is a different culture than America, but WTF?! This all seems absurdly contrived.

Firstly, this would be far more believable if it was a Kindergarten class and not fucking 6th graders. Kindergarten kids have no established morals and really will bully kids in overt ways for being different. I still remember when a little Asian girl transferred into my all White kindergarten in Indiana. We all did "Asian Eyes". We all called her names. One kid started doing monkey chants, so we all started doing monkey chants. It was fucked up and I STILL feel bad about it now that I'm 30. By the the 6th grade, kids are FAR less likely to universally bully a kid for being a little different and the ways in which they bully are different. By the 6th grade, kids will bully by not talking to an unpopular kid, shunning them, and maybe attacking them on social media. A whole 6th grade class being supportive of physically beating up a little deaf girl and making her bleed from the ears is pretty damn unlikely to say the least.

Secondly, a character needs to do horrible things in order to set up a redemption tale. However, we are typically given a REASON why the character begins the story that way. This reason doesn't justify their actions, but it makes the audience understand the hero and what is going through their mind. Let's take a break from anime and look at another popular redemption movie, American History X. So why did Derek become a Neo-Nazi? He was raised by a father who was pretty racist and instilled a bit of that in him at a young age. Derek's father was murdered in a high crime Black neighborhood. Derek angrily blamed minorities for his father's murder and looked for groups to channel his anger. He ended up finding one of the many racist groups that exist in America both online and off, which reinforced his beliefs and helped mold him into the character we see at the beginning. Shouya on the other hand, is an absolute monster towards the handicapped for no reason. He comes from a loving, middle class family. He isn't a natural born sociopath. He isn't the least popular kid in school and desperate to make 1 person beneath him on the totem pole. He isn't being persuaded by some warped ideology that encourages bullying the handicapped in order to transcend traditional morality and prove himself an Ubermensch. He goes way farther than anyone else in his class and at no point are we EVER given a modicum of why or what he's thinking. Shouya begins the story a complete monster for no other reason than to set up a redemption tale.

Ok, so they fucked up a little. At least Silent Voice still tackles bullying WAY better than other anime...right? Honestly, no it doesn't. Let's set the bar really low and see how A Silent Voice compared to Elfen Lied, an anime that is widely agreed to have done a poor job tackling the issue. The main bully in Elfen Lied is a little brat named Tomoo. This kid is a 10 year old orphan being raised at a chronically underfunded and neglectful orphanage. Nobody is showing kindness to him, so he torments others in order raise himself up. At least we can understand Tomoo and his motivations, so point 1 goes to EL. Now let's look at their targets. Shouko is hard of hearing, but is otherwise an ordinary little girl. She is extremely cheerful and extroverted. No matter how much she is bullied, she forgives with saintlike compassion and tries to befriend Shouya, who just laughs at her and beats her up more. Lucy has red eyes and demonic horns. She objectively looks like a freak within her own anime. Prior to snapping, Lucy responds to bullying with the same cold, disdainful glare. Lucy doesn't try to befriend Tomoo. Her defiant attitude, difficulty showing emotions, and introverted personality all end up contributing to further bullying, which is accurate to real life. Point 2 goes to EL. Now lets look at how over the top the bullying was. The worst thing Tomoo did was beat Lucy's dog to death. Now in America, we value dogs at almost the level we value humans. Killing a dog is an unforgivable act of villainy. In most of the world, constantly ripping out the hearing aids of a little deaf girl, destroying them, and beating her up over a period of 5 months for no reason is far worse than killing 1 dog. Shouya's unbelievable, over the top cruelty exceeds any action taken by Tomoo. Point 3 goes to Elfen Lied. Congratulations Silent Voice! You just got owned by fucking Elfen Lied. You overrated piece of horse shit!


Plot and characters:

After 30 minutes of our MC being the biggest douche in anime that is NOT Dio Brando, we flash forward to high school. The entire class immediately switched from bullying Shouko to bullying Shouya. I guess they have exactly 1 target at a time. Now Shouya is a good guy and wants to make things up to Shouko. We of course already know Shouko is the most forgiving character that isn't supposed to be a Christ character or represent the very best of humanity, so our only real obstacle is another girl from their 6th grade class named Naoka. We see that Naoka still HATES Shouko and is an absurdly evil bitch because she blames Shouko for Shouya being bullied...even though she herself helped bully Shouya. In the manga, Naoka has her own redemption arc in parallel to Shouya's and ends up really developing as a character. In the movie, they had to cut that out and she's just an evil bitch that adds NOTHING to this story. She isn't even the antagonist of this tale. An antagonist actually ADDS something to the plot! I'm not going to spoil the whole ending, but I found its sentimentality to be utterly ineffectual. We also can't have an effective romance because that requires TWO likeable characters. The only character with any development and depth deeper than a rain puddle is Shouya. It's like the film writer honestly didn't give a shit about anyone else.

Art:

Yes, the art is pretty and cute and Studio Kyoto is awesome. The X's over characters' faces when they are rejecting Shouya was a cool touch. I don't have anything to criticize here. It was good, but not good enough to save this from being a mess.

Music:

Well...at least we got 1 song by the Who. That's more than most anime.



Overall:

I really wanted to love this anime like everyone else apparently does. This was honestly one of the more disappointing anime experiences I've had in a long time. The characters besides 1 are badly underdeveloped. The plot is a contrived mess that utterly fails at tackling bullying better than past anime. The romance is lackluster and I got very few genuine feels out of this one. The art and production values are spectacular. The premise on paper is great. Then it all seems to fall apart. Kind of like Joker Game in that regard, which I won't bother reviewing because I just basically did. I'm not going to warn people away and scream to "Not buy the hype". Maybe someone else will have a different experience and really enjoy this film. This was just my experience and my own thoughts. I hope Your Name ends up being better than this!

Non-spoiler review
Story - 7
Art - 10
Sound - 10
Character - 7
Enjoyment - 10

Overall - 8

[I watched Koe no Katachi at United Cinema, Fukuoka, Japan on Sep 22nd, 2016](hope somebody will liscence it and get it abroad)
...
Short version; Kyoto Animation again brings great animation on to the table; The glittering eyes, cutesy-moe seifuku characters, great background, and much more. It is one of the finest animation quality out there, and if romance genre is your cup of tea, you will probably like the movie. Even if you don't like romance, it is not a disappointing film.

Ok, I'll start off by saying that I did not read the manga before hand so I will try my best to not assume what the original content did(I will definitely read it).

That being said, I have to mention that frankly, I was worried that I was not going to enjoy this movie as much as I initially thought I did because I still was stuck in the Kimi no Na Wa void. I was really worried that the visuals Kimi no Na Wa presented me with was Makoto Shinkai level amazing and I thought I would have been disappointed by Koe no Katachi just because I show Kimi no Na Wa beforehand.
Really, It did not disappoint me at all. The animation quality of Koe no Katachi is just tremendously amazing; Kyoto animation with a film budget definitely get things glittering don't they.

Aside from animation quality, the two 'meh' part of this movie was the story and the character. I can say that the pacing of the story was good. The climax wasn't too rushed, nor the premise wasn't too long and boring. I had enough time to get introduced to the characters and how they live through life before everything happened. As well as enough time for the important events to sink through my brain for comprehension. Now the problem was it was spending too little time outside of our two mains.
I remember a point in the movie where a bunch of kids were shouting out random gibberish to one another that obviously was not explored beforehand or even if it was, it was very vague. Thus made a potentially emotionally climatic scene to a lackluster. I would have understood how each character would have felt and reacted if I was able to know the side characters a lot more. Which leads to the failure of a solid side character I will be talking about next.

