Anime 28851 Koe No Katachi Reviews Filter Check 2

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!

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.

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.

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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.

Mod Edit: This review may contain spoilers.
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To start of my review, let me say that, as a simple fan of any british bands of the past decades or so, The Who's "My Generation" - which is the opening song of this movie - is pretty niche to be exact.

I was really surprised why they use it as an opening song. I was expecting to have a Japanese song for the opening for this movie (maybe Asian Kung-Fu Generation or ChouChou,) but instead, besides Radiohead(ED of Ergo Proxy) and Oasis(OP of Eden of the East), we got another british band to perform the Opening song ... of Koe no Katachi makes me, I don't know, a very big deal for me for some reason. Plus, besides of that, the song really fits in on the first part of Shouya's backstory and his friends back then when he was in an elementary school. Telling how cool Shouya was, how rebellious he is and how he spend his glory days on his elementary school, thinking about his generation back then. While playing the song on the background in a riffing bass-guitar tune with fast beating drums. This is also the same as how Pete Townsend, who wrote the song and the lead-singer of The Who, feels about the british youths back then and how "rebellious" they were. It also expressed their feeling that older people just don't get it.

Anyways, the story is pretty much complicated but a bit candid from start to finish without even explaining some of the details that I've seen on the manga. Quite frankly, the anime is pretty rushed if you look closely at the story and then compare it the manga. Some of the plot holes I've seen were:

1. I've never seen in this movie on how Shouko's mother accepts Shouya without any proper explanation nor representation as to why they've put aside their arguments already to one another. The manga has a pretty great process for putting more effort to make their relationship somewhat satisfying by showing some progress on how Shouya tries to give more effort to Shouko's mother so that she could slowly accept him who he is now and forget the former rebellious, young Shouya from the past.

2. I've also seen a missing link where Shouya returns to his old elementary school, which it was already shown in the manga. Including how his old teacher back then expressed on Shouya's development. There's also a surprise plot twist also, which I'm not going to say it here.

3. They are also doing a short indie film movie that is going to be shown at their school festival in which Nagatsuka and the rest of the gang joins in. Which is not shown here in the movie.

4. The manga also shows why Shouko's little sister took the matters on her older sister's hands by cutting her own hair, and keeping her on-guard whatever happens. This, also, is not shown in the movie.

5. And how Shouko's mother's relationship status changed from a married wife to a divorced wife. Including how Shouko's illness was a result for splitting them up. Also, not shown in the movie.

Honestly, there's so much more they would cover in it if they would put it into a TV series rather than a movie. Which is kinda of a letdown as there are so many plot holes that KyoAni didn't cover in this movie.

Maybe I'm the one who complain for someone who just a part of the audience who watches animes just for fun and not a part of the developers who make the anime. But, well, I can't help it. The fact on how fair the story is pretty nice for some anime watchers to be watch in a big screen. But as a manga reader, I honestly say, I was a little disappointed to say the least on how they skip some of the important plots in the manga and turn it into somewhat incomplete and unsatisfied conclusion in this movie. I mean, yeah, when Shouya already accepts around of his surroundings and he finally listens everyone's comments about him, positive or negative, I found this ending kinda...blank or lost at some point.

But that doesn't mean my 2-hours of watching this movie is just taking a piss break to me. I admit, I was a little disappointed, a LITTLE, but it's not that worst nor great. But rather, a pretty decent anime. At first glance, I was satisfied before I read the manga. But looking back again as I read the manga, it really has so many missing links in the movie itself.

But on the plus side, the theme about a bully who is now being bullied back then and now changing his own life by restarting is a pretty great feature. It's fine to say the least. And the character development was a bit dull here, but I would accept that because the story covers it all for them.

Overall, if you're just an anime watcher and not a manga reader, then watch it. It's worth a buck for this 2-hour binge-fest anime in your nearest theatres near you. But as a manga reader myself, I think it seems fair. But I might look forward to this series as it has so much potential to do a 12 or maybe 24 episodes as a TV Series. I still keep my heads held high for this one. But for now, in my opinion to this movie, I would honestly say that it was a rushed development to make it into a movie. I was entertained, yes. But I'm still in doubt if this is worth a cent to watch this movie. But, I would still support it despite of the letdown. Especially the manga, which is worth to read and reveals everything and everyone surrounding by it.

But, again, the movie is fine, the story is fair and the character development is kinda dull but acceptable. I'm kinda mixed to criticize at this movie. But... well, I think I'll gave it a fair 6/10 movie. It's not a very low score, and it's not a very bad adaptation either. But I think, at my honest opinion, I was kinda overwhelmed on how it was delivered from start to finish. But I think it is very recommended those who didn't read the manga. If only I didn't read the manga in the first place, I might give this one an 8 or a 9. But, well, because I already seen the manga and it's ending of it, and compare it to the movie. I'll gave it a 6. It's not worst, nor excellent. But rather a fair score.

