Koe no Katachi
A Silent Voice

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While reading this, I thought this would be the greatest thing since internet porn. You got a deaf girl who is getting bullied by some kids, you get a main character who is a bundle of development, and you get some good feels out of it. And then it ends. Abruptly like your mother slamming on the breaks suddenly without your seatbelt and you suddenly hit your head on the dashboard. Then you ask your mom "Why the hell did you do that?" And then she shrugs her shoulders.

Throughout the duration of this mango, it was a rollercoaster of kids trying to not get ... eaten up by their past. Some force their way to overcome a self-induced obstacles haunting them. And that's about it really. The manga really just stagnated about half way through and never left that point. Nothing happened between the middle and the end before succumbing to a stop. Some characters don't get their limelight, some questions are left unanswered, and the feeling that it could have been so much more. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Story: 5/10

Koe no Katachi began smoothly. The exposition properly "exposed" the main characters, themes and foreshadows of the future plot. Every chapter and every page had its value in the overall story. Unfortunately, this did not last. As the plot progressed, it deteriorated. Its pacing greatly slowed down, nearly useless events were shown (a.k.a. fillers) and the character relationships decreased in growth.

Art: 4/10

The art is barely decent. In fact, it looks more like an American comic than Japanese manga. The intricate art that Japanese manga is known for is nowhere in the manga. The facial features seem like they are drawn without any effort. ... In fact, most characters have nearly identical faces. The hair also lacks shading and depth.

Character: 8/10

The characters of Koe no Katachi are its best aspect. From the first chapter, you can already tell that most of the characters have depth. Their personalities are realistic but likable. How they change due to different occurrences in their lives shows that their characters are truly well constructed. Being a slice-of-life manga, each character gives you a different "slice of life".

Enjoyment: 5/10

I began Koe no Katachi because of its praise on Tumblr. In the beginning, I loved it. However, as I read further, my passion for it went no farther. Each chapter released is barely even 20 pages long and often, nothing important would happen. Rather than enjoyment, I felt great impatience and annoyance.

Overall: 6/10

Koe no Katachi had great potential. Unfortunately, its potential was not flourished. It is, by far, the most overrated manga I've encountered.

This is might be the only case where I genuinely believe the movie adaptation is better than the source material.

In my opinion, the additional story provided by the manga only lessens the quality of the story. I will discuss the primary reason below: it contradicts the movie's main theme, growth.

There are extra character moments in the manga which don't serve to enhance the narrative payoff of the ending. I can understand why they are there: to add motive to characters like Ueno and Kawai. However, these moments don't build up the characters in a way that's congruent with the story's ending. These extra chapters spent ... on side characters don't showcase their growth, in fact, it showcases their lack thereof in the face of an event that SHOULD spark change. The movie's choice to omit this aspect and focus solely on the two leads makes a more powerful statement than the jumbled last 10 or so chapters.

Additionally, the manga's ending feels significantly less rewarding than the manga's. The story is about self-knowledge and growth, and the only ones who truly better themselves are Shouya and Shoko. Because the manga tried to involve more characters than it should, the ending is forced to include them in a contrived manner. In the movie, the ending is given to leads, and it displays the end of their journey with a great moment of visual storytelling.

If you've come from the movie and are interested in the manga, I would say it's not worth the time. If you're looking for a first experience of this story, go watch the movie.

The path of redemption by the male lead was done very well. Regardless of the male lead's intention to change, selfish or otherwise, he tried and did change. Both leads drove the story and carried most of the other characters. Why the low rating, tough?

The other characters that bullied the leads did not change at all, but somehow the author wanted us to feel sorry for them. The only reason they were interacting with the leads was because the male lead went out of his way to talk to a few of them. As the story progressed, it seems that ... it was the victim's fault for all the bullying. I understand victims of bullying maybe able to prevent it if they stand-up for themselves, but it could make it worse. After the constant bulling on the female lead, she finally told the adults, but it made it worse. Later on, one of the characters mentioned that it was the female lead's fault for getting the adults involved. After reading further, I began to think the author wanted us to blame the victim. When the male lead called-out the bullies on his group, they started blaming him and the male lead felt he did it to isolate himself. After completing the story, I still can not understand how the leads are able to befriend those terrible people, at least the male lead changed. Both victims of lead wanted to commit suicide at one point, but the bullies themselves lived alright and only blamed others. With the exception of the male lead, the story seemed to teach bullying is okay as long as you blame others and eventually the victims will forgive you. The teacher himself was involved in bullying indirectly, and did not change either.

