Book reviews

MexicanAnime12
Apr 16, 2021
Koe no Katachi review
I have read a lot of books in my life. For real, I'm pretty sure I have a problem, and in my life I've read hundreds of stories I would consider great. But I have rarely come across a story where every single event, character, motivation, and consequence felt deliberate, predetermined, and connected. A silent voice is one of those stories.

I honestly don't think I've ever seen a pivot so smooth yet so drastic as that between volumes one and two. For about three quarters of volume one you're gonna be thinking, "fuck this spiky haired little shit, picking on this sweet little girl because she can't hear, if I was there I'd mess him up". But then we do see him get messed up, and by people who were complicit in these actions. Watching Shoya get reverse-Uno carded with the force of a Muhammad Ali Dempsey roll by these inherently hypocritical kids forces a small amount of pity into the hearts of us when we were cursing his name only pages ago. This small bit of pity is used to catapult Shoya into the protagonists seat for the remainder of the manga as we watch him try to atone for his sins. Shoko remains the same kind and loveable person and feels responsible for Shoya's lack of friends as a senior, and watching both of these people try to restore as adults what they lost as kids is beautiful and heartwarming.

This story of course is an up and down for our characters, as a constant improvement wouldn't be able to carry a story through seven volumes, but it doesn't have the artificial drawn out feel of a soap opera or CW show. Every setback is an aftereffect of Shoya's own actions and the way the people around him read them. We watch all of these imperfect people refuse to acknowledge their own flaws while Shoya has the self awareness and clarity to see the faults of others in an objective light because he is aware of his own. The characters are like planets and watching them slowly flow into each others gravitational fields to make a solar system is satisfying and perfectly timed and executed. It's reminiscent of Neon Genesis Evangelion in that everyone has problems that they only tell to the mirror, and as we come to the lowest point of the series in the middle of volume six, we watch these characters finally face themselves and each other fully, and as they begin to pick up the pieces, a calming sensation fills the you as you realize they're going to be all right.

The final volume of this story is one of the most satisfying things I've ever read. As the pages yet to be read grow thin, every single thing get's paid off and tied together in a satisfying way, and the last two images of this story put me in the kind of good mood that makes you look around and go, "hell yeah" for no particular reason. The perfect execution of a story about the cruelest and kindest things we are capable of, this is a story that nearly everyone can relate to from some angle, and every angle is sympathetic and flawed in some way. This story will make you smile, it will make you cry, it will make you introspective, and most importantly, it will make you see the shape of a persons voice.
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Zanudikotik9
Apr 16, 2021
Koe no Katachi review
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.


((If you liked this review, friend me for new reviews on other works, both manga and anime!))
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Keitaro0046
Apr 16, 2021
Koe no Katachi review
This review is a bit difficult for me to write, because I had high hopes for the ending but instead I didn't get exactly what I had hoped, but not a horrible ending either. To begin, the story is very good. The author was not afraid of having the main character looking bad. The maturation of characters is refreshing to see, and the innocence and kindness that comes later in the manga is pure. A plot that right's wrong's in the past is great, and this one was written quite well. The ending is where the plot loses points. It's an anticlimactic story, but that's kind of on par with the slice of life genre, but the whole manga is slowly building to what readers thought would be a large confession with a happily ever after ending, but we didn't get that.

The art is great as well, although some faces Shoko makes is hard to read. But in terms of background art and such, pretty great.

Characters are fantastic. Nasty characters are really nasty, and I like that. The author didn't shy away from going all out, even to the point where I asked myself if I was going to even cheer for Shoya when he got into high school lol. Some of Shoko's reactions are a bit odd, and difficult to really understand but I guess that was a way the creator kept her sort of mysterious.

The enjoyment of the overall story was very good, I couldn't wait to read the next chapter because I thought it would end up a romantic ending and I live for those lol. Unfortunately I never got it, but the possibility of feelings coming forth was enough for me to keep wanting more.

Overall, its a good book. Very heavy at times, and tearful, but in the end it did a great job and telling a great story.
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Watame14
Apr 16, 2021
Koe no Katachi review
The path of redemption by the male lead was done very well. Regardless of the male lead's intention to change, selfish or otherwise, he tried and did change. Both leads drove the story and carried most of the other characters. Why the low rating, tough?