I want to warn at once that this review is not intended for make angry fans of this series but may not be entirely objective, it is written in order for you to pay attention to some things that in my opinion are not entirely clear.

A little bit away from the topic, I want to say that I did not read the manga (At the time of writing the review) and, perhaps, I do not know some of the subtleties of the plot, but since we are offered an anime adaptation, let us stop specifically on it.

*UPD*
I've read the manga and I can say with ... certainty that Koe no Katachi has one of the worst anime adaptations in the context of story transfer and characters. And I advise everyone to read specifically the manga, because the differences between anime and manga in this case are global.

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Initially, Koe no Katachi is a manga, written by Yoshitoki Ooima in 2013. Manga was a huge success and has many fans, so the famous studio Kyoto Animation is taking up the creation of an anime adaptation to this work.

Well, all the stories related to the school, bullying of classmates and the period of growing up of children are always subject to stamps and standards, therefore, having touched upon such themes, creators should act very subtly in order to avoid the same standards and repetitions, which have already been told a lot in other works.

Unfortunately Koe no Katachi could not avoid this. The authors could not avoid all that usually happens in these genres (Drama, Romance, School, etc.) The exception was not possible.

The story tells on behalf of the young man Shouya Ishida, who suddenly decides to commit suicide, dropping from the bridge into the river. In passing, we are told about his past, and specifically about the younger school, in which is transferred the second main character of the anime - Shouko Nishimiya. Here begins the sea of banalities and cliches. Of course, it turns out that the newly arrived girl has a pathology, she is deaf (which, of course, is not surprising, because we were clearly told that we are dealing with drama). Classmates begin to mock the deaf girl, in their opinion, because of her they have troubles and in the center of all this the main character. Not entirely understandable reasons for bullying,(which, of course, can be justifed by a small age) bring Nishimiya to a nervous breakdown and she is transferred to another school.

After, the narration continues on behalf of the same teenager, but already a high school, he accidentally meets that very deaf girl and gives her notebook from junior school. We see that karma is not slumbering and for all the mockery in the past we have to pay. With Ishida, no one talks and he does not have friends, because of what he is thinking about making friends with Nishimiya.

This is the basis of the whole plot in Koe no Katachi, the interaction of two, sometimes several characters on the screen. The main problem is not even in the banality of the story itself, but in the characters. The fact is that all the characters that are present in the film are represented by some moral freacks (except Nagatsuka, Sahara and Nishimiya sisters). All the characters surrounding the main character have disgusting natures, who at any opportunity throw their guilt on someone else. In general, it is not surprising why Ishida was such a bully in the past, because there were only hypocritical creatures around him who always judge others. And this is observed throughout the whole film, throughout all story we see only the worst and stupid sides of the characters.
The mother of the protagonist who burns the one and a half million yen that her own son earned with sweat and blood, the purpose of this is to prevent a suicide attempt once again. Not only that the burning of money has nothing to do with suicide attempts, in my opinion, this would only have pushed him to suicide. But after that she just apologizes and everything is fine already.
A girl from a junior school who pursues the generally misunderstood goals of communicating with Ishida, with stupid hatred from childhood to Nishimiya. Naoka Ueno is the worst character in the series. She always aims to blame, or deceive someone from her environment. It's not at all clear why she suddenly is constantly in a company in which (in her own words) is disgustingly and blames other people for it, just like all the other characters in the series. She just comes to the protagonist and says she wants to be FRIEND with them, although five minutes ago she took the Nishimiya's hearing aid, with the goal of "having fun just like OLD TIMES."
Ginger retard, which is absolutely silly appeared in the film. The hypocrite girl Miki Kawai simply said that the ginger boy wants to be friends with you! You just imagine this in a real high school, in my opinion, it's from the fantasy genre. Satoshi Mashiba has almost no screen time and is not completely revealed as a character although he also condemns the protagonist and calls him an ugly person, well, apparently has every right to say so.

Episode when the protagonist-rag finally said the whole truth about everyone in the face, because of which everyone, of course, offended. So what we see, lying, hypocritical guys, ready at any time to blame someone else is the basis of Koe no Katachi, because in the end all will live together and happily.

And, of course, what is missing to complete the stamp? This is certainly a threat to the life of the main characters! What finally destroys all hope for interesting twists and turns in the plot. The decision of Nishimiya to commit suicide is so surprising that it is impossible to convey in words (no). This is so expected that at the time of her departure from the festival, the viewer is already know, you can imagine the sequel: A-or he saves her, B-or she dies and we all "weep" (the point A wins). There are a lot of silly moments in the film, you can find fault with everything, of course you can omit some points for example that the main character quietly got out of the hospital chamber at night, in his pajamas, and he knew exactly that Nishimiya at this time on the bridge, on this is usually not paid attention to, but this are too many in Koe no Katachi.