I hate how the side characters were unexplored throughout the 2 hours. Honestly, I get it, 2 hours isn't heck load of time to explore every single aspect of the original source material(I read through other reviews that a lot of events that happened in the manga was skipped), but still, some characters obviously did not matter(which those characters did not give damn about the two mains), furthermore, the characters that did seem important just got overshadowed. For example, so Mashiba satoshi a bad guy after all or not? I was just left hanging urging to know if that guy was genuine(hehe oregairu) or not. His eyes still makes me uncomfortable when he looks at Ishida. Even worse, Ueno's goal was just forgotten entirely by the end; Ueno mentioned how she wanted to go back to a period when all of the classmates when she was young were still happy together. However, in the end, did she just change her mind and let the whole friend thing drop? I did not see the development of change in her mindset to eventually like Nishimiya in the end. I hope the manga does cover side characters a lot more so the whole 'Im sorry all I wanted is ....' part actually does make sense.

Albeit, in the end, Koe no Katachi did pull off a pretty emotional moment, twice to be exact, during the climax. Not as much as Kimi no Na Wa(also Kimi no Na Wa struck me harder a lot more times), but I still believe that KyoAni had done what was needed to adapt an emotional story. The art was phenomenal, the voice acting was good, music was really good too(props on Aiko for the song in the ending credits), the characters and the story was a little underdeveloped where it was needed, but regardless of that I enjoyed the movie and I can guarantee it was worth the 2 hours of my time.

Mad respect for Kyoto animation pulling off that animation tho.(I had to mention it again).

It was my first review but hopefully, it helped someone, somewhere in the world out there ;)

[This review contains NO spoilers]
This is a story about the importance of listening and the effects of not doing so. It something we can all understand and learn from.

Social anxiety, Suicide, self loath/pity, forgiveness/acceptance, attachment, the desire/difficulty to be connect and most of all the complexity of human communication and emotions - all covered in this Movie as you delve into a journey to unravel a facade to find emotions we all contain and hide from others to void the difficulty of conveying them. We follow a character who closes his mind and refuses not to listen to create his own cynical narrative and in ... it we learn voice (koe) - or communication - has many shapes and forms (Katachi) and that it's shallow to think it's all monotonous.

When I heard Kyoto - with their legendary art style - was going to make a favourite manga of mine into a movie, I contemplated packing my bags and going to Japan for it's premier. Sadly I lacked the funds so I had to settle for the nearest cinema in London - 3 excruciating months after it's release.

It was sad to see the seats half empty, but when the movie started, the 60 year old man behind me was laughing, gasping and getting emotional along with the rest of the diverse crowd and this shows how well the message of the movie resonated and how universal the enjoyment was.

The plot evoked a roller coaster of emotions, some easy to emphasis with, and others MADE easy to resonate with! The plot starts vigorously but with a pace you could easily keep up with. It slightly stagnates to build context until the plot's climax - which got my spine tingling - a climax that I don't want to ruin for the unsuspecting! But the stagnation is what stops it from getting a 10/10 for it's plot. The strategic retreat from the plot's focus enabled for a good few laughs and set up what was to come very well, but it turned a 2 hours movie into what felt like a 3 hour movie, where I was anticipating the end mid way though as it seemed like they had reached a happily ever after. It somewhat ruined the experience for me and I felt like it could have been executed better by adding some more romantic develop (because I felt more pity for the characters than love).

I hate to be the guy who boasts how much better the source content was, but it's necessary to mention that a lot of the 60 + chapters of plot couldn't fit into the 2 hours time frame - hence we got hastily implemented and unexplained developments that the manga could easily clear up (one of the biggest being that fat that they all set out to make a movie and that is the real crux of how the MC makes and learns to socialise with friends), frankly the manga and movie could be considered separate entities considering their different approaches and focuses to this plot. This is a clear limitation the anime movie medium of story telling has so I can't personally penalise too much for doing the best it could, certainly better than other movie adaptations - and I rate based on comparison. There was room to fix some of the issues related to this, such as by removing some of the pretty/still/un-progressive scenes in exchange for progressive and informative development from the source content. Then again removing them could have made it feel too dense/melancholic and would likely have ruined the nice pace it set out and the mood those particular scenes set - so it hard to criticise.

The art was stunning, and Kyoto included their trademark extra, where the frames are never still - there are always subtle things happening in the background that just adds the cherry on top of their memorising art. The art could get any anime brownie points including Phantom world. Every nook and carny was accounted for, from the curves in the fingers, the change in colour form skin to nail to the glow emitted by the bright lighting and the distortion of their realistic dynamic multi tone shadows. Kyoto kept to their cutesy shiny art style with tranquil backgrounds and scenery - and props for their consistently amazing colour pallet.

The voice acting was ace, like most anime - at this point it's a given considering how serious people take voice acting in Japan. The music hit the spot, it started of with an English song, which may have confused the Japanese audience if they were unable to translate the lyrics, but it was pretty clever and a good way to summarise the first few chapters of the Manga which the movies wanted to power through with to save time. The Musics crept up on you and exploded sometimes, others it gently wrapped it's arms around you as you desperately tried to hold the tears back, And as your face prepared to unleash an unforced smile, the music came in to amplify it.

All in all, coming out of the cinema was hard, there was a plethora of emotions and thoughts swirling around in my mind, it created a moral dilemma that still has my mind in conflict now. Nothing felt too cliche apart for the typical anime personalities, which can be over looked considering what the plot done with them. The movie was truly touching, the ascetics was mind-blowingly good and the music was on point.

I enjoyed it as an avid fan of Romance, particular dramatic ones - despite the romance not being completely conclusive in the movie. I enjoyed this more than any other anime of it's type, and I'm sure anyone with the same taste wouldn't hesitate to give it a 10/10 and others wouldn't dare give it bellow an 8 unless it's not their thing.

*=======================================================================================*

Personal Onion/side note:

Many had an issue with what they saw as an emotionally manipulative plot that stereo typed emotions and disabilities and thought it gave a shallow outlook on them. However I think expecting a movie that tackles these theme elegantly with precision is too much to ask for, especially of the length of this plot and with it's density in content. Some people are choosing to get offended by how deaf people and suicidal people are presented here - as if this anime was tailored to be the political ambassador for these groups of people and has a duty outline the existence of a variation of people in these groups, as well as representing them as strong independent people - rejecting (or at least wanting to mask) the existence of vulnerable people in this category. It seems like this leads them to think adding convenience in a plot and a catalyst for progression is inherently a bad thing, as if the purpose of media itself isn't to entertain with by showing a collision of stark stereotypes that enable recognition and empathy (as well as saving time on unnecessarily developing a character from birth to present day) but to make a perfect recreation or reality without abstraction and stereotypes of entities (something even a computer is not capable of) that is primarily to educate viewers and not provide entertainment that's not difficult to decipher.
Of course not everyone who make such points fall into the pitfall of expecting too much form their medium, but many seem to give these point significant weight in their score, with a few minor flaws seeming to elicit a deduction more than 3+ points out of 10. They are free to do this and I have no right to lecture them on their scoring system, but I just think it's inefficient, ineffective and lacks the investment of deep thought with a widened scope - IE. it clashes with my philosophy. If you fall into this category and can enlighten me on your perspective I'd really appreciate it.

I don't like this movie. If you do, that's great! I'm only writing this to warn people who, like me, might find this movie to be a waste of their time, and not to say anything negative about the fans of this movie.

