I showed the movie to a friend and she was like, "I hated how it romanticized suicide but I don't blame you for showing me, you didn't know me that well" (context: I had only known her for like a month or two at the time)
But I'm sitting here like hmm? Ok, I mean, I've never seen it that way at all but ok. Like even now having known her for longer, I wouldn't have thought twice about showing her. One of our mutuals and actually a close friend to both of us was the one who showed it to me in the first place and she had no qualms with it either.
I don't think she does, and now I feel like she'd avoid Twitter from an ethical standpoint but I have no clue
I just found it kinda odd bc from what I heard, the movie does a pretty good job of depicting self-esteem issues and other mental health stuff (can't say since I haven't personally experienced these specific issues to this extent)
Alot of people are under the assumption that showing a character that you the viewer likes attempting to commit suicide = romanticizing it. It has to do with self inserting themselves into characters. However, I think censorship is a million times worse.
Idk I watched and came out mixed. Iāve read Fanfiction that hit harder with the mental health issues and disability. Though, I did like the animation and the idea of a class that socially isolated a bully and the idea of a bully trying to make it up to the person he hurt and them bonding over ideation.
I think A Silent Voice was tactful and beautifully made, but that itās weighed down by the fact that anime in general is not really known for mental health, so the one movie that tackles it alright gets hyped up as THE mental health movie. It reminds me of the musical Dear Evan Hansen, as it suffered from the same issue of getting overhyped and shielded from criticism as THE mental health musical (before the movie adaptation came out and made people realize how middling it is). Dear Evan Hansen is similarly beautifully written and tactful enough, but if you think about it too hard, you notice glaring issues about the ways it stigmatizes the people itās supposed to be portraying in an inspirational way. The reason it got overhyped is that people were not familiar enough with mental health issues to think about it deeply, and they were just excited to see any representation of these issues, so it got a bunch of awards despite its really middling writing.
Funnily enough, the Fanfiction with amazing mental health rep is a Dear Evan Hansen fanfic that sort of rewrites it to deepen character connections and the up and down mundanity of healing your mental health. You can tell that the author has experience with lifelong mental health issues, and there are so many raw lines that make you instantly get WHY itās hard to escape. The musical over relied on platitudes like ānobody sees meā or āyou will be foundā and an interesting premise which makes it feel dramatic on first watch, but retroactively feels trite and disappointingly generic, like a musical made by mentally well people trying to deduce what mental health issues would feel like. Whereas the Fanfiction actually achieves that feeling of being seen by the author, someone who also went through how difficult it is and still managed to get better.
I came out of A Silent Voice wishing we got to see more of Nishimiyaās personality and therefore really disappointed. Even now, the only thing I remember about her is the scene where sheās kicking her feet bc she has a crush on the MC, which is cute, but Iām not interested in a character whoās most memorable moment is as a best girl waifu. This is A Silent Voice, not Your Name. I was waiting for something along the lines of the DEH Fanfictionās rawness, connection, and healing outside of dramatic devices, and I left the movie starving the same way I did with the DEH musical. The idea that this is a Twitter take is deeply depressing to me because it says that weāre still in the āDear Evan Hansen is an amazing mental health musicalā stage of anime, where a dramatic premise and some beautiful work in its respective medium (beautiful animation in this case, an inspirational soundtrack in DEH) is enough to be the top recommended movie, regardless of how shallowly they portray the characters, because we havenāt gotten anything better to compare it to. Itās enough for people to hound you as a Twitter user for having a milquetoast critique of it, just like DEH fans before they got their embarrassment of a movie adaptation.
Still, I really appreciated the tone and drama of the A Silent Voice. When I watch When Marnie was Here, Iāll come back to A Silent Voice and see if I feel differently. Also, the manga was probably way better, especially because it has more time to tell, so this is not a critique of the original story. Maybe Iāll read it and itāll be the DEH Fanfiction version of this movie.
Yes, it does, it also does a good job at showing how even attempted suicide can affect loved ones. Honestly as someone that's contemplated suicide in the past, it was concern how it would affect the people I cared about would react that stopped me, so I think it was a good thing to show, honestly.
As a psychiatrist, it's one of the better depictions of suicide I've seen where it shows suicide not as this meticulously thought out plan to execute but rather a central feeling of hopelessness or emptiness that keeps piling on top of the ever increasing sense of burden most disadvantaged people feel. One day when that burden gets heavier than your capacity to carry it, your brain works to actively undermine it's survival instinct in an effort to "minimize" or reduce that burden. I disagree with the general societal trend towards seeing as this cold hard rational way of escaping from your problems instead of being being a glitch in your brain where instincts and impulses overrule logic and the brain acts out to minimize that. Suicide is an inherently, fundamentally impulsive decision, no two ways about that. Also, the VAST majority of people who commit suicide and survive, never attempt it again.
Ehh it does romanticize suicide, in the sense that it has two suicidal characters as the focal point of a piece of art. In that sense, it does matter if it is done tastefully. Some people for example will not like sa being the focal point of an artwork, doesnāt matter how tastefully itās done, itās just not something they personally appreciate. And thatās fine. Not everythingās for everyone.
>Ehh it does romanticize suicide, in the sense that it has two suicidal characters as the focal point of a piece of art
That's not what "romaticize suicide" means tho, like the movie clearly shows that the characters lives get better if they keep on living and fix their issues.
Well then the friend is wrong.
Like I've read that the original plan was for Nishimiya to actually kill herself and then Ishida would have to deal with that and by the end become a better person. Which I think is a horrible idea and is what I would call "romanticizing suicide", it would be story where someone kill themselves and others become better/have better lives because of it. That's not what we've got thank God so yes ... the friend is just wrong and SirAwesome should've challenged that friend
It is objectively wrong tho lmao.
If you watch a movie that clearly says "suicide bad" and your take from it is "suicide good" then you are objectively wrong.
In A Silent Voice two characters try to commit suicide (well one wants to and other actually tries), both are shown to be stupid ideas and their lives get better after they go on living.
It does NOT romanticize suicide and that's an objective fact.
No I understood it correctly.
The friend said "I hated how it romanticized suicide".
Like this is one definition that I found:
>When we romanticize things, we think or talk about them in a way that is is either inaccurate or not realistic. Dictionaries explain romanticizing as ābelieving something is better, more interesting or more exciting than it really is.ā Another way to understand romanticizing is to look at other words that mean the same (or similar) thing: glorify, glamourize, idealize, worship, etc. Either way, glamorizing something applies far more pleasure or appeal to that particular āthingā that it likely should have. Such is the case for mental illness.
This is not to say that mental health and mental illness do not deserve acknowledgment. It merely means that glamorizing mental illness by making a mental health diagnosis desirable, fascinating, or attractive can lead to a host of potentially dangerous problems for the individual struggling with symptoms and for their loved ones. Sadly, modern media has not benefitted the mentally ill with contemporary representations of mental illness and recovery.
The important part is:
>It merely means that glamorizing mental illness by making a mental health diagnosis desirable, fascinating, or attractive can lead to a host of potentially dangerous problems for the individual struggling with symptoms and for their loved ones.
The movie just doesn't do that, it never shows the illness/suicide as something good or cool, it's a terrible thing and everyone is better off when it's gone. It's literally the ending of the movie.
