Review of A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016) by Soulwarfare — 30 Jan 2022

Trying to do a redemption story for an unlikeable main character is a difficult task. This is one of the challenges that "A Silent Voice" has to deal with it as our main character, Ishida, bullied a deaf girl when he was younger. However, this film succeeds in this whilst also tackling deep themes such as depression, guilt and bullying. One thing this movie avoids falling into is being overly melodramatic. There is some drama and some romance but they are not the central theme. I appreciated that the film remains focused on the problems that Ishida and the deaf girl, Shoko, are dealing with. There are also side characters ranging from the likeable to the unlikeable but even the unlikeable ones have a sort of redemption arc as well.

The story being told is just so engaging and seeing Ishida and Shoko trying to overcome their issues was just so wonderful. I was almost brought to tears near the end of this film.

This is also thanks to the phenomenal music score and the gorgeous animation.

A Silent Voice is a film that will always remain in my mind whenever I think of anime films. It still baffles me though that Oscar picked "Boss Baby" over this amazing movie. Flipping Boss Baby!!! A Silent Voice is a stunning movie and I highly recommend people give it a watch.