The other characters that bullied the leads did not change at all, but somehow the author wanted us to feel sorry for them. The only reason they were interacting with the leads was because the male lead went out of his way to talk to a few of them. As the story progressed, it seems that it was the victim's fault for all the bullying. I understand victims of bullying maybe able to prevent it if they stand-up for themselves, but it could make it worse. After the constant bulling on the female lead, she finally told the adults, but it made it worse. Later on, one of the characters mentioned that it was the female lead's fault for getting the adults involved. After reading further, I began to think the author wanted us to blame the victim. When the male lead called-out the bullies on his group, they started blaming him and the male lead felt he did it to isolate himself. After completing the story, I still can not understand how the leads are able to befriend those terrible people, at least the male lead changed. Both victims of lead wanted to commit suicide at one point, but the bullies themselves lived alright and only blamed others. With the exception of the male lead, the story seemed to teach bullying is okay as long as you blame others and eventually the victims will forgive you. The teacher himself was involved in bullying indirectly, and did not change either.
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somewherenowhere1
Apr 16, 2021
Koe no Katachi review
This manga is a masterfully written piece of art that I could not stop reading no matter where I was. At home, in class, on the bus, I was consistently reading, and all seven volumes were finished in about three days. There's a lot to unpack here.

Story - 9

If you were bullied as a kid (or ever really) you'll be able to easily relate to the idea of humanizing your bully in an attempt to see them as a better person, and constantly being disappointed at their continuous bullying and never growing as a person. However, this manga is from his perspective, letting us see what's really going on in his head and the lengths to which he tries to repair the damage he's caused, allowing readers to easily relate had they ever bullied anyone in their past. It's absolutely masterfully written, aside from a few slip-ups where the manga feels like it wants to be a generic romantic comedy, but they usually only last a few pages or sometimes up to a chapter.

Art - 10

Aside from how good everything looks, the art carries the constant idea of how our bully protagonist views the people around him in the world with the constant X's over their faces, while also allowing the artist to focus more on beautiful details elsewhere as they have to do less work on panels with background characters. It's a way of cutting corners that makes sense and looks unique, beautiful, and smart.

Characters - 9

A majority of this cast are well fleshed out, whether positively or negatively, while usually not feeling forced. The biggest slip up in this regard is when they introduce too many characters at once and develop them one at a time, leaving some characters feeling rather bland until many chapters after they become part of the main cast, which isn't even that big of a deal.

Enjoyment - 10

Absolutely beautiful. I already mentioned how I couldn't put these books down because of just how amazing they are.

Overall - 10

If you're ever looking into any career involving story telling of any kind, read these books. They're a perfect way of showing a flawed and unlikable character redeeming themselves and earning a second chance.
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Aceplayer2374
Apr 16, 2021
Koe no Katachi review
I wasn't surprise to find is only 28 years old. The manga screams of youth.

Koe no Katachi, a comic released some years ago (2013 perhaps) recently got an adaption on the silver screen. Walking pass posters reminds me of my impression with the comic and the impression it created.
I wasn't impressed with the story and the characters unfortunately. They are cliche and the story is predictable. However do not be mistaken that the story or its characters are bad, they are quite well executed actually and I really appreciate the author effort to put many pages into exploring each and everyone of them instead of jumping over them (except for the last volume which is basically summing them up, it was very strange). It is well developed around the central theme of "growing up" with everyone facing their past, present and future. However it is soaked in hopefulness and mellow feeling, quite contrasting to the reality of school bullying and emotional pain that the characters were experiencing. I have a hunch that this was written from experience. It is very emotional but also inspirational (something Maeda didn't do to me, though that is more of because I don't want to be motivated by things like "life is precious", that's too generic), trying to show how far a person could go by putting in all their heart and soul and that's what this comic is really good in transferring. Helping that is the competent and consistent art style that feels very much fantastic and moving, giving the frames and character a little bit of life and movement in their actions and facial expression. Also well done is the dialogues that lack the usual for the lack of the better word "cringe" so often fall into by Japanese authors who never ever observe how real people talk (if you say anything otherwise, I have lived with Japanese, they don't talk like that). That is not to say there are no moments like that but I didn't have any memory of such imprinted and only comes up when I reread it for the movie so that is a job well done.
What is this comic for I asked and found it to be quite nicely fits into the emo teenagers the best. I think it really opens to them the real world of dramatic portrayal of real-life rather than the simplistic Shounen or the over-styled Seinen or Josei. It could be a good read for them to learn and grow up. I deemed it very fitting for modern society teenagers whose ego and self-interest make them very unobservant oblivious to the perils, emotions of others or how to behave appropriately (even decision making to a certain extend) that was portrayed. Somehow it makes me think of Catcher in the Rye. Unfortunately seasoned veterans like me (I do admit I do not want to be associated with Otaku and frequently mistaken as such) will find it lacking in creativity, vision and real emotional and memorable moments. Sounds controversial but I assure you after the 7th works with similar themes you start to feel cold.
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bunny1ov3r6
Apr 16, 2021
Koe no Katachi review
This is my first review so i'm sorry if it happens to be terrible but I really wanted to write a review for this manga because of how much I loved it.