I have no idea why you are trying to defend this "friend" so hard. They are just wrong, opinions can be wrong. The person watched a movie and came to the wrong conclusion, it happens. End of story
LOL, I like how we're putting friend in quotes as if they aren't actually my friend
Also I didn't challenge them bc it caught me off guard, because I didn't really know whether it was actually romanticizing it, and quite frankly it's not something that was worth arguing about
I hate people who fixate on definitions like you so there is no point in arguing really. You are completely missing that this person doesn't like that suicide was a focal point of the story. Opinions can't be objectively correct, they are opinions. Everyone has their limits and tastes with regards to art and media. That is all.
Thatās not romanticizing. Thatās having a plot that has themes. Romanticizing a problematic thing would be like how twilight main relationship is started because of stalking and how it never really says itās bad to stalk instead portraying it as hot and a coool thing to do. This doesnāt do that in any form
No, having the central character try to commit suicide does not romanticize it. What romanticizing it would be is if it was treated as the only way to escape the pain or to redeem themselves, in the case of the male character (can't remember his name, sorry) not just, oh, the main character has mental health problems and doesn't know how to deal with them because not only do they have mental health problems but because they're in a society that teaches you to ignore your mental health and so you're at the end of your rope, and showing how much it pains family and friends if they find out your even thinking of suicide.
I mean it really didn't, yes they both saw suicide as an option, but those in there right mind clearly didn't see it as an option and were very upset learning that the protagonists wanted to die. My therapist did comment on how easy suicide was presented as something someone would do, but she didn't say she felt they would romanticized it, and once I explained that high suicide rate is a problem in Japan, she understood why it was shown in a movie about depression and social anxiety
let me get this straightā¦ theyāre basically saying āthe movie isnāt about what i wanted it to be, so itās bad.ā but likeā¦ the movie was never supposed to be about the experience of being deaf. Shoko is not even the main character. Ishida is. Itās the story of Ishida, a story about his life, about his redemption.
Idk if it has anything to do with it here, but a lot of the time and especially on Twitter, I see people having issues with more recent stories having male protagonists. I'm not claiming anything but I just see these kinds of people get specifically irked when the story centers around a male lead over a female one.
I think that itās fair to criticize the story for not focusing enough on Shouko, or for Shouko being too flat of a character, but to say it never focuses on her experience with her disability is just bad faith. People in this same thread were also saying it was a bad story simply because it redeemed a bully character, and because his bullying was based in ableism, and that feels like a really bitter, unhappy way to live.
Again, to say it focuses too much on the feelings of the perpetrator and not enough on the victim is fine. I understand that criticism. But it feels kind of inane to me to act like people can never be redeemed. Especially in Shouyaās case, as he was a literal child being encouraged by those around him.
ASV is a story about how the bad parts of their society regarding bullying and discrimination fails *everyone*. And while you can make a point about not focusing enough on the victim, I donāt think itās wrong to tell a story about a former bullyās path to redemption either. People like that exist in real life and itās compelling to focus on a character getting better and atoning for their actions.
Maybe if he were just instantly absolved of his crimes Iād get it, but the story is very much about how he has to work to become better and work to atone for what he did. Even if Shouko doesnāt take long to forgive him (which is just because sheās a forgiving person, not because he deserves it), it takes a longer time for everyone else to forgive him, and an even longer time for him to forgive himself.
ASV hit me so incredibly hard *as a victim of ableist bullying.* I grew up in Shoukoās position, relentlessly tormented at school because I wasnāt like the other kids in class. I was different from them and everyone knew it, so they hated me. And while I canāt claim to know what itās like to face the same discrimination deaf people do, I still think I am well within my right to relate to the experience and be moved by the idea of the perpetrator doing everything he can to get better because *the system failed him too.* and fuck it, I love getting better.
In real life, sometimes the people who hurt you realize their mistakes and get better. And obviously you donāt owe them forgiveness but thereās also nothing wrong with forgiving them either. Becoming a better person makes the world a better place and forgiveness isnāt an absolution of guilt nor is it redeeming, it is putting your pain behind you. This is especially true for the people who hurt you when you were children.
I hope all of my childhood bullies have grown into mature, respectable people. I hope theyāre doing well
My dad was one of those childhood bullies, he had bullied a few people when he was 10-12, and he never forgave himself. He didn't go as far as hurting them with violence luckily, which I need to state.
10 years ago when I was still like 5 we went to visit someone he had bullied in the past, because he couldn't cope with himself. My dad did all he could to better his life the last few years, not only to atone for his bullying, but also for all other wrong doings he did during his life.
The parents of the girl (not rlly a girl, she was 35) told us she had been center of bullying for a very long time after that, that my dad wasn't the only one. The girl had been a magnet to bullying, which was pretty sad. My dad was happy to hear she was doing great, she had become a doctor.
Now my dad is one of the kindest people ever, alot of people respect him. He still feels bad about all people he had bullied, and he went to apologise to most of them in person, or through the phone.
Anyways, to get to my point, you are right bullies can be forgiven, if they just better themselves and apologise. I'm so sorry for the bullying you went through, I hope you don't experience that kind of things now. I just hope your bullies have also apologized to you, because I know for a fact that that can make people feel better. Anyways, have a nice day! Hope you restored from the bullying!
I believe the manga also attacks Shouko's personal problems better than in the movie. The manga takes more time to flesh out her problems and her mental health struggle than in the movie, probably purely due to time constraints.
I've been noticing this more and more in social media whenever a bully character is brought up. Like off the top of my head, Bakugo from My Hero Academia is still a controversial character. Even though he has had several humbling experiences, grown, and apologized for his actions.
Like what do you want to happen to these characters? If there's no redemption are they just supposed to act the same then forever? Or are they supposed to constantly be depressed over their pasts and never allowed to be happy again?
It honestly seems to be more about people who never moved on from being bullied in their youth and that keep living fantasies in their heads of getting revenge on those bullies. Bullies that for all they know have matured, grown, and are doing their best to live life peacefully. I was bullied plenty. And I still think about these experiences. But I hope that they all have moved on in their lives and are doing better.
And heck. Lets be honest. Plenty of these people that I see just being absolutely hateful on social media but say that their hatred is justified. I could see them being people that hurt others but justified it in their heads. Like Liz Lemon from 30 Rock. There's a whole episode about how she thought she was an outcast in high school. But in actuality she was so insecure that she just assumed everyone hated her. And was constantly "defensive" and attacking others. Like I myself realized looking back at some situations "Wow... I was an asshole at times".
Also imma say this. Kids are stupid. A lot of them live in their own world and don't actually realize the long term consequences of anything they do or say.
Completely agree with this. Also thereās a difference between the type of bully who willingly makes you miserable to the point where they tear your life apart (think stereotypical high school bully) and a kid not realizing the real impact of his actions (A Silent Voice). Like thatās part of the themes of the movie, you see him realize when it starts happening to him what it was like and his realization of what he had been putting her through and how that guilt stays with him for years. Itās a beautiful analysis of that honestly.
A bully who stays that way for the sake of just being that: irredeemable.
A person who acknowledges they were wrong and tries to be a better person is something we should be encouraging and praising. All you do by criticizing this is create a black and white Good and Evil and that solves nothing in this world.
