Trigger Warning: This article discusses sensitive topics such as suicide which may be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.

A Silent Voice is a 2016 anime film, directed by Naoko Yamada. Nominated for Best Animation Film in 2017 by the Awards of the Japanese Academy, the film powerfully conveys several messages, including self-discovery, a changing perspective on the world, and love for oneself and others. 

The movie tells the story of Shoya Ishida and his experiences from being an elementary school bully to a social outcast in high school.  As a kid and with the aid of his friends and classmates, Ishida served as the ringleader of bullying against his newest classmate, Shoko Nishimiya. Nishimiya has hearing loss and needs to wear hearing aids all the time. Ishida sees this as a prideful opportunity to make himself popular in his class, and frequently commits acts of bullying against Nishimiya and Miyoko Sahara, who befriends Nishimiya after choosing to learn sign language for her sake. Ishida steals Nishimiya’s hearing aids, writes insulting messages on the board and on her desk, and dumps her belongings into the fountain outside of their classroom. 

Eventually, Nishimiya’s mother transfers her to a different school, and upon her departure the bullying incidents are brought to light, with Ishida being pinned as the sole perpetrator. Ishida’s class, including his friends, turn on him and commit the same acts of bullying against him that he did to Nishimiya. This negative stigma around Ishida persists for the next few years, even as he enters high school and changes his behavior towards others. Going from center spotlight to social outcast, Ishida begins questioning his existence, even attempting to end his own life. However, things begin to turn around for him, little by little.

Ishida begins making new friends and reconnecting with old ones, starting with Tomohiro Nagatsuka, another outcast individual at his school. Nagatsuka is the first stepping stone in Ishida’s reintroduction to society, followed by Nishimiya’s younger sister Yuzuru and eventually some of his old classmates from elementary school, including Nishimiya. However, Nishimiya’s mother, who despises Ishida for the way he treated her daughter, is more difficult to convince that Ishida has changed as a person. Despite this, Ishida continues to spend time connecting with Nishimiya and befriending her, something Ishida would have never even considered as an elementary schooler.

However, Nishimiya harbors her own feelings of insecurity, eventually leading her to attempt to end her own life. Feeling guilty that she is the reason Ishida has been isolated from his friends and classmates, she believes that being gone will mean Ishida will be accepted once again. However, he saves her from jumping off a building at the expense of himself ending up at the hospital in a coma. Upon waking up, the two realize that the world is more lonely without each other, and Ishida makes a promise to himself that he will be more confident in who he is as a person, and no longer be afraid of showing that to others. The movie ends with Ishida uncovering his ears and fully taking in the world around him. He finally sees that the world is an accepting place where he can be welcomed, even with his past.

A Silent Voice is a movie that’s not solely focused on the relationship between Ishida and Nishimiya, but more on what it means to treat others the way you want to be treated and how you view the world and people around you. It’s easy to believe that bullying is also the core focus of the film, but although it certainly plays a major role in driving the plot development, bullying serves as part of the greater message of reconciliation and sincerity through one’s actions. As a high school student, Ishida fully bears the brunt of his past mistakes and feels alone in his struggle to change and prove he has changed. Only through patience and sheer determination does he convince the people around him that he no longer wants to hurt others, but instead understand who they are.

“Humans generally fail, hurt someone or get hurt in order to live and end up in a situation that can’t be helped,” said director Naoko Yamada in an interview following the 20th Japan Media Arts Festival. “I wanted to portray the hope that we can and may still live on.” 

Self-appreciation is another important message from the film. Several characters struggle with this, as they feel that they haven’t done enough to help themselves or those around them. This includes Yuzuru, who feels she has failed for not doing more to stop her older sister Shoko from trying to commit suicide, and Sahara, who was too afraid to stick up for Nishimiya when she was being targeted by others. Being proud of who you are as a person is one of the most important factors for positive change. It serves as a sign of not letting yourself be put down or influenced by others.

“I think the movie is trying to portray self-worth and seeing yourself in a certain way versus how others may see or perceive you,” said Arcadia High School (AHS) junior Christopher Thai. “An example would be the part where Ishida is walking past people and he portrays them with x’s over their faces. This movie is not really a romance per se but it still has romance elements to it.”

“The movie is pretty good, but they changed the ending a bit to make it more of a happy ending,”  stated AHS junior Ryan Supangan. “It shows that people with disabilities often get insulted or made fun of because they aren’t properly understood.”

Overall, A Silent Voice is a film that moves its audience to take a closer look at how they view themselves and their surroundings, and realize the power of connection with others and the acceptance of all people provided by the world.