Story - 1
I think the story, premise wise, is alright. A boy who used to be a bully tries to become friends with his old victim. However, in execution, I think this anime fails spectacularly.
The pacing, for one thing, is extremely weird. I'm fairly sure this movie was supposed to cover several months, but I never really got a clear sense of what ... happened when. All the scenes seemed to kind of blend together, with no sense of how much time had passed in between scenes.
I didn't feel like the characters really got anywhere, or even did much of anything. And yeah, it's a drama, but that's not really an excuse. It feels like they almost went through a checklist to make this whole thing.
-Establish cute heroine
-Gather childhood friends
-Have the characters forgive themselves/others.
-Have main characters fall in love.
This last point was the one that really stood out to me. Why does Nishimiya suddenly fall in love with Ishida? Because he's nice to her? If I fell in love with everyone who was nice to me, I would be in a lot of trouble.
No, it's not because there's any logical reason. It's because this movie needs to sell copies. I felt like that justification could fit a lot of the questions I had watching this movie. The whole experience just felt like it was engineered to be another Clannad/Anohana tearjerker, and not to stand on it's own merits. Maybe this would had worked, but I couldn't get absorbed into the experience at all. Mostly because of the awful characters.
The story is also fairly slow, with few scenes I really felt moved the plot forward or developed the characters. I don't mind slow pacing, but not when it serves nothing but to pad the movie out, and nothing else.

I'm going to get away from the actual story a bit, and talk about something that bothered me. The way mental health is portrayed in this anime is a little misleading, at best, and actively harmful at worst.
At the start of the show, the main character is planning his suicide. That itself, is fine. It felt fairly realistic to me, and I appreciate when anime explores dark themes. What DID bother me was when his mother found out. She makes it all about herself, saying "How could you do this to me?" and making him promise he won't kill himself. She NEVER listens to why he feels this way, or makes ANY attempt to try to help him or get him professional help. Honestly, this kind of reaction, while only making the situation worse by making the suicidal person feel shamed and pathetic, DOES happen in real life quite often. What I have a problem with is how the movie handles this. She apologizes later, and by the tone of the movie and her being so easily forgiven, it sends the message that this is an appropriate way to respond to learning someone is going to kill themself. The movie then pretends that just by saying he won't kill himself, he's magically fixed, and never again thinks about or attempts suicide. I wish I had known years ago that the only way to stop feeling suicidal is to just tell myself that I won't do it! /s

Seriously, IF YOU HAVE A FRIEND WHO YOU THINK IS SUICIDAL:
DO NOT MAKE IT ABOUT YOURSELF. The only appropriate thing to do is to listen to them, and let them feel heard. Don't threaten them, and do not blame them. They are already dealing with difficult feelings, by blaming them all you do is make them feel worse. Try to get them help. If they won't accept it, be there for them as best you can.

*SPOILERS*



This reappears later in the movie, when waifuchan- I mean Nishimiya- also tries to kill herself. She's told that, "Everyone has suffering, so you just need to accept the bad parts of yourself". What bad parts does she even have? Her deafness, I guess? That's more of a challenge than a character flaw. Anyways, this sentiment is equally as grating. Because, obviously, depressed people just need a lecture and they'll see everything as sunshine and rainbows.
Which is essentially how this movie ends. Ishida has a revelation, and his depression is cured! I don't think the writers of this anime have struggled with mental illness. Getting better is a long, sometimes torturous process, that sometimes feels pointless. It's slow, and takes a lot of work. Nobody just wakes up and suddenly their mental illness is gone.



*END SPOILERS*

Art - 5
It's KyoAni. Of course the art is going to be good looking. I wasn't really impressed, though. There wasn't anything creative about color use, or shot composition, or creative visual metaphors.
Well, there is one visual metaphor, but it's a long stretch from 'creative'. To show that Ishida doesn't want to hear certain people, an X is placed over their face. I only found this extremely distracting. I know it's a cliche at this point, but why not just black out their faces, or maybe have the camera angles shot in such a way to not show their faces?
Other than that, I didn't really feel like there was much detracting, in the way of artwork. This isn't exactly art related, but why did the anime hide the black guy for so long? It showed the rest of the family near the start of the movie, and Ishida's brother-in-law is only shown at the end, as if it's supposed to be some kind of funny revelation. What is funny about a character being black? I guess that's Japan for you, but it felt kind of scummy.

Sound - 4
I didn't really notice the music, for the most part, which is kind of the problem. The music never added anything for me. I noticed in particular during one emotional scene that there was no music. Was that deliberate? Who knows!
The voice acting was alright. Pretty standard anime fare. I was a little worried, going into this movie, that Nishimiya would go from not talking to having a perfect anime girl voice. I thought her voice was pretty convincing. I don't think I'm the greatest judge, because I've only heard deaf people talk via TV shows, but I was convinced. I looked up the voice actress to see if she was actually deaf, because I thought she might be. (She wasn't. I think it might have been better to have an actual deaf person, but I don't think it's too big of a deal)

Characters - 2
Oh boy, where do I start?
The biggest problem I have with the characters in this anime is that they lack any depth. It was obvious there was an attempt to give them depth, but this creates what irritated me perhaps the most about this movie: The characters are only portrayed as completely good or completely bad depending on what the movie wants you to feel at that specific time. When the characters are supposed to be seen as 'bad' they behave in completely disgusting ways. Then, later, the movie pretends they've gone through some kind of arch by having them apologize for it later, and never act that way again. I can excuse this in the case of Ishida- He's grown up significantly, and has gone through enough suffering to develop empathy. But the others- Nishimiya's mother and sister, and Kawai, for the most part- it just feels extremely fake.
Ishida was probably my favorite character out of all of them, but that only means that I found him slightly less obnoxious and unbelievable than the rest of the cast. I understand why he does most of what he does, and his character is bland, but in a way I could see a real kid turning out. I don't like that he never seems to take initiative and actually DO anything (Stand up to the one bully, tell his classmates who were bad-mouthing him to fuck off, go past the sister when she says he can't see Nishimiya) but again, that's the sort of issue I could understand a real teenager having.
Nishimiya is what I like to call 'waifu-bait'. She's so bland, so vanilla, so forgiving, that most weeb viewers will want her merchandise and dakimakura. What are her interests? What does she do in her free time? Is there anything unlikable about her whatsoever? Can you answer these questions? I don't think you really could. It feels like a deliberate choice on the part of the writers/ directors, in my opinion, to not give her any strong personality traits, so as to not alienate any viewers. It could be argued that they wanted to portray her sympathetically, to not make it seem like she's unlikable because she's deaf, I suppose. But as a pansexual man, the only gay characters who offend me are terribly written ones. I can't speak for the deaf audience, but if I were deaf, I would be angry to be portrayed in such a mindless, creatively-dead way.
Then there's Ueno. She's straight-up a bitch. I don't think they were even trying to show her as anything more than a mean, one-dimensional character. I know soooo many people in real life who are just mean for no reason, and never attempt to even think rationally. /s She only exists in this movie to be the villain, and nothing more.
I already kind of covered Nishimiya's family. They go from completely unlikable to saints in the span of about ten seconds. I don't really have anything more to say.
The only other character I think it worth mentioning is the best friend character, Nagatsuka. (Did you remember his name? I sure didn't!) He's fairly annoying, although in the way I could sort of relate to. I've had loud, kind of weird friends before, and they've been some of the best friends I've ever had. So his involvement in the movie was maybe the only time I could see myself in the character's shoes. I didn't like the way he seemed very... comic-relief, I suppose? He would be saying very serious stuff, but I felt as though the movie didn't want me to take him seriously. The way he was drawn was, I think, the biggest factor in this. He's a fairly serious character in a pretty serious movie, and yet, KyoAni drew him as a blob. Between him and Haru from Accel World, I'm beginning to wonder if any of these animators have ever actually seen a fat person. As someone who has, having such an unrealistic character took me out of the movie somewhat. I might be the only person bothered by this, but oh well.
Everyone else is forgettable, in my opinion. One-dimensional background characters.

