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Semi-spoilery review. I have not read the original manga so I can't compare the two.

Story - The story is beautifully written, dealing with subjects like bullying, suicide attempts/ideation, and a dealing with a disability like deafness in a more realistic and tactful way than I've seen in a while. I didn't feel like very many plot points were contrived or cringey and I was hooked from the beginning. The various story beats brought out a rollercoaster of emotions that I didn't mind riding multiple times after my first viewing and, in particular, I found myself in tears for many portions of the film. The story ... hints at romance between Shoko and Shoya, but focuses more on their developing friendship than anything else, which I was glad for. I think it would have been a bit cliche for the story to have been a massive romance. Granted, the ending felt a bit flat compared to the emotion of the rest of the film, but it was still very enjoyable.

Art - As a KyoAni film, there was a particular art style and quality of animation I was expecting, going in, and the film met those expectation. The whole film was very beautifully drawn and was perfect for the varying tones of the film; it didn't seem weirdly juxtaposed against any of the more dramatic scenes whenever they happened. The animation was also wonderfully done and, while I'd say Kimi no Na wa still has it beat there, it's only by a tiny margin.

Sound - The general style/personality of the soundtrack was unexpected, but I quickly became fond of how it seemed to fit so well. There were many scenes that I re-watched just to experience the emotions brought out from certain soundtrack choices amplifying the tone of the scene itself.

Character - The characters, especially the mains, seemed pretty well explored. I was able to empathize greatly with Shoko and Shoya's self-loathing and guilt, and dislike characters like Ueno and Kawai for their own self-obsessed behavior. I also found myself loving side characters like Yuzuru, since their screen time is used effectively to establish how they bounce off other characters in their own unique way. However, I felt like there was some characterization missing from many side characters like Mashiba and the 'friends' Shoya used to have. It would have been interesting to see how seeing them again would affect Shoya, but one of them only appears for one scene later in the film. The holes in characterization seemed to lessen the impact of certain decisions. I'm not sure if every character is given ample characterization and development in the manga, but it felt obvious that there were some character aspects that had been cut out of the film.

Enjoyment - I watched this film in a student-run cinema near my university and then immediately had to buy it off Youtube to watch it again and again. This film brought out so many emotions and so much for me to ruminate on afterwards. Kimi no Na wa may have been the more popular film and the more hyped film, but I enjoyed myself more watching this than I did when I saw Kimi no Na wa.

Overall - I enjoyed this film immensely and, while it fell flat with failing to completely fleshing out some characters, the beautiful art and story more than made up for that kind of criticism. Again, I haven't read the manga and maybe I'd feel differently if I had that to compare the film to, but as a standalone experience, Koe no Katachi was very enjoyable.

So I have so much to say about this show that, to keep from rambling, I'm going to organize my thoughts into different sections. I'll try not to be too spoilery, for those who haven't seen it because this show needs to be seen.

Story:
First of all, I came into this show knowing NOTHING about competitive figure skating. But the amount of detail and passion the creator, director, and staff had for the sport was very apparent to the point where I got very interested in learning more about the sport itself while watching the show. That was something that surprised me about the show; ... how invested it could get me into a sport I'd known nothing about. The story of the competition was well paced and I love that you could never tell how each competitor was going to place. Yuuri Katsuki wasn't guaranteed first or second or third JUST because he was the main character and I liked that the show didn't resort to cliches.

Regarding the romance in the show, I LOVED how it was handled. I'm usually very picky about romance in anime. I usually check out of it if the romance is TOO sugary-sweet or filled with too much unnecessary drama. Yuri on Ice didn't have that. I got to enjoy a simple romance between two characters who clearly cared about each other and there was little drama about it. I know a lot of people went crazy over the fact that the romance was between two men, but as someone who doesn't care about making a big deal out of orientations (hey, if you love someone, you love someone), I was glad the show didn't make a big deal out of that too. Again, it wasn't super cliched and made me very invested in seeing them happy in the end, which doesn't happen often for me.

Overall, I loved that the story was well-written in both major aspects of the show, I liked how it handled its various themes throughout the show and didn't leave plot threads dangling at the end. I liked that I could go back to the beginning of the show and watch the first few episodes after episode 10 and find that certain lines held a completely different meaning the second time around, because that shows layers in the writing. Anything I can go back and analyse, I appreciate a little more.

Art: After watching Terror in Resonance two years ago and then hearing that MAPPA was doing Yuri on Ice, I was interested in seeing how the art/animation would be for this show. I was not disappointed. I can admit that there were a few sup-par frames from time to time and a few frames were reused, but the show overall looked very beautiful. The ice skating scenes, especially, were choreographed and animated quite well (good job Kenji Miyamoto and the animation staff at MAPPA) and I loved that the skating scenes were animated slightly differently so you could actually tell if a skater was getting tired or was panicking or feeling down and the performances didn't look stale. But outside of that, I loved how the characters were drawn. What really struck me was how easily you could read expressions on faces. It was always very clear how a character was feeling, even if they weren't speaking and that level of detail impressed me. I also loved that, with each episode, the opening animation had a little bit more color added to it. That was a nice extra touch.

Sound: Now, I love music so, even if I wasn't going to enjoy the show, I knew from the beginning that I would watch it JUST FOR THAT OPENING THEME. It was so inspiring and so powerful that I immediately downloaded (and later bought) it to listen to over and over. The rest of the music in the show was also great. Each piece that each skater had to perform to had its own energy to it and matched each character perfectly, either to them directly or to the theme they were trying to convey, and I never felt like skipping any performance.

Characters: In sports anime, I think its really easy to fall back on cliched characters so you know who to root for and who to boo at. Yuri on Ice, again, doesn't do that. It speaks volumes to me when the final six skaters go into the Grand Prix Final and I cannot genuinely cannot tell you a single character that I think deserves the gold medal over the others. Each character has their own unique motivations and personalities and flaws that make them endearing. There was only one character I disliked AND EVEN THEN, I could see how other people would like seeing a character like him and, by the end of the show, I came to at least respect him. That speaks volumes to the writing of the show, again.

Enjoyment: Well I'm still riding on the high of the finale, but I'd definitely make this my show of 2016. It was going to be Mob Psycho 100, but I've changed my mind for all the reasons above. I loved watching the skating and getting invested in each performance at every step of the competition. I loved fawning over Yuri and Victor's relationship as it developed in every episode. I laughed at all the character interactions. I cried at the ending. Yeah, I loved this show and I'd definitely recommend it!