I think there's no point in discussing Art and Sound, the Kyoto Animation studio was doing the adaptation, here everything was done at a high level.

So, the conclusion to this series is very sad, for me. Since I was very much inspired by the recent feature film Kimi no Na wa, I want to draw a parallel. If the genre Supernatural is specified in the Kimi no Na wa, which explains the connection between the characters, then in Koe no Katachi this is not, and the narrative in Kimi no Na wa itself is not so boring, the result there is a completely logical picture of the plot. There are not so many characters there, but this is not necessary in feature films, but they cause my excitement for them, in Koe no Katachi they cause only a lot of questions with their strange actions and views on "friendship". In the end, we have a standard whiny drama, which is derived from nothing, a bunch of frankly bad characters and the protagonist is a rag. The cocktail does not taste very much, nothing surprising is shown, although the potential was great.

Thanks Koe no Katachi for teaching the "real" friendships.

Anime as a medium has always struggled in regards to handling serious topics and themes, never once throughout the course of my viewing history have I found an Anime that truly tackled these subjects with the care and respect that they deserve. Sadly, Koe no Katachi is just another entry in that list of mediocre attempts at trying to convey a serious story. I really wanted to like this movie due to the gorgeous artwork and animation present, however I cannot bring myself to. Let's begin dissecting this film.

Issues arise right from the premise, the concept that a small fragile little deaf girl would be ... bullied by several classmates, be physically assaulted constantly by one, and have this absurdity go on for a whopping 5 months without intervention from the school or any bystanders is impossible to take remotely seriously. The fact that the mother has to call the school after her daughter experiences such brutal behavior from her classmates in order for anyone to finally step in and do something is beyond unacceptable. Sadly, the worst part of this entire nonsense is the sheer stupidity that is the reasoning behind her having to take all this abuse.

The reason she is abused is because essentially she changes the dynamic of the classroom, that's it. The girls start teasing her because she starts slowly bringing changes in the classroom, such as the fact that they start learning a little bit of sign language every class, or the fact that even though she is deaf she is allowed to participate in their choir, thus resulting in them having no chance at winning anything. Yes, these are the very well thought out, deep reasons that 6th graders start teasing this girl. Our very likable main character notices these things, and in turn decides to act like a deranged psychopath in order to restore the original classroom atmosphere before she arrived. He does acts against her that would warrant a suspension for the first time, and expulsion for repeated offences, well he assaults her about 9 different times throughout this film, so safe to say he would have gotten his ass expelled if this movie had any semblance of reality and realistic writing.

Probably the worst part in all of this, is the fact that once the mother finally steps in, the principal is there to inform the class that they now know of the horrendous behavior their darling students have been committing for 5 months. When he asks who were the prominent individuals in the bullying, the teacher of the class, the very same lame duck teacher who somehow never once meaningfully intervened during the acts of abuse, singles out our main character, I have to assume this was in some vain attempt to save his job due to his sheer incompetence. The thing is, this lets on that he knew to some extent what was happening, yet chose to do nothing about it. When the main character is ousted, he attempts to deflect blame onto others who are guilty in the bullying, they ignore him since they are such sweet children and he becomes a complete outcast in no time at all.

The film just skips ahead a few years to him as a late teenager, where he decides he wants to kill himself, we are given no context at this point, however this attempt fails, and we have to unfortunately watch more of this atrocious piece of media. The main character has undergone such a dramatic shift in character that its practically unbelievable, while before willing to assault a disabled person, he is now incredibly kind, meek and unwillingly to engage in any confrontation. This would be a nice character ark, if it actually was one, we see no shift in his personality between the section of this movie showcasing him as a child, and then him as a teenager, essentially we just have to accept that he has changed for the better.

Due to the events of his childhood, our main character has no friends and is unable to hold proper conversations. By sheer luck/poor plot device, he meets up with the deaf girl once again, as any sane person would do she initially runs away from him, however after tracking her down, and seeing after only one conversation that he has changed for the better, they both decide to attempt to forge a relationship. Of course, he still hasn't actually apologized yet, that comes near the end of the film, which makes no sense as no sane individual who had horrible things happen to them by another person would accept a possible attempt at fixing a relationship before at least receiving an apology and an understanding from that person that what they did was wrong and they truly grasp to never do it again. But, this is anime, where no one knows how to write people, even in a serious story, so moving on.

The rest of the film is a guilty circle jerk, the main character meets up with his old friends, the same individuals who bullied the deaf girl. What a surprise, they take zero responsibility for their actions, two of the girls even attempt to justify or rationalize their behavior. Even after seeing the fact that especially one girl is still willingly to assault a disabled person, he for some reason doesn't grow a pair and cut her off for the sake of the deaf girl he is supposedly friends with, nope, he attempts to somehow get them all to be friends even though as mentioned before it just simply will not happen. Not after all the trauma, bullying and lack of owning up to the horrible behavior they displayed as children. Of course since this is anime, they just attempt to throwback their own insecurities and ego at the main character to make him feel bad. Its fine to have characters who are not nice in a movie, its another to have your main character have the intelligence of a potato, obviously witness how horrible these people are to him and his new friend, and not realize that maybe hanging out with them isn't the most brilliant idea in the world.