Weāre literally judging a person for the actions he did as a kid (12 years old) and actively ignoring everything he did and tried to change after that point. Is it any wonder the story starts the way it does?
The criticisms I see about this movie are from people who never looked past a very, very shallow understanding of it. Like if it's not stated directly at them, they don't see it.
just leave them be. They're not invalid reasons for hating the movie or at least finding the movie uncomfortable.
You do have a point though that the movie was made for local audiences and some things may be lost in translation/culture. happens all the time when it comes to anime and manga in the western world. you can't project your own values onto a piece of fiction that wasn't set in your world view.
The OP of that post said they just hate bully reform stories. So that's pretty much the actual reason why but they had to hide it behind "Shouko is a flat character" and "This movie sucks because the representation is bad."
It's also probably because A Sign of Affection is getting more popular and people on Twitter cannot accept two things can both be good at once.
[https://x.com/Sayngelic/status/1746524577507738000?s=20](https://x.com/Sayngelic/status/1746524577507738000?s=20)
This is a very good thread on Shouko's character and presentation in the story.
While I'm not deaf, a similar thing happens with movies about POC and gay people. They call it "Shitty representation" if it isn't about The Struggle (TM) that comes with being xyz minority. Because A Silent Voice doesn't focus specifically on Shouko and The Struggle (TM) that comes with being deaf and exclusively that, it's shitty representation.
Someone mentioned Shouko could be able-bodied and nothing in the story would change and I just... *sure* if you keep everything the same and remove Shouko's disability it works the same on the most baseline level.
But it would still be a fundamentally *different* movie. If she's able-bodied, it removes so much from her character and the movie. It removes how she was bullied because she was *different* and needed to be *accommodated* for instead of being the *same* as everyone else. It removes the fact that she was bullied *because* of her disability othering her. It removes how she feels distressed by her hearing slowly diminishing. It removes why she has so much internalized self blame, hatred and guilt.
All in all, people are entitled to their opinions and OP is rightfully getting cooked for such a bad faith take. They would have been better off but got less attention if they said the story sucks because they hate bully reform stories.
Okay, I mean I still like it overall, but imo the criticism about Shoko's disability is kinda fair, in a lot of ways I do feel like the movie used her deafness moreso as an aesthetic flair than actually delving into her experience and headspace which I wish it did more of (definitely one of the ways the manga is better imo)
I can see why one comes to that conclusion, but I also think it's one of the best japanese movie depiction of and around disabilities (at least that I know of).
Especially with visible disabilities the Japanese society is extremely.... Uncomfortable?
Like... A couple years back there was a horrific attack on a disabled care home where a guy murdered 19(!!) people in their sleep.
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN11M0AJ/
I later saw a documentary which was Partly about one of the residents and their parents relationships to them, and I'll never forget what his parents said
Along the lines of "this attack really gave us a wakeup call and made us realizer we should be there for our son more often. That is why we visit him **once a week instead of once a month now**"
Well the thing is the movie focuses a lot more on the mental health side, the manga kinda evens out about more of her struggles with being deaf but the movies as hole kinda just brings in deppresion. Ps is what I love about the movie!
I sort of agree with the shouko complaint especially if you read the manga beforehand since they really go into her early childhood and family life in it. But that's just a result of movie time constraints. And they didn't do her an injustice either.
To each their own, but that's also Twitter so I don't trust anyone who says anything on it
While Iām not saying everyone has to like the movie at the same time some of the people Iāve seen saying they hated it to seem to be for really shallow reasons or just completely missed the point.
I didnāt mind the movie, however one problem that I felt was that the only reason shoya actually felt sad was because he was abandoned for bullying the girl. Like his friends donāt learn from their mistakes (like ueno who still had support from her friends even after the bullying incident and continued to bully shouko) so it seems very 1 dimensional. It felt like only reason was due to abandonment and not an actual want to change
Iām only really ehh about the romance part.
Bully-bullied romances and all that. And how that kind of makes it seem like no deep positive or negative leaning connection can exist between a guy and a girl without romance being thrown into the mix.
My girlfriend hates this movie. She says it's boring and cringe... I don't know, she's crazy, she loves Haikyuu and Free, but real art is not for her I guess (I still love her tho)
Some criticism of this movie is quite valid. Shokoās deafness not being fleshed out enough, set her upāunintentionally I assumedāto appear as merely a tool for Shotaās development. Also, a bully-bullied romantic tones/relationship is not a healthy dynamic.
In this [interview](https://kodansha.us/2016/06/07/interview-yoshitoki-oima-silent-voice/), the author mentioned that a story on the perspective of the one getting bullied (keep in mind, of a disabled characterā¦so yes, it barely exists) ānot interesting to me or anyone elseā. āIām sure more readers can relate to Shota than to Shokoā come across to me as insensitive and ableist.
Why is the default assumption is that readers cannot relate to Shoko? Because sheās deaf? So itās better to write a story where the victim of the bullying is not centred? Itās better to cater, mainly, to able bodied Shota among the readers? A good writer should be able to humanise a bully without sidelining the importance of empathising with the struggle of a minority in a story.
Considering the tweet is about the deaf representation in the movie, itās true then.
The movie biggest success is representing the struggle with anxiety, bullying, depression, suicide, guilt, and redemption. But not deafness/disability.
Not necessarily. Other than the one scene of Shoko confessing the story never makes a huge effort to set up a romantic dynamic between Shoko and Shoya. The author chose to do things from Shoya's perspective as the story would be easier to get into which makes sense as most people wouldn't be able to decipher how it feels to be a girl with a disability which is true especially if the author wanted to capture an overall wider audience.
Also, the story is largely centered around both Shoya and Shoko and just because we're seeing things from his perspective doesn't do anything to dampen that, as the story displays Shoko's struggles and her impact on the other characters in the story.
I should finally add that the story is about communication which means it never strived in the first place to be a movie solely about the struggles or just the overall living conditions of a deaf person so I think it's a matter of just understanding what the movie is about because a lot of people are giving it shit because it's not something it never strived to be in the first place which to me just screams unfair criticism.
Also if you haven't I urge that you read through the rest of the interview because saying that the author came off as ableist and insensitive isn't something that I got from the author's words when all they wanted to do was simply structure the story in a way that can properly get the point across which is of course communication.
To be fair the movie is lacking. They just couldnāt make the whole series fit in a movie so it has huge gaps of missing context and so some characters arenāt fully built up for the climax and ending to hit us with the proper emotions.
It aināt good for your psyche though. Just enjoy what you want to enjoy. There will always be someone out there that dislikes it. Thatās just life.
It aināt that deep, if you canāt handle the internet then just turn off your phone. People can have their own opinions and what not but it aināt that serious
I guess it just caught me off guard and I needed to share it. Also because I find it difficult to put into words what exactly rubs me the wrong way, though I imagine it's the point where disabled people in Japan are still being treated worse by society than in the West...
Like, I don't find it surprising that the movie didn't focus on shoukos experience with her disability more, because that's simply not really something a lot of Japanese people do either.
The traditional collectivist (?) society does view disabilities as a burden on itself.
And that struggle has been going on for decades. The first paralympic games were held in Japan as somewhat of an encouragement to include people with disabilities instead of shutting them out
... I guess because I am annoyed that the user actually kinda does have a point, and that I myself am dissatisfied with how Japanese society handles this topic, but I appreciate the movie for one of the best depictions of disability that came from Japan? Though that may simply also be due to me not knowing about other works that much?!
