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A Silent Voice
Loud and Clear
Movie in a Sentence
After a lifetime of being bullied, incited by his own bullying of classmate Shoko Nishimiya in elementary school, Shoya Ishida seeks to atone for his sins while also reconnecting with old and new friends.
What I liked
This movie is the very definition of an anime movie that is able to tackle very deep subjects and themes in a fun, emotional, and accessible way. With themes centering around death, self-hate, suicide, bullying, and disabilities, one would think that this movie would be nothing but depressing. However, the more positive themes of friendship, hope, redemption, and self-love perfectly balance out the darker themes and actually take center stage more often than not (which usually relegates darker themes to a background role with a creeping feeling). When it comes to tone, the bottom line is that this movie nails it. It wouldn’t have been so successful, though, without a great cast of characters. Shoya is a character that is both easy to hate but hard not to cheer for based on his past and present actions, Shoko is a sweetheart on the surface but has layers to her emotions, and the supporting cast runs the gamut of the overly enthusiastic friend to the friend that wishes nothing ever changed from the earlier days. Simply put, there is a balance in this cast that perfectly complements the balance in themes and that only elevates the movie further. Throw in some beautiful work from Kyoto Animation, an excellent soundtrack, great voice acting, and steady character progression and what you end up with is a masterpiece.
What I Didn’t Like
I’ll be the first to admit that there really isn’t anything wrong with this movie if you walk in having not been exposed to the manga at all. However, as someone that read the manga, I have to point out that there are differences. Specifically, character developments are cut short, smaller storylines are glossed over, and the ending is pretty different. The way that I would describe it is that the series has a larger focus on the side cast than the movie while the movie focuses more on the main protagonists. Keep in mind, though, that this is really nitpicky and I still wouldn’t call this an issue.
Overall Feelings
Had I not read the manga, this movie adaptation would have been a 10 out of 10. Even with all of the differences, though, the sheer amount of information they fit into this movie and how well they did it made me hesitate to not give it a perfect score. With how deep the themes are, how fluid the characters were, and how high quality the movie felt, this is a must watch. There were so many emotional moments and so many surprise moments that nothing ever felt dull. I was mad at myself for missing this movie in theaters the first run (I caught it the second time) and I’m more than excited that it’s finally getting a western Blu Ray Release. Watch this movie, please, because movies of this quality don’t come out any often. Differences shouldn’t prevent us all from getting along.