The beautiful tear jerker, “A Silent Voice”

Nick Vanburen

April 29, 2021

Animation is highly regarded for its childish moods and not- so -deep themes, but in the movie “A Silent Voice”, made by Kyoto Animation and found on Netflix, that notion is turned on its head. The movie is a romantic drama that brings out the most in its art and animation. The themes and writing are anything but childish and will even make the viewer tear up.

Starting in the 6th grade, we meet our main two characters, Shoya Ishida (Miyu Irino) and Shoko Nishimya (Saori Hayami). Shoko Nishimya was unfortunately born with limited hearing, requiring her to communicate through a notebook. This leads Shoya Ishida, and the rest of the class, to bully her. Despite this, she desperately tries to make friends with Shoya Ishida but to no avail. When the principal gets involved, the whole class turns on Shoya Ishida, making him the new victim of bullying..

Years later, when Shoya Ishida is in high school, he contemplates committing suicide due to his regrets of the past. Instead, he decides to go to see Shoko Nishmiya. This action sends him on a path of change and growth that allows him to finally find a way to deal with the past and his regrets.

This movie perfectly illustrates everyone's regrets about the past and it does it in a unique way, Thanks to the awesome writing of Reiko Yoshida. Each character has a different reaction to the past and how they regret it. One wants to forget she even did anything, another wants to place the blame on other people. But the main character, Shoya Ishida, reacts to the past by wanting to run away from it. He's scared of the past and wants to forget it even happens and which shown through the multiple internal monologues we get throughout the movie. That is what makes the epic climate of the movie that more epic.

Art is a very difficult talent to master. Things such as water and trees can take years to perfect through animation, but this movie's art is some of the best I've ever seen. Everything, from the water to the people, looks stunning. The water looks photo realistic and the tree looks like every leaf was drawn by hand. The art and animation of this movie is on par with companies like DreamWorks and Pixar.

This movie can, and will, bring you to tears while watching it, but that's what makes this movie so beautiful and so stunning. Overall, this movie is a masterpiece in its own right.

“A Silent Voice” , an animated movie by Kyoto Animations, hasn't been has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association of America, but, with everything that happens in this movie I would say it is at least a PG-13. . Running time: 2 hr 10 minutes. Four stars out of Four.