Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice)

[Twi]

^ Yeah, basically all of that. They hit a lot of major points, but some things aren't explained otherwise unless you've read the manga.

For example:

Spoiler for Manga spoiler:

The only reason his two former friends were around to pull him from the water is because they spotted him going up to Shoko's apartment and were planning on basically screwing with him until they spotted him falling into the water. They never really reconcile with him, but Ueno manages to get them to contribute during the movie as well, and in the ending the tubby one has a kid.

As for Kawai:

Spoiler for Kawai Spoiler:

The girl's a serious narcissist. She knows she's cute and likes to play it up to the point where she literally rewrote her memories of the events in the past so that she was innocent and was mostly using Shoya in order to get the dude with thick eyebrows to notice her, since he only wanted to be friends with Shoya for somewhat similar reasons. It's only vaguely implied that she realizes that she isn't as innocent as she thought in a manga chapter after Shoya is hospitalized, and even then...

[DragoonKain3]

As someone who read the manga, I'm so frigging glad they cut out the movie making part. The second half was IMO a much needed improvement for the manga, as I felt the near of the manga it had a change of tone. From the beginning it was a story of redemption, and the manga totally focusing on the 'buddy buddy' aspects with the movie making, is as jarring as seeing a highly drama focused romance turn into harem romcom. I was so enthralled with the movie back focusing on both Shouya's and Shouko's past demons in the latter half, that I actually stopped criticizing every aspect that has changed from the manga.

And boy did I criticize a lot before the first half, as the first third of the movie really blazed through the material. I can understand where they were coming from, since they wanted to focus on the 'new material' (and rightly so, since what it replaced was IMO the weakest part of the manga) and that they only have so much time, but still, it doesn't change the fact it is the weakest part of the movie.

I do wonder how I would feel about the movie if I haven't read the manga years before. Maybe it would've clicked better since I don't have the knowledge that they skimmed through like 2-3 volumes worth of material in 30 mins, but alas, such is the woe of someone who knows the source material.

In any case, I'm super biased, but I still love this movie over Kimi no Na wa. Visually, musically, and even pace-wise, Your Name did it better. But really, I can't get out of my head how much of an improvement the movie did to the latter part of the manga with the things it changed. Sadly, I'm part of the group that gets caught up with what the adaptation did wrong in terms of source material change, but my actual beef with Koe no Katachi was how they handled the events taken straight out of the manga, and not actually the movie-original parts they threw in. For that alone, it trumps whatever Your Name did, but that's not going into how I felt Your Name was a great movie, and yet it was A Silent Voice that touched my heart again.


One thing that I noticed though was that Ueno is much less 'hateable' here. In the manga as is here, her betrayal of Shouya despite her feelings for him is what drove me crazy. Like if only she stood by his side instead of turning on him (and you know be the typical childhood friend), things would have changed much different. At least here in the movie, it's shown that when Shouya got hurt, she was the one who nursed him every day, so she has smartened up compared to last time. And that 'baka' moment shows that she doesn't totally hate Shouko anymore, which compared to the feeling I remember from the manga, was that she was as bitchy to Shouko in the end as she was from day one. Total improvement, so two thumbs up.

Iwai though, she can still burn in hell for all I care.


As for the VA's, heh, I totally didn't get that Midori from Tamako Market is Ueno here. Yuuki Aoi is as usual the imouto, but I actually loved Hayamin for putting up the most un-Hayamin like performance ever. I think she did the mute/deaf character much better than Minase Inori did in Anthem of the Heart, so maybe now I can get past episode 1 from Fukumenkei Noise?

Jintan as Shouya though was brilliant. Irino Miyu, please come back... T_T

[Marcus H.]

I guess it's good that I wasn't reading the manga. For me, the movie did what it could and wanted to portray. Sure, some of the characters were just there, but at least KyoAni knew which characters deserved focus.

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

One thing that I noticed though was that Ueno is much less 'hateable' here. In the manga as is here, her betrayal of Shouya despite her feelings for him is what drove me crazy. Like if only she stood by his side instead of turning on him (and you know be the typical childhood friend), things would have changed much different. At least here in the movie, it's shown that when Shouya got hurt, she was the one who nursed him every day, so she has smartened up compared to last time. And that 'baka' moment shows that she doesn't totally hate Shouko anymore, which compared to the feeling I remember from the manga, was that she was as bitchy to Shouko in the end as she was from day one. Total improvement, so two thumbs up.

Spoiler for To be fair, Ueno's 'goal' is different between manga and movie:

In manga, her primary goal is Shouya affection, all her hatred toward Shouko caused by fact that Shouya most likely chose Shouko as romantic interest instead of her. She have no chance of winning hence treating Shouko so bad and not even a slightest thought to be Shouko friend.

