A Silent Voice

In life we make mistakes, a lot of mistakes. Sometimes they can be small and easily forgiven, others not so much. This is a story about trying to fix one of the biggest mistakes Shouya Ishida made in his life. I knew about the basic plot line of this movie but that did not detract from any of the events that happens in them. Young Shouya was an absolute monster of a child and seeing the way he torments and bullies Shouko was incredible hurting to see. Kids obviously aren't the nicest people in the world I think most can agree on that but god damn it was just so brutal to see these events unfold.

Jump forward to present day Shouya is a much more timid person in life. He has zero friends and chooses to live his life blocking out everyone around him. It's weirdly deserving in this right but at the same time no one deserves to have nobody in their life, regardless of past mistakes. Shouya has been guilt ridden for a lot of his life. His friends used him as the scapegoat for everyone ganging up on Shouko and just leave him to fend off in the world on his own. But one day Shouya decides he wants to change and try to fix things with Shouko and the story takes off from there.

Bullying is obviously the main theme and driving force for the narrative of this movie, no duh. But the way it's portrayed was incredibly visceral for me. Growing up I was bullied a lot, and for reasons much like Shouko were beyond my control. I grew up in Hawaii and as a white kid growing up there it was hard for me. I was constantly shunned and pushed away. I made fun of, beat up on so often that I decided to learn karate as a way to defend myself from the bullies. This was in elementary school and later on in high school it stopped being about my skin color and a lot more about my intelligence. I was the constant source of bullying just because I wasn't as on par as those around me. Bullying made a lot of who I am today and was the source for a lot of my coping mechanisms in life. Much like Shouya I pushed a lot of the world away from me, I was only existing for my suffering to be the source of others enjoyment and I didn't want anything to do with the world.

Shouya and Shouko are perfect characters for exploring this topic. Shouko didn't decide to be deaf it's just the hand she was dealt in life. Shouya WAS a monster of a human but who wasn't when they were kids? He's trying to fix what he did wrong in the past and I have nothing but sympathy for the older Shouya. He's very much a broken person and by his own admission he thinks this is what he deserved in life for being so cruel. I obviously saw a lot of myself in this movie between Shouya and Shouko and that's what made a lot of these things hit home.

There were other characters that also bullied Shouko when she was young. Naoka Ueno is probably more of a monster than Shouya ever was. Shouya is at least trying to fix things and get his shit together Naoka on the other hand never saw anything wrong with the actions she took against Shouya. Despite that she's a really well fleshed out character with her own arc. We learn why she did the things she did and by the end of the movies we get a couple of cues that shes making progress. She serves as a constant reminder of the guilt and anguish that Shouya feels and a perfect mirror of what he could've become and I really enjoyed a lot of what she brought to the narrative. Miki Kawai was also a character we saw a lot in the present day. She didn't really have much of a presence in terms of the narrative but I enjoyed what she brought.

When we watched A Silent Voice there was a bit of a discussion for whether we view it subbed or dubbed. I can't speak for the sub because we watched the dubbed version but I don't think it can hold much of a candle to the sub because of Shouko's English VA: Lexi Cowden an actual deaf actress. That was the deal breaker for me when we were figuring out which version to watch and I am so happy with that decision. God damn whenever she had a line it had so much weight and was so emotive that kept killing me over and over again. The rest of the English voice cast was also really good and they all gave amazing performances.

You watch enough anime and you really figure out who are the main players when it comes to the medium of animation. Kyoto Animation is one of the top players in their field cause everything they make is just breathtaking to look at. So much of the design and especially the backgrounds for me were so well detailed and just jaw dropping and don't think any other studio could've been able to pull this off. Hat's off to you KyoAni.

I only have one complaint with this movie and it's relatively minor. I just wish we got more exposition on the amount of pain Shouya went through between the time skip as a lot of that just felt a little flat. It was shown off well enough but I think with just a little more exposition on it would've made a lot of difference.

It's never too late to try and make amends for what you have done when you were a kid. That's the heart of soul of A Silent Voice. It's a raw, emotional journey that I'm glad I took and won't soon forget about.