This manga had soo many potentials, I mean it could've been one of the best mangas out there (not that saying it's not but under there). So what's the reason that made this manga a let down? So let's get to the point. There are a lot of teases to the readers that this manga can develop a romantic subplot/plot but in the end it just felt like the mangaka just got tired with the manga and wanted to end it and quit. Basically that's how it happened, throwing romantic teases at you and in the end throws it away on a near by river ... to add insult to injury.




*Spoiler*

Remember the scene where Nishimiya is practicing her speech to confess to Ishida with her sister? Yea? So what happened to that scene? Did all of that go to waste because we don't know what will happen next? Yes. So are you excited that someday Nishimiya will confess her feelings to Ishida? Good, cause you aren't getting one.

*End of Spoiler*




Conclusion:

It's quite rushed and it ended quite quickly with left out question that aren't answered. But overall it was an enjoyable ride and it will be more enjoyable if weren't for the ending. And I think I it's kinda suspicious why the manga just ended it 'there' like "so I'm excited for the new chapter where it's gonna resolve everything... *Thank you for reading*"

The Ending was awful so the my Overall Rating is far lower than what it was before it reached its conclusion. Without that Ending, I'd have given it a 9.

The story progressed rather naturally and, despite the failure that was its Ending, it's a series I'd recommend. The art was nice and consistent. The themes were good and the handling of being Deaf was far from stereotypical and disrespectful. The cast was nice too for the sake of the story.

There's really nothing to overly praise or overly criticize. Minus the Ending. That Ending was a travesty for such a well-done story. Didn't expect ... it to be as good as it was after that One-Shot, either.

to begin with, i think the one shot was better because it was the good part of the story without the cons of the entire manga.

The story had the potential to be a true masterpiece and a really touching story but it didnt go very well in my opinion...

The manga should have just focused with the two main characters instead of giving us that bad film projet with all those uninteresting other characters. It would have been really good if the two of them would have faced some "trouble" by seeing other characters from the elementary school who bullied the girl. The manga did not ... take enought depth in this and decided to put that shi*ty film instead which forces us to see some characters that we just dont want to see like Miki, the class representative who is basically a wh*re from the start to the end of the story.

To conclude, if you are interested by the plot, just read the one shot it's MORE than enought believe me do not waste your time with anything else this manga is for me a bit of a disappointment and more than anything else : a big waste

Overall i put a 6 because of the one shot and of the plot which is a good idea but a wasted idea unfortunately. If not for the one shot it would have been a 5.

The 2 main characters are very good, a shy cute girl (i'm quite disappointed by the lack of romance into this story it would have been way better with more romance) and a kind man who just knows that he fu*ked up in his youth. Both deserve at least a 9 but once again i put 7 (and it's i think still too much) because of the other annoying or bad characters like Miki, also the fat boy who became friend with MC (this one is juste plain annoying, at the end i wasn't even reading his bubbles, he's useless...)
The "handsome" guy is a contradiction in himself. He says he hates bully but he's best friend his the class representative who DENIES every bit of implication with the bullying she has done. I would have believed that author was going to do an arc focused on this with the "handsome" guy that would forces this wh*re to assume what she has done if she wants to stay with him (she has a crush on him) but no. The author didnt do anything, either he forgot either he didnt care but it's not acceptable especially when you notice that class rep is still the EXACT same at the end (deny everything).
This manga is presumably talking about friendship too but what friendship ? Apart the 2 mains characters they are just colleagues. Class rep is there because of the handsome guy, this one is there because he was bored, fatty is just there because he wants to do a movie and black haired girl is here because she has a crush on MC.

I honestly think this manga is overrated because people are emotive and rate it for it's original and touchy plot instead of noting it for what is offers to us = wasted and useless romance, it would have been better if author didnt make any romance at all instead of teasing us for nothing, bad friendship, bad character development and some incoherences (black haired girl is in love with MC since elementary school but for some reasons she cut every ties with him in elementary school, she just talked with him to bully him once in middle school I just dont understand her it's a nonsense..)

Often times when you are a victim of bullying, your bully will have rationalized and doubled down on their bullying, while you suffer at the hands of and hate the guts of said bully. However, Koe no Katachi/A Silent Voice flips the script completely. Protagonist Ishida Shoya, an elementary school bully, falls into a pit of self-hate and depression due to his bullying of poor little Nishimiya Shouko, who in has nothing but kindness amd care for Shoya, and countless shenanigans occur as he tries to find her and her forgiveness, and to make up the years of childhood he ruined for her, before we ... reach an ultimately unsatisfactory ending.

Overall the story was decent, in fact this entire manga is beautiful even if its ending didn't satisfy me. However all things considered it will always be one of those manga that I'll remember fondly but never read again. It was a fun ride at the time, but this destination they reached is simply not worth the journey for me.