A Silent Voice (2016)
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A Silent Voice Movie Review
A Silent Voice is a 2016 anime teen drama film directed by Naoko Yamada. It’s one highly emotional, brutally honest and simply amazing drama.
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“Back then, if we could have heard each other’s voices,
everything would have been so much better“
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It follows a deaf girl who comes to the class as a new pupil and instantly gets bullied, especially by a certain boy. He eventually finds her in high school and starts his long journey of apologizing to her. Obviously, this is a very long film, clocking in at 130 minutes, but it’s engaging and effective throughout with never a dull or rushed scene. The first half is better than the latter one, but still the entire film is wonderful.
The film gives us an honest, harsh look at school bullying in a truly realistic manner that’s rarely seen in American films overall, not just animation. As I have experienced lesser degrees of bullying and especially alienation, I really related with the film which portrays alienation and being different in the school environment powerfully.
The entire metaphor with people being covered in faces with paper plasters is amazing and beautifully conceived and I simply respected how the film presents some hard truths about bullying meaning that children are simply not capable of being good-natured or caring and accepting of those who are different. It’s in the adult years when you can truly know when someone is a good or a bad person. That’s simply a truth and the movie presented that so well.
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But yes, its third act is a bit of a mess leading to a film that is superb, but not fantastic as it easily could have been. I am talking about the hint of a romance which thankfully remains just a hint and not a full romance, but still wasn’t really necessary. But of course the biggest problem is its overly melodramatic nature with the attempted suicide and him ending up in the hospital just complicating things a bit too much for my personal taste. The film did not need a momentum as its slice-of-life approach was already immediate, at least for me.
Let’s talk about these wonderful characters. Yes, not only are these characters relatable or very likable, but also superbly realized and carefully developed. Ishida is a phenomenal protagonist who’s deeply complex and simply very real. He should prove relatable to many past bullies out there and he simply is an inspiration worth following in goals.
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Shoko is overly good in my opinion. The movie makes that mistake of making the victim be too perfect, but still she’s relatable, very endearing and you simply root for her no matter what. The film so realistically portrayed her struggles with being deaf in school and some of those scenes are very difficult to watch.
Nagatsuka is a bit over-the-top, but this geek still proved to be relatable and simply an endearing creation for all the goofy outcasts out there. His friendship with Ishida is heartwarming. Naoka Ueno is an important reminder that not everybody can change as she doesn’t really change and never really apologizes to Shoko afterwards. Yuzuru is a lot of fun and both Sahara and Kawai are quite important too. The film presented their relationships and interactions so well that the school surrounding and their little group basically became real to me. Outstanding how they achieved that.
A Silent Voice features amazing animation which is to be expected from almost every anime nowadays. Not only do the characters look and move realistically, but the interiors are great and especially the exterior backgrounds are lovely such as that pond and the fireworks scene. And those dream/imaginary/plaster on faces scenes brought a lot of artistry to this drama and a reason why it just had to be told in the animated form.
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The voice acting is phenomenal across the board with Miyu Irino being particularly great. The direction from Naoko Yamada is so great that I instantly want to check her other works. I am intrigued by what she has given us here. The melodrama later on is excessive and probably some emotion would be overwhelming to some, but to me most of the film is either heartwarming or simply heartbreaking to watch. It’s a difficult, but necessary film about bullying fueled by fantastic, realistic dialogue. The humor, score and pacing are also really good.
Its overly melodramatic third act is admittedly a bit shaky, but A Silent Voice is otherwise an amazing anime drama which is more realistic and heartbreaking than most dramas out there. The animation is gorgeous and quite effective in its metaphor, the dialogue is powerful, the voice acting is superb and the script is excellent. It’s a difficult, but necessary look into school bullying which offers some harsh truths, many heartwarming moments, phenomenal, realistic characters and their interactions as well as a lot of agonizingly distressing sequences.
