“Silent Voice” Recently Released to Viewers in the US
November 20, 2017
Naoko Yamada’s work, “Koe no Katachi” is an animated film released in Japan on September 2016 and was based on a manga series that was published between 2011-2014. Enjoyed by millions of people around the world, it was a popular film and praised by many for a reason. It is a truly beautiful film with amazing cinematography that visually awes the audience and contains a very deep and emotional plot. It is renowned by some to be better than another popular anime film released in the same year, “Your Name” which is currently Japan’s fourth most grossed film. However, it was only recently that people in the US could view the movie in theaters when it was officially released on Oct 20, 2017.
The story takes place in modern time Japan and follows the story of a boy name Ishida Shouya who in elementary school, severely bullied a deaf classmate named Nishimiya Shouko. After bullying the deaf girl for sometime and creating issues that began to affect the people around him, Shouya became distant from his friends and eventually became an outcast for his actions in the past. The story then follows him as a high school student who has no friends and maintains a negative perception of himself. His state of isolation eventually leads to him to a suicide attempt but then stops as he rethinks his choices. The film then goes on to show new events in his life that will change his view on himself and ultimately a change in personality in Shouya.
I as well as a few other students and grade 12 religion teacher/ division adviser, Mr. Almadova, viewed the film in Kahala Consolidated theaters on the official release date in the US.
I asked Mr. Almadova about his thoughts on the film and he said, “There was some deep things in there (movie)”… “I might show it to students in class”. I personally enjoyed the film as well and I believe that the story followed closely to the theme of forgiveness and reconciliation. However, due to the fact that art is in the eyes of the beholder, I will leave it to the audience to interpret and articulate their own message of the film and let them decide for themselves what they thought the story 
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