聲の形

KOE NO KATACHI

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
7
RELEASE
November 19, 2014
CHAPTERS
64

DESCRIPTION

Based on a one-shot that won the 80th Weekly Shounen Magazine Newbie Best Mangaka Award.

Shouya is a bully. When Shouko, a girl who can't hear, enters his elementary school class, she becomes their favorite target, and Shouya and his friends goad each other into devising new tortures for her. But the children's cruelty goes too far. Shouko is forced to leave the school, and Shouya ends up shouldering all the blame. Six years later, the two meet again. Can Shouya make up for his past mistakes, or is it too late?

(Source: Kodansha USA)

Note: Includes 2 extra chapters.

CAST

Shouko Nishimiya
Shouya Ishida
Yuzuru Nishimiya
Naoka Ueno
Tomohiro Nagatsuka
Miyako Ishida
Maria Ishida
Miyoko Sahara
Yaeko Nishimiya
Satoshi Mashiba
Takeuchi
Kazuki Shimada
Ito Nishimiya
Miki Kawai
Pedro
Ishida no Ane
Keisuke Hirose
Genki

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO KOE NO KATACHI

Cover Art for Eiga "Koe no Katachi" Special Book

MANGA DramaEiga "Koe no Katachi" Special Book

MOVIE DramaKoe no Katachi

ONE SHOT DramaKoe no Katachi

MUSIC Koe no Katachi Specials

REVIEWS

Nura7
90/100
The story goes beyond romance, in fact, it is so realistic that it could easily pass for a Slice of Life.

Many people write reviews on the anime, I speak in general.
However, I do believe that the manga is also a review-worthy. Thus most of my reviewes might be rather on the manga than the anime adaptation. So, let's head to the main topic!

Plot: 声の形 (rom. Koe no Katachi ; transl. The Shape of Your Voice)
As you can notice I translated the title myself. In Japanese the pronoun "you" (singular) is often omitted, so, I think the title is relating to someone's inner voice, or a group of people's inner voices - I will leave it to here because I might do a major spoiler. Just this is my personal opinion, that we do not necessarily speak of an audible voice, ne.

Now then, after I finally said my thoughts on the title itself, let us talk about the plot. I have watched the adaptation, but also read the manga. And I must say - the adaptation was good, however, the manga is still unbeatable. Yoshitoki Ooima has done a marvelous job on the story. Yes, the art is not bad, but I did not even paid much attention to it because of the story/atmosphere. The manga can completely absorb all of your attention, I joke you not!

As we speak of the plot now, one thing stuck to my mind during the reading-journey - "What goes around, comes around." I really felt the strong presence of that saying in the story. The first "arc", if you may let me use that term in relation to their earlier/childhood life, was really dark and angst-y. I am not saying it was enough to make one cry, but for sure - it brings realism which can make you think on real life-related issues. Makes you think, where are the adults when children struggle - be it because of bad parenting, abuse, being bullied etc.

I liked that Ooima-san flipped the book upside-down and made readers, since it was expressed stronger in the manga than in the anime, think on how bullies view/feel things. Hey, hey! I am not taking the bully's side, I am saying that she did a good job portraying how regrets can scar some people, or in our case - some bullies.

The second arc, in relation to their later life/high-school life, is a bit lighter. You can even call it romantic, but! I have to say my kind of 'but' about the romance. If people know me - they will also know I dislike pointless/sweet romance. I mean, ngh - cringe. So, the "romance" in Koe no Katachi is one of a kind - it is in the form of a forgiveness. And if that's not a masterpiece of an idea - I don't know what would you call it! Yoshitoki Ooima, you truly got me awww-ing there. I did not expect any romance, in fact, all I expected was a very bad ending, the kind you get in some sick visual novel games. Ungh.

Overall, the story is a true masterpiece. I have noticed though that many manga-ka's start touching on disability topics lately - I approve it! So, as we are on something I do approve - the plot will get a 9/10 from me!

Character's Design: Hmmm. I believe the story is partly that great because of the characters, you know? I mean, the idea about the story is good! But you can also get a good hand of cards and still lose the game, if you don't know how to play them well, ne. So, I think the characters were balanced and well portrayed, with all their inner flaws and insecurities - actually, scratch that. They were all great because of their inner fears! ' v ' That being said, the design will get an 8/10 from me.

Art Style: Mhmm, I can't say the style is something mind-blowing. As I said above, I got so consumed in the story and how it was developed, that I completely forgot to pay attention to the art. I usually observed the art as well, I mean - I like taking notes on some curves or details (as I draw too). But yeah, the art style will get just a 6/10 from me. But that is nothing bad! I would rather have a mind-blowing plot with some normal/ordinary art, than a mind-blowing art style with a 'meh'-plot. >_>

Overall, the manga is worth the read even if you watched the anime! Some scenes were not well adapted or missing. So, go and read the manga! ;D
Continue on AniList
DatJuno
100/100
Long story short: bully boy have grown up and now must face the consequences of his acts during his childhood.
Long story short: bully boy have grown up and now must face the consequences of his acts during his childhood school life. Simply put, a beautiful story about forgiveness, redemption, love, friendship, and maturing. Now, let's go to a more elaborate view on this masterpiece.