Entertainment - 2
I really felt like this movie felt very 'anime'. It wasn't trying to tell a good story, or trying to show its audience any nuance or complexity. It is made to sell merchandise. I honestly wish it had entertained me. I don't go into shows thinking, "Oh boy, I can't wait to hate this show and drag down its MAL score!" I wanted to like this movie. But when the story is so bland and the characters so inhuman and obnoxious, I just can't.

Read All First! / SPOILERS*: (Im sorry if you don't agree, but this is my Review)

Koe no Katachi(Manga) had an amazing story line, filled with great character progression, and a lot of story and insight.

However I strongly believe that the movie did not do the Manga justice and left viewers with a lot of plot holes and questions (from the reaction after the movie). It should not have of been a movie, as there was too much story and character progression to be fit into a 2 hour movie (I really enjoyed understanding why Nishimiya Shoukos mother is why she acts the way she was ... from the manga)
The movie cut out a lot of scenes which made it hard to understand why people were doing things (making the film together (which was not in the film) was put to one text message and then forgotten - and a good plot line)
It should of been an 12-25 episode Anime.

Don't get me wrong I did enjoy some parts and the scene where Shouko at the festival, with the Fireworks and music I thought that was breathtaking.
however there was too much missing for my liking.

p.s this is my first review

A Silent Voice is a beautiful looking filmーlike most of Kyoto Animation’s productions. The artistic direction was on point, but that aspect of this creation doesn’t make up for the poorly constructed story. The story is about a bully making amends for beating and antagonizing a deaf girl as a child.

• That would be all fine and good, if the movie showed the recovery of the girl who got unjustly picked on and the bully helping her trust again, or something like that, but this film is all about THE BULLY making amends, so that he doesn’t feel like killing himself. The deaf girl’s ... personality is not explored whatsoeverーshe’s just the apologetic, cute, love interest.

• Yes, you heard me correctly. Love interest. The first time the characters meet after the time skip, the deaf girl (with good reason) runs away from him. But, once they meet again, she’s starts flirting with him? She forgives him? This guy ripped out her hearing aids, causing her ears to bleed, and threw away thousands of dollars worth of hearing equipment for this deaf girl and beat her for getting him in trouble.

• Saori Hayami does a good job at voicing a deaf girl, but the victim of the story, practically has no role other than to be a Mary Sue that apologizes constantly for being abused. It’s sickly reminiscent of the scene in Royal Space Forceーwhere the main heroine apologized for almost getting raped. I threw my hands up and almost quit midway through the movie because of that characterization of a sweet, deaf girl.

• To make things worse, the main character doesn’t just keep contacting her, but he brings the other bullies that used to hurt her along with him! Yeah, there’s a girl who used to be nice to her that comes along, too, and a fat guy that look’s like Deku if he gained two hundred pounds and serves absolutely no point in the story, except to make the protagonist look less creepy.

• The most well-written character was probably either Ueno or the deaf girl’s little sister. Ueno, while being a terrible person who had no right tagging along with the deaf girl after being awful to her, forcing her to apologize to her for “breaking up their friend group by snitching,” and beating her up, was one of the more fleshed out characters.

• Ueno’s character was refreshing, because she was a pretty girl that was ghetto trash and anime never does that! KyoAni did well at animating her mannerisms to look like she was a trashy, garbage can of a person and didn’t make her a moe copy/paste like most of their female characters. Sadly enough, Ueno (though unlikable) was far more realistic than the girl you’re supposed to be sympathizing with.

• The little sister wasn’t well-written eitherーseeing as she forgave the main character far too easily for all of the horrible shit he did to her sister and even seems to possibly like him? What is this, a fucking visual novel? And, she takes pictures of dead animals and posts them all over the house to... keep her sister from committing suicide? Why?

• I was seething throughout this whole movie though, if people thought Your Lie in April was melodramtic, this takes it to a new level. Seeing as the deaf Mary Sue hangs out with all of her bullies again, something bad is bound to happen. It was forced tension that didn’t need to be there. There were moments that were like, “Hey, let’s go to the amusement park with two of your bullies tagging along. Nothing can possibly go wrong!”

• As someone who was bullied pretty severely as a child and teenager, I would never EVER want to hand out with my bullies again, god forbid, have romantic feelings for one. It disgusted me that such a nice girl would be blaming herself for these awful people being unhappy, apologizing on her knees for something that was not her fault AT ALL, and even attempting suicide over it and then blaming herself when the protagonist falls while saving her.

• Overall, A Silent Voice is a movie that’s worth watching if you want to see pretty visuals, but other than that, no one should have to sit through this stupidity. It was hard watching a good person continually getting trauma heaped on her, for no good reason, while the asshole who hurt her gets to recover from the guilt of bullying her. It’s a bad movie and has bad messages in it. I give it a 3/10.

some people say "I love you" is the hardest word to ever say to someone... but is that really true? is it that hard to say? in my case it is hard yes, but not the hardest. have you ever thought of the word "I'm sorry"? I'm not talking of the "easy" "I'm sorry" i'm talking about the "I'm sorry" that comes from the bottom of your heart, the expression of your true feelings, being completely sorry, regretful, that word that burns inside you like hell... now, that's really REALLY hard to say.

at first I thought that this movie was just a movie about how ... a bully and the bullied make a relationship by forgiving each other, but in reality, this movie goes beyond that, and I feel completely relatable to what this movie had to offer, because I once felt that, that need of telling people that I did hurt "I'm sorry" the sensation of being burned alive when doing it crushes your soul, but in the end, you'll know it was totally worth it, you will feel relieved by doing so, and by watching this movie, you'll understand why. I'll try not to bully you with Spoilers, but you have been warned.

Story 10/10: if you have ever been bullied by someone, you will know how hard is to keep what you feel deep inside, developing fear, having trust issues, trying to keep yourself from people to avoid damage. it is something serious. having the will to overcome this is hard.

the plot goes around an average boy that goes to a school, he had friends, money, good reputation. but one day, a girl appears, that girl is deaf, that girl tried to be friends with her classmates, tho, she only got rejected by many, specially from that boy, he kept bullying her, to the point of damaging her, not only physically, but psychologically too. here we see a complete turn of events, pretty much Karma. yes, Karma is a bitch, and this boy ends being the bullied one. Ironic isn't it?.

After that introduction, there is the timeskip that deliver you the freaking ninjas cutting onions on your room, the amount of feels it manages to deliver is real. this movie takes your heart, and starts slicing it like you were on a heart surgery. why? well, past is a douche, he tells the future of your actions and then the present is in charge of destroying your life... all because of what? something as "simple" as bullying someone? is that easily forgotten? well is not easy, but hard.

from this point, you'll see the word regret inside your mind as the story goes around the MC, he is trying to redeem himself from what he did before, but he doesn't know the price he has to pay off, its a really big one, even if it sounds simple, it isn't. the feel of being guilty attacks, those that once trusted him, no longer does. a lot of stuff gets on his way, he is only trying to talk to that girl he once bullied, he want to become her friend... but something prevents him of doing so... what could that be? hint: it isn't the people that prevents him of doing so.

Art 10/10: you know a show is a masterpiece when it can deliver the feels with animation, is not just the fact of the topic of the movie, when it resonates with each aspect: Story, Ost, Characters, and the ninjas cutting onions on your room, I swear I could have cried if I wanted to, yet I decided to die deep inside, tho I was close to burst in tears, and I haven't done this with a single anime... and that's really saying something. that's the power of the movie being delivered into your heart with images.

Sound 10/10: Read Animation again, but exchange words related to animation to Sound and we have our deal with the sound department... ah, who am i Kidding? voice acting was GREAT, OST was GREAT, the sound of ninjas cutting onions was superb... this movie knows how to keep your heart in your hand the whole time.