The most utter cringeworthy aspect, is the fact the deaf girl takes the awful behavior from the main character's former friends as somehow being her fault. This poor little girl is just made to suffer nonstop due to the fantastic writing, leading to the fact she even attempts to kill herself due to the guilt she feels about the strained relationships the main character has with his horrible friends. This was the last straw for me, seeing her bow down and throw her pride away to ask for apologies from people who should in reality get their heads bashed in with a shovel was so disheartening that I wanted to turn off the film right there.

Its utterly repulsive when the end of the film, features all the characters together enjoying themselves without a care in the world. The support characters get to laugh it up as they continue taking advantage of the pissant main character. While he and his friend had to go through hell due to illogical anime writing and character relationships.

This is an overrated disaster, that is only saved by the art and animation. Sorry, but this is simply not a good film. End of story.

Just an average movie for me. I don't know how it sits at the top as a standalone movie on the list. Let me explain. First thing is; I am not saying the movie is bad. It is a complete pack of a movie. All emotions are there and it is a fun watch But let me say this, If you made the character Nishimiya not deaf and made some slight changes, the movie would feel the same.The movie try to do many things hiding behind the deaf character persona. But it doesn't deliver anything useful to the movie. Rather the point of ... the bulling its consequence and redemption is somewhat a better point of this movie. So if you are planning to watch the movie just don't pay attention to the deaf angle that much. Rather focused on characters which also some reviews mentioned it's not good as the manga but I don't know as I've not read it. Some defining moments are predictable from the start but you can go around it to watch the movie.

I’m making this clear from the start - I have not read the manga and I don't believe any of the characters in this film are damsels in distress or purely a stereotype.

The first 30 minutes of this film had me completely emotionally invested in these characters. It hit close to home seeing students bullied, similar to how people were bullied while I was growing up. This was particularly the case when watching a student like Nishimiya, who did nothing but be nice to others, get bullied just for being different. I have also seen a bully end up being the victim or an outcast, ... like Ishida. This set up a great premise for the rest of the film to explore. However, things rapidly go downhill from here.

As the story progresses, the three main themes of the film; bullying, suicide and friendship, end up being tossed aside for teenage drama. When things are starting to go well, Ueno turns up and does some incredibly mean things to Nishimiya. This is followed by Ishida deciding to randomly insult people. No one communicates properly for 10 minutes straight and the anime becomes melodramatic. Instead, an accident occurs and everything is forgotten. Granted, there is some reflection done by Ishida, but nowhere near enough to earn that "happy" ending.

While I understand that currently many people are impressed by this film, I feel that after some reflection on the main themes of the film, the flaws become noticeable. Outside of a short apology and a few thoughts during a dream sequence, the bullying is never addressed properly. Pretending that bullying and abuse can simply be swept under the rug and forgotten is a terrible message to send. Suicide is treated as something that will only be attempted once in a person's life instead of a recurring issue that needs to be addressed properly and respectfully due to the lasting effects it can have on the person and those who are close to them. Friendship is portrayed as something that allows for people to lie and abuse one another. As long as someone has a life-threatening problem, all the negatives of a relationship are forgotten. It is amazing that a film about understanding one another and improving communication does not understand the issues it brings up and has characters who fail to communicate about any of the issues they face. The reality is that after the film has concluded, it is likely that our characters are going to regress as soon as the festival finishes because they have not shown that they understood each other. They are still harbouring their problems, and do not know how to deal with them. Maybe Ueno will be allowed to beat up more people.

Since this is a KyoAni film, you are at least guaranteed great animation and voice acting. All the characters have great designs and the cast do a great job making each character believable. Extra praise needs to be given to Saori Hayanami though for her portrayal of Nishimiya. She does a fantastic job making Nishimiya into a believable deaf person.

After being completely hooked by this film and then completely taken out of it, I have to sadly say that I do not believe this is worth watching. Hence, I cannot recommend this. Hopefully there will be a good film in the future (or maybe there is one that I have not seen yet) that is willing to tackle these issues properly to recommend instead.

