Almost everyone I’ve seen seems to give Kawai a pass. In my opinion, she’s the worst out of all of them. Laughed along with everything that happened and denied any guilt. Ueno at least owns up to it and takes accountability for her actions, and even begins to learn sign language at the end. Kawai doesn’t grow or change at all. When Ishida gets out all she cares about is that she couldn’t finish the cranes and what he would think, not that he got out and is ok. She ends just as fake as she started.
Yes, thank you. So few people seem to see her scam. When called out, she plays the victim card for the sake of sympathy. At least as horrible as Ueno is, she doesn't really try to hide who she is.
The movie is very very subtle about it and since she doesn't have that much focus or time in it, they don't realize how she's the worst of the kids, she's even worse than Ueno and Ishida combined. In the manga it's way more explicit and hard to ignore how much of a POS she is, as she never changed and always encouraged the others to keep up the bullying since she thought it was funny and laughed at all the hideous stuff, then despite it all she never owned up to it and kept being fake unlike Ueno who kind of repents and learns sign language.
I don't think it's about being fake. In Japanese culture, people generally highly value how society views them. The pressure to fit in, specially at school is higher than it is in Western cultures.
Some quick translation notes - after watching the video of the Ferris wheel, Ishida says "I want Nishimiya to like *herself*", rather than wanting Ueno to like her; even more importantly, when they're talking at the bridge after his coma, he says "I want *you* to help *me* live", which is way better for her to hear, rather than feeling like a burden who has to be helped herself. Also, on Ueno herself - look at the film again while considering that she's head over heels in love with Ishida. She's jealous of the attention that is diverted to Nishimiya instead of her, not least by Ishida but by everyone else. As for why she's so aggressive, it's explored more in the manga but in the movie, there's a very brief shot of her with her family (38:31) while they're all watching the fireworks. While Ishida and Nishimiya's families are entirely women and girls, Ueno's is a dad and three brothers, so she's grown up in a very masculine, competitive, domineering household where she's had to fight and scrap, often literally, to get the attention she needs or wants. This, of course, is not what's required for other relationships, but it's what she was raised on, so it's what she knows. Not at all excusing her actions, but at least somewhat explaining.
You're the only one that mentioned about Ueno's family! That makes so much sense. All of my childhood friends are boys so I understand it but at the same time it never made me act terribly like Ueno but it does add to why she possibly is the way she is. I never noticed, thanks
@@naylisyazwina6836 it's all about how you take life lessons. I grew up fatherless in a dangerous neighborhood. Me and my childhood/teens friends grew up together, we mugged, shoplifted and smoked weed at 14~16, until one day we got caught and got a beating for trying to resist. We were sent back home after a dressing down by the Sargeant and the officer lady who applied first aid to us. I felt so much shame, absolutely embarrassed and disappointed in myself for falling so low, I stopped hanging out with my friends and flipped the page. My friends got mad at the police for capturing them, at the Sargeant and officer for telling us what to do and talking down to us, do they escalated and they're both in jail. One of them is in for abuse and drugging of underaged, while the other one idk because we don't have anyone in common so all I know is he went to jail before the other guy and was sentenced to 20 years. Me, instead, started working at 17, finished highschool, went from job to job until I landed a decent one and got some programming education, moving up in life and being a respectable citizen, helping those around me instead.
Kawai is the worst. It's more obvious in the manga, but she was an active participant and was very sneaky about it - like feinting singing to "trick" Nishimiya to start singing off tune.
I'll always enjoy this movie and I'll always defend Ueno. You have to understand that she liked Ishida, saw a new girl show up and basically stole all his attention, got frustrated and backed off from her. The problem she had was that Ueno was the only one that saw how much Shoko hated herself and Ueno hated that she didn't try to do anything about it hence the whole ferris wheel convo. Ueno finally accepted Shoko when she saw how much she tried talking to her outside the hospital and began learning sign language.