In movie, her primary goal is having Shouya reconcile with his old friends so they can be 'cool kids' gang again, in return, get Shouya affection. She view Shouko simply as hindrance for Shouya to reconcile with his old friends, not as enemy, hence her act in the movie is not as exaggerated as her manga act.

I do agree though, its nice to see Ueno here is not as narrow-minded as her manga counterpart. Her manga counterpart is too narrow-minded that she's not like someone who have learned what's wrong all this time.

[Mad Pierrot]

It appears the DVDs and Blurays of the movie are selling pretty well

[abc0716]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

It appears the DVDs and Blurays of the movie are selling pretty well

Just bought its Bluray at Softmap (1st shop) Akibahara earlier on (currently at Japan). The bonus item is a clear file (Ueno & Kawai) by the way.

Perhaps it sells pretty fast, actually its physical copy was fairly difficult to find, even at Akiba...

[Top Sergeant]

Originally Posted by Twi

YouTube

https://youtu.be/srklhoPryVY

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It deserves the award. It really does. I just finished watching the crappy subs (and reviewing), but it was good despite some of the changes from the manga.

This is one of the reasons I watch anime. Two EXTREMELY outstanding movies vying for the top spot, and we the viewers win!

What does Hollywood offer us? A choice between crap, dung and bilge. Yay.

[Vegard Aune]

Yes, because there were absolutely no good movies to come out of Hollywood last year. Or indeed any good movies that were not anime. Heck, last year was one of the rare cases where I think Disney taking home the "Best Animated Feature" award was actually deserved, even if Zootopia's win was just a no-brainer because the Academy seems to just look at Disney and immediately go "Yup, this is the best animated film of the year. Let's not even look at the others because clearly none of them will top Disney!" But if Zootopia's not your thing, Kubo and the Two Strings was absolutely phenomenal.

Anyway, on the topic of this movie... I personally think Your Name was better, even if the themes A Silent Voice dealt with were more up my alley and indeed, pretty much all the factors were in place for me to absolutely love this movie. A KyoAni movie directed by Naoko Yamada, which deals with bullying as a major theme and doesn't downplay the seriousness of the issue? In fact it goes to great lengths to show how it seriously messed up both the bully and the victim of said bullying and is basically all about said bully trying to make amends for how terrible a person he used to be? There is literally nothing about that pitch I do not like. But I dunno, somehow the pacing of it all felt a bit disjointed. Maybe me having read the manga and subconsciously comparing the two had something to do with that, but some moments didn't quite connect. Like, if I remember it right, the scene of Shouko's mother slapping Shouya in the manga came right after the scene on the bridge where Shouko jumped into the water to get the notebook, with Shouya first calling out to her and saying that he was sorry for what he did as a kid... whereas in the movie she just enters the scene out of nowhere, slaps him in the face and then leaves? There was no setup for that! And what's more, I seem to recall that was only her second appearance in the movie and the first one was just the mothers talking in the distance, with their conversation not being audible!
...For the record there were other parts that felt a bit off too, that was just the one that immediately came to mind.

Also Mashiba's character was given so little focus in the movie that I feel like you could just cut him out entirely and nothing at all would change about the story. I mean, the other supporting characters were somewhat pushed into the background too, but he in particular felt like he no longer served any purpose in the story.


...Boy, that ended up sounding a lot more negative than I would have liked. So just to clarify, I didn't hate the movie or anything, it's just... I kind of expected more.

[sparhawk1610]

Originally Posted by abc0716

Just bought its Bluray at Softmap (1st shop) Akibahara earlier on (currently at Japan). The bonus item is a clear file (Ueno & Kawai) by the way.

Perhaps it sells pretty fast, actually its physical copy was fairly difficult to find, even at Akiba...

I just think about to get it from amazon, but the only thing that keep me from that are no eng subtitles. Eng version is out 18th december so it is hard to decide for me.

[Marcus H.]

Just bought its Bluray at Softmap (1st shop) Akibahara earlier on (currently at Japan). The bonus item is a clear file (Ueno & Kawai) by the way.

That's quite a rage-inducing freebie.

[Vegard Aune]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

That's quite a rage-inducing freebie.

I was thinking the same thing. That seems like the kind of extra that would discourage me from buying the movie from them in particular...

