A Silent Voice MOVIE REACTION

Maria is too cute, Also its In Japanese Sign Lauanage that's why the signing was a bit different from American Sign Lanuage.

ThatBasicChick

Also 1000 origami cranes are said to be good luck

Rubi Moon

Yeah physical stuff is a lot easier to deal with than emotional and verbal stuff. You can’t just hit someone because they called you an unpleasant slur because then the teachers would get mad at you for assaulting them. Now hitting isn’t really a solution, but at least it’s an option whereas you can’t really combat verbal or emotional stuff. Of course someone like Shoko is also very vulnerable anyways so either forms of bullying is still just as bad as the next.

Miki is the kind of bully I despise because she reminds me of bullies I actually had. They would do something and just lie right to my face like I was stupid or something. Like I literally saw them and heard them say it, and they’d be like “i never did that” like bitch you just said it! God I’d rather be hit than have that kind because at least then I can hit back and call it self defense. People like Miki just get away with their actions because no one is willing to actually confront them and tell them that they’re wrong, or if they do they manipulate their way out of it by gaslighting and convincing you that you’re wrong. And they never are held accountable either. At least Ueno and Shoya understand what they did and acknowledge it in their own ways. Miki just doesn’t admit that ANYthing she did was wrong.

Rubi Moon

Right? It also isn’t far off from Mary’s kind of character either. The bluntness and lack of care of what others think of it. At least in the beginning of the anime anyways.

Rubi Moon

I love that it’s Mary Saotome that provides Ueno’s voice 🤣 It seems very fitting lol

I loved your reaction to this and it makes me happy that Rubi and I were able to decide on this movie. We were debating about which one you’d probably enjoy the most and settled for this one so I hope it was worth it. This movie has a lot of layers that are good to pick up on after multiple watchings or reading the anime under the same voice. Also I believe the Shape of Voice is the literal translation of the Japanese title, but A Silent Voice was the title chosen as it makes more sense to the English speaking population. I don’t really like Miki’s approach on this whole thing. Her idea was she was holier than thou and didn’t contribute to anything, but that’s not true at all. The worst part is Miki’s actions aren’t held accountable unlike the others. Ueno is the only one who actually confronts Miki about her contributions. She sat back and laughed and she also was very two faced about it as Rubi said. Her approach was much more manipulative which is a great concern as while physical abuse is not okay, manipulation is something that can be argued to be worse as it gets in your head. I mean scars and bones can heal, but words will always stay with you forever. The doubt of whether people are still talking about you or whether they’re secretly judging you is a genuine fear that stems from verbal and emotional abuse. I love this movie though as it’s such a beautiful story on a subject that is rarely addressed at all in media and often very much stereotypical like the bully either magically becomes all good and changes in unrealistic ways or they’re portrayed as nothing more than an evil villain who makes it their goal to bring someone hell. When in reality, it’s usually not like that. I appreciate this film’s approach to an authentic and realistic telling of a bully story even going so far to hire a deaf English voice actress so that not only is it coming from someone who understands Shoko’s sort of life but also lends an authenticity that a hearing person can’t replicate easily.

Western animation is definitely very different from eastern animation. They have different ways of telling stories. Western often focuses on the drama and high paced conflict of sorts, whereas Eastern animation focuses more on the art. Just like anime there are different types of Japanese animated movies as well. Some do focus more on action and conflict, but a lot focus on visuals, sound, and other types of art to tell their story. It also applies a lot in their games especially independent games made by smaller studios.

Rubi Moon

The use of the Xs is a powerful way to visualize anxiety. It isn’t so much whether he knows them or not, it’s who he sees open to talk to. As he said, he shuts everyone out, especially his former friends the Xs show. The final scene where all the Xs fall is really powerful as it shows he finally is willing to open up to everyone and is letting his past go. Also fun fact, the English voice actress of Ueno is also Mary from Kakegurui :)

Rubi Moon

There’s a lot to unpack with this movie and a lot of sort of subtle details that are easily missed for example, while Miki didn’t outright physically assault Shoko, she is a bit two faced as in the choir clip she pretended to start singing which led to Shoko’s confusion, thinking it was also time for her to sing. Ueno also contributed heavily as if you saw, she didn’t actually write any notes, she just insulted Shoko using the notebook. It obviously doesn’t make what Shoya did okay, but there is a point when saying that it wasn’t just him either. All of them were contributing to bullying and honestly the worst kind of bullies are the manipulative ones that don’t even realize they’re doing it or pretending to be ignorant of it when they know full well what they’re doing is wrong. Miki used her emotions to make it seem like she was a bigger and better person, when in reality she did a lot of it too. She didn’t outright hit her and as she said “she never talked bad about Shoko” but she bullied in other ways and never once acknowledged it. She never held herself accountable whereas Ueno shows that she can improve and is very much aware of what she’s doing. Ueno obviously is very much wrong, but at the same time she did show she was willing to try and learn sign language which opens the door which is funny that she learned “moron” just so Shoko could understand her but in doing so she showed that she’s at least open to the idea of learning some sign language which is far different from her elementary school days. For the audiometery laboratory thing, Shoko was told that she cannot hear at all out of one ear, which is the same ear that bled when Shoya ripped the aid out. Shoko previously could hear out of both ears with aids although it was kind of like being underwater and severely muffled. That’s what made Shoya’s actions so terrible is that it left permanent damage that eventually completely went away. Also with “the moon” and “i love you" confusion there is an actual purpose in Japanese because the two words actually are very similar in that language which causes Shoya’s confusion. It should also be noted that Shoya did not actually land in the water when he fell, that was moreso a metaphor/symbol but he actually landed on the sidewalk. Not only that, but the teacher actually is just as bad as the students. For one, he could clearly see something was happening and didn’t say anything until the principal had to step in and say something, then he was suddenly eager to call out Shoya and put the blame solely on him when he knew that Shoya was not the only one. The fact that Shoko went through 8 hearing aids just shows how little the teacher did to stop anything from happening. And it’s not like he wasn’t there either. In retrospect, Shoya most likely caused Shoko to lose more of her already dwindling hearing as obviously shouting and yanking out hearing aids would make it significantly worse. Of course the mom would be mad at him because he caused her daughter so much pain when she was already suffering. And I certainly don’t blame her for smacking Ueno either. She’s already paying enough to make sure Shoko gets the help she needs, she doesn’t need some boy or girl to make things worse. Also in terms of Shoya’s mother and why she was bleeding, her earring was ripped out, whether it was on accident or not is unknown, but at some point Shoko’s mom ripped out Shoya’s mother’s earring which is a sign of “an eye for an eye” for her daughter’s ear. It is not uncommon for someone to do to someone else what was done to them as a form of punishment, and that’s basically what is assumed there. That also contributes to Shoya’s suicidal thoughts and guiltiness as his actions caused his mom’s pain and money.

Rubi Moon

I really hope someone also sponsored Your Name. That’s also a really beautiful movie

Bejo

Welp, guess I’m crying today

Bejo

What’s actually amazing about this movie is that the English voice actress of the protagonist (Shoko) is actually deaf if you didn’t know. It lends an authenticity to the role.

Rubi Moon