1:24 Yeah it's actually called "The shape of voice" becuase that is how it's called in Japanese but translations were also translated as "a silent voice" in many countries. Hope you enjoy the anime world😸😸😸
The last scene always makes me tear up more than anything else in the movie. In defense of Ueno, she is trying in her own way to have a relationship with Shoko, although going about it in the worst way possible. And she does have a point, Nishimiya did make things harder for everyone else in her class, although it's not something that she did on purpose, and she also did not seem to understand how others felt about her and that is also something that is kinda hard to blame on Shoko. By the same token, Ueno never tried to understand Shoko or put herself in her shoes. But that might be a cultural thing since in Japan kids are thought to not be a burden on others above everything else. I think the worse people in that class were the teacher first and Kawai (blond girl with braids), you can see in the singing scene that Nishimiya was watching Kawai's lips in order to know when to start singing and Kawai started early to make her mess up, then she turns around and makes herself look good by telling her to do exactly was she was already doing. She also always cried to make herself the victim. The teacher is the worst. He knew and did nothing at all, he even snickered behind the book when Ishida was mock reading. Great movie and amazing reaction. Thank you!
To me it’s when Nishimiya cried on Shoko’s Mom’s feet. Her helpless and broken wail in addition with that perfect voice acting (I hate the english dub btw. Shows no emotion whatsoever) is just heartbreaking.
@@commentwar7949 Dubs actually doing justice to the original is an exception, rather than a norm. Not only in Anime, even when I see movies from other states in my own country (India), I don't watch the dub they make in my language (Hindi), instead preferring to watch it in its original language of whatever state the Movie came from (Telugu, Tamil, etc). Even the lone Russian film I watched (Best in Hell), I preferred the original language instead of the English dub.
03:55 Sweet? Re-watch just before and you'll Kawai "mouths" early causing Shoko to sing early... not so sweet and innocent but very manipulative (33.20... you see it now) Ueno entire issue does stem from jealousy, she lost Shoyo to Shoko - but she starts towards learning how to communicate and accept Shoko in the end. 09.49 Her earring was torn out - possibly a vengeful act of Shoko's mum or more likely self-inflicted as a symbolic act of atonement. 12:05 He even sold his futon. 15:00 1.7m Yen = 120k NOK or 11k USD 19:20 The elusive sister... I suspect she represents the author as you never see her face in the manga either. 27:40 The word for love use here is very similar to moon - hence the confusion (subtitles didn't help; I prefered those that translated it as "I lub moo") A really powerful movie - and not too much was cut from the manga but it does give you more insight into Shoko's mother's motivations and how awful the teacher was in deliberately ignoring the situation. Personally I'm able to relate to much of the emotions due to a history of being bullied in my childhood and ironically how an act of friendship from a fellow pupil I didn't know, where he bought a loaf of bread for us to share as we chatted gave me the courage to see life can be positive... nothing religious or deep in it, just a random act of kindness. Sometimes just a good piece of bread is enough to change your life.
Oh look! A Silent Voice! I was totally in the mood to cry today. Great reaction. I found it so funny you kept saying "kick her *ss!" trust me we all felt the same way. This is probably one of the best anime movies of all time and by far one of the best movies that explores trauma and depression.
i saw it maybe 20 or 30 time ( i lost count) and i cry EACH time like a baby. The music is so gorgeous. The most beautiful movie i ever saw. i decorated one of my bedroom wall with posters and scene from this movie.
9:33 His mom's ear is bleeding likely because Shoko's mom tore the ear-ring off (like what happened to Shoko) 🤕 26:44 In Japanese, the words for "Like/Love" (Suki) and "Moon" (Tsuki) are pronounced very similarly, thus the misunderstanding 😆 38:24 In Japanese, ya normally call people by their last name or with a suffix (like -san, -kun), unless you're being overtly familiar (like relatives or couples). Here, he switches from her last name "Nishimiya" to her first name "Shoko" without a suffix - signifying a closeness he feels 🤔 42:10 The security in that hospital is just atrocious 🤣 44:58 In the story of _"Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes"_ based on the true story of a girl named Sadako Sasaki. As the story goes, Sadako’s friend tells her that the crane, a sacred bird in Japan, lives for a hundred years, and if a sick person folds 1,000 paper cranes, then that person would soon get well. The tradition of making 1000 origami cranes for someone who is seriously ill is still followed today 😇
you are wrong in 9:33 he do it to her self, the bleeding is metaphor (so we could notice) for he sold his ring for money because working as barber and single mother couldn't pay all the hearing aid shoya destroyed. So it's just simply methaphor how she is and in what condition they familly are.
This is one of the most beautiful films that I routinely recommend to people. I really love its important message about empathy. Not only do we feel awful for Nishimiya, but we also feel bad for Ishida and we root for him to be a better person.