First of all, I have a very strong bias towards bullying/redemption stories, and I don't plan (even remotely) to pretend this is not biased. After all, my reviews are based on my life experiences and personal tastes about the things I read and watch. And talking about redemption stories, this is all this manga is about, and it's one of the best redemption stories I've ever seen in my entire life.

The premise: Shouya is your average elementary schooler: mischievous and lazy boy, always playing and messing around with his friends and classmates and, well, just being a kid. Everything changes when a new classmate, Shouko, arrives at school. She could be just another new girl at school if it wasn't for a simple detail: she's deaf. And, as you would expect from your average chaotic kid, Shouya takes advantage of her disability. Starting with dumb pranks, things start to escalate to the point where Shouko is not only socially excluded, but also physically hurt by most of her classmates' bullying. After the commotion, Shouko changes school and the responsibility must fall on someone's shoulder. Even if the bully came from a lot of kids, and with the knowledge (and non-interference) from the teacher, it all falls on Shouya's shoulders. Now, betrayed by his friends and classmates, he is the one being bullied and like Shouko, without anyone to rely on.
Fast forward some years and now we have a teenager Shouya. An awkward, quiet, depressed, and socially excluded boy without any friends or aspirations. The only way out of everything that he's done, from what he sees, is suicide. But before killing himself, now that he's a more mature, empathetic and sensible human being, Shouya wants to find Shouko and apologize for everything that he's done to her and the hell that he made the poor deaf girl live in when they were just children and he had no notion of the consequences of his acts.
He learned a bit of sign language just so he could apologize to her properly and show how he regrets his bullying. And after finding her, without not even knowing the reason, in a scene that is one of the most beautiful scenes of any redemption story you'll ever read, he asks: "Can we be friends?".

As the story progresses, you understand not why he bullied a disabled girl (which is irrelevant, he was just a dumb mean boy doing dumb mean things) but the effects that it had not only on her mind but on his as well, how much that made both of them suffer and how it affected the way both of them saw the world, each with their distorted and sad way. You get to know other people involved directly and indirectly with the childhood bullying, people that regretted their acts as well and found their own way to cope with the feeling of guilt, people that didn't regret AT ALL and were quite prideful for their acts (fuck you Ueno), and people that also suffered from bullying in their lives and also found coping mechanisms.

The way Shouya's guilt is portrayed and described is so real that you can relate to him even if you never suffered from bullying or practiced it, and how he is reluctant to accept that happiness can come for him too even after all that he's done is sad and also inspiring in a lot of ways.

Concluding, a wonderful story that makes the Supreme Master of Redemption Zuko proud and even people not familiarized with manga should read it.
Continue on AniList
HidamariSeashore
90/100
A realistic story full of emotions; a great read.
(Important note: This review was written before the 2016 anime film adaptation was released.)

Understanding someone with a disability can be quite a challenge, but if you're willing to overcome that challenge, chances are that you will become friends with that disabled person. No matter whether it's not being able to do so or something else entirely, we all have something that we regret doing deeply; I personally have a regret that has haunted me for several years, but as I've been hanging around the person who is centered around those regrets, I've recently started to feel better about it. Another thing I've done recently is read this manga, which evolved from an already emotional one-shot to something that caused my heart to explode into pieces. I don't remember how I first heard about it, but after reading the one-shot and seeing the announcement that it was being made into an anime movie, I felt like I absolutely HAD to read it. All I can say is that reading it was such a wonderful decision.

Ladies and gentlemen, please read my review for "A Silent Voice", known in Japanese as "Koe no Katachi".

A Silent Voice is mostly seen through the eyes of Shoya Ishida, who was classmates with a girl named Shoko Nishimiya back in elementary school. Shoko was unable to hear, so Shoya and his classmates bullied her until it got to the point where she transferred out of school. The bullying ended up getting to the point where it was Shoya getting bullied; thus, years later, Shoya is in high school with no friends and no desire to make any. However, he is soon reunited with Shoko, and they begin to hang out with each other. Shoya soon sets out to get Shoko to reconnect with some of their old classmates.

Let me start off by saying that the artwork was.... not bad, actually. It had a great style, and it seemed realistic; the artwork also helped to make me feel the emotion in the story. The character designs weren't too bad, either. It wasn't the best art I've ever seen in a manga, but for what it was, it was very great.

The story in A Silent Voice is undoubtedly the best part of the manga. It made me go from smiling to trying not to cry to wanting to throw whatever volume was in my hand against the wall; if a manga can make me feel such a range of emotions, it must be a great manga. There was a great amount of character development, too, especially for Shoya; Shoya starts off as a real jerk, but as time went on and he got more development, I sympathized with him more and more. I liked the heroine, Shoko, from the beginning. It's not just that I truly sympathize with how she's deaf; there are a few aspects of her that reminded me of myself. There are even more great characters, but there was one that I did not like from the beginning. That character is Naoka Ueno, who was Shoya and Shoko's classmate in elementary school; she helped Shoya bully Shoko, and six years later, she shows no signs of regret. You know how I mentioned earlier that I would occasionally want to throw the manga against the wall? Her actions throughout the manga was the main reason why. Aside from her, I came to like pretty much all of the characters.

Overall, I found A Silent Voice to be a great manga. If you're someone who is in the mood for a realistic story that is full of emotions, look no further; you've got the right manga. Either that, or wait for the anime movie adaptation coming out in Japan in September; I'm quite excited about it for a number of reasons!
Continue on AniList