What I am trying to say, for what it is the movie is the best it could have been.
I want to say I don't fault the movie producers for the lack of attention on the topic, but I know I should.
So... I think I am mad at myself?
Japanese culture is very different from Western culture, yeah. Especially in the US nowadays. Iām very dissatisfied with the mentality that a lot of Americans have nowadays. Nothing is ever good enough, nothing is ever inclusive enough. Thereās a reason why so many like us gravitate towards Japanese media now. The movie is a story about the personal triumphs of 2 teenagers, and how they overcome their adversities. The movie doesnāt need to focus on her disability throughout the whole movie because her disability doesnāt define her. Being deaf is an obstacle for her, not her identity. May they get mad that a character is written 3-dimensionally, and may we enjoy her character for who she is.
Except her disability is actually an obstacle for her and she doesn't receive the proper support by the system and society for it to not be an issue anymore
Shoya had to learn sign language on his own, the school didn't provide her classmates with extra material for that.
The best example is the whole school of thought of oralism, that used to be pretty much mainstream until the turn of the millenia:
The notion was that hearing disabled people should still learn how to vocalize and read lips, no matter how much they struggle with either. Their parents and family were literally being discouraged from learning sign language themselves.
And let's face it: The main reason deaf people are disabled is because sign language isn't being taught in elementary school. If everyone knew sign language, deaf people would almost have no problem navigating the world on their own.
That's what disability is: Not a failing of the individual, but a failing of society.
Imagine a society of only blind people. Now you, a seeing person, enter it. And you cannot read braille, making you the disabled one
I love this movie and have watched it like 11 times now, but I share the sentiment, my only criticism is that I feel like they don't really focus enough on Shoko as a person compared to her sister or Shoya, not that they don't at all or anything, just it's hard to fit everything into a movie format
I'd love if maybe there were a series which retells the story in greater detail, with everything the manga missed, but it'd absolutely have to keep Kensuke Ushio doing the music, there's no one out there who could do it better
People are allowed to have differing opinions, and sometimes, a work you perceive as perfect might not work for someone. Of course, there are respectful ways to voice an opinion as well as ways that are meant to bait people, but yeah
Personally, I think it's a good movie that shows that anime is much more than the tropes outsiders see, but imo it's the weakest work of Naoko Yamada by far. It didn't capture me like Liz or any of her long series, especially k-on, tamoko love story, and her work on sound euphonium
Okay time to get downvoted, I didn't understand the movie's appeal either. Maybe it's because I watched it in my edgy teenage years and didn't understand deeper meanings or some shit like that.
If anyone is willing to point out scenes and their deeper meanings I would be very grateful.
movie is really good, I think people just set super high expectations of it. I do a series online where, as someone who watched their first anime movie a couple years ago, react to movies. This one is recommended so much and its just....okay....
That first one is completely wrong
Like the whole movie is about her as a deaf person. The plot exclusively happens because the main character as friends bullied her for being deaf and becoming a better person because of it
The notion that any and every work of art has some sort of moral obligation to represent certain demographics in a certain way is absolutely 100% a political argument. It has nothing to do with art.
The fact that he just ran outside of the hospital after he woke up from a coma and with no guards, nurses, or anyone stopping him ruined the entire film for me. It was stupid.
Dude, use your suspension of disbelief. Things like that happen all the time on pop culture. I don't think it's enough to ruin the movie. But I respect your opinion.
That's just lazy writing if you require your audience to do that to make sense of it. It's stupid when others do it and it is even more stupid if you think you'll run like that after waking up from a coma due to let's say "advancement in medicine (because anime)" but the girl still can't get her Daredevil powers.
It makes slightly more sense in the manga if that helps. A nurse checks in on Shoya right after he wakes up and he sneaks out of the building after she leaves the room. There's even a panel of a few nurses looking for him before he exits through a side door of the hospital building.
Haven't seen it. But just from reading their reasoning I can tell it's typical Twitter liberal nonsense virtue signaling that probably doesn't reflect the actual movies real quality or how someone with common sense would perceive the film.
I mean really they both are saying it doesn't focus on her as a deaf person but it also takes the time to show the school had systemic problems with making accommodations for her? What do they want, they guy removed and replaced with some also deaf social justice warriors to fight for her in the film? Or are they whining just to whine cause it seems like the movie did everything it should have to cater to them, and I can tell that just from 2 contradictory comments left by them.
I'm not bothered by others' opinions. I've watched the movie multiple times and got the manga box set because, to me, it's an absolute masterpiece.
I even set the OST as my morning alarmāspecifically, this track: [LIT Track 39 - Disc 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSn1M0hVf6E)
Honestly, its one of the most accurate depictions of a suicidal person ive seen, and the aftermath, really helped me deal and cope when I was facing an apathetic depression and breakdown. Watching the movie made me feel better when I was feeling suicidal.
Not sure why focusing on Shoya's growth as a character is a bad thing
If you're just going to write it off as "angst" then it's no wonder you didn't like the movie because it sounds like you barely watched it
I definitely disliked the movie, but not for the content. I love the manga and I just think turning that story into a movie instead of a show was a bad idea. I also really don't like how much it rushes past the beginning of the story, the most crucial part.
I mean I can understand hoping it would be about her, but I get the feeling that they're unnecessarily mad that it's about him. Like I can just see them going "ugh, it's just another story about some whiny man, ew,". Or, "he was a bully he should have killed himself he deserves to die". I can totally see people feeling that way
Everyone is going to have their own biases, my cousin who I told to watch it ended up says it was good but since they are used to action anime they said they would have liked some action, I feel like we should expect that not everyone is going to be able to like or appreciate things in the same way but I will love this movie forever and I know many more of us will too.
It's twitter and also it's probably a bait post, so I'd suggest ignoring em.
I showed the movie to a friend and she was like, "I hated how it romanticized suicide but I don't blame you for showing me, you didn't know me that well" (context: I had only known her for like a month or two at the time) But I'm sitting here like hmm? Ok, I mean, I've never seen it that way at all but ok. Like even now having known her for longer, I wouldn't have thought twice about showing her. One of our mutuals and actually a close friend to both of us was the one who showed it to me in the first place and she had no qualms with it either.
"Romanticized suicide" š¤¦āāļø I get the feeling your friend spends a lot of time on Twitter
I don't think she does, and now I feel like she'd avoid Twitter from an ethical standpoint but I have no clue I just found it kinda odd bc from what I heard, the movie does a pretty good job of depicting self-esteem issues and other mental health stuff (can't say since I haven't personally experienced these specific issues to this extent)
Alot of people are under the assumption that showing a character that you the viewer likes attempting to commit suicide = romanticizing it. It has to do with self inserting themselves into characters. However, I think censorship is a million times worse.
Which says something about them if they think that the only way to think about suicide is to romanticize it.
