The story was cool. I like how it portrayed bullying in the first chapters and the different types of bullies (like the active and passive ones). As for the main character, I like him too. It was an interesting twist that the bully ended up as a victim, and seing how he tried to make amends for his mistakes, making a contrast with the other bullies who never got to learn their lesson (the protagonist's friends), or never felt remorse for what they did (Nao), or never assumed that they were part of the problem (Kawai, the teacher).
Nonetheless, something I didn't like about this story was the LACK of participation of Shouko, I mean, the story is called "A silent voice", so why we couldn't see more about HER version of the story? Everything we learn about her is through other character's perspectives: her sister, her mom, the MC. We never get to hear what she truly feels, what is she like, what heppened to her before changing schools, and after graduating (middle school and high school). This way, we don't know anything about her, her likes, dislikes, aspirations, her deeper thoughts, how are things going in her current school (is she being bullied? Does she have friends? Does she feel alone?). And the MC doesn't know anything either, and this is because the author decided to put the attention on the other characters and their irrelevant lives, thus making the two "protagonists" (Shoya & Shouko) less interesting and irrelevant to their own story.
I would have LOVED to see more meaningfull interactions between Shoya and Shouko beacuse that was the whole idea, that they could start again as friends, and this could have opened new oportunities to explore Shouko's psique (I mean, she went through bullying all her elementary school life, technically. That can't go unnoticed in her current behaviour), and maybe we could have learn more about her new school life as a high schooler, learn more about her personality, the other bullies of her past (thus, making Shoya not feel SO guilty about putting ALL the blame on himself).
As for Shoya, we could have seen him express his inner thoughts and all the excesive guilt he feels. This way Shouko could have talked about it with him, easing the pain that haunted him for so many years. After all, why the heck did he learned sign language if they barely use it?
It's frustrating to see the other characters take the spot light and see their lives coming together, while the protagonists take a back seat on their own goddamn story.
Shoya could easily have chosen to have a career as something related to awareness and information of deaf people in education, or bullying, such as a Minister of Education (since he's so obsessed with making amends for what he did), instead of choosing to be a hairdresser just because.
As for Shouko, I was dissapointed that we never got to see what she wanted to be until the very end (because of the reasons I mentioned before), and the author just threw it in our faces that she wanted to be a hairdresser with no clues along the way.
Consequently, the story eneded up quite mediocrely for both of them, all because it prioritized the secondary characters.

I read or watch stories about bulling with angst and rage in my heart because I was a victim of bulling myself, however the bulling part of this manga doesn't go beyond the first volume, after that it drags on around some dumb film the annoying protagonist's friend is set on making to celebrate their friendship. The protagonist evolves from a complete asshole to a dumb pushover unable to put his shit together. A little more romance could have saved the story albeit a victim falling in love to her bully is very unlikely, however this is fiction, no resemblance to actual facts or living people, but as I said before, the protagonist is very dull. His only accomplishment was to learn sign language. We are compelled to root for him, but he is ok being mediocre. Again the ending is shitty, the Japanese doesn't know how to end a romantic story in a satisfactory and fulfilling way. I was so pissed off that I felt the impulse to threw the book off my window, but doing that to my PC would be troublesome.

... Last updated on August 24th, 2021, 10:03am

So I remember reading this waaay back but then stopped reading cos it was taken over by crunchyroll and I think I didn't realise that their manga was for free.
Now I've come back over 7 years later, it has a anime film adaptation that is critically acclaimed as one of the best films made in the industry, and I figure hey I should go back to this.
So I did. And This is really good.
As an art-piece I'd give it 9/10, I think. Maybe higher, if I presume to say that I understood the author's intent.
Manga enjoyment-wise I'd be more comfortable giving it a 8.5/10. i.e. for my personal enjoyment.

Where I think it lost a point or half a point is in the story seeming to drag for a few chapters around chapter 15 (I think). There were a couple of chapters where I felt 'This doesn't seem to really be here for a purpose, or at least could have been done more concisely'. That said it does recover, and overall is very well put-together.

This is not a romance.
This is a coming-of-age manga. Or perhaps half that, half drama manga.
A traumatised boy is trying to make amends and later it's about his recovery. It shares a theme or two with Onani master kurosawa and also with the anime AnoHana, two pieces of work I'd also rate 10/10 and perhaps 9/10 respectively.

Interestingly....All this time when I looked back at this manga (back when I'd only read up to ch28 and the 32.5 omake) I misremembered one part of the story
Unrelated to my review but I had thought that when Turns out that's not what happened at all....huh. I kind of like my memory better. But then it'd completely change what the manga ended up being about so, eh. Just thought that was interesting.


Maybe after another 7 years I'll watch the movie. I think that one fault, a lack of conciseness for a small handful of chapters, would of course not be there so I expect a 10/10....although I would be surprised if all the necessary parts are covered in 2 hours..

... Last updated on August 19th, 2021, 11:08pm

I have a history with this series. I watched the movie then read the manga, years later read the manga, watched the movie right after and then right after that started reading the manga again. A month later and I'm about to read the manga now. It's not the story itself that is amazing but the feeling of realism you get from reading it it's bone chilling. Like the author really payed attention to giving characters authentic emotions and isn't afraid to push characters bad side or deals with social fears and mental health and is the one manga I can read while stomaching the bullying.

Story: 9/10
Art: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Quality Polish Edition: 8/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall: 8.8/10

I feel both movie and manga could have been a bit better...

Movie needed about 20-30 more additional minutes since it skipped a lot of things such as Ueno's feelings on almost every single instance of it, the film arc and the ending. Even Nishimiya's chapter where she was dreaming was confusing in the movie. But movie depends on production studio, budget etc...

On the other hand the manga had many irrelevant chapters by the end of it such as the film arc and the kinda lousy timeskip-ending where not much is told or shown and characters seem same. The film chapters could be narrowed down so as to provide a better ending imo.

I think BSzili did a good job summarizing it on some extent.

... Last updated on October 4th, 2019, 7:34pm

I liked the theme, there were a few parts which were really engaging, but i feel that this manga was lacking somehow..

Some characters like ueno and kawai who were supposed to have some impact on the plot, felt weird in whatever they did. Mashiba too. Their motivations, and thoughts were not as clearly laid out as it should have been done. There was a lot of potential, but it seems unused.

well i am not through and it make take a while. Its very emotional, its excellent. Why will it take a while? I stop from time to time, because i am touched. And i don't want to rush through it.

The manga deals with difficult subjects: bullying, disability, alienation, suicide, but ultimately the story is about redemption.
I read the manga after seeing the anime movie, so I can't help but to compare them. Obviously there was more room for character development in the manga, but some of the characters came off as weirdos and narcissists (e.g. Mashiba and Kawai). Ueno started out more sympathetic, but became off putting because of her abusiveness and fits of rage. I just found it hard to care fore them, which is not a good thing in a character-driven manga. Seeing Ishida's childhood was interesting, but sub-plots like the movie-making didn't add much to the story. The manga lost its way towards the end and should have focused more on Ishida and Nishimiya. The ending was disappointing too, but I guess it's the journey that's more important? *shrug*



I usually prefer the original manga to anime adaptations, but in this case the movie wins for me. It took the best bits of the manga, and condensed them down into 2 hours. Still, the manga was good, but I'm not sure if I'd recommend it.

... Last updated on December 27th, 2018, 5:21am

If you're into character-driven stories with imperfect characters who try to attone, and moments that will make you ugly cry, read this. The characters are so well done that it's simply not to be missed.