At the start of the year I had made it an objective to look into watching more anime films this year, but also move away from the conventional Shonen material. You know heavyweights like Dragon Ball, One Piece, My Hero Academia, so on and so forth.
I was looking for an anime that would give me great depth in character development, beautiful storyline. I wanted to be wowed. Safe to say to that I found one that ticked all the boxes in that area.
Enter, A Silent Voice (Japanese name Eiga Koe no Katachi, which is also translated as The Shape of Voice). I must say that it has been a while since I have had my heartstrings pulled from watching an anime movie (or series for that matter). To be precise it's only ever happened one other time, the fall of Ace (One Piece fans, you'll understand). Nevertheless, this film speaks so poignantly about human nature - we see the good, the bad and the ugly of it all.
This film navigates through some of the most complex challenges that is faced in human society today. We follow Shoya Ishida, an outcast in high school is keen to find redemption for the bullying and torment he caused in elementary school.
This was mainly towards a girl , Shoko Nishimiya, who is deaf and was the subject to much of the bullying that Ishida had inflicted on her. Having been driven to the point of attempted suicide because of guilt and self-hatred, Ishida realises that he has a major opportunity to fix the wrongdoings that he has committed in the past. This starts with becoming friends with Nishimiya and making attempts to reunite with old faces from the past.
As we navigate through this film, we see that dealing with old wounds from childhood, is not something that can be fixed overnight. You then mix that with all the pressures that you deal with in high school and suddenly things can be really complicated. What I love is that, we see and feel the anguish as a teenager in high school through the eyes of one. This is not outside looking in, rather we are looking outwards.
It is almost as if we are living Ishida’s life, I think that was the intention anyways. The way that he feels disenfranchised from the rest of society. That was very cleverly portrayed as everyone that he comes across in school has a cross on their faces. This is a play on his paranoia and his fear what others feel about him. I believe that Yamada executed this part of the film perfectly.
Whilst that was effective, I do wish that we could have seen the view of life from Nishimiya. You know what it will have been like for her growing up deaf, being in an elementary school as an outsider. I do think there was potential for the film to have grown so much more had that been shown. Yet it was still an incredible watch and it had me clutching pearls, the heartstrings were being pulled constantly.
This is a film that I do recommend, if you haven't already watched it. If you have, I would love to hear your thoughts on this film. Please do leave a comment down below and share the article!
Until next time.
Picture Reference: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2020/06/01/is-this-a-love-story-naoko-yamada-rewrites-the-love-confession/
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