A Bully Learns a Tough Lesson
Naoko Yamada’s A Silent Voice brings a powerful message home through Shout! Factory.
‘The unflinching depiction of the cruelties children inflict on each other makes the film a welcome counter to the simplistic let’s-all-be-friendsand-sing-a-song inanities of many recent American animated features.’
A Silent Voice: The Movie
(Shout Factory. $26.99, 2 discs, CD and Blu-ray)
A Silent Voice: Complete Series Box Set
by Yoshitoki Oima (Kodansha Comics. $76.93, 7 books)
Based on the manga series by Yoshitoki Oima, A Silent Voice (Eiga Koe no Katachi, also translated as “The Shape of a Voice:
The Movie,” 2016) tackles the problem of bullying in schools.
Shoya Ishida (voice by Robbie Daymond, who manages to keep his character likable) is the bad boy of his sixth grade class. He performs daredevil stunts, goofs off in class and gets into trouble with his teacher. But he has some friends, and the rest of his
classmates tolerate him, like a birthmark.
When Shoko Nishimiya (Lexi Cowden), a timid deaf girl, transfers into his class, Shoya leads the other students in tormenting her mercilessly. They yell at her, make fun of her and even take her hearing aides. Although Shoko doesn’t complain, her mother transfers her to another school. Ashamed of what they’ve done, the entire class turns their backs on Shoya. Even his former friends want nothing to do with him — when he shows one boy a new CD, his expal replies, “If you like them, I don’t anymore.”
Shoya spends his middle and high school years completely alone. Eyes downcast, he sees the students around him with X’s covering their faces. He works part-time jobs and secretly plans to commit suicide after he repays his mother for replacing Shoko’s hearing aids.
After his mother forces him to abandon the idea of suicide, Shoya tries to atone for his behavior. He’s learned sign language to try to apologize to Shoko. But her difficult younger
sister Yuzuru (Kristen Sullivan) prevents him from coming near her. Shoya finally sees her feeding bread to the koi in a nearby pond. They speak in sign language and Shoya finally realizes the gestures she made when they were kids were an offer of friendship. He works to make up for his bad deeds, buying bread for the fish and re-introducing Shoko to some of their former classmates. He tutors Yuzuru and persuades her to stop skipping school.
But Oima and the filmmakers refuse to settle for a facile, let’s-all-make-nice resolution. Shoya and his classmates have had to live with regret, resentment, hurt and guilt for years. There are no simple cures for those festering wounds. But everything wasn’t Shoya’s fault; the other students gradually take responsibility for their own cruelty and cowardice.
As they spend time together, Shoya discovers Shoko blames herself for breaking up the sixth-grade friendships and leaving him isolated. The misunderstandings result in Shoya being seriously injured rescuing her. When he emerges from a coma and sees the concern of his old classmates — and his new, self-styled best buddy Nagatsuka (Graham Halstead) —
Shoya begins to accept their forgiveness. More importantly, he begins to forgive himself. As he sorts things out with the other kids, the symbolic X’s fall from their faces. Shoya rejoins humanity.
Bullying and its effects are a serious problem for Japanese schools; Japan saw its highest youth suicide rate in 30 years in 2016, even as government efforts have helped drive an overall reduction. (In the U.S., suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents.) In an interview with Kasumi Arimura, the actress who provided Shoko’s voice, Oima states, “I wanted to depict the emotions behind bullying and how they change.”
Although they remain true to her vision, director Naoka Yamada and screenwriter Reiko Yoshida streamline and focus the narrative, eliminating some of the side stories and minor characters. A Silent Voice
still drags in places: Its 130-minute running time could easily be trimmed. But the unflinching depiction of the cruelties children inflict on each other makes the film a welcome counter to the simplistic let’s-all-befriends-and-sing-asong inanities of many recent American animated features.
Significantly, a study by the Making Caring Common project and the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that 70% of 9- to 11-year olds said it would help kids their age be kinder if the adults in charge of our country set a better example for how to treat others. ◆
If you need help, call the national Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK or visit teenhealthandwellness.com for resources in the U.S. and abroad.