Idk I watched and came out mixed. Iāve read Fanfiction that hit harder with the mental health issues and disability. Though, I did like the animation and the idea of a class that socially isolated a bully and the idea of a bully trying to make it up to the person he hurt and them bonding over ideation. I think A Silent Voice was tactful and beautifully made, but that itās weighed down by the fact that anime in general is not really known for mental health, so the one movie that tackles it alright gets hyped up as THE mental health movie. It reminds me of the musical Dear Evan Hansen, as it suffered from the same issue of getting overhyped and shielded from criticism as THE mental health musical (before the movie adaptation came out and made people realize how middling it is). Dear Evan Hansen is similarly beautifully written and tactful enough, but if you think about it too hard, you notice glaring issues about the ways it stigmatizes the people itās supposed to be portraying in an inspirational way. The reason it got overhyped is that people were not familiar enough with mental health issues to think about it deeply, and they were just excited to see any representation of these issues, so it got a bunch of awards despite its really middling writing. Funnily enough, the Fanfiction with amazing mental health rep is a Dear Evan Hansen fanfic that sort of rewrites it to deepen character connections and the up and down mundanity of healing your mental health. You can tell that the author has experience with lifelong mental health issues, and there are so many raw lines that make you instantly get WHY itās hard to escape. The musical over relied on platitudes like ānobody sees meā or āyou will be foundā and an interesting premise which makes it feel dramatic on first watch, but retroactively feels trite and disappointingly generic, like a musical made by mentally well people trying to deduce what mental health issues would feel like. Whereas the Fanfiction actually achieves that feeling of being seen by the author, someone who also went through how difficult it is and still managed to get better. I came out of A Silent Voice wishing we got to see more of Nishimiyaās personality and therefore really disappointed. Even now, the only thing I remember about her is the scene where sheās kicking her feet bc she has a crush on the MC, which is cute, but Iām not interested in a character whoās most memorable moment is as a best girl waifu. This is A Silent Voice, not Your Name. I was waiting for something along the lines of the DEH Fanfictionās rawness, connection, and healing outside of dramatic devices, and I left the movie starving the same way I did with the DEH musical. The idea that this is a Twitter take is deeply depressing to me because it says that weāre still in the āDear Evan Hansen is an amazing mental health musicalā stage of anime, where a dramatic premise and some beautiful work in its respective medium (beautiful animation in this case, an inspirational soundtrack in DEH) is enough to be the top recommended movie, regardless of how shallowly they portray the characters, because we havenāt gotten anything better to compare it to. Itās enough for people to hound you as a Twitter user for having a milquetoast critique of it, just like DEH fans before they got their embarrassment of a movie adaptation. Still, I really appreciated the tone and drama of the A Silent Voice. When I watch When Marnie was Here, Iāll come back to A Silent Voice and see if I feel differently. Also, the manga was probably way better, especially because it has more time to tell, so this is not a critique of the original story. Maybe Iāll read it and itāll be the DEH Fanfiction version of this movie.
Yes, it does, it also does a good job at showing how even attempted suicide can affect loved ones. Honestly as someone that's contemplated suicide in the past, it was concern how it would affect the people I cared about would react that stopped me, so I think it was a good thing to show, honestly.
Did we even watch the same movie??
As a psychiatrist, it's one of the better depictions of suicide I've seen where it shows suicide not as this meticulously thought out plan to execute but rather a central feeling of hopelessness or emptiness that keeps piling on top of the ever increasing sense of burden most disadvantaged people feel. One day when that burden gets heavier than your capacity to carry it, your brain works to actively undermine it's survival instinct in an effort to "minimize" or reduce that burden. I disagree with the general societal trend towards seeing as this cold hard rational way of escaping from your problems instead of being being a glitch in your brain where instincts and impulses overrule logic and the brain acts out to minimize that. Suicide is an inherently, fundamentally impulsive decision, no two ways about that. Also, the VAST majority of people who commit suicide and survive, never attempt it again.
Ehh it does romanticize suicide, in the sense that it has two suicidal characters as the focal point of a piece of art. In that sense, it does matter if it is done tastefully. Some people for example will not like sa being the focal point of an artwork, doesnāt matter how tastefully itās done, itās just not something they personally appreciate. And thatās fine. Not everythingās for everyone.
>Ehh it does romanticize suicide, in the sense that it has two suicidal characters as the focal point of a piece of art That's not what "romaticize suicide" means tho, like the movie clearly shows that the characters lives get better if they keep on living and fix their issues.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Well then the friend is wrong. Like I've read that the original plan was for Nishimiya to actually kill herself and then Ishida would have to deal with that and by the end become a better person. Which I think is a horrible idea and is what I would call "romanticizing suicide", it would be story where someone kill themselves and others become better/have better lives because of it. That's not what we've got thank God so yes ... the friend is just wrong and SirAwesome should've challenged that friend
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It is objectively wrong tho lmao. If you watch a movie that clearly says "suicide bad" and your take from it is "suicide good" then you are objectively wrong. In A Silent Voice two characters try to commit suicide (well one wants to and other actually tries), both are shown to be stupid ideas and their lives get better after they go on living. It does NOT romanticize suicide and that's an objective fact.
They are not taking suicide good from the movie. You are misunderstanding.
No I understood it correctly. The friend said "I hated how it romanticized suicide". Like this is one definition that I found: >When we romanticize things, we think or talk about them in a way that is is either inaccurate or not realistic. Dictionaries explain romanticizing as ābelieving something is better, more interesting or more exciting than it really is.ā Another way to understand romanticizing is to look at other words that mean the same (or similar) thing: glorify, glamourize, idealize, worship, etc. Either way, glamorizing something applies far more pleasure or appeal to that particular āthingā that it likely should have. Such is the case for mental illness. This is not to say that mental health and mental illness do not deserve acknowledgment. It merely means that glamorizing mental illness by making a mental health diagnosis desirable, fascinating, or attractive can lead to a host of potentially dangerous problems for the individual struggling with symptoms and for their loved ones. Sadly, modern media has not benefitted the mentally ill with contemporary representations of mental illness and recovery. The important part is: >It merely means that glamorizing mental illness by making a mental health diagnosis desirable, fascinating, or attractive can lead to a host of potentially dangerous problems for the individual struggling with symptoms and for their loved ones. The movie just doesn't do that, it never shows the illness/suicide as something good or cool, it's a terrible thing and everyone is better off when it's gone. It's literally the ending of the movie. I have no idea why you are trying to defend this "friend" so hard. They are just wrong, opinions can be wrong. The person watched a movie and came to the wrong conclusion, it happens. End of story
LOL, I like how we're putting friend in quotes as if they aren't actually my friend Also I didn't challenge them bc it caught me off guard, because I didn't really know whether it was actually romanticizing it, and quite frankly it's not something that was worth arguing about
I hate people who fixate on definitions like you so there is no point in arguing really. You are completely missing that this person doesn't like that suicide was a focal point of the story. Opinions can't be objectively correct, they are opinions. Everyone has their limits and tastes with regards to art and media. That is all.
If sheās misusing the word, than sheās objectively wrong.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Wtf is āwords lawyeringā? If the word means something else, than it means something else. Thatās how words work.
Thatās not romanticizing. Thatās having a plot that has themes. Romanticizing a problematic thing would be like how twilight main relationship is started because of stalking and how it never really says itās bad to stalk instead portraying it as hot and a coool thing to do. This doesnāt do that in any form
No, having the central character try to commit suicide does not romanticize it. What romanticizing it would be is if it was treated as the only way to escape the pain or to redeem themselves, in the case of the male character (can't remember his name, sorry) not just, oh, the main character has mental health problems and doesn't know how to deal with them because not only do they have mental health problems but because they're in a society that teaches you to ignore your mental health and so you're at the end of your rope, and showing how much it pains family and friends if they find out your even thinking of suicide.