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by Vegard Aune

Anyway, on the topic of this movie... I personally think Your Name was better even if the themes A Silent Voice dealt with were more up my alley and indeed, pretty much all the factors were in place for me to absolutely love this movie. A KyoAni movie directed by Naoko Yamada, which deals with bullying as a major theme and doesn't downplay the seriousness of the issue? In fact it goes to great lengths to show how it seriously messed up both the bully and the victim of said bullying and is basically all about said bully trying to make amends for how terrible a person he used to be? There is literally nothing about that pitch I do not like. But I dunno, somehow the pacing of it all felt a bit disjointed. Maybe me having read the manga and subconsciously comparing the two had something to do with that, but some moments didn't quite connect. Like, if I remember it right, the scene of Shouko's mother slapping Shouya in the manga came right after the scene on the bridge where Shouko jumped into the water to get the notebook, with Shouya first calling out to her and saying that he was sorry for what he did as a kid... whereas in the movie she just enters the scene out of nowhere, slaps him in the face and then leaves? There was no setup for that! And what's more, I seem to recall that was only her second appearance in the movie and the first one was just the mothers talking in the distance, with their conversation not being audible!
...For the record there were other parts that felt a bit off too, that was just the one that immediately came to mind.

> She enters the scene out of nowhere and slap Shouya
> No setup

I do wonder.

Is it really hard to see how her hair and clothes are wet, not to mention her younger daughter holding an umbrella? Using towel when return?
Yuzuru is not returning home, and its already the midnight. Is that not enough reason for her mother to look for her without anticipating the rain?

What kind of setup needed when you can see that Yuzuru reason of running away from home was because Shoko is protecting Shoya after Shoko learned Yuzuru uploading Shoya photo? Or you mistaken it as simply Shoko mad for no reason while you can clearly see its Yuzuru's tablet she hold in her hand?

As a manga reader myself, I don't find anything weird with Shoko mother slapped Shoya the moment she met him.
How many mothers can just accepted that her daughter walking with the boy who once bullying her older daughter to the point her ears bleeding as well as ended up having suicidal mindframe?

[Julio C]

I just finished watching the movie. I was very moved by the film itself. The dramatic were very well done, and the ending brought some closure to it all. The movie strongly focused on the two main characters, and that really brought great development throughout the movie. I can kinda see since this was a manga adaptation which I have not read, the first part of the movie did felt rushed, but not in a bad way. As we get to the present time, that's where it really took off. The movie dealt with school bullying, suicide, and the sense of loneliness. Overall, I actually like it better than Your Name which was a very good movie indeed. If it wasn't for Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, this would have been KyoAni best movie yet. Yamada, Naoko did an excellent job at it.

[Vegard Aune]

Originally Posted by Tactics

> She enters the scene out of nowhere and slap Shouya
> No setup

I do wonder.

Is it really hard to see how her hair and clothes are wet, not to mention her younger daughter holding an umbrella? Using towel when return?
Yuzuru is not returning home, and its already the midnight. Is that not enough reason for her mother to look for her without anticipating the rain?

What kind of setup needed when you can see that Yuzuru reason of running away from home was because Shoko is protecting Shoya after Shoko learned Yuzuru uploading Shoya photo? Or you mistaken it as simply Shoko mad for no reason while you can clearly see its Yuzuru's tablet she hold in her hand?

As a manga reader myself, I don't find anything weird with Shoko mother slapped Shoya the moment she met him.
How many mothers can just accepted that her daughter walking with the boy who once bullying her older daughter to the point her ears bleeding as well as ended up having suicidal mindframe?

...So let me see if I get this right: Shouko got mad at Yuzuru for uploading that photo -> Yuzuru runs away -> Mother of the Year blames Shouya for this -> Her first reaction upon even SEEING THE GUY IN YUZURU'S PRESENCE is to punch him? Do also note that it had been, what, seven years since the whole bullying incident? Or was it five? Eh, whatever. I mean I can understand her being hostile towards him, but I generally tend to think punching someone the moment you see them is a rather deplorable thing to do in any situation... Note that I find the context in which it happened in the manga to be extremely douchey too. Like, yeah, Shouya was unmistakably a completely horrible person back in sixth grade... but she doesn't even entertain the idea that maybe he's learned since then? Though at least by this point in the manga I seem to recall her reaction being "only" some harsh words about how nothing Shouya does now is going to undo what he did before. (Which I mean, she's right, but still, way to not even acknowledge that the guy is trying to make amends.)

[Twi]

The movie cut out some parts and changed it, but she knows Shoya because she's met him before then as a teenager(when he jumped off the bridge to get the notebook back) and told him to stay away from her daughters after slapping him there, stating his actions in the present don't make up the past. He destroyed her childhood, memories she can't get back, a fact which Shoya acknowledges when Yuzuru pointed it out here.

