A Silent Voice

Very contrived & melodramatic story that nevertheless gathers a powerful charge. Really feels like it's condensing an entire series worth of material (although I haven't read the manga). It plays out as an intense rush of broken moments that somehow finds time for Ozu-like stillness as well. This bold & fluid style is thematical & clicks with the sensations & reflections of adolescence. Fantastic directing/editing elevates the somewhat forced plot & finds a confident & personal narrative style.

I think the manga is better than the film in terms of character development, yet the film's shortness allows this plot to breathe more and benefits the story by lessening the melodrama. It's a give-and-take here, but the overall product is still gorgeously animated and has strong direction. The cinematography of this film is something to behold, with nuanced human movements being emphasized in ways I haven't seen since late Miyazaki. I'm still skeptical about how these issues are handled, though

Outstanding film with two very relatable leads. It was a very hard movie for me to watch at times, being someone who didn’t fit in so well in middle school and was bullied a bit himself. The writers of this and the manga have some serious balls making the childhood bully the lead and exploring heavy themes the way they did (mental health, regrets, forgiveness), but I think it all paid off really well for the most part. This had some really good characters, direction and animation. I adored it.

It's not the most satisfying of adaptations, often times sacrificing character development for the sake of time, but "A Silent Voice" is a necessary glimpse into the lives of the physically disabled, a world that mainstream cinema has handled with such complete ineptitude for decades. Tackling ideas and themes that include depression, suicide, the ignorance of childhood, and atoning for the mistakes of the past, "A Silent Voice" is undoubtedly important, regardless of its many flaws.

These type of slice of life anime are my favorite. I'm a baby when it comes to this sort of thing, and was in tears by the end of the movie.

High school in Japan seems weird man, all this dramatic stuff happens to everyone and everything is animated

It has a few pacing issues and one or two ancillary characters feel empty or more involved than warranted, but the film more than overcomes its weaknesses with an incredibly emotional story and phenomenal animation. Due to a film's runtime, not every choice or development is given scripted explanation, but the consequential invitation to infer and explore drew me even further into the lives of the profound central characters. Beautifully tragic and heartbreakingly lovely.

[JFFSF 2018] Yoshida does her best to compress the source material into 2 hours and the result isn't quite the best fit for Yamada's more minimalist directing style. Still, her natural talent for quietly developing a large empathetic cast is unrivaled.

I was not very impressed with how the film dealt with Shoko's character. At times she felt more like a device through which Shouya could explore guilt and receive redemption rather than like a real person, which is unsettling at times.

One of the best films to touch on such an important topic as bullying and the effects it can have, perhaps even years later, on you and the people around you. The animation itself is beautiful but it's the storytelling here that is so wonderfully done. Emotional and heartfelt, it feels like a very important coming-of-age film.

I hated the main character so much to the point when he seemed irredeemable in the first act. Showing he was bulled as well did nothing to make me feel better; it doesn't justify torturing disabled children. I kept wondering how they were going to turn things around with a limited runtime. I didn't like the anime tropes and there were probably a few too many characters to follow. Still, I want to see more terrible people in movies instead of the usual adolescence. Fav scene: Shoko's suicide.

A Silent Voice delivers both a charming and emotional story on bullying, engaging thematically with the effects on both the perpetrators and victims, and ending with a message on learning how to live better. I admire the portrayal of social anxiety though the mental health aspect is glossed over. My main complaints with the film are the excessive friendship melodrama involving half-developed tertiary characters that pads the runtime and using the misunderstanding trope a few too many times.

I really loved this much more than I expected. Not everything works and at times I felt that the film resorted to unneeded emotional manipulations that didn't feel organic. But the cast/characters felt honest and real and very relatable.

Fall's into melodrama and it bungles the childhood friend side characters. It is still very good because of just how nice it is to look at, it's incredibly empathetic central message and two well handled main characters.

