聲の形 Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice) Review

This film was yet another I had no idea about prior to viewing and just as I stated with Your Name, I recommend going into this film blind without any prior knowledge if possible. This review will contain very minimal spoilers. Specific events will not be mentioned, but small plot elements may come up. Please read at your own risk if you've not yet watched this film!

During the same year as the release of 君の名は (Your Name), came another brilliant piece that may have not received as much attention as it deserves purely due to the high praise and attention that Your Name received. A Silent Voice had a pretty limited showing in Japan, and did not do much outside of the country aside from several conventions. While it tells a completely different story and is grounded purely in reality (unlike a lot of anime these days), it is a beautiful film and should be given a chance by anyone who enjoys an emotional trip.

A Silent Voice manages to touch on many very real and very close-to-home topics for a lot of people in the world. It takes us through bullying, being outcast, depression, suicide, acceptance and redemption, as well as love, hate and regret. So much of the movie really makes you wonder about yourself. Personally, by the end of it I was more than relieved to be alive and thankful for a lot in life I hadn’t thought about previously.

The movie’s pace is a little interesting. It doesn’t necessarily move slow, but it’s not particularly fast. It’s not even really in a “just right” kind of state, but it felt right for the story being told. This might be due to the source material having more sub-plots and major events that aren't covered in the film. At first, you’re kind of thrown into the world and you’re unlikely to be aware of exactly what’s going wrong with Shouya (male MC), but the movie does a lot of time hopping to explain his past and why he’s the way he is now. In an attempt not to spoil too much, I will only explain that he was a bit of a wild child and was something of a bully, which ended up backfiring on him causing social issues through middle and high school. In the modern day, he eventually seeks to redeem himself and make things right with those that he’s wronged. While seemingly a selfish goal, he shows (at least to the viewer) that he’s outgrown his old childish behaviors and has matured into someone who truly deserves a second-chance.

There are some breath-taking visuals in this film. It’s digitally animated and done so phenomenally. The animators and screenwriters kept to the characters’ original designs in the manga and did so incredibly well. There were moments of real heartache throughout. One pivotal moment nearing about ¾ into the film nearly had me floored with questions and suspense. I hate to be that vague, but spoiling too much of this movie for everyone would make the experience far less rewarding.

Unlike Your Name, A Silent Voice is not mysterious, nor somewhat magical, nor does it contain any real fantasy elements. It is fantastical in its own way, in that it really provides an extraordinary look at a very realistic group of kids growing into young adults and coping with the past as well as making a better future for themselves. Every conflict, every situation, every emotion felt real. I truly believed this could have been a biography that was portrayed in a manga/anime format. Not a single moment did I think something that occurred was out of the ordinary or impossible. Not a single conflict felt forced to move the overall story forward. The story, interactions, emotions and climax all felt real. Frighteningly so, at times.

聲の形 (A Silent Voice) is setup to be a modern classic. It may not have received quite the praise as my previously reviewed film, Your Name, but the viewers appear to have recognized the beautiful piece that it is by rating it a 9.1 (as of this writing) on MAL and causing it to reach #8 in highest rated anime on MAL. This score also makes it the #2 anime movie per MAL user ratings.

My review scores for the film:

Visuals: 10/10

- Truly gorgeous, perfect translation from the source material and the character design was amazing. The effects added throughout were done well to support the story and at times were a huge source of emotional evocation and suspense.

Music: 8/10

- The music did well to support the story, much like the visual effects, but it did not feel as impactful as it probably could have been. That stated, the soundtrack worked for the movie. It did not take away from the experience for me, I only feel it could have done slightly more to support it.

Story Development: 7.5/10

- I think this would have been higher, but some events from the manga are missing and it does slightly take away from the overall story. It was still adapted fairly well and still tells practically the same story, albeit with less detail.

Character Development: 10/10

- The story seems to revolve around the development of the two main characters almost entirely. Again a phenomenal job on the part of the screenwriters for being able to translate a multi-volume manga into a 2 hour movie and portray as much as they did. The characters developed almost as realistically as someone in the real world would and because of this level of legitimacy, this has to be a perfect score.

Voice Actors: 10/10

- I can’t even begin to say how much I appreciate Soari Hayami for her work on this film. She alone is enough to merit this perfect score. The rest of the cast was also phenomenal though. Because the story was rooted in realism, the characters didn’t have any extraordinary events that required over-the-top voice work, so they were able to really act like natural humans and this was portrayed very well.

Emotion Evocation: 8.5/10

- Throughout the movie, I learned to love and hate various characters, sometimes having both emotions for a single character. Pivotal moments in the plot were terrifying (not in a horror sense) and extremely suspenseful. There was rarely a dull moment, so long as you’re into slice of life-type anime, like myself!

Re-watchability: 8/10

- I believe this movie is highly re-watchable. The story really works to teach you about life and it’s a lesson that can be easily forgotten. Rewatching this to re-capture a lot of that lesson is enough to merit doing so. It really steers you to want to appreciate life, appreciate the ones you care for and appreciate the ones who care for you.

Overall, these scores average about to about 8.85 and I feel that’s a fair score for this film. It’s well worth watching once to get the hard feels out of the way, then again with a friend or loved one to capture the lesson together.

Unlike my previous review, I will not be doing a summarization for this one as I cannot come up with anything that’s not terribly vague nor would spoil major plot elements. :(

Thanks for reading!

Last Edited: 2017-07-13 @ 04:12:48