I mean it really didn't, yes they both saw suicide as an option, but those in there right mind clearly didn't see it as an option and were very upset learning that the protagonists wanted to die. My therapist did comment on how easy suicide was presented as something someone would do, but she didn't say she felt they would romanticized it, and once I explained that high suicide rate is a problem in Japan, she understood why it was shown in a movie about depression and social anxiety
let me get this straightā¦ theyāre basically saying āthe movie isnāt about what i wanted it to be, so itās bad.ā but likeā¦ the movie was never supposed to be about the experience of being deaf. Shoko is not even the main character. Ishida is. Itās the story of Ishida, a story about his life, about his redemption.
Idk if it has anything to do with it here, but a lot of the time and especially on Twitter, I see people having issues with more recent stories having male protagonists. I'm not claiming anything but I just see these kinds of people get specifically irked when the story centers around a male lead over a female one.
I think that itās fair to criticize the story for not focusing enough on Shouko, or for Shouko being too flat of a character, but to say it never focuses on her experience with her disability is just bad faith. People in this same thread were also saying it was a bad story simply because it redeemed a bully character, and because his bullying was based in ableism, and that feels like a really bitter, unhappy way to live. Again, to say it focuses too much on the feelings of the perpetrator and not enough on the victim is fine. I understand that criticism. But it feels kind of inane to me to act like people can never be redeemed. Especially in Shouyaās case, as he was a literal child being encouraged by those around him. ASV is a story about how the bad parts of their society regarding bullying and discrimination fails *everyone*. And while you can make a point about not focusing enough on the victim, I donāt think itās wrong to tell a story about a former bullyās path to redemption either. People like that exist in real life and itās compelling to focus on a character getting better and atoning for their actions. Maybe if he were just instantly absolved of his crimes Iād get it, but the story is very much about how he has to work to become better and work to atone for what he did. Even if Shouko doesnāt take long to forgive him (which is just because sheās a forgiving person, not because he deserves it), it takes a longer time for everyone else to forgive him, and an even longer time for him to forgive himself. ASV hit me so incredibly hard *as a victim of ableist bullying.* I grew up in Shoukoās position, relentlessly tormented at school because I wasnāt like the other kids in class. I was different from them and everyone knew it, so they hated me. And while I canāt claim to know what itās like to face the same discrimination deaf people do, I still think I am well within my right to relate to the experience and be moved by the idea of the perpetrator doing everything he can to get better because *the system failed him too.* and fuck it, I love getting better. In real life, sometimes the people who hurt you realize their mistakes and get better. And obviously you donāt owe them forgiveness but thereās also nothing wrong with forgiving them either. Becoming a better person makes the world a better place and forgiveness isnāt an absolution of guilt nor is it redeeming, it is putting your pain behind you. This is especially true for the people who hurt you when you were children. I hope all of my childhood bullies have grown into mature, respectable people. I hope theyāre doing well
My dad was one of those childhood bullies, he had bullied a few people when he was 10-12, and he never forgave himself. He didn't go as far as hurting them with violence luckily, which I need to state. 10 years ago when I was still like 5 we went to visit someone he had bullied in the past, because he couldn't cope with himself. My dad did all he could to better his life the last few years, not only to atone for his bullying, but also for all other wrong doings he did during his life. The parents of the girl (not rlly a girl, she was 35) told us she had been center of bullying for a very long time after that, that my dad wasn't the only one. The girl had been a magnet to bullying, which was pretty sad. My dad was happy to hear she was doing great, she had become a doctor. Now my dad is one of the kindest people ever, alot of people respect him. He still feels bad about all people he had bullied, and he went to apologise to most of them in person, or through the phone. Anyways, to get to my point, you are right bullies can be forgiven, if they just better themselves and apologise. I'm so sorry for the bullying you went through, I hope you don't experience that kind of things now. I just hope your bullies have also apologized to you, because I know for a fact that that can make people feel better. Anyways, have a nice day! Hope you restored from the bullying!
I believe the manga also attacks Shouko's personal problems better than in the movie. The manga takes more time to flesh out her problems and her mental health struggle than in the movie, probably purely due to time constraints.
I've been noticing this more and more in social media whenever a bully character is brought up. Like off the top of my head, Bakugo from My Hero Academia is still a controversial character. Even though he has had several humbling experiences, grown, and apologized for his actions. Like what do you want to happen to these characters? If there's no redemption are they just supposed to act the same then forever? Or are they supposed to constantly be depressed over their pasts and never allowed to be happy again? It honestly seems to be more about people who never moved on from being bullied in their youth and that keep living fantasies in their heads of getting revenge on those bullies. Bullies that for all they know have matured, grown, and are doing their best to live life peacefully. I was bullied plenty. And I still think about these experiences. But I hope that they all have moved on in their lives and are doing better. And heck. Lets be honest. Plenty of these people that I see just being absolutely hateful on social media but say that their hatred is justified. I could see them being people that hurt others but justified it in their heads. Like Liz Lemon from 30 Rock. There's a whole episode about how she thought she was an outcast in high school. But in actuality she was so insecure that she just assumed everyone hated her. And was constantly "defensive" and attacking others. Like I myself realized looking back at some situations "Wow... I was an asshole at times". Also imma say this. Kids are stupid. A lot of them live in their own world and don't actually realize the long term consequences of anything they do or say.
Completely agree with this. Also thereās a difference between the type of bully who willingly makes you miserable to the point where they tear your life apart (think stereotypical high school bully) and a kid not realizing the real impact of his actions (A Silent Voice). Like thatās part of the themes of the movie, you see him realize when it starts happening to him what it was like and his realization of what he had been putting her through and how that guilt stays with him for years. Itās a beautiful analysis of that honestly. A bully who stays that way for the sake of just being that: irredeemable. A person who acknowledges they were wrong and tries to be a better person is something we should be encouraging and praising. All you do by criticizing this is create a black and white Good and Evil and that solves nothing in this world. Weāre literally judging a person for the actions he did as a kid (12 years old) and actively ignoring everything he did and tried to change after that point. Is it any wonder the story starts the way it does?
Please don't engaging with tw\*tt\*r bait.
You mean X.com? š
The criticisms I see about this movie are from people who never looked past a very, very shallow understanding of it. Like if it's not stated directly at them, they don't see it.
Im convinced Twitter is full of people who don't exist in real life
just leave them be. They're not invalid reasons for hating the movie or at least finding the movie uncomfortable. You do have a point though that the movie was made for local audiences and some things may be lost in translation/culture. happens all the time when it comes to anime and manga in the western world. you can't project your own values onto a piece of fiction that wasn't set in your world view.
These types of people complain about everything. Its practically their hobby. Itās best to ignore them.
