What makes a movie realistic? Is it found in the themes that it covers? Is it found in the way characters behave to these themes or the vernacular they use? Dramas try to answer these questions in their own way, usually through a serious and emotional look at a character’s recent misfortunes. However, it is often times a drama can bite off more than it can chew, resulting in a work that feels over the top (melodrama) or, at worst, unfaithful to the topics at hand. This is commonly seen in soap operas, where there’s always a problem to be had for the cast, but I feel that this is more prevalent in Japanese anime than I had expected. So when A Silent Voice, a movie that covers the serious and realistic topics of deafness and bullying, comes along, it’s hard to find fault alone based on what it aims to do. Unfortunately, this movie’s execution and use of its premise hinder the movie badly, almost feeling more exploitative than real.

A Silent Voice was released by Kyoto Animation Studios back in 2016. Based on the manga of the same name, it tells the tale of Shouya Ishida and his changing relationship with the deaf girl Shouko Nishimiya. The setting first takes place in an elementary school, where Shouya and his group of friends harass Shouko for her disability. Things take a turn when Shouko eventually transfers out of the school due to an increase in bullying, scaling to a more violent form. This sparks a chain reaction that causes the class to turn away from Shouya, casting him out and ostracizing him from his classmates. This attitude haunts him until high school, where he happens upon Shouko once again. To make things right, he tries to reconnect with her. This effort to reconnect soon spreads past Shouko to other students and Shouya’s efforts may be the key to breaking him free from the loner status he has attained.

Although this sounds like a fine premise for the movie, notice a key aspect of the synopsis: Shouya and his group of friends harass Shouko, yet Shouko is the only one ostracized. This is one of a few problems in the beginning of the movie that hurt the film from becoming something heartwarming. The first 20 or so minutes shows the daily life of Shouko, including the cruelty she endures. Yet most of these actions make very little makes sense. The homeroom teacher Takeuchi includes Shouko for chorale singing and vocal reading despite her lack of hearing. Not only does it not make sense for her to participate in these activities, if including her in these activities is a burden, why bother at all? Takeuchi also suddenly gets a change of heart when Shouko transfers out of the school, roaring at an explanation from him to the principal and class. Why does he suddenly care now when he witnessed all the actions up until this point with a blind eye? If it’s due to the principal’s presence, then it’s clear to him and the rest of the class that students such as Ueno and Shimada should also receive punishment. These unanswered questions (or, perhaps, improper actions taken in response to these questions) set the scene to make Shouya the sole “villain” of the movie, the only character needing of redemption from an ensemble of misfits.

A second major problem is not found from Shouya’s side but rather from Shouko’s side. Shouko is a nice girl to a rather unbelievable degree. Rarely throughout all her torment do we see any sign of her dislike towards main “villain” Shouya. It would be understandable early on if she suppressed this or ignored it due to her having an introverted nature. Perhaps this could have even been a roundabout effort to make friends. By the time she transfers out, and it is revealed that 8 of her hearing aids have been damaged in the last 5 months, it seems ludicrous as to why she would continue to allow herself to be in the presence of these students any longer (one of these instances involves Shouya ripping out her hearing aids, making her ears bleed!) We see how concerning Shouko’s family is for her in the film, so how come it took so long for anything to be done? Alternatively, did we need to see more instances of physical bullying towards Shouko instead of what was happening behind the scenes for answers as to Shouko’s attitude towards this and her family’s efforts in helping her with her schooling? These two major problems (alongside other minor questions/problems) beg the question as to what the movie is trying to say or where its focus is.

The greatest problem with the film happens shortly after this. A time skip occurs and Shouya, all grown up, has ostracized himself. At first, this was due to rejection from future classes he took (Shimada spreads this information to other students, despite him being one of Shouko’s bullies) but has recently become a form of “self-punishment” for his cruelty long ago. He encounters Shouko again and shockingly enough, despite all the torment this “sole villain” has caused, she has very little ill will towards him. He even begins to talk to her in sign language, a skill he’s learned during this time skip. At this point, the focus of the film becomes clear. This is not a movie in which we learn more about understanding those with disabilities nor is it a film dealing with finding strength towards bullies: this is a movie about self-pity. This movie is a focus on Shouya learning to love himself, a premise that doesn’t work because the main conflict is set up to be Shouko’s struggle with her hearing loss. Nobody in the school is scolding Ishida for his actions (it’d be ridiculous at this point if they did anyway) and his growing circle of friends even includes some of the former bullies. Yet as his circle continues to grow, he continuously holds a negative image of himself, asking himself if he’s “allowed to have fun”. Perhaps this rather childish remark would hold water had he not re-encountered Shouko. Since we’ve seen that Shouko has no problems towards him after all she’s been through, it’s a nonsensical question. Not only is this problematic, Ishida’s “woes” hinder the actual serious conflicts that happen later in the film. By the time they occur, I was so swamped with drama that it hardly made an impact. It’s a case where it’s often better to focus on one conflict (ESPECIALLY in the form of a movie) than it is to introduce several.

