A Silent Voice - Movie Review

Ever since Pixar began to pioneer 3D animation for animated movies the animation industry has slow, but surely transitioned from mostly 2D animated movies to 3D animation movies. Only in recent years with films such as Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse and Klaus have we gotten well execution combinations of 2D and 3D. Even so the western animation movie market (at least) have become almost entirely about 3D animated movies. There is still hope though for entirely 2D animated movies: Anime.

Ever since Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z made themselves known outside of Japanese, anime has become a permanent part of the world. Whether you're young or old anime can be a part of your life. One of the newer highlights of anime that I have viewed is a film that brought out so many emotions I felt myself drowning in them. This is a film that blew me away with its story and delicate topics that it protrayed: A Silent Voice.

The movie revolves around Shoya Ishida, a young adult who when he was younger bullied a deaf girl named Shoko Nishimiya. When his bullying went too far though his fellow classmates, some of who hadgot involved in this bullying, outs him from their lives and bully him the same way he bullied Shoko. Over time this treatment towards him has made him distance towards everyone and made him realize the kind of horrible person he was back then. Shoya is unable to get over how much of a monster he thinks he is and after rediscovering Shoko he learns sign language and begins to amends for all the pain he caused her long ago.

Over the past couple of years I've gained a big fascination with sign language. While it's not a universal language (considering this film uses Japanese sign language and not American sign language) it's a form of communication that free of traits such as dialect. In my eyes it's a much more direct way of communicating to another person. In these couple of years I've seen it performed on shows like The Dragon Prince and The Walking Dead, giving a new light to the skill as well as developing characters not used to such communication. I hope in the future I'll learn some ASL, maybe for fun or maybe for practical use, it's just the way people can speak and be clear to another person without the use of words amazes me.

I had no idea what I was walking into when this movie got picked for the movie club I'm holding weekly since theaters are closed. All I knew was that it had a deaf girl in it and there would be some sad parts. The summary I used for this film sounds basic for those not as familiar with where animation can go (since it's definitely not just for children), but immediate the movie hit me in the face with the utter despair of Shoya. This story isn't focused on the bullied, like similar movies out there, but on the bully and their journey to make up for what they did. This unique perspective automatically makes the film stand out.

Anyone as a kid can say that at least once in their lives have looked at people with special needs, where it's mental or physical, with a sense of curiosity and annoyance. At a young age we often don't understand these situations, like why should this kid who can't hear or is in a wheelchair, or is just plain weird get more attention than anybody else? When we're kids we most often cannot comprehend these types of people and Shoya, along with his classmate's, treatment of Shoko is a clear example. To quote another famous anime, "There's nothing more innocent or cruel than a child" (Cowboy Bebop). It's only until the adults come in and reprimand everyone that it'll sink in what you're doing to these "special" people is wrong. And yet these certain people might not stand up for themselves because they think of themselves as "defective" or less than anybody else.

One thing that Shoya did to Shoko was rip out her hearing aids throw them away. This type of practice is stopped only when doing so causes Shoko's ears to bleed. But to add onto that when the principal finds out about this the kids are told these aids are very expensive. Looking into hearing aids I discovered that most can cost over several hundred dollars, some even go into the thousands of dollars, so what Shoya was doing had much bigger consequences than what he thought. It was definitely not worth getting the attention of his fellow classmates. Shoko got these hearing aids though because people were complaining about having to continually write out for her what they want to say. She got them because she felt like a burden to her classmates since they did complain. Karma comes back at him with full force for all that subjugation and it's truly tragic to see Shoya realizing what he did to that poor deaf girl.

This is all in the first 20 to 30 minutes of the movie and after that glimpse into the past I was struck dumb. Seeing where that Shoya ends compared to the current Shoya, anybody can realize his actions long ago have left a deep scar on him. He's no longer full of energy and youth, he's quiet, reclusive, keeps his head down when people are near. It's almost to the point he think everyone around him, even those who have no clue who he is or what he did, despise him for being alive. So him find that one deaf girl and attempting to genuinely connect with her pulled at my heartstrings. How can he possibly make up for all that suffering he caused her? Some people might not see it, but some, like eventually Shoya, come to understand how damaging bullying can become, especially those who already feel down about themselves.

This leads to an incredible journey for Shoya and Shoko. I expected there to be romance in this movie and there is a bit of love in this film, but how can these two people, who both have had a terrible and abusive past with each other, possibly fall in love? That's not what the film is trying to end up with. A Silent Voice is about change, about learning to become accepted by others, about overcoming the past, and how it is possibly to change ourselves for the better even after we've done terrible things. To me that's a lot deeper and more meaningful than just falling in love. Watching these two characters, along with the friends they gather around them, was a magical and moving experience that I won't forget for a long time.

This type of writing is just fantastic. This is story is just so well crafted that I just couldn't stop paying attention. There's no one bad person in this movie, the situations for our characters is a complex web and motivations click and clash with one another because this topic of bullying isn't simple. There's no melodrama, it's clearly focused and it feels so realistic that I can see a similar type of story having happened in real life. I felt very invest because I could clearly connect with anybody on the screen, whether they were nasty or kind or lonely or sad. All of this couldn't have been done without professional and experienced writers.

All of this, the journey the characters go through, along with amazing writing, is all accompanied by breath-taking animation. This is Studio Ghibli quality animation guys, which is often considered top-tier for animated movies from Japan. The characters and environments are very beautiful to look at. The water and trees look so real despite the animation style. There's also some visual effects that not only look great, but have a unique purpose to the story. The sign language especially was amazing to see animated. Even though it's a silent form of communication SL can display emotions like anger, sadness, joy, and more with how fast or slow the movements are and the animation shows that. It's clear as day that the people animating this 2D movie were very passionate about making this movie.

Now again this isn't a romance, but in a bad romance or a bad movie whose story is about two people trying to connect with one another the dialogue can be really awful in that it feels unrealistic and audience can't take it seriously. Examples of such movies include Twilight (of course) and the Star Wars prequels (like the moment about sand because you know it's rough and coarse and irritating and it gets everywhere). A Silent Voice nails the dialogue, especially with the sign language. The conversations work because they can simple or complex, but they all clearly told the other person and the audience what they're thinking and communicating. So much is told without being vocal and it's so beautiful to listen to.

If I do have to give a the movie a couple of complaints though, it's that some characters aren't utilize very much despite their importance to the story. While most of them a small side character their connections to some of the bigger characters are very important. I was also hoping for a little big more of Shoya's mental state before rediscovers Shoko when they're older. I wanted to see a little more of how he came realize and understand all those terrible things he did before. Most of this is shown soon after he gets called out when he's little and I was hoping for little more of this shown when he's grown up.

A Silent Voice is incredible. It's a film that has a sobering depiction of bullying and its effects on people with some exceptional animation and a story that'll reduce anyone to tears. This can be a really hard movie to get through because the film will keep punching you in the gut with heart-wrenching moments and its dives into the effects of bullying. I have not cried so many times for any film ever and for that it gets so much respect from me.

Tentative Score: 9/10

Definitive Score: 9.25/10

This is proof that even if Studio Ghibli, the most known studio for anime movies, ever goes under there is hope for well-crafted, beautiful looking anime movies. Though I don't think I'll see any that'll make me cry buckets. God damn this movie hits you hard with emotions. But I love that it did just that to me.