Character 10/10: hate, sadness, pity, happyness, I felt each one of them on almost every character, not in a bad way of course. I also felt identified with the characters, being so relatable and knowing how they feel, is something heartbreaking, if you do, trust me, you will burst in tears, if you don't then this means you have no heart or you haven't experienced something like this... in fact, the character that would suit you is Ueno.

Enjoyment 1/10: sorry, but I couldn't keep the Ninjas cutting Onions out of my room, I really enjoyed the movie. that, if Enjoyment means to get your heart crushed and wanting to burst in tears for 2 hours.

let's say that the scale of 1/10 having 1 as being sad, and 10 as being happy is what could define Enjoyment here, so scoring enjoyment as 1 is the same as scoring it as 10, even if that sounds pretty stupid XD

Overall 10/10: this movie is a bit rude, but meaningful, it touches deep topics with the most kind touch ever possible, so heartwarming, so relieving, so annoying, so happy, so upset, so freaking real.

Don't let people say you can't be friends with someone you once had a fight with and got separated due to that. regret will come one day crushing you, and you will know the POWERFUL meaning of the word "I'm sorry", and how hard it is to say to someone, even harder than the world "I love you"

now, if you are satisfied now, I shall go to a corner and spent the rest of the day crying

This is gonna be in Spanish and in English. I'll add the translation below, explaining why I put the "low" rating.

The adaptation, from the point of view of someone who had already read the manga (even before any movie announcement existed), was mediocre. The character development was null, except for Shoya and Shoko (also Yuzuru and Ueno, more or less). Mashiba had no importance, the same as almost everyone else. In the manga we got to know why Mashiba was so nice and kind (and also saw him punch the face of our main character when he knew it was him who caused Shoko's pain ... in her childhood).

Koe no Katachi manga made me feel tensed and even cry. The tankobon in which we had Shoya unconscious was brutal.

Now, taking my overall opinion away, I'm gonna explain each and every aspect of my rating.

-Story (2/10): Terrible adaptation. Important scenes were cut off, even the most essential parts (like Shoya's bench, which was shown but with no relevance). The detail of the crosses in people's faces wasn't so marked too. If I gave 1/10 to the adaptation, it would have been unfair, I admit. However, it doesn't deserve a 3.

-Art (8/10): It would have been a 10/10, but it disgusted me to see the camera focusing wherever in most sign-language parts, instead of letting us see the characters communicating this way. Staff laziness to investigate, I guess?

-Sound (9/10): Cute selection, but not as memorable as in other Kyoto Animation films.

-Characters (4/10): The movie showed me the next:
>Shoya without any specific reason to change and become a good man.
>Cute Shoko who sadly lacked of interaction with anyone who wasn't Shoya, Sahara, Yuzuru or Ueno.
>Forced Ueno. Staff wanted us to hate her (but, personally, I adore this character and Shoko in the manga).
>Miki and Mashiba. Both could have not appeared in the movie and the result would have been the same.
>Plot-device Sahara.
>Nice Yuzuru, but lacking of all the personality she had in the original version.
>Comedy-device Tomohiro.

Terrible development of almost everyone. I was thinking of a 3/10 for this aspect, but I'm merciful.

-Enjoyment (5/10): It was uncomfortable to see how ripped the original story was while the scenes advanced. However, I must admit there were a lot of scenes I enjoyed as separated fragments (instead of one "full" movie). I was disgusted but I enjoyed, so I give it an "I don't know" (5/10).

Overall: 6

Koe no Katachi is a cute movie, but it angers me to see how high ranked it is in MAL while the manga is so below and without even reaching 9 as score.

My direct comment for you, who is reading my review (and who I really thank for taking the time to do so), is to not feel so pleased with the movie and give the manga a chance. I don't know, maybe you thought I was exaggerating in this review, but I would feel very pleased if you could return after reading the original version to tell me if you agree or disagree with me.

Koe no Katachi is a wonderful manga and it seriously deserved more than what was delivered to cinemas.

___________________________
SPANISH TRANSLATION

La adaptación, desde mi punto de vista con el manga leído (desde antes de que siquiera existiera algún anuncio de película), fue mediocre. El desarrollo de personajes fue nulo, con excepción de Shoya, Shoko, Yuzuru y Ueno (más o menos). Mashiba no tuvo nada de importancia ni desarrollo en la película, al igual que casi todos los demás. En el manga, hasta llegamos a saber (quienes lo leímos) el por qué es tan buena onda (además de que disfrutamos la parte en la que, cuando se enteró de que Shoya era quien molestaba a Shoko, le volteó el putazo de su vida).

El manga me hizo sentir los momentos de tensión que, si bien sí estuvieron bien realizados en la película, por mucho no superó a los que tuve al leer la obra original. La parte del suicidio me hizo llorar y el volumen en el que el protagonista estuvo inconsciente fue brutal.

Ahora diré cada aspecto, explicando por qué su calificación.

-Historia (2/10): La adaptación fue terrible. Eliminaron escenas vitales, como todo lo relacionado con los cuadernos de Nishimiya, la banca de Shoya, entre muchas escenas que habría sido cómico ver (como cuando descubren que Yuzuru es una chica en las regaderas). El detalle de los taches en las caras de las personas también fue menos marcado de lo que debió. Reconozco que darle 1/10 hubiese sido ya muy mala onda, pero definitivamente no merecía un 3.

-Arte (8/10): Hubiese sido un 10, pero me molestó mucho el hecho de que, cuando comenzaban a hablar con lenguaje de señas, la cámara volteaba a otros lados que nada tenían que ver. Eso denota flojera, si me lo preguntan.

-Sonido (9/10): Muy bonita selección, pero definitivamente no tan memorable como en otros trabajos de Kyoto Animation.

-Personajes (4/10): La película me dio a un Shoya que se volvió el chico buena onda sin razón alguna; una Shoko linda pero sin tanta interacción con otros personajes más que Shoya, Sahara, Yuzuru y Ueno; una Ueno que se vio forzada a ser el personaje odiable por el público (aunque personalmente adoro a este personaje en el manga), una Miki y un Mashiba que pudieron no haber estado en la película y el resultado hubiese sido el mismo; una Sahara que tampoco importó mucho más que para plot-device; una Yuzuru sin toda la personalidad que se le vio en el manga; y un Tomohiro que sólo sirvió para añadir comedia. Desarrollo terrible. Toda la familia de Shoya pasó muy inadvertida también (su madre y su sobrina se salvaban por poco). Estaba tentado a darle 3/10 pero soy misericordioso.

-Disfrute (5/10): Me fue muy molesta la película al ver, conforme avanzaba cada escena, las terribles mutilaciones que hacían. Aún así hubo escenas que sí disfruté mucho al tomarlas nada más como partes por separado y no como una película en conjunto. Me molestó pero a la vez sí disfruté un poco verla, por eso le doy un 5/10 (lo mismo que un "no sé") a este apartado.

-Calificación general: 6
Es una película bonita, pero me molesta mucho el que esté tan arriba en el ranking de AnimeNew mientras que el manga esté más abajo y sin siquiera llegar a 9 de calificación. Mi comentario directo a tí, quien leyó mi crítica (y a quien agradezco haberla leído) es que no te quedes con la película. Si ya la viste y la pudiste disfrutar, te recomiendo mucho leer el One-Shot y el manga serializado. Tal vez, al haber leído mis ponderaciones, creas que estoy exagerando o que soy un hater nada más, pero estaré feliz de que vuelvas a darle una leída a mi comentario una vez que termines de leer el manga y me comentes en qué estás de acuerdo y en qué no.