Koe no Katachi is a real tearjerker & I found it so emotional from both start to finish. The topic that it focuses on is really interesting and I think the manga got across how all the characters felt extremely well and it also really allowed me get a good feel as to how they felt throughout the manga.

As the description already says the manga is fairly mature and also focuses on a few main & once again, mature themes such as guilt which was due to foolish and irreversible mistakes that had been done in the past and I find it really interesting that a manga such as Koe no Katachi decided to take on that and also deliver is so well to it's readers.

Each character in the manga had their own different feelings and views on life & that really allows many the readers to be able to relate even if only a little to some of the characters and it also makes each and every character very distinctive. Even though this manga mostly focuses on the lives of Ishida and also Nishimiya it also focuses on other characters in the manga and gives us an insight of their lives too.

Overall I would highly recommend this manga to all those who have come to this page and it is really well worth giving a go as it is so touching and it is one of those manga which will be hard to forget as it really leaves an impact.

Thanks for reading my first review and if you happen to read Koe no Katachi I really hope you enjoy it!!

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Angra-Mainyu14
Apr 16, 2021
Koe no Katachi review
Second Piece: Koe No Kitachi Response

• Manga written and drawn by Ooima Yoshitoki

We’ve all witnessed or experienced bullying in some point in our lives, Koe No Kitachi handles serious issues and addresses the consequences towards them. This manga began publishing in August 2013 to November 2014. Both the story and art was done by Ooima Yoshitoki. The main premise of the manga is about how the main protagonist is trying to apologize to a deaf girl in which he had bullied during primary school.
The plot was very simple, making the characters and their interactions within the events that occurred throughout the story the main focus. The main character Ishida is a character who is a visual image of a “typical boy” when he is first introduced. I believe the author did this is so that the male audience is able to relate to the text and hopefully bring back some of those sweet childhood memories. When Ishida is first introduced he is in primary school. And as I said before I was able to relate to him with my child self, who always wanted attention and to be like by others. I remember almost willing to be able to do anything to gain attention, when reading the story I was a giving a very nostalgic feeling. Although some parts of his character was exaggerated, it helped the author find a way to keep the audience entertained, people don’t read stories just to remind them of the world they were just in. Ishida’s main drive throughout the manga is what intrigued me the most, and example of this is in one panel of the manga he is standing with a blank expression his face and the background is pitch black, with text around him stating his mind. The text said “it’s not enough, I haven’t been punished enough”, since the text is surrounding him with it constantly repeated, it shows that he is in some state of madness and has really reflected on his actions. He has a lot of emotions bottled up within him such as regret, guilt and shame. The author gives us a visual image of the faults that we as human beings have.
The second main character is Nishimya. Her disability of being unable to hear caused the early stages of her life to being more than just difficult. The introduction to her character was very unique, the reason for this is that in Japan when you first transfer into a new school you are expected to stand in front of the class to introduce yourself. Instead of using words she wrote on a little notepad which said “Hello, my name is Nishimiya. I am deaf, I will be using this notepad to communicate with you. I hope we can all be friends!” This heart-warming introduction was the author’s way of building up warm feelings toward the character. By doing so the author was able to trick the reader into thinking that the story was going to be a light hearted story with laughs and friendship, only to be crushed to find Nishimiya’s notebook had been tagged with cruel messages. The messages on the notepad said things like “ugly bitch, die”. This is very over exaggerated to what would happen in a real life situation, but this definitely made me as the reader feel sympathy towards her. On one page of the manga the author drew single panels in a collage like fashion displaying images of her daily struggles Nishimiya went through, there was a lot of physical abuse towards her such as her hearing aids being pulled out and there was also a significant scene in which the manga keeps going back to. That scene is when Ishida pushes Nishimya into the puddle. This scene is one that Ishida always gets flashbacks to since it increases the amount of guilt he feels. Nishimya’s mother didn’t want to forgive Ishida when he came to apologize to her, my favourite quote from her would be “would you be able to give her childhood back?”