3:41 This was funny to hear from you, because she is the real bissh.. if you watch the video properly then you will see that she opened her mouth early so Nishimiya could follow her and sing at the wrong beat.. She is just a wannabe lovable and attention-seeking character.. she was happy when she found that Ishida noticed her new hairstyle.. Even in the end she was crying loud and hugged Nishimiya as she was trying to show people how kind and caring she is.. In the end, everyone learned their mistake, Ueno tried learning sign language, and even Ishida's school friend was good and helped him pull out from the lake.. But that blondie idk why she made that paper garland and moaned that she couldn't make more.. that's not some kind of school project lol.. also, Ishida became a bully, then he got bullied.. His friend learned from him no doubt..
The worst part of the official release was they subtitle Shoko perfectly. You can hear that she has trouble pronouncing words and the film shows that the other characters misunderstand her, like saying moon vs crush, but the translation is perfect so it's confusing to viewers because (ironically) there's no misunderstanding. The fan subs are better are doing literal translation to show the difficulty the characters have understanding her.
Smth to add, Ishida was abt to commit self leave, but the sound of the fireworks snapped him out of it. On Shoko’s side, she couldn’t hear the fireworks. And therefore, she jumped.
The part where Nishimiya tells Shoya She likes him, She says "Suki" which means "Like". in this context, she meant "I like you". However, because of her strange voice and tone it sounded more like "Tsuki" which means "Moon" in japanese. So Shoya misinterpreted her words.
Back when this came out it was probably closer to 100 yen to the dollar. The rule of thumb used to be you could just treat yen like cents to get an approximation. I looked it up and in December of 2016 it was 117 yen to the dollar. So it was closer to $15k.
Such a good movie. A sensible but brutally honest look at bullying (from both sides) and how it scars people for life. Definitely a tear jerker. That is why I love anime so much. Japanese animation truly does not restrict itself to kids show and is perfectly able to tackle adult, mature and psychologically complex storylines.
Another good manga on the topic of Bullying is Asper Kanojo. Really goes into depth about the mindset and experiences of bullying and how some things are lost forever.
The reason why the Movie's name is "The Shape of Voice" is because the Japanese name for the Movie is "Koe no katachi". "Koe" means Voice, and "Katachi" means shape. "No" is a possesive particle. So It quite literally translates to "The shape of the Voice" which i think is an interesting name. not sure why They changed the english name to "A Silent Voice"
Ueno's behavior actually does make sense to me. Forgiveness is a theme running through this movie. Mostly about forgiving yourself. I believe Ueno does regret what she did but she's going about things differently than Shoya. She believes she doesn't deserve forgiveness and will never get forgiveness so she pushes everyone away by continuing to be a jerk. Perhaps she's thinking "I'm horrible, I can't change it and I deserve to be hated". In that sense she was actually pretty similar to Shouko, who blamed and hated herself for being deaf and unable to change. But in the end we see Shouko's persistence start to pay off just a little bit when Ueno uses some sign language. No one changes overnight, yet we see the first little bits of change in Ueno.
Interesting take. It makes sense, I think I'll add that Ueno wants to be hated for what she did. She keeps asking Ishida if he hates her, she also tells Shoko that they should just secretly hate each other.
This is the only movie ive ever seen that made me literally jump out of my seat towards the television as if i could affect it, and im sure i dont need to say which scene did it for you to know
Oh, and before someone mentions how this lost to Boss Baby in the Oscars, that's not how the Academy awards work. So no, they did not think that Boss Baby was better than this.
@@vicentegeonix the Academy members receive a list of hundreds of movies that qualify for the awards each year, it's impossible for them to watch all of them. So the movie studios or movie producers will send gift baskets or promotional items along with the movies to all members of the Academy in order to get them to watch their movie. They run promotions and advertising to call attention and make sure their movies are nominated at least. Javanese Anime studios just don't have the money to do this, plus unlike other Studios and producers, they have little to gain from an Oscar win or nomination. TL;DR Studios bribe Academy members into watching and nominating their movies. Japanese studios don't care enough to do the same
While I think this film is great & a wonderful adaptation… I thank the manga (especially with the author notes of the original mangaka) goes to lengths to show that none of the kids are “bad” or “evil”. The point of the story is that everyone is on a journey, & our part is trying to learn & love the people we can along the way, even the people who hurt or misuse us along the way if they make effort to seek forgiveness or make amends. The manga only really shows the teacher (who even years later still thinks nothing was his fault) at most fault. He could have stopped any of the bullying by being a present teacher. In the end though, the mangaka even says that Shoko’s father & grandparents on her father’s side shouldn’t be villanized as their story wasn’t part of the story they were trying to tell. Yea, the movie doesn’t make great cases for Ueno or Kawai because they aren’t in the film much, but the original manga does show more of their story & characterization (along with Shoya’s orignal guy friends, who mostly disappear from the story). They mention that an important part of the film / manga is when everyone else in the friend group is watching the fireworks without one another. They wish they were all together. Kawai & Ueno aren’t perfect, & certainly still have growth to do, but aren’t stock villains. Anyone who thinks that probably still has growing to do themselves.