Koe no Katachi es un manga grandioso y definitivamente se merecía más que lo que nos entregaron en las pantallas.

I didn't like A Silent Voice as much as I would have liked to. The storyline had so much potential but failed to step out of boundaries. Expressing issues like suicide, mental illnesses, and bullying is a challenge through a movie, but no matter what the mediocre plot remained. I am surprised that it is rated so highly, and I think it's because of the main storyline that everyone loves it so much, but here's why I rated it so low.

While there were signs of character development, there was so much skipping around. Instead of getting the viewer to understand what it really feels like ... for someone to develop anxiety, a decent amount of crying and small animated symbols filled the blank spaces instead. I thought that this movie would somehow prove that it was more than a typical storyline with a sad story, and it had the opportunity to tackle so many mental issues but did not go in depth with it.

The movie is too much of an "aesthetic" vibe rather than a true story being told. The story is more revolved around the main character instead of the others around him who are also facing fair struggles of their own. Suicide is such a strong topic and yet it is not portrayed properly. Please don't hand me the sad emotions with a suicide attempt. DISPLAY the pain they feel through mental pain and past experiences, not physical expressions throughout the whole movie.

Everyone in the world is distinctive, each person having both positive and negative aspects about them, and every society is known for their own distinctive features. There are those who disagree with this view as nothing more than a blind and false generalization, and there are those who completely agree with it. Both ways of thinking, in my opinion, are unnecessarily exaggerated. The best solution for this is a balance, as we cannot hide one society’s trait, nor can we realistically say that a whole society belongs to a certain feature. For example, Japanese people are considered to be people who love a clean environment, ... so, does that mean that every single Japanese acts in this manner? Certainly not, but most of them do act upon this certain trait. The characteristics of a society are important for identifying an important case, and that is that the goals of a story are to display those attributes in a precise manner, and to display the solutions that can be found in a literary artistic context, and not in an informative one. The Anime movie, Koe no Katachi, presents a social issue of Japanese society. So, how credible is this particular movie? How good is it’s credibility, and what are it’s positive aspects, and it’s negative ones?

To start off with the story, it is supposed to be an autobiography about a young guy called Shouya, and the movie displays what occurs in his life from his elementary school days up until he reaches high school, and that is by highlighting the events that had a relation with him bullying and picking on his deaf classmate, a girl by the name of Shouko. So, what are the consequences of his insolent actions? And what will happen in this regard? This is the structure of the story, and it is rather good, because this structure depends on two essential elements that rarely fail. The first element, is picking the prospective of the story to be an autobiography. The best thing about picking an autobiography as a story is the fact that the viewer’s attachment during the story, and even after the story had concluded, is set on a human, and not on an object or a place. Meaning that the attachment of the viewer is not on an event or a set of particular events, nor on any action sequences, nor anything else. The attachment of the viewer is solely on a person with realistic features and components, aka a human. This is useful due to the fact that the viewer feels that they have identified and related with a human on an emotional scale. The second essential element of this story, is that the movie highlights interesting occurrences that go on in that character’s life. I can safely say that the story of Shouya, from him picking on his classmate Shouko, and the effect that had on their lives and on their classmates, is very intriguing to look at and watch.

The beginning of the movie was light and quickly used a hook that was impactful, even if I found the hook to be used way too early on in the story, because the time between that particular hook, until we reach the dilemma of the story, is long enough to the point where it can lessen the effect of that strong hook later on in the story. As for the events, I find that the script was very useful in portraying each and every single event, because I did not find one event with little to no meaning, and there are two essential categories that the writer used when it came to the events: Events which were centered around building the story, and events that were pivotal to the story. I really liked how these events were distributed throughout the narrative, and the way the writer dealt with them, due to the fact that many writers don’t know how to execute the events that build the story in an interesting manner. Usually, these events are dull, and the reason for that is due to the fact that they are non-interactive and their mission is to build characteristics within the characters in order to crystallize a pivotal event. I was surprised though, that these beginning events were more interesting than boring, and the reason for that is thanks to the realistic nature of the dialogue.

The characters here were fairly realistic, and they reflect on the age group they were placed in in a very precise way, whether they were in elementary school or when they became high schoolers, and it is an effort that deserves respect. Moreover, the Japanese values that are displayed here and the degree of emotion that characterizes the Japanese is correct, and that is very excellent. The way of communication between the students, the two genders and the general etiquette of Japanese society is to be found. Subsequently, the film was able to present a true image to a very good degree of the society it was representing. Unfortunately, there is a problem to be found in the duration of the film, which is that I find it to be longer than it needs to be. The length of the whole movie is a timely two hours and ten minutes, and this is a fatal mistake that cannot be overlooked. All of the characters and the events would have needed an hour and a half at most for them to be fleshed out accordingly, and if the staff had stuck to an hour and a half, then that would have greatly benefited both the movie and the audience as well. As for the climax of the story, it was written both emotionally and cleverly, and in a way that was harmonious to the narrative. The ending, though fairly normal and drab, is still credible in accordance to the events that take place in the movie. There is a dramatic exaggeration that I didn’t find good though, and a negative point that spoils the ending a little, which is Shouya’s dramatic reaction at the end. This particular scene is challenging to settle, as the producers messed up on this one. It doesn’t really ravage the film entirely, but it surely mitigates the strong emotional impact that could have been reaped.

Homogeneous to many Anime, there is a high quality in the selection of the camera angles. Each angle was carefully selected, and it’s dimensions chosen to direct the viewer’s attention to what the director seeks, and this movie was so creative with it’s angles, to the point where the viewer could recognize a character’s gender simply because of the genius that went into choosing the camera angles, the framing being very good as well. The animation is exquisite overall, but there is no point where it excels in quality and becomes above the normal standard. Excellent accuracy could be found when it comes to the facial expressions, but another problem is that sometimes it becomes difficult to understand the significance of those expressions and what they mean, as those expressions could be understood in a false sense by the audience. For example, there is a scene where Shouya offers someone to take his bike instead of his classmate’s bike, the facial expressions in that particular scene were correct, although they seemed to have been misplaced. Here I would have wished for the director to have at least used some sound effects to support the validity of what they wanted to convey, since the director managed to implement them when it came to later scenes in the movie.

The character design worked well at diversifying the characters from one another and were compatible with each character’s own unique personality, except for Shouya’s design when he grew up into his highschool years, as I find that his character design should have made parallel changes in accordance to the heavy psychological trauma that was inflected on him as a child growing up. The background design is very well made, and the settings reflect correctly on the characters that reside in them. The performance of the Japanese cast is excellent, and the credibility of how the deaf communicate is done well. As for the soundtrack and the sound effects, I find that they played a vital role in supporting the narrative and enhancing the viewer’s experience, and the music's presence was very important, as the way it entered and exited scenes was ideal, to the point where it contributed to the continuous mobility in the vicinity of the story in a smooth manner, and without disturbing the viewer’s process in receiving the contents of the story.

In conclusion, the long length of the movie being two hours and ten minutes, in addition to the ending that was fairly average and tended on thin, ruined what was supposed to be a great film. As such, a score of only a 7 could be given to this movie. Koe no Katachi, however, still remains a beautiful film, and it’s humanitarian messages are displayed in a respectful artistic manner. The characters are mostly fairly realistic, and they uniquely reflect an issue of Japanese society in a credible manner. The movie, A Silent Voice, is very well made, and it is still a movie worth checking out.

I was lucky enough to catch the very first screening of Koe no Katachi in Singapore's cinemas on March 9, 2017. This is also my first review, so please bear with me if my review layout is not great.

Please also note that my review of this will be Anime-only, as I have not yet read the manga. I do plan on reading the manga to get the full experience though.