The relationship between our two main protagonists was very interesting, even though they used a very common trope that can be found amongst many manga. It usually involves one or more characters conducting an action that would lead on of the other characters to misunderstand something, an example of this would be when Nishimiya was scrubbing a desk with hateful comments on it and Ishida happened to notice. Ishida’s initial reaction was to ridicule towards Nishimiya, but he finds that it was his desk that Nishimya was cleaning. Not only did the author succeed in creating a heart-jerking moment for the viewers, but also added to Ishida’s pile of guilt. This pile of guilt, as I said previously was Ishida’s main drive, it helps the viewer to empathise on his wanting to make things right between the two of them. This also gave depth towards Nishimiya, showing her kindness to her bully/enemy. A term I would use to describe her actions would be ‘killing him with kindness’. With Nishimya’s bery strong ability of forgiveness, I assumed that the rest of the story would be very short and boring. I was so very wrong. The author reminded me that these characters were human, by showing the viewers how the characters are still prone to the effects of stress and depression. The way he is able to illustrate emotions through his drawings is one aspect of the manga that I really enjoyed.
The most prominent scene in my opinion is the scene in which Nishimiya and Ishida go to a firework show together only for Nishimiya to try to commit suicide in the middle of the event, luckily Ishida was able to catch her by the hand as she tried to jump of a tall building and accidentally fall himself. The author used this scene to show that Ishida was willing to die for this forgiveness, as I have repeated multiple times, the manga is much exaggerated, but that’s what make the story all more moving and this scene especially had me at the edge of my seat. The author’s way of making Ishida pay the ultimate price for taking away Nishimiya’s childhood symbolises the intense friendship between the two characters.
Though the story wasn’t quite the romance novel I thought it would be, instead it gave me an extra view on what life is like with a disability. I don’t think the author once used euphemism for the things she couldn’t do and the pain she felt because of it. It gave the story a very raw feeling and managed to keep the reader entertained the entire way. It’s one of the more advanced Manga I’ve read, and the main target is definitely teen, as further support for this is that the main cast involves high school students. I would definitely give this a read again.
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MadmanRat8
Apr 16, 2021
Koe no Katachi review

to begin with, i think the one shot was better because it was the good part of the story without the cons of the entire manga.

The story had the potential to be a true masterpiece and a really touching story but it didnt go very well in my opinion...

The manga should have just focused with the two main characters instead of giving us that bad film projet with all those uninteresting other characters. It would have been really good if the two of them would have faced some "trouble" by seeing other characters from the elementary school who bullied the girl. The manga did not take enought depth in this and decided to put that shi*ty film instead which forces us to see some characters that we just dont want to see like Miki, the class representative who is basically a wh*re from the start to the end of the story.

To conclude, if you are interested by the plot, just read the one shot it's MORE than enought believe me do not waste your time with anything else this manga is for me a bit of a disappointment and more than anything else : a big waste

Overall i put a 6 because of the one shot and of the plot which is a good idea but a wasted idea unfortunately. If not for the one shot it would have been a 5.

The 2 main characters are very good, a shy cute girl (i'm quite disappointed by the lack of romance into this story it would have been way better with more romance) and a kind man who just knows that he fu*ked up in his youth. Both deserve at least a 9 but once again i put 7 (and it's i think still too much) because of the other annoying or bad characters like Miki, also the fat boy who became friend with MC (this one is juste plain annoying, at the end i wasn't even reading his bubbles, he's useless...)
The "handsome" guy is a contradiction in himself. He says he hates bully but he's best friend his the class representative who DENIES every bit of implication with the bullying she has done. I would have believed that author was going to do an arc focused on this with the "handsome" guy that would forces this wh*re to assume what she has done if she wants to stay with him (she has a crush on him) but no. The author didnt do anything, either he forgot either he didnt care but it's not acceptable especially when you notice that class rep is still the EXACT same at the end (deny everything).
This manga is presumably talking about friendship too but what friendship ? Apart the 2 mains characters they are just colleagues. Class rep is there because of the handsome guy, this one is there because he was bored, fatty is just there because he wants to do a movie and black haired girl is here because she has a crush on MC.

I honestly think this manga is overrated because people are emotive and rate it for it's original and touchy plot instead of noting it for what is offers to us = wasted and useless romance, it would have been better if author didnt make any romance at all instead of teasing us for nothing, bad friendship, bad character development and some incoherences (black haired girl is in love with MC since elementary school but for some reasons she cut every ties with him in elementary school, she just talked with him to bully him once in middle school I just dont understand her it's a nonsense..)
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Koe no Katachi
Koe no Katachi
Author Ooima, Yoshitoki
Artist --