I'm a fan of Kyoto Animation. BUT! Every time I'm sad to see how an incredible picture is combined with a tedious and cheap story. Huge work is invested to give out a bunch of uninteresting shit. It's like sugar. As if you want to sneeze but you got in the way. And you sit angry and unsatisfied. Visually Kyoto every time makes a masterpiece. But you can not scoff at the audience like that. It's like watching Twilight. Twice for two hours! Confess to each other. Anime was created to escape from reality, but I choose reality! In reality, people are not so stupid ... and pathetic. It's a pity to use the disabled to use the disabled. Disability is not cute. Dogs that are waiting for their dead masters are also not nice. It's just a trick to squeeze a tear from a weak spirit. Pity humiliates a person! Hypocrisy and weakness. Tight scenes for the sake of not clear what. It's like standing in a queue or waiting for a train at a station. And as a result, the train will not come! You will stand and wait. Deceived and unhappy.

PS: I am Russian. Google Translator used

This is a very sad movie, and not for everyone. The themes of it are things that typically, people are uncomfortable talking about or acknowledging. If you like to get emotional, I have not seen a better show to date for it, anime or otherwise. It really is a hard-hitting story, very close to home for people that have ever suffered from things like depression, self-loathing, bullying, etc.

Every aspect of it feels very real. I am certain that the writers of this movie were drawing from experience. The way characters react and interact is very natural, none of the typical anime-isms I have grown accustomed ... to. A lot of care was clearly put into this movie.

It is certainly not a flashy movie, though. No special powers, no magic, no crazy fights. If you are sensitive to any of the topics I mentioned in the first paragraph, there's a good chance you will be sobbing at some point in the movie.

I honestly dont understand how this anime has built so much hype and has such high reviews. I considered dropping the movie after the first 30 minutes but I still really wanted to hope that it would get better as it progresses, and hoped that it would be worth my time, but sadly I was wrong.
Im not sure what it is about the characters but they are all just so damn irritating (even Shou-chan). I couldnt help but cringe for almost the entirety of the movie, but I still tried my best to bare with it either way. As far as the story goes, I ... also highly disliked. Its just so damn "dull" and I just couldnt see myself enjoying almost any of it.
The only two good things about this anime is the "Art" and "Sound". I could see all the detail that was put into the art style and I gotta admit that I even though I disliked the Characters and the Story, the art style surely was fun and enjoyable to look at. The same thing goes for the Sound Track, I really enjoyed and its one of the best ones out there in the Anime Movie industry. Sadly the Art Style and Sound Track doesnt make up for the terrible story and characters.

Overall: 6/10 <3

Honestly, I expected a whole lot more out of an anime that's ranked in the top 15 animes on MAL. I found myself walking away from the film feeling that it was overrated. That's not to say that it was bad by any stretch, but, it certainly wasn't a masterpiece. I guess it's positioning caused me to feel like this was going to be another "Your Name" as far as quality was concerned, but it was far from it.

My primary issue with the anime is that it just felt disjointed. A side effect of being a movie and not a ... full series, is that it rushes the bonds between certain characters that should not develop that quickly, and quite frankly, for this anime, didn't make sense. But, an even bigger problem is that it just dropped plot points without any resolution in a few places. Perhaps these were cut for time, but it hurt the film for there not to be clean resolutions to all emotional entanglements presented.

As far as the characters went, they were likeable enough, especially Shouko, who was adorable. But, outside of Shouko, Ishida, Yuzuru and Ueno, the characters felt empty. Like they were just there to push the plot along. Especially Satoshi (the redhead guy) who I just kept feeling like: "Why is this guy here? What purpose does he serve?".

The art and sound was good, but not above any AAA title you might see as far as an anime series goes. I did like the score, however. It was good enough to make me focus on the music at points, which is a sign of a good movie score.

The most interesting thing about the film is that the plot wasn't your typical love story. It was really more about the effects that bullying, peer pressure and social anxiety can have on individuals. It was that angle of the plot that led to the best moments of the film later on.

I would recommend watching this film, but don't do what I did and go in expecting too much from it. It's an enjoyable film, with some really good moments, but it's not a film that I believe will endure the test of time as a classic, that you'll remember 10 years from now. It's good for what it is, but personally, I think you'd get just as much enjoyment out of binge watching 4-5 episodes of another anime.

"A silent voice". The title of the movie ironically and unfortunately sums up what I feel towards it. Perhaps its the discrepancy of wavelengths between the movie and I, or perhaps I'm just too dense to fully comprehend the supposed deep meaning and symbolism of the movie, but the TL;DR is that I felt like this movie was trying to tell me many things, in which I heard close to nothing and it left me utterly unsatisfied. With this currently being ranked #8 on MAL and not falling short on reviews praising its beautiful touching story, I started this movie with high hopes that it ... will be something that will leave me in awe and tears, something that will have me pondering about the themes of bullying, disability, redemption, depression, in which the movie attempted to cover. Sadly, I ended up being bored half the time, constantly checking for how long more till the end, clinging on to that glimmer of hope that somehow the last 10 mins or so will blow my mind or at least change my opinion on this movie. It didn't.

