Children growing up are still developing brains and do not have the vocabulary to express their emotions effectively through complex language. They are big balls of flailing energy that sometimes don't even know why they do the things they do, much to their detriment. It is up to adults to instill the context(perks and consequences) of their actions. If this is not caught early on, then the weight of their actions may haunt them forever. This is Koe no Katchi! The main character bullies his classmate, a deaf girl, in his younger years and constantly is haunted by it for the rest of his life. The feelings of guilt, shame, and wanting to repent are very well done and we can all relate to that feeling and it sucks. As you look back, you wonder if that really was you? Almost as if you have a separate identity. In a way, as you develop as a human being, you become a different person. Sure some things stay the same but the standards that you develop and hold might be in conflict with what you've done in the past. For example, at my high school there were some students throwing food at each other for fun. I somewhat knew one of them who did it, she was more of the honors student type who does community service on the weekends. I don't think it occurred to her that someone has to pick it up and clean up their mess until they see a custodian do it or do it themselves. I know that their future adult selves would stop them from doing that, or even question, wow, did I really do that?!
We are biological creatures with evolutionary baggage, and this story hits the spot on the regrets one may have as a flailing kid, and the guilt about it as an adult.
