By Logan Caruso, Staff Writer
“A Silent Voice: The Movie” is a 2016 animated film produced by Kyoto Animation and directed by Naoko Yamada. It is based on the manga “A Silent Voice” written and illustrated by Yoshitoki Ōima.
The film begins with the main protagonist, Shoya Ishida, getting his affairs in order before he commits suicide. Before doing so he looks back to his days in elementary school.
Shoya specifically to the day when a new student joined his class. The new student, Shoko Nishimiya, informs the class she is deaf at first, and the entire class is interested in her and her disability. But soon after joining the class, Shoko is bullied by Shoya and his group of friends. The bullying becomes so bad Shoko is forced to transfer schools. The class places all the blame on Shoya causing him to become a social outcast.
Now a social reject, Shoya is prepared to end his life, but before doing so, he plans on finding Shoko to make amends. This encounter sets Shoya on a different path, and instead of ending his life he plans on fixing his past mistakes.
“A Silent Voice” is a standout film. The uniqueness of the story is very refreshing. It tackles a lot of sensitive subjects in a very interesting way. For example, the way the film shows the psychological impact of the effects of bullying on the victim and on the bully. This is very uncommon in storytelling. The way the film uses the theme of deafness as a way to convey the isolation and loneliness of the two main characters is well done.
The story is not the only outstanding part of the film. Throughout the entire movie, the hand-drawn visuals show off the beautiful background of the film. It not only creates a calm and very peaceful feeling throughout the movie, but it also draws the viewer into the story. This makes it feel like the viewer is experiencing the surroundings as the characters on screen.
The animation is only enhanced by the film’s music and sound effects. The music does an amazing job enabling the audience to feel the emotions displayed by the characters on screen and creates another level of immersion into the story.
For all the elements the movie does great, I feel like a handful of scenes could be cut. At the beginning of the second half the movie, it feels like it is dragging on a little bit. However, it does pick up near the end of the movie.
With the movie being available to stream on Netflix, and voice acting available in English, I highly recommend giving this teenage drama a chance. It is the perfect movie to watch as people transition into the cool fall season.
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