Ishida, the school bully, taunts her to the point of tears, for audiences as well.
At its core, this film is about a new student that comes into a school, who just so happens to be hearing impaired. Here is why A Silent Voice deserves to be seen by everyone, even though it won't please everyone. Keep in mind, this can be a very tough film to sit through for multiple reasons, and that is exactly what I'm going to dive into throughout this review, because I feel that a few precautions should be taken when going in. This is a spectacular film from start to finish.
When it comes to anime, I don't find myself watching nearly enough in order to form a list of favourites, but even if I had watched everything under the moon, I still believe A Silent Voice would make the list. In summary, not perfect but very well done. Not often does one find themselves rooting for a bully as well as the victim, 'A Silent Voice' is one of those rarities. The story has its issues but has a strong emotional core, with the truly powerful and touching ending leaving me shell-shocked. A lot of it is remarkably insightful, and even when the film was really resonating with me it taught me a lot about an issue that isn't as black and white as perceived. The writing is thought-provoking and contemplative, doing it in a way that will make bullying victims and those who bullied alike identify with what is said. The music has whimsy, haunting beauty and understatement, while not overbearing the drama and letting it speak when needed. Rich in meticulous background and character detail, atmospheric and ethereal in colour schemes and alive to nuances in its use of settings and character gestures and expressions, it becomes a character of its own and there are some memorable images throughout like towards the end. Great isn't a strong enough word to describe the animation. On the other hand, 'A Silent Voice' has an awful amount to recommend.
A SILENT VOICE SAD SERIES
If anything, perhaps 'A Silent Voice' would have been even better as a series which would have solved the problems. Despite being over two hours, didn't think it was too long considering the number of characters and their stories. It isn't flawless, some of the supporting characters are under-explored and in a few cases inconsistently and one-dimensionally written and some of the story jumps around and doesn't always feel complete. 'A Silent Voice' also turned out to be a very good film in its own right. At the same time, it also really made me think and see that there is much more to the issue, the bully, the witnesses and the victim than one would tend to perceive. So as one can probably tell, 'A Silent Voice' really resonated with me on an emotional level. This is coming from somebody who suffered merciless bullying myself in school, for all the above reasons apart from the first (in my case my school did nothing about it too), and nearly a decade on it has damaged my confidence/self-esteem, made me feel worthless and made my already bad anxiety worse despite getting a degree in music and singing regularly.
Bullying, often stemming from something that should be a non-issue but turns out to be an easy target for bullies (for examples if your parents disallow you to play a popular video game for obvious reasons, if you have a posh accent, if you listen to and perform classical music, if you have a physical or social disability, false rumours spread about you, if you were a hard-worker rather than somebody who messed about and disrespected substitute teachers) is something that is very much relevant still and has damaging effects, it is an issue that needs to be addressed and acted upon much more than it is. Any film dealing with bullying and its consequences deserves to be applauded for the effort. Have always been a big fan of anime, particularly Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki without restricting myself to just them (some of my favourites are actually without either involved).
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