Release date: October 20, 2017
Genres: Animation, Drama
Director: Naoko Yamada
Writer: Reiko Yoshida
Starring: Miyu Irino, Saori Hayami,
Aoi Yuki
A Silent Voice is about Shoya, a man who, as a young kid, bullied a deaf girl named Shoko so much that she left the school they were at. As an adult, he’s filled with bitterness and regret for what he’s done and makes it his mission to find this girl and find some kind of resolution for how miserable he made her life.
The film tells you both the adult story of Shoya and the childhood story of Shoya, jumping back and forth between past and present. Shoya’s present life is empty, devoid of friends from school, though familiar people from his childhood keep popping up all over the place. It takes its time to get going and finally starts becoming entertaining with the introduction of a new character that Shoya meets in his quest to reunite with Shoko in the second act. The story suddenly becomes more focused as Shoya starts to make real progress in his quest and his character finally starts to get fleshed out. It’s this middle act and the stylistic animation that are what stood out to me as worthwhile in this movie. Unfortunately, the rest of it is messy.
The story deals with some really heavy subject material that includes depression, bullying, and suicide. And while it definitely dwells on them, it never feels like it gets anywhere with them. This story meanders and circles back on itself so many times, going through so many characters that it treats as equally significant. Towards the end of the film I just felt confused by what had happened, mixing up characters and forgetting who they were and what significance they had to the story. Again, this movie deals in heavy subject material and it could have been something really great if it was able to present it well.
Overall, the animation and middle act were the only redeeming qualities of this film. It delved into some deep subjects but didn’t feel like it earned the right to. It had a confusing mess of characters and took way too long to get going. I walked out of the theatre feeling more confused than affected by the film.