Of course there were things I enjoyed. The art and animation is gorgeous and brought out the unique flavour of the manga's art style and it really was a feast for my eyes. More than any other emotion, I found myself giggling and even bursting into fits of laughter at some scenes because of how adorable or silly the characters were behaving. And that would have been awesome if this was the main objective of the show if it were a comedy. Not to say genres like koe no katachi should fall short of these hilarious moments, but if these moments are more appealing then emotional or thought-provoking ones, there is definitely a problem. Things were only aggravated when during one of the climax moments, they played the most ill-fitting soundtrack ever, and I was so distracted by the mismatch of emotions and music that made my viewing experience worst.

Moving on to the plot. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I was expecting something more than what was given. It felt like the whole story fell flat and things happened out of nowhere. And this is where i vent my frustration of them adapting 62 chapters of manga into a 2 hour movie.....having read a third of the manga, I kept recollecting how many scenes were cut off, side characters were basically thrown to the gutter with barely any character development, and even the mains themselves felt like their character arc was severely lacking. Scenes did not flow well from one to the other, and there were so many times where I had to replay certain moments to even understand the change in context. Flashbacks were thrown around here and there and it was really really confusing to say the least. I have read reviews where people attained some sort of enlightenment or insight towards bullying and I do admit the fresh take on the perspective of a bully and the deconstruction of the usual saying about karma, "what goes around comes around", was something that had heaps of potential to really touch the souls of many and even inspire them to some extent. And I'm sure many people did feel that way, but my friend who I watched it with and I regrettably didn't feel anything at all rather. It was a story, but it wasn't a compelling one. There was only one character I liked in the show and so many of her scenes that I liked about her were cut away and it really pissed me off. Watching Koe no Katachi feels like being served a 5 star meal at a fine dining but the food has been half eaten (stupid analogy I'm sorry). Although I did not finish the manga, the 1/3 that I read was more promising than the entire movie so its justifiable to assume that the adaption was the mess up.

After all this ranting, why do I still give it a semi decent score of 6? Well that's because I absolutely love the hell out of the imagery used in this movie. From the crosses on people's faces to symbolises the isolation of one's self and the constant falling into a pool of water to foreshadow a later scene. Overall, I do not hate the show, it just didn't appeal to me on a personal level and I really wish it was adapted into an anime series and not rushed into a movie.

First of all, this isn't a romance movie, so if you go into it thinking that, like I did, you will be EXTREMELY disappointed. This movie was probably the final nail in the coffin for me for kyoani. I've seen the majority of this studio's work and I hate almost everything they've made. The only two things I enjoy of their productions is Clannad AS and The disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. (Which funny enough I think are some of the best things in anime) Everything else they've made is moe trash and is literally killing the industry.
...

Spoilers
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Everything below this point is going to include spoilers, so you've been warned. Midway into the movie the girl confesses to the guy, who misunderstands what she's saying due to her not being able to speak well. At first I forgave it thinking it would be fixed by one of the side characters. Within 10 minutes after the confession I came to the realization that the romance was going to go nowhere. The entire audience had just been blue balled to the point of no return. The rest of the story involves the mc going on a path of redemption from the bullying he partook in the past. He somewhat redeems himself, but I wouldn't even call it satisfying, things kinda just work out, like as moderately as they possibly could've worked out. It wasn't bad, but I sure as hell wouldn't call it good either. And the ending is abrupt as all hell as well. That's all i'm going to mention about the story, cause I honestly think it's garbage.
One more thing to nag about before I end the review is how horrible the depth of field is in this movie. Ever since Hibike kyoani has had a huge hard on for Depth of field, and this movie takes it to an almost retarded level. In case you don't know what depth of field is, It's the process of blurring objects that aren't within a certain distance of the camera, thus mimicking the human eye. This movie literally blurs things that are at the same distance of things that aren't blurred, which completely goes against the whole point of creating depth. It makes it feel like the middle of the screen is a blur ray copy, and the edges are from a chinese bootleg. It's honestly nauseating.



Tldr; Kyoani is trash, and you should feel bad for watching stuff they make.

Note: contains plot spoilers.

Story - 5
Art - 10
Music - 8
Character - 3
Enjoyment - 5
Overall - 5

I can say without a doubt that romance is my favourite genre, despite that I did not enjoy Koe no Katachi when I watched it first at a cinema; my second watch more recently only reinforced my opinions. Please note that while I have read other peoples comments on the manga I have not myself read it, still a film should be able to stand on its own.
...
Let's start with the good points, KyoAni did a fantastic job with the art direction and animation. Likewise with the sound and voice acting, in particular Saori Hayami did an exquisite job of voicing the undoubtedly challenging Shouko Nishimiya; that being said the music while good, could have been more impactful, I didn't for example, feel I lost much listening to it on my mediocre TV speakers compared to the immersive cinema setup.