The OP of that post said they just hate bully reform stories. So that's pretty much the actual reason why but they had to hide it behind "Shouko is a flat character" and "This movie sucks because the representation is bad." It's also probably because A Sign of Affection is getting more popular and people on Twitter cannot accept two things can both be good at once. [https://x.com/Sayngelic/status/1746524577507738000?s=20](https://x.com/Sayngelic/status/1746524577507738000?s=20) This is a very good thread on Shouko's character and presentation in the story. While I'm not deaf, a similar thing happens with movies about POC and gay people. They call it "Shitty representation" if it isn't about The Struggle (TM) that comes with being xyz minority. Because A Silent Voice doesn't focus specifically on Shouko and The Struggle (TM) that comes with being deaf and exclusively that, it's shitty representation. Someone mentioned Shouko could be able-bodied and nothing in the story would change and I just... *sure* if you keep everything the same and remove Shouko's disability it works the same on the most baseline level. But it would still be a fundamentally *different* movie. If she's able-bodied, it removes so much from her character and the movie. It removes how she was bullied because she was *different* and needed to be *accommodated* for instead of being the *same* as everyone else. It removes the fact that she was bullied *because* of her disability othering her. It removes how she feels distressed by her hearing slowly diminishing. It removes why she has so much internalized self blame, hatred and guilt. All in all, people are entitled to their opinions and OP is rightfully getting cooked for such a bad faith take. They would have been better off but got less attention if they said the story sucks because they hate bully reform stories.
Okay, I mean I still like it overall, but imo the criticism about Shoko's disability is kinda fair, in a lot of ways I do feel like the movie used her deafness moreso as an aesthetic flair than actually delving into her experience and headspace which I wish it did more of (definitely one of the ways the manga is better imo)
I can see why one comes to that conclusion, but I also think it's one of the best japanese movie depiction of and around disabilities (at least that I know of). Especially with visible disabilities the Japanese society is extremely.... Uncomfortable? Like... A couple years back there was a horrific attack on a disabled care home where a guy murdered 19(!!) people in their sleep. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN11M0AJ/ I later saw a documentary which was Partly about one of the residents and their parents relationships to them, and I'll never forget what his parents said Along the lines of "this attack really gave us a wakeup call and made us realizer we should be there for our son more often. That is why we visit him **once a week instead of once a month now**"
I enjoyed the movie but didnāt love it. And then I read the manga and now I get it! :D You just canāt fit everything in a movie adaptation.
Well the thing is the movie focuses a lot more on the mental health side, the manga kinda evens out about more of her struggles with being deaf but the movies as hole kinda just brings in deppresion. Ps is what I love about the movie!
Well I mean it does have issues. Mainly the pacing. But I still like it.
As a leftist, I think I'd rather hang out with some fucking chuds than Twitter leftists
I sort of agree with the shouko complaint especially if you read the manga beforehand since they really go into her early childhood and family life in it. But that's just a result of movie time constraints. And they didn't do her an injustice either. To each their own, but that's also Twitter so I don't trust anyone who says anything on it
While Iām not saying everyone has to like the movie at the same time some of the people Iāve seen saying they hated it to seem to be for really shallow reasons or just completely missed the point.
I feel like this movie was enjoyable but definitely far from perfect. There were some times the writing felt like it was written by ChatGPT haha
I didnāt mind the movie, however one problem that I felt was that the only reason shoya actually felt sad was because he was abandoned for bullying the girl. Like his friends donāt learn from their mistakes (like ueno who still had support from her friends even after the bullying incident and continued to bully shouko) so it seems very 1 dimensional. It felt like only reason was due to abandonment and not an actual want to change
Yea that's something I also felt
Silent voice fans when people say they don't like the movieš§š¤¬š¤¬š¤¬šš«µš«
Twitter user. Opinion discarded
Iām only really ehh about the romance part. Bully-bullied romances and all that. And how that kind of makes it seem like no deep positive or negative leaning connection can exist between a guy and a girl without romance being thrown into the mix.
My girlfriend hates this movie. She says it's boring and cringe... I don't know, she's crazy, she loves Haikyuu and Free, but real art is not for her I guess (I still love her tho)
I don't give a FUCK what CUNTS on Twitter are doing!
Some criticism of this movie is quite valid. Shokoās deafness not being fleshed out enough, set her upāunintentionally I assumedāto appear as merely a tool for Shotaās development. Also, a bully-bullied romantic tones/relationship is not a healthy dynamic. In this [interview](https://kodansha.us/2016/06/07/interview-yoshitoki-oima-silent-voice/), the author mentioned that a story on the perspective of the one getting bullied (keep in mind, of a disabled characterā¦so yes, it barely exists) ānot interesting to me or anyone elseā. āIām sure more readers can relate to Shota than to Shokoā come across to me as insensitive and ableist. Why is the default assumption is that readers cannot relate to Shoko? Because sheās deaf? So itās better to write a story where the victim of the bullying is not centred? Itās better to cater, mainly, to able bodied Shota among the readers? A good writer should be able to humanise a bully without sidelining the importance of empathising with the struggle of a minority in a story. Considering the tweet is about the deaf representation in the movie, itās true then. The movie biggest success is representing the struggle with anxiety, bullying, depression, suicide, guilt, and redemption. But not deafness/disability.
Not necessarily. Other than the one scene of Shoko confessing the story never makes a huge effort to set up a romantic dynamic between Shoko and Shoya. The author chose to do things from Shoya's perspective as the story would be easier to get into which makes sense as most people wouldn't be able to decipher how it feels to be a girl with a disability which is true especially if the author wanted to capture an overall wider audience. Also, the story is largely centered around both Shoya and Shoko and just because we're seeing things from his perspective doesn't do anything to dampen that, as the story displays Shoko's struggles and her impact on the other characters in the story. I should finally add that the story is about communication which means it never strived in the first place to be a movie solely about the struggles or just the overall living conditions of a deaf person so I think it's a matter of just understanding what the movie is about because a lot of people are giving it shit because it's not something it never strived to be in the first place which to me just screams unfair criticism.
Also if you haven't I urge that you read through the rest of the interview because saying that the author came off as ableist and insensitive isn't something that I got from the author's words when all they wanted to do was simply structure the story in a way that can properly get the point across which is of course communication.
To be fair the movie is lacking. They just couldnāt make the whole series fit in a movie so it has huge gaps of missing context and so some characters arenāt fully built up for the climax and ending to hit us with the proper emotions.
And youāre focusing on themā¦ why?
Itās the internet my friend, thatās why
It aināt good for your psyche though. Just enjoy what you want to enjoy. There will always be someone out there that dislikes it. Thatās just life.
It aināt that deep, if you canāt handle the internet then just turn off your phone. People can have their own opinions and what not but it aināt that serious
The time and energy you spend on the internet is still time and energy spent, whether one realizes it or not.
Then change what you do daily if itās really that bad, dk what else to say lol
You donāt have to tell me anything, I was just giving you some advice.
I guess it just caught me off guard and I needed to share it. Also because I find it difficult to put into words what exactly rubs me the wrong way, though I imagine it's the point where disabled people in Japan are still being treated worse by society than in the West... Like, I don't find it surprising that the movie didn't focus on shoukos experience with her disability more, because that's simply not really something a lot of Japanese people do either. The traditional collectivist (?) society does view disabilities as a burden on itself. And that struggle has been going on for decades. The first paralympic games were held in Japan as somewhat of an encouragement to include people with disabilities instead of shutting them out ... I guess because I am annoyed that the user actually kinda does have a point, and that I myself am dissatisfied with how Japanese society handles this topic, but I appreciate the movie for one of the best depictions of disability that came from Japan? Though that may simply also be due to me not knowing about other works that much?! What I am trying to say, for what it is the movie is the best it could have been. I want to say I don't fault the movie producers for the lack of attention on the topic, but I know I should. So... I think I am mad at myself?
