Let's take it gradually, and I'll start by pointing out some important details that happened in the film, during the entire film rather.
[The story]
For me personally, the story is a very successful one and managed to impress me to the point of tears, this approach to disability marked by an entire petty and cruel society, where everyone looks out for their personal interests, and has nothing to do with those around them , they are bullies, vagabonds, spend the night wildly, spend time in bad circles and so on.
These small details still build a society with a bad training of individuals, starting from children to adults. This connection with the film is a little different, here the bad boy is Shouya, a careless kid who doesn't listen to anyone, does whatever he wants, breaks the school rules, effectively like a current uneducated child. But all this led to a certain point in his life, everything started to fall apart from under his own feet, starting with the arrival of a new colleague at their school, named Shouko-Nishimyia. However, the poor girl suffers from a problem, she can't hear, and in this way she prefers using a notebook to be able to communicate with those around her. Shouko ends up being tortured, assaulted every day by Shouya, everything being a game for him (he throws her notebook into the water, teases her by yelling at her, wets her with the hose, threw sand in her face when she confesses to him become friends, he rips off her hearing aid leaving the poor girl with a scar, blood running down her hand <<here this scene totally shocked me>>, etc). Shouya's friends always had fun watching Shouko suffer, how she falls into pain and suffering from the cruel and crazy world she lives in, despite the disability she carries on her shoulders, her mother decides to transfer her to another school to escape of possible harassment and aggression, both physical and mental.
The fact that Shouko always kept her serene and beautiful smile on her face, even if she was tormented and bullied, is truly amazing. As proof of the existence of an "iron heart" and a warm and gentle soul. Arriving at another school, in the absence of Shouko, Shouya gets bullied in turn by his friends, with whom he spent a lot of time before, as proof there is a life lesson in this, the way you treat people will come back to you once and once upon you. In turn, he is mocked, wet, beaten, his notebooks are scattered in the water and so on. After the passing of the years, Shouya sees himself in high school, growing up and realizing what he did in the past, and his conscience did not give him peace at all, so he decides to commit an unclean act, that of committing suicide by jumping off a high bridge, but it fails. My mother, finding this out, desperate and very worried, reprimands him saying that she will burn all the money he has earned, Shouya promising that he will not do such suicidal acts again, but in the end the money is burned, and Shouya takes it all over again with this. However, if Shouya's mother paid the sum of money to Shouko's mother for the damages of the destruction of the numerous hearing aids caused by her son, Shouko's mother's hatred towards Shouya is still felt to a point. From what I said, the two (Shouko and Shouya) grow up, thus reaching high school, but one day when Shouya wanted to enter the classroom where he learns sign language, he sees a girl very familiar to him, that was Shouko. He has some discussions through signs, and realizes that all this time Shouko wanted to be Shouya's friend. Bewildered and confused, Shouya tries hard to see Shouko, but a small presence has its place, "a boy" (a girl who turns out to be Shouko's sister) who claims to be her boyfriend, does not let him absout at all for Shouya to enter the room. In this way, Shouya is completely exhausted, trying to face his own self and his dilemma in relation to his friends, for him, all of them are just "permissions" as he proves in the discussion with Nagatsuka, his new friend, who was "saved" by Shouya from a guy who didn't give him peace. But throughout the film this feeling of true friendship is very emphasized, because Nagatsuka really has a close bond with Shouya and cares a lot about him. Back to the little "boy", Shouko's sister continues to not let Shouya meet her, but one day, Shouko runs away with Shouya to a bridge, where Shouya hands her a notebook from the past, but on different embarrassing sentences were written on it. In the end, the notebook is dropped in the water, and Shouko without hesitation jumps after it. Now is the perfect moment for Yuzuru (Shouko's sister) to avenge her sister, taking a picture of Shouya while he also jumped off the bridge after Souko. Yuzuru posts the picture on a social network, and for this gesture she is thrown out of the house by her sister, and Shouya is temporarily expelled from the school.
All these facts led to the closeness between Yuzuru and Shouya, and her feeling of contempt towards Shouya diminished. Shouya received her at his house to stay the night, but he even accompanies her to a bridge, when suddenly Shouko's mother appears to have come towards him, slapping him across the face and returning home nervously, telling the girls not to is still around him. Shouya's regret for his "unhealthy" lifestyle decreased drastically, and he began to understand things differently. He meets his former classmates. First with Ueno who turns out to be just as funny as the people around her, making fun and laughing at people, then he takes Shouko with him to find Sahara, another friend from middle school, who was very close to Shouko. During this time, the relationship between Shouko and Ishida (Shouya) began to blossom, both of them going out together for various activities and outdoor walks, communicating through signs, and in all these meetings it is Shouko's time to tell Shouya what she feels for he. Well, I think this scene is downright "fatal", it destroys your heart and you will feel your soul draining through you. The fact that Shouko tried to tell Shouya "I love you", and that he could not understand what she wanted to convey, then referring to the moon, is heartbreaking for us as viewers as well as for poor Shouko, who she was disappointed by the fact that she did not manage to carry her feelings towards the loved one to the end.