Staying with the good let's talk about the Nishimiya sisters. They were definitely the stars of Koe no Katachi. Shouko, our deaf love interest, is an upbeat moe character with a smile you want to protect; her younger sister Yuzuru is equally likable, is the source of some of the more enjoyable scenes in the film and is generally responsible for driving the plot forward.

This however is where the good points, for me, end. Let us jump into what really lets Koe no Katachi down most of all: the characters. Outside of the two Nishimiya sisters there is no-one that stands out as being particularly likable and only the protagonist receives anything close to what could be called development.

Let us talk about my least favourite character and the primary source of this low rating, none other than the protagonist himself: Shouya Ishida. At the beginning of the film Shouya is a grade school bully, who bullies the classes new deaf student to the point she has to leave, it would be no word of a lie to say that he was more likable at this point in the film than at any other. This isn't due to some mean spiritedness on my part, except for one childish smirk for which I immediately felt guilty, watching a young deaf Shouko get bullied was incredibly uncomfortable - as it should be - it is simply because this is the only point in the film where Shouya had any semblance of personality or backbone. Now to be fair this is kind of the point, his karma for bullying and excluding Shouko is to be bullied and excluded himself, it makes sense that he would therefore be detached and lack social skills when he got older. The trouble is that he does not grow throughout the whole film, it is only at the very end that we see him make the mere *commitment* to improving himself, by which point the credits are about to roll and we don't get to experience any of the reward.

This might not sound like the end of the world until you recognise how this changes the entire dynamic of Koe no Katachi, it is supposed to be a story of Shouya's redemption, but he does little to redeem himself. I mean sure, he learns sign language which must have taken commitment, he eventually remembers to apologise. On the flip side he introduces Shouko to one of his co-grade school bullies who immediately takes up bullying her again; rather than think 'hmm this was a bad idea' like any true redemptive soul would, he then allows this girl into his budding friendship group where she continues to terrorise Shouko. The only time he ever sticks up for Shouko is in an underwhelming and half-hearted rant against those whom were either involved or complicit in Shouko's middle school bullying; this tirade was done, not for her sake, but to assuage his own guilt and there can be little doubt that it was Shouya's poor decisions and lack of spine that accelerated Shouko to despair. Koe no Katachi is not a film about Shouya's redemption at all, poor Shouko is victimised from the beginning to the end with only her sister to stand up for her; it is a solo played on the worlds smallest violin for a boy who brought his woes on himself, does little to improve his situation and is eventually saved from himself by a girl he doesn't deserve. While such a description might not sound that bad, it makes for a very dissatisfying, cringe inducing watch.

There are other bad things too, the side characters receive very little development, we don't learn anything about them. By far the worst example of this is when a character that we had only just met, during what I'm sure was meant to be a moving scene, tells Shouya that 'you're supposed to be our friend' in response to his self-interested tirade; that's nice but who are you again? The other major example is that it renders the primary antagonist's actions completely beyond reason or understanding, worse still, she never receives anything close to karma for acting in what can only be described as an utterly evil manner. I hear the manga develops these characters more, but as I say, that doesn't help this movie.

In the end the art, the voice acting and music, and particularly the Nishimiya sisters prevent me from giving it as low a score as I otherwise would, it's just a shame they didn't appear in a better film.

It is subpar to the manga. It really isn't a surprise, two hours just isn't enough time to capture all the necessary elements of the story. The gaps in the plot cause the movie to be excessively lacking in the development of the characters. Due to this, the viewers that have never read the manga may find there to be little connections to the characters and thus become less sensitive to the dramatic events of this movie.

This movie is provides less enjoyment than the manga; however, it is able to retain some emotional elements. The art is beautiful. ... I found myself to be emotionally stirred just by the sight of Nishimiya. The music is well placed to enhance the feelings of the viewers during important scenes, and those scenes that weren't cut is captured perfectly. Even with all the plot holes, I was still moved by the movie. Its ending is very slightly different from the manga, yet it was still dramatic to force some glistening tears to gather around my eyes.

I enjoyed this movie; however, I would definitelky recommend the manga. To fully experience emotions of Koe no Katachi, reading the manga is a must.

You see, my 5 / 10 is actually a favor to this show. Only I know how many times when I (tried to) watch the second half of the movie I actually went like "What the actual ____?” Really, and held my hands out too. Holy mother of trucks. Won’t talk about art - pretty good KyoAni. Sound - not distracting but not super awesome.

The first half was quite good. How Ishida gets alienated and his first steps at coping with and overcoming it is relatively convincingly presented.

In the second half it gets… um... how about downhill? Yeah. Well it might not be as bad ... as how I imply but to tell you the truth my brain exploded several times with the amount of weird stuff happening later on in the story. I fail to see some parts’ relevance to the overall overcoming-emotional-obstacle plot. The film technically could have ended way before the actual ending. Some parts are so weird that I can’t even begin to describe why I felt they are that way. Oh my gosh. I was in ____ing disbelief during the whole ending. I want to cry. Ahhhhhhhhhh.