For personal reasons I won't disclose here, I know what it is to be to the point of suicide, and how hard is to get back from that, so I kinda relate with this movie on a real personal level... The fact that Ishida sees everybody with an X on their faces is a really clever way to show how loneliness and isolation actually works (even to this day I have problems looking at people's faces)
Your personal experiences might help you resonate with the manga Asper Kanojo. It covers the same things you've felt: suicidal tendencies, social anxiety, etc and how it ACTUALLY affects you. It is a very realistic take, goes deep into the psychological stuff folks like us feel.
Everytime ughh This Movie reminds me how much I hate bullying(all the trauma I carry), all I think is Punching the ground until I bleed. @Centane have you ever watched "Inside out"?
Shouya's mom's ear was bleeding because Shouko's mother ripped out one of her earrings as a "Tit-for-tat" gesture for Shouya ripping out Shouko's hearing aids and making her bleed.
The main difference between this and the manga is the lesson of accountability. The anime skims over it but people who are bad here are made better in the manga by holding themselves accountable and others are made worse for never being accountable. Ueno is an example of the former, Kawai and their elementary school teacher are an example of the latter. Kawai is probably the worst character in the story because of this
You should really react to Millennium Actress, wonderful movie with great react potential. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is also very beautiful like other Mamoru Hosoda's anime movies. I also don't think you reacted to The Tale of the Princess Kaguya which is my favorite anime movie of all time (same director from Grave of Fireflies, but not as sad, don't worry).
Anime huh......ok, I'll recommend you a Chinese one that will break you....'BIG FISH AND BEGONIA'. Be sure to watch all the way to the end of the end titles, a very integral part comes along and after that an incredible song breaking you a bit more.
Great movie Kamila, do you want to watch some others from the same Director? I can recommend you watching “Your Name” and “Suzume”. Bring tissues with you.
Those are both by Makoto Shinkai / Comix Wave Films. A Silent Voice was by Naoko Yamada / Kyoto Animation. Violet Evergarden is something else by KyoAni, if so interested.
Kawai genuinely makes me made she always victimises herself instead of taking accountability,she never changed at all shes self centered even ueno is better and trying to make some kind of change
I see this going around on videos about this movie. To win an Oscar, you have to be nominated. To be nominated, you have to *put your own movie forward* for consideration. KyoAni did not do that with A Silent Voice, so of course it wouldn't win an Oscar when it was never eligible for one.
@@FightingTorque411 💯 correct. I'll add that for the movie to be in consideration, Studios have to put up a lot of money in promotion. It's not like KyoAni forgot to submit a form. They just don't want to spend a lot because winning an Award wouldn't translate into more revenue for them
Multiple reasons. For example, when a persona accidentally offends someone who although a bully on the outside, is actually mentally weak within, such a person soon finds himself a target of the bully. Asper Kanojo is a good manga that delves really deep into the realistic and psychological aspects of bullying. Although, its not a light read, for sure.
The blonde girl isn't so sweet. If you look carefully at the music class scene again, you can see that she pretends to sing and fools Nishimiya to start singing too early. That, and all her other bs.
As are cave paintings, yes? Only a dunce would think that human-drawn depictions of human experiences "are for kids." Filmography is barely 150 years old, whereas we've been painting out our experiences in a comic strip since before we developed language. Or clothes. Or farming and civilization. Get some perspective. Wasn't the usage of cartoons to deliver political commentary something commonly seen in Newspapers? Are those meant to be understood by mere kids? Wait, I forgot I was talking to a kid who tries to masquerade as an adult, yet has never read (or even seen) a physical newspaper in their entire life.