In the manga, she doesn't slap him here because she got that off her chest earlier, but gives him her Umbrella so that he doesn't get wet after he spent the night looking for Shouko after she got lost looking for Yuzuru and they had no way to contact her. And as a manga reader, you'll know her hardline stance on being tough and not being as forgiving is justified in her eyes considering her own history. They did us a disservice cutting that out since it gave weight to the grandmother's death. If they'd extended it maybe an hour or so to add in all the character development....

Anyway, Chibi did a review too:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/p2Q3dY9_BKI

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[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Vegard Aune

...So let me see if I get this right: Shouko got mad at Yuzuru for uploading that photo -> Yuzuru runs away -> Mother of the Year blames Shouya for this -> Her first reaction upon even SEEING THE GUY IN YUZURU'S PRESENCE is to punch him? Do also note that it had been, what, seven years since the whole bullying incident? Or was it five? Eh, whatever. I mean I can understand her being hostile towards him, but I generally tend to think punching someone the moment you see them is a rather deplorable thing to do in any situation... Note that I find the context in which it happened in the manga to be extremely douchey too. Like, yeah, Shouya was unmistakably a completely horrible person back in sixth grade... but she doesn't even entertain the idea that maybe he's learned since then? Though at least by this point in the manga I seem to recall her reaction being "only" some harsh words about how nothing Shouya does now is going to undo what he did before. (Which I mean, she's right, but still, way to not even acknowledge that the guy is trying to make amends.)

The mother is unstable actually, so yeah that's not unexpected. They should have left in the part how the mother gets the blame from her social relations for her daughter's deafness

[Vegard Aune]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

The mother is unstable actually, so yeah that's not unexpected. They should have left in the part how the mother gets the blame from her social relations for her daughter's deafness

They really should have. Not that I think it actually justifies her actions, but it at least makes it more understandable. Like I said in my initial post, some parts of the movie felt a bit disjointed. Though it could have been far worse. I mean, most of their choices on what to cut and what to keep made sense, it's just... I feel like maybe another five minutes would have helped considerably.

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by Vegard Aune

...So let me see if I get this right: Shouko got mad at Yuzuru for uploading that photo -> Yuzuru runs away -> Mother of the Year blames Shouya for this -> Her first reaction upon even SEEING THE GUY IN YUZURU'S PRESENCE is to punch him? Do also note that it had been, what, seven years since the whole bullying incident? Or was it five? Eh, whatever. I mean I can understand her being hostile towards him, but I generally tend to think punching someone the moment you see them is a rather deplorable thing to do in any situation... Note that I find the context in which it happened in the manga to be extremely douchey too. Like, yeah, Shouya was unmistakably a completely horrible person back in sixth grade... but she doesn't even entertain the idea that maybe he's learned since then? Though at least by this point in the manga I seem to recall her reaction being "only" some harsh words about how nothing Shouya does now is going to undo what he did before. (Which I mean, she's right, but still, way to not even acknowledge that the guy is trying to make amends.)

I didn't said she blames Shouya to this.
IIRC she said, "Get away from him" when returned with Yuzuru?

By movie, its normal reaction after what Shouya did to Shouko before; she only gave pass to Shouya after Shouko gave her permission during her birthday.
Pretty much giving the same idea that she's still bitter after what Shouya did to her daughter; I thought the teacher already implied that Shouko family is on difficult condition by that time hence he's totally angry to Shouya who made things worse when he is still a kid.

By that, you don't need going for how she's treated bad because Shouko deafness.
Even without the manga, by the movie alone, you can see she's that kind of good mother with Yuzuru explaining that she's hardly goes to school, supporting Yuzuru hobbies by sending her photo to photo competition. Surely she love Shouko enough to hold some grudge to one responsible bullying her daughter unless you believe a mother incapable to do so and let things just go.

Such change not ruining her character as the base is pretty much the same.
Same goes with more tolerable Ueno and sharper Shouko in this movie.

Explaining her background, what happened on the family, wouldn't help as it only expand the story to unnecessary point.
While it add some weight to grandma's death, it add "Shouko father" character that you have responsibility to explain why, who, when, where he is that your five minutes won't make it clear but distracting and risking the pace instead, unlike manga that had a lot of spaces to properly explain it;

Similar problem goes with Mashiba who opened up to others by last two volumes.
Even today I still find his past explanation is weak that it feels like such judge exist just to make it serious matters; glad characters like that judge doesn't make it to the movie.

[Yui Is My Wife]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

That's quite a rage-inducing freebie.

Ah，finally something to stick on my throwing-knife-board!

[Kanon]

I don't know if it's because of my current bleak state of mind or if the movie actually improved upon the original material by focusing on what is truly important, but I found myself incredibly moved by this movie, a lot more than when I read the manga a few years ago. It hit all the right notes for me.

And story aside, the animation, the music, and the voice acting were all stellar.