I just finished watching the movie "A Silent Voice" a.k.a Koe No Katachi in Japanese title. It's a great anime movie I must say, and surprisingly deep as well. One might reckon that the movie is catered specifically for high school teenagers, but it's actually not. Adults can enjoy the movie as well as the movie addressed several universal themes/issues in life. Guilt, depression, redemption are all part and parcels of life, This movie touched upon these themes in a natural yet serious way. The summary of the movie revolves around a high school boy who seeks redemption for the past bullying acts he had done towards a deaf girl back in elementary school.
Depression
The boy is depressed because of his guilt, and his unhealthy social life. The girl was also depressed, due to her disability. But she kept on a façade of smiles, only to be faded when the reality hits hard. The reality is that everyone will go through depression at various points of life at various severity. The fact is that it is how we face depression that matters. When the boy and girl are having self-esteem issues, they turned to self-harm method of releasing the steam, which is unhealthy. But sadly this is what's happening throughout the world, a fact that we could not ignore.
Disability
The girl is deaf, and rely on hearing aids on everyday basis. Unsurprisingly, the girl is also having trouble pronouncing words. The disability has caused trouble and inconvenience in elementary school for both characters. In the manga, the inconveniences are explored deeper as the girl is bringing trouble to everyone around her, which she understands too well. The movie shed light on the world perspective of hearing impaired people, sympathizing with their situation in a very positive way.
Suicide
Both the boy and girl have thoughts of suicide due to their past guilt. The boy attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge, only to be saved by the reunion of him and the girl. The girl attempted suicide by jumping off a building, only to be saved by the boy who arrived just in time. The movie explores the fact that suicide doesn't solve anything, as it will only bring grief to everyone else. In the boy's case, the mother scolded him for being selfish as once he committed suicide, the mother will be left alone and broken. The girl's reason of attempted suicide was to end the boy's suffering, or so she thought. The girl reckon that she's the one who caused the boy to be ostracized, twice. She also came to conclusion that the boy will never be happy as long as they're together. She ponder upon the situation where the boy's life will be way happier if she hadn't appear in his life in the first place. It may seem her suicidal thoughts are quite ridiculous, but this is the reality of the society.
Loneliness
The boy shut himself from the outside world, hence the loneliness he faced in school. As a result, he is ostracized, also partly due to his ex-best friends' actions. The movie hinted on the fact that friendship is the cure to loneliness, and opening up oneself to others is the first step. The girl is definitely the loneliest in school, having to deal with hearing disability which hindered her normal learning process.
Redemption
The world will not end if we did something wrong. What we ought to do is to redeem our past failures, not looking back. So what if we screwed up? We should look forward, and continue our lives, learning lessons along the way. So what if we screwed up again? It's okay because that's how good lessons are learnt. The boy goes above and beyond in his redemption acts, bringing everyone together for the girl. The main drive for his redemption is his guilt, which might not be the best reason but that's the usual case for everyone.
Forgiveness
I think this is the most heart-warming part of the movie, as the girl forgave the boy for bullying her in the past. The boy's friends forgave him for his actions as well. The boy also forgave everyone. Near the end of the movie, there's a scene where the boy finally opened up himself to the rest of the world, realizing that he had forgave everyone and vice versa. He decided to listen to everyone's voice, and to speak up as well. I think the movie has a very good way of reaching out to everyone upon the fact that forgiveness can be the best thing in life.
Overall, I really do recommend this movie to all the people I know. Although a fair bit of warning, I would like to advice everyone to watch the movie first before reading the manga. I did the opposite, and was underwhelmed when I first saw the movie as I inevitably compared the movie with the manga (the movie missed out a lot of plot and character development as compared to the manga). However, the movie on it's own, it's a masterpiece.