Adding to this is the lack of depth to some of the supporting cast. Ueno has strangely not changed since the time skip and acts in impudent and rash ways. Her first major appearance since the time skip could make a case for her character to be sociopathic. Characters like Sahara and Kawai offer little except more faces to the circle or more drama to a movie plot saturated with enough drama as is. A few exceptions to this are present: Nagatsuka and Shouko’s family. Nagatsuka's initial characterization is an upbeat, caring friend who goes out of his way to help Ishida, though he is prone to being seen as a comic relief character due to his mannerisms. Shouko’s family naturally holds a grudge against Ishida for what he’s done. I would’ve liked to have seen more action taken from Mrs. Nishimiya, but it’s understandable given the age of the characters and their growing independence. The characters in the family start, grow and end more naturally than others in the film (even more than Shouko herself). With such a large ensemble and amount of character-specific problems, they’re also lucky that their story gets concluded. The film spends too much time on trivialities and introducing new dilemmas that by the time film ends, there are still many more questions yet to be answered. This seems like a case where this should’ve been a TV series instead of a movie.

This film would have been better if they had made a few changes. The first change is to make Ishida the ONLY villain of the movie. Having more bullies in the class only takes away from the impact of Ishida’s story and adds confusion as to how the rest of the class perceives them when they aren’t punished. The second change would to NOT have a time skip, instead showing the results of his actions and change of attitudes more clearly. Seeing Ishida learn sign language (his struggles with a new language, understanding the disability, possibly making new friends in a sign language club) is much more fundamental to a character’s growth than glossing over it with a time skip. This would contribute to the third and most critical change – changing this movie from a romantic drama to a drama about understanding disabilities. With the way this movie portrays Shouko’s deafness and the big conflicts the movie tackles, it feels like the movie doesn’t even need Shouko to have hearing loss. Save for one or two small moments, you could rewrite this movie to have Shouko not be deaf (conflict would be primarily the bullying) and not much would change. It’s often better to write a simple story and do it well than to throw in serious topics for the sake of grabbing an audience’s attention and flub up the delivery.

What probably has most of the attention of the audience is the art for the movie. Kyoto Animation was the studio behind this movie and they did good work here. The characters are well drawn and fluid, though not more so than a usual KyoAni TV show. The highlights would be found in the backgrounds and scenery, with their vibrant color and lighting to make the world around the characters feel like places of pure beauty. One negative that I have with the art is the use of chromatic aberration. This is a flaw in traditional film as the lens dispersion makes the colors in a shot appear blurry or have colored edges. This was intentionally placed into A Silent Voice, as digital animation would not have this effect normally. Perhaps director Naoko Yamada felt it added a dreamy quality to the film or gave it a more realistic look, but I found it rather distracting. The sound of this film was par for the course. Considering how dramatic the film was, I would think there would be more compelling pieces but there was nothing that stuck with me after the movie was over. The sole exception would be the use of The Who’s “My Generation” at the beginning, which is a good rock song to enter the movie with and sets the scene for how wild of a character Shouya is (even if the lyrics aren't exactly characteristic of Shouya as a character). The voice actors did fairly good, with some points given to Saori Hayami’s awkward Japanese for when Shouko speaks. The voice actors fit their roles and did it well, though there were no moments that made me feel it was truly real or captivating.

Overall, I give A Silent Voice a 4 out of 10. My main problem with this film is that it sets itself up to be a realistic drama about the struggles of disabilities and dealing with bullying but comes off as a melodrama for the characters to wallow in. This could’ve been so much more – it could even have been a critique on Japan’s policies and treatment of those with special needs with how the film sets itself up in the beginning. Unfortunately, it feels to me this was a movie that cared more about its image than what it had to say. I do not recommend this film.

Do you like or dislike this anime? If you haven't watched it, are you encouraged to watch it or not? Leave a comment on my profile telling me what you think of the anime and/or my review.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!