Personally, the movie’s biggest detractor is how it focuses on the battle between Nishimiya and Ueno, or what is quite literally the main character’s harem. Why do we need to see the conflict if the story begins to lose focus on the story it presents the best, which is Ishida’s process of development? Sure the movie wants to portray how the side characters change themselves but the whole narrative is from Ishida’s point of view so overly focusing on the trials and tribulations of these side characters during their change is distracting.

There’s other problems but… somehow I can’t put them down into words. And you might ask: so ilalochezia, why have you written this review? Well, I don’t know and I don’t care. I just want a space to publicly reveal my vomit caused by viewing the movie. Not that it’s really bad, like 1 / 10 or even 3 / 10 bad, but somehow it’s the worst of the ‘average’ works I’ve ever seen.

Sigh. A big sigh. I’m sorry (actually can’t bring myself to apologize anymore now after the insane amount of times gomenasai is used in the film) that I have to have you read my exploded brain matter on the screen.

Ah, so this is life. Being frustrated yet being conflicted about that frustration because I’m simply toooo frustrated.

If you didn’t like this review that’s okay. Thanks for your time.

I'm seeing too many reviews praising this movie.. but for me, it didn't live up to the manga.

Obviously with any manga to anime adaptation things are cut, especially when it comes to movies, but for me there are moments that lack the same depth they carried in the manga.

Great art, animation and music, but the characters and the story are not as fleshed out as they were in the manga, and this movie didn't make me cry. I cried reading the manga and it was the first time a manga had actually made me bawl, so I thought this movie would be emotionally significant to ... me, but it ended up being really generic and a bit shallow.

A Silent Voice is one of those anime I would name, “The Best in its Genre.”

Before I get into that, I feel the need to address this idea that A Silent Voice is “exploitative.” The idea that someone would write that is disgusting to me, so much so that I need to talk about it on my review. For anyone that’s saying that Shouko Nishimiya is one dimensional, you did not get the film and you’re part of the problem. There’s a great article by Buzzfeed Japan discussed by Tokyo Pop in their article titled, “Silence Is Golden: A Silent Voice, Discussed By Someone ... Who Lived It.” I’ll list my sources and theirs at the end of my review. Two quotes from the article succinctly address this topic.

“I strongly feel this is a film that should be seen by educators and children,” “not just to gain a better understanding of deafness, but to help reduce bullying."

If you don’t know what you’re talking about when it comes to this subject, then don’t talk about it. As such an individual myself, I will not be discussing the themes that delve into disabilities in my review.

Now onto the actual review:

A Silent Voice is a perfect film when it comes to dealing with school drama and building interpersonal relationships. It simply does everything right, from having precise pacing, near-perfect execution, and well-portrayed characters.

The driving force that makes A Silent Voice great is the pacing. The film is the exact length it needs to be and uses every second effectively, something I cannot say about any other anime film I’ve seen. The visuals and audio do a good job of supporting this pacing.

The characters in A Silent Voice are round and dynamic, as much as they can be so in the span of a film. The two main characters are particularly well thought out.

The thing I enjoyed most about A Silent Voice were the themes; however, I don’t feel comfortable with my ability to discuss these themes without spoilers.

Regrettably, I do not have much more to say about A Silent Voice. It is very simple and straight-forward and does everything well. I would recommend A Silent Voice to absolutely everyone. If you haven’t seen it, you need to. Again, I’d call it the best anime in its genre.

Sources:

https://www.tokyopop.com/blog/2016/10/20/silence-is-golden-a-silent-voice-discussed-by-someone-who-lived-it

http://otakuusamagazine.com/LatestNews/News1/Deaf-Japanese-Politician-Reviews-A-Silent-Voice-8307.aspx

https://www.buzzfeed.com/takumiharimaya/koenokatachi-movie?utm_term=.qkYZGArzZ7

http://www.nippon.com/en/currents/d00054/

https://thisjapaneselife.org/2013/06/12/japan-ijime-bullies/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/01/asia/japan-teen-suicides/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori

Predictable and too long. Koe no Katachi pulls out every last cliche to pound the viewer into submission before offering them relief in the pure cinnamon role that is Nishimiya. But for a movie that tries to anchor itself in realism, I couldn't resonate with the characters any more than I might in some shonen megafightfest. A few are entertaining (the green-haired friend in particular) and in one I found a surprising level of authenticity (Ueno), but the film failed to sell me both on the main character's redemption and why so many around him are determined to refute it.

It's pretty, so at least it's ... got that going for it. But too many scenes in which absolutely nothing happens dominate the 130 minute runtime, and despite its length it apparently misses out on a ton from the source material, apparent especially when a random character gets added halfway through and contributes absolutely nothing in terms of plot or character.