Story:
Like the one-shot, but better. It's a very strong narrative with excellent character arcs and events that never go beyond believability, despite the characters going a little off. It's a soft progression that makes for an excellent climax that helps tie together the important of growth and identity.

While the actual story and important events are great, the direction that Koe no Katachi takes as the story continues is a little off the rails. There are 2 primary characters, but the latter events spend a lot of time discussing supporting characters that, while very much connected to our leads, aren't nearly as compelling and interesting enough. Perhaps with more time they could have become more interesting, but that too is a problem, as more time should have been spent between the two leads as well, rather than time spent with the ensemble cast.

However, the above gripe isn't fatal. The narrative pulls these problems off well because of its length, despite its length also being a vice. It's this odd, rickety balance that shouldn't work but somehow remains acceptable.

The biggest issue I have with Koe no Katachi has to do with the pervasive theme that there is no such thing as moral absolution. This may seem strange as it is clear there is right and wrong in the beginning of the work: bullying is bad. However, the ending seems to lead towards a notion that everyone has faults but as long as everyone is working through them, There shouldn't be any outward repercussions to their actions. The natural repercussions of one's actions (i.e. Ishida bullying Nishimiya, then later being bullied himself) negates the sins they've committed.

My big issue with the narrative running on this moral is that in doing something bad, bad happens to you (karma), but then ultimately it balances to a good. This is untrue because of death. Death is a bad event that happens that never gets resolved and the individual who suffers it cannot return from it. I am not trying to pull something out of my butt here, but showing how if we extend this theme, moral, what-have-you, to all things (and the narrative speaks to this theme as though it is applicable to every good and bad thing) then it must be compared to the epitome of bad things: death.

Because of this, many characters are able to do bad things with people not reacting to them in a normal manner. This is not so much in the beginning of the manga but near the end. It becomes incredibly irritating and goes from being a believable story to characters that are nothing more than representations of a theme/moral. I should not respond to a character in this way. They should be believable the entire narrative, and their believability should represent the theme, not the theme force me to believe it.


Art:
Motions and facial expressions reach an all new high. Since one the characters cannot hear and reserves her voice for 2 scenes, it's necessary for her reactions to feel fluid and realistic. Thankfully, this was achieved easily. There's an extreme brilliance to the character art within Koe no Katachi and I found not on their interactions to be eye-catching but the environments around them as well.

My only issue is that the world felt limited. Hallways, streets, small shops. Very few settings were used to help amplify the liveliness of the world. This would be passable if our main handicap was blindness, not deafness, but I digress.


Character:
So much depth. However, I covered my issues with how the characters are treated in the above Story section. Outside of that, character designs are excellent and I found the 2 leads to be quite endearing despite the fact that they aren't shown spending enough time together. I don't want fluff, but I wanted to see them discuss things more often to create a stronger bond.


Enjoyment:
Very enjoyable. I've already recommended it to a few friends. The premise makes for a comfortable and unique slice-of-life that doesn't glorify trashy themes, and the characters aren't one-dimensional. If you haven't read this, definitely give it a try. It's fairly short.


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