A Silent Voice is a dramatically driven Japanese animated film that examines the relationship between a bully and their victim. It features Shoko Nishimiya, who is bullied for her hearing disability and leaves her school. To seek closure, the bully, Shoya Ishida, wishes to find Shoko and apologize.
A Silent Voice received immense praise from many critics and is one of Kyoto Animation’s most beloved anime.
Celebrating the film’s 5th year Anniversary, here are ten interesting facts about A Silent Voice.
1. The anime removed or changed many parts from the manga due to its limited runtime including the subplot where the main characters worked together to make a film. This was how Shoya’s group of friends really came together.
Throughout the production of the film, they all got to learn a lot about each other and, despite not agreeing on many things, they were able to put their differences aside. This allowed the characters to have stronger connections than they did in the anime.
2. Another important scene that was omitted was Shoko’s mother’s backstory, who was a victim of bullying worse than her daughter’s. Her husband (and his family) rejected her for producing a “defective” child and left her alone.
3. In the manga Ishida’s eyes are shown to brown in colour pages which was changed to dark green in the film.
4. The English dub casted Lexi Cowden to voice Shouko, a deaf actress. Same for Mélanie Lemaistre in the French dub.
5. The film has won many awards including 2016’s Best Animation Feature Film at Japanese Movie Critics Awards, Excellent Animation of the Year at Japanese Academy Award and Anime movie of the Year at Tokyo Anime Award Festival.
6. Her favourite character besides the main lead is Miyoko. She says: “I would say Miyoko. Maybe not my favourite character per se, but I feel like I go too easy on her … like I don’t want to give her too harsh of an obstacle.”
7. Ishida misunderstands (suki) “like” to (Tsuki) “moon” as Shōko confessed to him and he replied, “the moon is beautiful.” Natsume Soseki, the most acclaimed novelist in Japan, once taught to his student that the English translation of “I love you” is “The moon is beautiful.” Coincidental to Ishida’s reply to Shōko, it seems like he answered back to Shōko’s feelings for him.
8. “My Generation” the 1965 song performed by a British band The Who was used in opening scenes.
9. Naoko Yamada, the film director, said on the use of the song:
“While I was location-hunting in Gifu I started wondering what Shoya was like at that point: a kid who feels invincible but also deals with perhaps unfounded frustration. This song appeared in my mind with a bang.”
10. Author Yoshitoki Oima was only eighteen years old when she first started work on A Silent Voice. She began her career in 2008 when she published the one-shot pilot chapter and won the 80th Annual Shonen Magazine Newcomer Manga Award.
11. According to Editor Hashimoto, when the one-shot of “Koe no Katchi” (Silent Voice) was first released, the sales of that particular Weekly Shonen Magazine issue jumped by several tens of thousands.
12. Yuzo Takada’s manga “3×3 Eyes” heavily influenced when Yoshitoki Oima first started reading manga. It was the first series she collected.
