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A silent voice blu ray usa12/18/2023 While at the surface level, it can seem that way, this story is more about delving into complex feelings and thoughts that have been left without closure for years – not only for Shoko, but also for Shoya. My friend had some concerns (and frankly, I can relate) that this film was going to be a story of a girl falling in love with her own bully. This scene ends up kickstarting the events for the rest of the film. Pretty obviously, Shoya does of course end up walking away from killing himself, after he stumbles into Shoko, awkwardly trying to apologize to her and inadvertently ending up asking for friendship instead. Shoya and Shoko are, of course, the central characters here, and a majority of the film takes place in their senior year of high school. The core theme and idea of the film is about reconciling past mistakes, and figuring out how to live with your actions and flaws. You may not be able to fully tell from how I introduced this film, but A Silent Voice is a drama/romance story. Shoya realizes his life isn’t going anywhere… so why bother continuing with it? Before ending it all, though, he decides he needs to repay his debts… including apologizing to Shoko for that vicious bullying all those years ago. This continues all the way up to his senior year of high school. Now, Shoya is all alone – his friends have turned against him and now bully him, and he becomes afraid to look anyone in the eye. Eventually, Shoko transfers out to another school. Even at this stage, though, he still pushes Shoko away, getting angry and aggressive towards the girl while he himself is in the same boat. When the principal confronts the class to ask about the bullying, they all through Shoya under the bus – he ends up being cast out himself when he tries to say that he wasn’t alone in the bullying. However, Shoya does end up getting a taste of his own medicine. She smiles, says “thank you”, and moves on – much to the confusion of the kids causing her harm. The bullying starts with small remarks behind Shoko’s back and making noises to try to get her attention, but later turns into something much more visible and damaging: like pulling out her hearing aids, throwing her notebook out the window, writing mean messages meant to demean her.ĭespite it all, for the longest time, Shoko takes it all in stride. Alongside them are their friends, the boys Shimada and Hirose and the girl Miki Kawai. The biggest instigators are the two who sit behind her: the boy Shoya Ishida and the girl Naoka Ueno. This opens up various other kids in the class the opportunity to begin picking on her, because of her difference. Among the generic niceties and good will written on the notebook, the following words are written: “I’d like to get to know everyone through this notebook.” As the class learns, Shoko is deaf, unable to hear. Rather than speaking, though, she pulls out a notebook and shows it to the class. As happens when you transfer, she’s brought to the front of class, and asked to say a few words. Shoko Nishimiya is the new kid in elementary school. And my goodness, it was such a good movie. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a company named Eleven Arts (whom I’ve never heard of before) licensed it here in the US and would be airing it in theaters – around the same time British people are getting the Blu-Ray release in their hands.Įither way, I was determined (almost absurdly so) to watch it in theaters, and after asking nearly every friend I could, I hopped in a car and made the trek to the next city over to watch it there. Time went by as a British anime licensor picked up the film, showed it in theaters over there, and had a Blu-Ray release announcement while there was silence over the pond. Unfortunately, unlike movies like Your Name and No Game No Life Zero, none of the big anime licensors here in the US decided to pick up A Silent Voice for the longest time. When I saw the announcement that Kyoto Animation was going to animate the movie for it, I was kind of intrigued. I first heard about A Silent Voice through a high school friend who had enjoyed the manga. But even so, my confidence in them was shaken by shows like Phantom World. This studio, which has animated some of my most favorite ever works, has total freedom over the types of shows/movies they want to make, and overall, I find that to be pretty awesome. Instead, they’re the ones writing the contracts. I’m a huge fan of Kyoto Animation and their works, though they’re unique in the anime industry in which they’re not stuck in a loop of bidding on and completing contracts. No Game No Life Zero ended up being a total waste of time, and so a small part of me hoped that it wouldn’t be the same here. There were two anime movies that I was excited to watch this fall: the first being No Game No Life Zero, and the second being A Silent Voice.
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