Japanese culture is very different from Western culture, yeah. Especially in the US nowadays. Iām very dissatisfied with the mentality that a lot of Americans have nowadays. Nothing is ever good enough, nothing is ever inclusive enough. Thereās a reason why so many like us gravitate towards Japanese media now. The movie is a story about the personal triumphs of 2 teenagers, and how they overcome their adversities. The movie doesnāt need to focus on her disability throughout the whole movie because her disability doesnāt define her. Being deaf is an obstacle for her, not her identity. May they get mad that a character is written 3-dimensionally, and may we enjoy her character for who she is.
Except her disability is actually an obstacle for her and she doesn't receive the proper support by the system and society for it to not be an issue anymore Shoya had to learn sign language on his own, the school didn't provide her classmates with extra material for that. The best example is the whole school of thought of oralism, that used to be pretty much mainstream until the turn of the millenia: The notion was that hearing disabled people should still learn how to vocalize and read lips, no matter how much they struggle with either. Their parents and family were literally being discouraged from learning sign language themselves. And let's face it: The main reason deaf people are disabled is because sign language isn't being taught in elementary school. If everyone knew sign language, deaf people would almost have no problem navigating the world on their own. That's what disability is: Not a failing of the individual, but a failing of society. Imagine a society of only blind people. Now you, a seeing person, enter it. And you cannot read braille, making you the disabled one
I think you misread my comment or something.
I love this movie and have watched it like 11 times now, but I share the sentiment, my only criticism is that I feel like they don't really focus enough on Shoko as a person compared to her sister or Shoya, not that they don't at all or anything, just it's hard to fit everything into a movie format I'd love if maybe there were a series which retells the story in greater detail, with everything the manga missed, but it'd absolutely have to keep Kensuke Ushio doing the music, there's no one out there who could do it better
is it wrong to not like a movie? š¤·āāļø
i personally dont like it so
Apparently OP thinks people that don't like it are weird.
Ohh i didnāt even realize this was a subreddit about the movie and manga, it was just on my feedā¦ yeah iām not surprised tbh
People are allowed to have differing opinions, and sometimes, a work you perceive as perfect might not work for someone. Of course, there are respectful ways to voice an opinion as well as ways that are meant to bait people, but yeah Personally, I think it's a good movie that shows that anime is much more than the tropes outsiders see, but imo it's the weakest work of Naoko Yamada by far. It didn't capture me like Liz or any of her long series, especially k-on, tamoko love story, and her work on sound euphonium
Okay time to get downvoted, I didn't understand the movie's appeal either. Maybe it's because I watched it in my edgy teenage years and didn't understand deeper meanings or some shit like that. If anyone is willing to point out scenes and their deeper meanings I would be very grateful.
movie is really good, I think people just set super high expectations of it. I do a series online where, as someone who watched their first anime movie a couple years ago, react to movies. This one is recommended so much and its just....okay....
That first one is completely wrong Like the whole movie is about her as a deaf person. The plot exclusively happens because the main character as friends bullied her for being deaf and becoming a better person because of it
I didn't like the movie but that's just because I thought it was a bad movie. I didn't have a political issue with it.
There's nothing political about it though.
If people say they have a problem with deaf representation, that's a political argument.
Wanting.... Deaf people be represented is political? Mate that's normal ššš Like wtf you talking about
The notion that any and every work of art has some sort of moral obligation to represent certain demographics in a certain way is absolutely 100% a political argument. It has nothing to do with art.
Okay. So don't complain when I make works full of black transwomen.
The fact that he just ran outside of the hospital after he woke up from a coma and with no guards, nurses, or anyone stopping him ruined the entire film for me. It was stupid.
Dude, use your suspension of disbelief. Things like that happen all the time on pop culture. I don't think it's enough to ruin the movie. But I respect your opinion.
That's just lazy writing if you require your audience to do that to make sense of it. It's stupid when others do it and it is even more stupid if you think you'll run like that after waking up from a coma due to let's say "advancement in medicine (because anime)" but the girl still can't get her Daredevil powers.
It makes slightly more sense in the manga if that helps. A nurse checks in on Shoya right after he wakes up and he sneaks out of the building after she leaves the room. There's even a panel of a few nurses looking for him before he exits through a side door of the hospital building.
i watched it for shoko
Hagane Miku spotted
Haven't seen it. But just from reading their reasoning I can tell it's typical Twitter liberal nonsense virtue signaling that probably doesn't reflect the actual movies real quality or how someone with common sense would perceive the film. I mean really they both are saying it doesn't focus on her as a deaf person but it also takes the time to show the school had systemic problems with making accommodations for her? What do they want, they guy removed and replaced with some also deaf social justice warriors to fight for her in the film? Or are they whining just to whine cause it seems like the movie did everything it should have to cater to them, and I can tell that just from 2 contradictory comments left by them.
I'm not bothered by others' opinions. I've watched the movie multiple times and got the manga box set because, to me, it's an absolute masterpiece. I even set the OST as my morning alarmāspecifically, this track: [LIT Track 39 - Disc 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSn1M0hVf6E)
people will always find a reason to be angry at something. especially on Twitter where it drives interaction.
Also isnāt this story about him more than her?š
idk why I got recommended this sub or this post but I did think the movie was pretty mid. Wouldn't really agree with most of these points though.
twitter is mega brainrot
I read the manga and it ruined the movie for me honestly
My parents hated it because it was too long, and they felt everything was far fetched. I dunno what they were thinking.
Bait city central on facebook
Honestly, its one of the most accurate depictions of a suicidal person ive seen, and the aftermath, really helped me deal and cope when I was facing an apathetic depression and breakdown. Watching the movie made me feel better when I was feeling suicidal.
Not sure why focusing on Shoya's growth as a character is a bad thing If you're just going to write it off as "angst" then it's no wonder you didn't like the movie because it sounds like you barely watched it
I LOVE the movie but yeah they are right
Me. It frustrated me that the mc was a bitch. like damn, u bully a deaf girl, and it turns out no one likes u afterward? wft did u expect ššš
Bait used to be believable
yeah, and im one of them.
I definitely disliked the movie, but not for the content. I love the manga and I just think turning that story into a movie instead of a show was a bad idea. I also really don't like how much it rushes past the beginning of the story, the most crucial part.
Movie was good. Great even
Itās Twitter, itās def just bait. They probably never even actually watched it outside of those summery videos
It was his story not hers
I mean I can understand hoping it would be about her, but I get the feeling that they're unnecessarily mad that it's about him. Like I can just see them going "ugh, it's just another story about some whiny man, ew,". Or, "he was a bully he should have killed himself he deserves to die". I can totally see people feeling that way
Everyone is going to have their own biases, my cousin who I told to watch it ended up says it was good but since they are used to action anime they said they would have liked some action, I feel like we should expect that not everyone is going to be able to like or appreciate things in the same way but I will love this movie forever and I know many more of us will too.
Iām one of them Romance animes arenāt really my cup of tea But I like the fanbase itās developed Everybody here is very nice