A Silent Voice
Directed by Naoko Yamada
Released 15 March 2017
Review by Poppy Cosyns
Back in February, a one-off screening of Yamada Naoko’s first feature-length film A Silent Voice sold out the ICA cinema in advance, leaving those slightly less eager anime fans languishing on a waiting list for tickets. It would seem that following the international success of last year’s young adult anime Your Name, the hunger for Japanese animation only continues to grow outside of its domestic market and in fact A Silence Voice has been finally released in cinemas across UK and Ireland.
Based on a manga series of the same title, A Silent Voice tells the story of Ishida Shoya, a spiky haired loner who comes to deeply regret bullying his deaf class mate Nishimiya Shoko. Yamada deftly navigates the difficult themes of disability, bullying and suicide, fleshing out the back stories of her protagonists so as to make the film’s most troubling scenes all the more powerful.
At the start of the film, we see Shoya’s relentless mocking of the well-meaning and defenceless Shoko, providing some of its most affecting moments. Later, Shoya, now at high school and notorious for his past behaviour, has become an outcast, shown – quite literally – to be invisible to his classmates. He decides to seek out Shoko, who now attends a different school, and for the film’s remainder we follow his bumpy journey towards atonement.
Thankfully, the dark subject matter is balanced by a good measure of humour, courtesy of Shoya’s hopelessly loyal sidekick Tomohiro and Shoko’s cross-dressing younger sister Yuzuru. Visually too, Yamada has placed her characters in a picture-perfect setting of perennial periwinkle blue skies and honey-coloured sunlight. Romance is kept to a minimum, the viewer left instead to ponder the importance of friendship, particularly for those suffering the many pitfalls of teenagehood.
One criticism would be that with a running time of 129 minutes, the film begins to sag a little towards the end, the loose ends tying up neatly before a few more scenes are needlessly tacked on. For the most part though, this is a bold and poignant piece that touches on themes less often explored.
Screenings in the UK and Ireland: http://asilentvoice.co.uk/