Thanks to Shouko's presence, Shouya makes more friends, whose imaginary X's on their faces have fallen, these X's representing Shouya's imagination, the way he closed in on himself and detached himself from the real world, falling into depression, believing that society looks down on him. They started going out on various dates, spending time together, but after going to an amusement park, Shouya realized after a long time what it means to have real friends. Ueno, the arrogant and cunning girl, takes Shouko and they both go in a big wheel, Yuzuru catching the conversation between the two girls on the hidden camera, shows Shouya the conversation between them. Ueno humiliating Shouko, telling her that she remained the same, always apologizing and keeping a "superficial" smile. Shouya comes to the conclusion that Shouko must love herself, as she is. Shouko's mother's birthday had also come, so the two sisters thought of bringing Shouya to help them make the cake. Here their mother seemed to start not being so distant from him anymore, and somehow they continued to go out together. In fact, they went out together to the fireworks festival, and Shouya went with Shouko's family there. Beyond these, we are also presented with a death in Shouko's family, her grandmother dies in her sleep, and she is left with only her sister and mother. Before this event, Shouya is discovered by his friends that he was a bully when he was in middle school, and this distanced them from him for a period. Now let's go back to what I said earlier because this fact is related to the given mention. The festival was still going on, and Souko tells Shouya that she's going home to study, so he agrees, but he's also sent by Yuzuru to fetch his camera. While entering her house, Shouya notices both the camera and Shouko, but for a few seconds he didn't understand exactly what the matter was, so after a few frames he sees this suite on the edge of the balcony, which worried him very much Shouya. He doesn't think long and runs as fast as he can to stop Shouko, who, possibly, wanted to commit suicide in her turn. Souya catches Shouko in time, so he saves her, but unfortunately he falls into the water.
In the end, he remains unconscious for a period of several days, but one evening he leaves the premises of the hospital where he was hospitalized, then he finds Shouko on the bridge where they spent their time feeding the carp (every time these scenes seemed very beautiful to me). There they have a sincere conversation, and Shouya asks Shouko to help him love himself and overcome this barrier of suffering. Besides all this, the parents of the two come to an agreement, Shouko's mother asks for forgiveness and Shouko falls to her knees as well, but the most annoying phase throughout the movie was when Ueno hit Shouko's mother, which we deduce an act of lack of education at the level of her behavior. It didn't seem fair to me, for a child to hit an adult, not at all. Despite all the drama suffered by Shouko and Shouya, finally Ishida reconciles and asks for forgiveness from his colleagues whom he reprimanded then ls pod, now with a smile on their faces, they forgave Shouya and welcomed him with open arms as on a "new man". At the end of the film, we can highlight the accented tone of how Shouya accepts himself and puts aside the feelings, experiences and negative energy that he carried with him until then. Realizing this, he became free, without any particular regret, he no longer looked down and stopped plugging his ears, as he always did. His self became clean, he felt fulfilled and the fact that he asked for forgiveness from all those he hurt, saved himself, became another man, a man who accepts his self and loves the people close to him, so in the end we see the transition between Shouyo from the past replaced by a happy and fulfilled one from the present. Every time I watch this ending I cry a lot, when I see Shouya crying because he has fulfilled his purpose, I get goosebumps and realize how important it is to be a loving, respectful person in a degradable society. (10/10)
[Characters]
The characters played an important role, obviously, throughout the story I felt very attached to Shouko and Shouya, through the transmission of direct emotions to the viewer, having the advantage of subjectively perceiving the emotions reflected by them. As I said before, Shouko is a nice and gentle girl who suffers from a disability, and for me she was a very well written and developed character. Shouya, from the rude desert became a lover of himself and his fellow men, began to ask for forgiveness and accept the new lifestyle in society. Yuzuru was a very interesting character, he communicated with Shouya all the time, always visiting him at home and doing many things together. Some characters like Ueno and Miki were annoying and did not apologize for their careless behavior towards Shouko, they were some hypocritical, unworthy and very cunning characters, who did not take the blame, and thought themselves superior to those with disabilities, which is an embarrassment and a total scam. All in all, the characters are very well constructed, analyzed at leisure, being complexed with memories and traumas, and the way they overcome them together is fantastic. (10/10)
[Sound & Animation]
I have introduced both sections, sound and animation, because they are well connected and show great success through what he played. The animation is incredibly good, compared to other series, the clarity and fluency of the animation is worth appreciating, it is something detached from another universe, especially the category of character design, and the way it presents facial expressions, gestures, sign language.
To conclude, I can easily say that "A Silent Voice" is a film that is fully worth seeing, offering you a perspective of the way of life that includes good and less good people, the perspective of an aggressor and an aggressed, of a respectful and a careless one. All this is compressed into a conglomerate of ideas and perceptions about modern society, which are inevitably lived by thousands/millions of people. It offers many details and a life lesson, it is more than a simple anime/film, it is a harmless life of a tender child, without protection, left alone with a disability, being meant to live in a society full of wild "animals". The actions of everyone around turn out to be futile towards such people, with problems, and today we no longer know what that love of fellows is, respect for those around us and the way we expose ourselves to the world , the ideas with which we contribute and so on. I want to emphasize in the end that "A Silent Voice" breaks the barrier of a simple cinematographic act thus achieving a fusion between the sad reality of society and self-acceptance, salvation and forgiveness/asking for forgiveness of those in society.