Story: 9/10
- The story starts off with a young girl named Nishimiya Shouko, who walks in to a classroom and introduced herself in pieces of paper she wrote before coming in, then "I am deaf." was ... written. Ishida Shouya and a few of his friends bullied her as her time in school goes by to the point where she had to be transferred out because they have been damaging her hearing aids -which is very expensive- and the teachers were suspicious of a potential bully in class. Shouya's actions then turned onto him and he has to suffer almost the same fade of bullying as what he did to Shouko. Many years later, both of them met again. Regretting his actions, Shouya tries to make friends with her in hopes of trying to reconcile.

This is a rather interesting story to me as not many manga/anime generally does not focus a story about a deaf character. It's fairly genuine in the Anime community and I really applaud the setting and effort being put into the movie.

Art: 10/10
- As expected from Kyoto Animation, it has one of the most vibrant and smoothest animation one could get. Comparing this to Tamako Love Story, the quality is about the same, if not better.

Sound: 7/10
- First of all I must say that the ending song "Koi wo Shita no wa" by aiko is flawless. However, there are instances where the sound does not seem to fit with it's current scene/setting. Some of which threw me off in the cinema that I'd just prefer to watch it raw and without sound. Overall, there ARE still some music which really fits it's current scene/setting, but it's just that one or two sounds which were really unfit to be in there.

The voice acting is spot-on; especially the Nishimiya sisters, which was actually the main reason why I watched the movie. Saori Hayami did a perfect-close-to-flawless job in performing as Shouko and Aoi Yuuki's tone as Yuzuru is completely different from the other roles she took before this, which bewildered me because I almost thought that it's a completely different person. Miyu Irino's preformance is great as well.

Character: 8/10
- The only thing that left me a good impression while I was sitting in the cinema was Shouya's development throughout the movie. He makes a major change to himself in order to reconcile with Shouko. I really love his change and one can really relate (especially people who regret bullying their victims) to how he's doing his best to show his regret on his actions.

Enjoyment: 10/10
- Throughout this sitting I've never fidget at all and my eyes were glued to the screen for the entire movie. Fidgeting a lot has been a habit for me when it comes to watching shows in cinemas and I was really surprised when the movie ended. Hence why I gave my enjoyment the fullest.

Overall: 10/10
- I'm not really a person who cries at a really touching scene but this movie takes the cake. It's a very enjoyable movie to sit back and relax and I highly recommend people who do that to watch this.

Like any other slice-of-life anime, the plot is relatively simple, however there is an outstanding attention to the development of the characters.

As usual for Naoko Yamada, most of the scenes and dialogue from the manga are present, however she adds so much more to the anime, making it a truly emotional experience.

The story is very mature, not in the sense that it is dark and gritty, but more in the sense that the characters are fully realised, presented in a realistic manner.

A Silent Voice forgoes anime archetypes by maintaining internal-consistency in all of its characters, making all of their actions relatable, or at least ... understandable.

It is difficult to describe why the audio-visuals work so well using just words.

I found the film to be a powerful, transformative experience.

(Spoiler warning)

Deafness or Deaf-Mute is a serious disability. Another very important topics is Discrimination and bullying. These things definitely deserves more attention, even in education as well. The movie presents these topics and the major theme of the story builds up on these subjects.

However, this movie fails to present any pont or specified any statement whatsoever. I assemble a few crucial mistake to support my claims and to establish the fact that this movie is dangerous. I try to be short and straight as I going through them one by one.

Before we start, I would like to note things I don't like;

- Fake ... things
- Overdramatizing.
- Hoax-forced drama.

I.

- A deaf girl in a non-disability school. ( It may have been the closest school for her family ) Although, the teacher and the school principal should have cared her safety and take a speech for her class. ( How to behave ect. ) Whether you want or not, she is like a bunny inside the lions cave. It would have been priority to make these actions for her environment.

Well in my country Deaf people are going to different schools, not just for the sake they weren't be harrassed. It's for the reason they education system is different. It's humanly impossible to educate a deaf people next to hudreds of well-being. They indeed need to be separated, it would not be necessary tho. However the current education system requires this.

II.

The deaf girl, who indeed deaf, therefore she can not possible speak as a healthy human being. Called out by her own teacher to read up loud from the exercise book.

III.

Her classmates took her hearing aid countlessly times. And abuse her as they possibly can. At this rate , about 15 min in the movie. I felt pain in my stomach.

So, when they destroyed 10 hearind aid of hers. Her mom decided it cannot continue like this and enrolled her in a different school.

IV.

The boy, who abused her the most.
Went to apologize to her? At least that's what he should do. But nah.

The Boy despite of the fact that the Girl situation is made him impossible to approach her at any cost. He forced the Girl out of her safety zone. And he takes her to places against her will. I mean the Boy never actually asked the Girl , -Do you want to go out with me? Or spend time with me? The Girl despite all of that she like to hangout with the Boy. But here it comes again.. we need more drama!

V.

The Boy who turtured the Girl and forced out from her safety zone, throwed her to the lions ones again. The old classmates.. Thanks to the Boy, the depression was revived..

Therefore the Girl figured that The Boy is never gonna be happy if she is in his environment.. ( Wtf )
So she tried to end her life by jumping out from a balcony. The Boy saw her beforehand, and watched her like 20 min straight, then runed towards the Girl but the table was in the middle of the room and the Boy was like - I would not be an anime character without falling. So She I mean He felt on his nose destroyed half of the living room in silence. The girl didn't even noticeed him at all. ( Bc of the fireworks ) yeh all right. So anyway the Boy falled out instead of saving Her ,but unfortunately he didn't died.

Therefore... Again She is the one that everyone anger vent on.

The problem with this movie is that the characters behave the way to generate more drama. I cannot believe such a school and an environment, that sensless and function as inhumane as in this story. Not just all the classmates and their perents, the teacher the principal too.. This also true for the two main Boy and Girl. They are like an Evil Wolf and a Carless Butterlfy. A Boy as Evil as it can be, and a Girl whoes soul just like the wings of a butterly...

I know the world out there is dangerous, and yes it is real, this situations are present. But where is the pont in this? I mean if you present all these therrible situations, without showing how to treat them right, or how to behave correctly.. It just doesn't make sense.

They tried to put as many dramatic scenes it can fit in a 2 hour movie. From that you feel pain, and think this is so sad. I just can't see as a real event. Over...Over...Dramatized.

At the end, nothing really changed. It was depresed all the way, without any development in the story. There was no such a development on the characters side either.

..The message?.. ! The story basically left suicide as an option.. !

People will give this a 10. Even a madman who's higher score 5 will score this as masterpiece. Why? I don't know , I really dont.

And Kimi no Na wa which is now the second best movie. Clearly criticazed because it wasn't based on real story.. Well, that movie feels more real than this, believe me.

Anyway. Some people will agree with me, most will not. But for me, this move isn't just the most overrated thing. It was disgraceful for they audience and for the anime industry itself.

How am I after watching this movie? Angry. This movie was fucking good and it's such a pity that it came out when Kimi no Na wa did, because it deserves so much more recognition. Honestly, I believe it outshines it tenfold but this is a review not a comparison so let me give you my points:

- Great soundtrack/art/animation/the works. solid base. if you like kyoani why are you waiting

- EXPERIMENTAL. The perspectives and aesthetics shown throughout the movie are insane. Like if you think of one of those 'aesthetic tumblr posts' the entire movie is literally in that vibe.

- The noise level. not the ... music. the noise level- majestic. since koe no katachi is about living life as a deaf person most of the soundtrack is ambient noise, cute jingles or piano notes. It's quiet. But as soon as the action picks up and things get more intense the sound gets LOUD, in this huge juxtaposition of noise, on a greater scale than most anime take it. It's so good.