This is a strong melodrama. While some may fault the film for its scattershot approach to narrative, I see that as the film's greatest strength. Events come, go, and are then forgotten, but the characters weather through all of it. It's just life. When the film attempts to draw a neat conclusion from these messy events however is where it makes some vital missteps. Are we supposed to take that scene of Shouya's person-by-person takedown seriously?

cute. almost too cute, to the point where I resent it for so blatantly manipulating me. make the deaf girl fat and ugly and see what happens then you hacks.

Your Name (mentioned only because to me this and that are part of the Japanese wave of sadness) had a weirder story that was somehow more emotional, but this also brought the emotion/sadness in a real way. This is a vibrantly animated coming-of-age tale where the bully is not operating on one note. Everybody is struggling and it feels very real, like the teenage politics are spot on. Good times had by all.

Dragging its feet a little through the middle - stuck in the sticky melodrama it forces - but ultimately Koe no Katachi pulls through with a fine vindication a self-forgiveness.

One of those weird times where I don't agree with popular opinion, there's a good amount of things that i didn't like about these movie but i would need to rewatch it to be able to write about in a meaningful way, and that's something I'm not really interested in doing at the moment.

I loved this anime so so much but it made me cry heaps of times I loved it so much tho but I wished it had a better ending it was boring.

Well I've got to disagree with the (mostly) high praise - note I find most school-romance vids lacking and this is no exception. The animation is very good and earns most of the score, but that's where the "good" ends. The ploi is chaotic, maudlin and generic. The ultimate reaction of Shoko is inexplicable and never justified. So predictable.

I personally think this is what a beautiful story is and what makes this movie special is that it takes it characters serious with real life problems. I really like the animation and story, with the characters. I have watched this movie 3 times and everyime I watch this, it always makes me feel many emotions while watching it. I recommend this movie for anyone who wants to watch a beautiful story that has everything done right

Unrelatable characters dragging their feet

This film lacks words to describe. It is a masterclass, it shows truth when we lie, and it lies when we tell the truth mostly. It is a incredibly touching drama and tragedy for the most part. The immersion is so strong you begin to feel like shoko. And it is truly awful. This is exaggerated with a beautiful soundtrack which includes long cadances of silence. I personally disliked most anime styles like this, but its only because i never saw such expressive dramas.

Genuinely heart wrenching movie you can see the final twist coming from the start but you just don’t want to believe it so it hits like a truck

Heartwarming movie, perfectly made

PV. First 40 minutes of this film are so ridiculous and annoying I don't really want to bother with the rest. And Nishimiya character seems surprisingly spineless and cardboard even for a modern anime. Is she also mentally disabled or is it just the screenwriter?

Strikingly beautiful, but thematically and structurally muddled. My experience might have been distorted by an expectation of something groundbreaking or original. This is not that. The story is amiable in it's intention but stumbles a bit in execution. The darker parts of the story aren't sufficiently explored and the more traditional parts of the story aren't properly structured. There might have been thematic threads that pulled it all together that was lost in translation or didn't hit me.

Very powerful.

Has some striking moments of animation, and its fundamental conceit of tackling a story of harassment and abuse from the perspective of the perpetrator feels like a "brave" one in modern times, but this suffers from its cavalcade of ill-defined support characters who distract, and ultimately distance, from the central drama - ultimately Ishida's path to redemption lacks resonance because we don't know (or understand) a great deal about him.

a nice coming-of-age story that touches on bullying, anxiety, and forgiveness. sometimes kind of confusing (short manga adaption?) and hamfisted

Really cool and unique animation. But not very interesting. And I could not even keep up with who the other characters were except for the main two characters.

Very emotionally touching movie

The animation is wonderful, but the necessary shortening of the source material caused it to not pack as much punch as it could have.

Very touching, but the story felt incomplete.

has a spacious sense of time; breadth. reminded me of lily chou-chou a bit

You can't have characters saying their feelings outright, it's bad writing! That makes me feel angry!

A bit melodramatic (what anime isn't) but it didn't over-saturate the story.

Video review: https://youtu.be/6JkU1tDqLjU

A coming of age story about self acceptance and finding yourself. Some plot elements are way too convenient but overall extremely touching.