(‼️ Warning in advance that this review was written 3 days after I watched "A Silent Voice" and I watched 2 other movies after that. And also, it's 12AM by the time I'm writing this and it's my second ever review, so please bear with me lol ‼️)
~~ima just fall asleep so hard after this istg~~
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~ A Silent Voice ~
Genres: Drama, Romance, Slice of LifeHello, this is my second ever review, this time on a beautiful movie called "A Silent Voice" which I really loved watching and is personally my favorite movie. I'll mostly point out all the good things given that it's nearly perfect (imo), but I'll make sure not to be too biased! Let's do thissss
.Story: 10/10 (don't click on the spoilers if you still haven't watched it lol)
The story is definitely the most memorable part of this movie in general. It starts off as pretty saddening, but progresses and gets better later on. While every story has progression, the one in this movie can't really be overlooked. If you don't agree that the story gets at least an 8/10, give it another shot. This story requires perfect understanding in order to be enjoyed at its best.
Main story explained my way:
Spoiler, click to view
Just as recapitulation (skip this over if you don't need explanation), the story starts with a boy bullying a deaf girl, despite her trying to approach him normally. He throws her hearing aids out the window, calls her things like disgusting and such (6th grade). Then, 5 years later, they reunite, but the boy is making effort to be kind and friendly this time. He has learned sign language in order to communicate with her, and they managed to communicate despite the language barrier. Later, the girl fell in love, but it didn't get through the boy. Then, a few days later, there was a firework scenery. And she tried jumping out the balcony, when... The boy saved her - but nearly died, because he fell out the balcony while helping her up... He was hospitalized and in the meantime, he tried erasing things up with the girl. And after he got healed, the boy could finally see the world clearly. And... That covers it, I guess.The boy (Ishida)'s POV explained my way:
Spoiler, click to view
So basically, the boy was a bully in grade school, and not just towards Shoko. He had a loving mom, but after she heard what he was doing to Shoko, they have decided to visit Nishimiya's place. The things haven't erased up then, he still hated Shoko. But 5 years later, when they reunited, he has decided to return a notebook which Shoko has lost 5 years ago. The boy then started collecting money (talking about 1.7 million yen) in order to pay for all the hearing aids he threw out the window. But, his mom accidentally burned them... Which happened when she found out that he had intentions to kill himself. After that, you could notice that Ishida sees big X's over people's faces. That's caused by his loneliness. Everybody who he doesn't know has the X's over their head. Either that, or when he doesn't talk to somebody. He also got confronted by Shoko's little sister, at first pretending to be her boyfriend (since she had short hair) and they got along. And one day, when Shoko's mom noticed Ishida, she slapped him. Other than that, he got himself a best friend too, whose name is Nagatsuka! They were literally best buds who got along because of a little funny bike situation. But let's skip this over. Remember the hospitalization part? After that, he reunited with all his friends and after he stopped feeling lonely, the X's on everybody's face... Disappeared. He has finally felt happiness.The girl (Shoko)'s POV explained my way:
Spoiler, click to view
Starting in grade school - Shoko has introduced herself to everybody, claiming to be deaf. She wore hearing aids in order to hear a bit better. But then she got bullied by a bully called Ishida. He was throwing them off the window, but despite that, she has tried approaching him, trying to befriend him. But he still hated her. After the 6th time her hearing aids got thrown out the window, she was absent in school, her mom believing that Shoko is being bullied. And everybody knew it was Ishida... 5 years later, they have reunited. Shoko was rather calm, but definitely surprised at the fact. She was surprised that Ishida knew body language. And she fixed some little imperfections in his body language too. Ishida even noticed a funny thing - Shoko likes feeding ducks with bread. So he has bought some bread one day, taking her out to feed them together. And after that, they started getting along. Even if Shoko's little sister and mother were rather disapproving of it. But later on, they started hanging out more often. And one day, she has confessed her love to him, trying to talk normally, but Ishida thought she said she loved the moon... Shoko ran off and was embarrassed. A few days later, they were at an amusement park along with some other former grade school classmates, but we're only gonna focus on one - Ueda. Ueda has confessed to her that she hates her while taking a ride on the ferris wheel. Ishida and Shoko's sister knew because she had her sister's camera on her. Then, a few days later, there was a firework scenery. She lied to Ishida that she's going to study and she planned to jump off the balcony. That was until Ishida noticed while getting the camera for Shoko's little sister. And when he noticed, he saved her. But it was definitely a close call... And he has almost sacrificed his own life for hers. But luckily, he was only hospitalized. After that, again, Ueda... This time, she's been really toxic against Shoko and hated her more than ever. Shoko's mom noticed it, and Ueda and her started fighting. After Ishida was alright, things have been a bit easier then. And... I guess that's all.
(❗REAAAALLY LONG SPOILERS ALERT ❗)
.Character (Design and Development): 9.75/10
The character design is nearly 10/10 - the characters are mostly really pretty, especially the girls. Most of the girl designs are just soo pretty... Like the design for Shoko is literally lowkey (or highkey? who knows) so pretty??? Or Ueno??? Not to be taken the wrong way, but the character design is just beautiful. Though I wasn't too much of a fan of how the boys look like at times. Like Ishida - don't get me wrong, he looks cool, but I'm not a big fan. He looks just... Decent/Good. Well, that's design. But development is a bit weaker, but not necessarily bad! The main characters have literally perfect development, but the side characters sometimes fall off... Not too much, but slightly. They're all fitting though. I guess 9.5/10 or 9.75/10 are fitting as a whole.
Art: 9.75/10
I would normally give this a 10, but for some reason, I saw some weird (but weak) glitches in the background at times, it could just be me and my sources though! But otherwise, the art is really good! I mean, every expression is well animated, everything looks polished... It's definitely lovely! Not much to say about art, but it's simply really good. For its time it's probably a 10.
Audio: 10/10
The music choice is really good and fitting, which I really appreciate! Also, the voice acting really has some clear efforts and emotion to it. Shoko's voice actor is straight up awesome. Props to her for representing Shoko's disorder so well. But in general, I really like the audio, there's nothing to complain about in my opinion!
Storytelling: 9.75/10
This in my opinion is usually one of the weakest things in the movie - the storytelling. I mean, why just skip 5 years of life and then pretend like nothing happened...? I'm not complaining, just confused. Not even any flashbacks or anything, just a blunt skip... This caught me a bit off guard, and it's probably the only imperfect thing in the movie I could find. But it's not a big deal I guess... Because otherwise, the story was really clear to me and entertaining.
Overall: 9.9/10 (story is the largest aspect for me, that's why lol)
9.9/10 for me rounds up to 10/10 so you can just say that as well, but in my opinion, this anime movie is just pure perfection. At least near. The imperfections are definitely nothing to hold you back from watching this. A beautiful story about forgiveness which teaches you a lesson or two, and shows how much people prefer judging before getting to know the person... Which is a really big quality in my opinion. I describe it like... A beautiful romantic movie for literally everyone, every age, every gender... Even if you don't like romance. Please watch this movie, even if you don't like anime. This movie got all my attention. I've never been so emotionally hit by a movie before, and it's all in a good way. I cried too. Must-watch.
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Anyway, thanks for reading my second ever review! Hope this helped you consider watching this movie. I tried not to do any spoilers, and if I did, I tagged them as spoilers. Sorry for rambling a lot at times, but that's just how I am sometimes... Hopefully the nearly two hours of writing were actually worth something lol... Anyway, thank you for reading, it means a lot to me.
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NormalJkb out.