- Characters. Let's talk about that for a sec. I've only seen the original oneshot of the manga koe no katachi is based on, so I don't have a reference for what these characters could have been like, in for example, a theoretical anime series version of this movie. I don't know. But I can say for a movie with only 2 hours to spare it did pretty damn good to flesh out these characters as much as possible considering the size of the cast. We see 12 characters on the regular.

12 characters! (not just one-off, as regular appearing characters) and we know exactly who they all are. That's more than what I can say for a lot of movies and even anime out there. But naturally there is some bias. The two main characters bear the brunt of the character development (primarily our protagonist Shouya) and over time you can see a clear change not only in themselves but in their relationships. Characters don't 'learn a lesson' and change the next day. We're not talking about cheap development like that, in fact one of the more realistic things about koe no katachi is how each character's personalities stay the same but their values change. Everyone is trying the become a better person and clashing with everyone else by the end of it. It's gritty, it's messy, it's believable.

- As for story, Koe no Katachi is more of a 'let's put all these interesting characters together and see what happens' simulator than anything with a crazy, god-given plot. Suicide is a major theme and so is atoning for what you have done in the past. A bully is the main character, he picks on Nishimiya who is deaf, and the story starts from there. Everything past that is seen as a direct consequence of what happened back then, which eventually leads to the more suicidal themes as both main characters struggle with the realisation that many less people couldn't have been hurt if both of them had never existed. But this movie doesn't drone on. It's not preachy like that. Yeah, this movie will make you cry. But in a good way.

So did I enjoy Koe no Katachi? Um clearly yes. Go for it, you've got nothing to lose except all of your tears.

Koe no Katachi is a horror anime. At least that's what I say to justify its existence. It tackles three themes at once, ableism, bullying, and trauma. Because the writers behind this anime don't understand any of these themes, it kind of falls flat on its face. This is meant to be a redemptive story, but the redemption of the main character comes across as extremely insincere.

First let's talk about the lens and worldview. It's told from the perspective of an outgoing bully, turned withdrawn shy guy. This is the first pitfall of any failed redemption story, being radical and difficult to process changes ... in the character. It doesn't make any sense for the main character to be shy after living a childhood where he's extremely outgoing.

Normally I could overlook this if the change didn't happen off screen. Unfortunately, the writer didn't want to concern themselves with the more difficult process of working with an actual bully character. I think the term is having your cake and eating it? Idk, that saying never made any sense to me. It's like expecting to graduate from college without taking any classes, ignoring the most crucial process by which your accomplishments could make any sense.

So as a redemption story it fails, good to know.

Then there's the issue of Nishimiya, the female main character. In trauma language, she would be a fawner, someone who tries to please people as a coping mechanism for unresolved childhood trauma, apologizing often, and so on. You'll be happy to know that she never gets better. This is never properly addressed. It's just something I happened to notice. the other thing I noticed was the chance of complex PTSD manifesting in Nishimiya. C-PTSD in this case would be characterized by repeated instances of traumatic events.

Why would this be a potential condition? Well, not only were Nishimiya's alarming symptoms never addressed, but she remained in abusive, toxic environments throughout the resolution of the story.

So what if I told you that our main protagonist never actually redeemed himself, and his victim remained a victim? As it goes our MC continued to enable abuse against Nishimiya at the hands of his childhood bully friend. By the end, she is criticized for her fawning behavior, which I found mildly repulsive. No one really takes responsibility for anything; no redemption really occurred. The fact that the MC saved Nishimiya from a suicide attempt felt really forced, and hogtied.

I think after years of thinking about this movie, I've realized its fundamental issue. It's told from a lens of entitlement. The main character believes that he's changed, and expects his victim to just accept it. In this fantasy version, the victim not only accepts, but develops a crush on him, which is bizarre to say the least. Her feelings for him are not properly explained so again, it's very confusing and kind of messed up in a way. Perhaps what's going on then, Nishimiya is seeking out people from her past that abused her, subjecting herself to further maltreatment. This can actually happen, and I think the movie ultimately failed to really nail what could have been a very important point.

In this case the bizarre love interest honestly seems like it would fit into an entitled lens. Entitlement is also a very common trait among abusive individuals. If a person were to tell me that after going to therapy, their boyfriend came back more violent than ever, with the most outlandish expectations, I wouldn't be surprised. Often cognitive therapy teaches abusive men to think more highly of themselves, which doesn't really help if their issue is one of entitlement.

Simply put, this would have worked as a psychological horror. Nishimiya very much behaves like an abuse victim, and the fact that she has such a paper thin personality would suggest that this story is being told from the perspective of her abuser, who does not really consider or respect her as a person, which is another common issue among abusive people.

However, the producers and animators managed to fool themselves into sympathizing with this lens and believing it has merit, despite the plain as day fact that no part of Nishimiya's situation would have been considered tolerable in the real world. If I for instance, where to tell my therapist that I was hanging out with my old childhood bully, and that he was still hanging out with a friend, who had assaulted me twice within the past week, and that I had attempted suicide within that time frame, I get the feeling said therapist would be extremely alarmed.

You should be alarmed too.

Unfortunately while I do love good soundtracks, and good animation, I really don't think the approach for this movie was at all accurate. The plot is horrifying and senseless, the characters are fundamentally incoherent, and because of this the animation and overall aesthetics fail. Why does the animation fail? Because it's not cohesive, nor conducive to the characters. It fails to adequately capture what is actually going on. In fact it seems to work in the exact opposite fashion as the plot and character actions would suggest.

In any case, I've talked to others about this, including deaf people. I unfortunately cannot offer their lens on the matter. I just happen to be slightly more informed on trauma, and can offer this perspective.

As someone who hasn't read the manga, I'm confused as to why some people rated the movie so low. The manga must have been a masterpiece, huh. Why can't people just review it as a standalone movie?

Story - 10/10
Rarely have I ever seen a movie/anime/book where the main character bullies someone and gets bullied back, effectively isolating him from his classmates. Do you know why? Because that doesn't happen in real life. Bullies become popular in high school and have a huge follower group. Despite this, I was glad that Koe no Katachi took a different route and made the bad guy into an even ... more bad guy, then switched him around and made him a good guy. The plot was fresh, in my opinion, and I loved (well love isn't the right word, maybe "invested in", or "hooked on" would be better) every hill and turn of the rollercoaster.

Art - 10/10
Bright, vivid, and set the mood really well. Nothing less than expected from KyoAni.

Sound - 9/10
In the moment, the songs were great. The OP was enjoyable, though I was a little confused about what was going on on-screen. Anyways, that's not sound. The only thing stopping this from being a 10 is the fact that I'm not humming any of the tunes right now. Maybe that's just my harsh criteria.

Character - 9/10
I have to agree with most negative(ish) reviewers on this one. Aside from Mr. Main Character and Ms. Main Heroine, the side characters, save from Yuzuha, didn't get much development. I was a little perturbed as to what each of their motives were. For example (not in the movie, so not a spoiler), I didn't know that Nishimiya's mother caught a virus during childbirth, resulting in her daughter being born deaf and her husband leaving her. I only learned that by reading the character description page on MAL. That, and other information, would have enhanced the movie as a whole. The little side stories is what Koe no Katach is lacking.

Enjoyment - 10/10
I was *this* close to crying, and I'm disappointed that I didn't. This movie deserved it.

Overall - 10/10
Being a high school student myself, I feel that Koe no Katachi struck home with me, having dealt with bullies and may have been a mild one in elementary school. It really puts into perspective how important it is to have respect for others and not be a total douchebag. Or else you'll end up like Ueno, a distasteful, cold-hearted, jealous baka. I seriously hate that broad.