Most Of The People I Talk To Who Say “I Didn’t Like A Silent Voice/ Koe No Katachi” State That

Most of the people I talk to who say “I didn’t like A Silent Voice/ Koe no Katachi” state that they didn’t like it because “The main character is a bully and gets redeemed.”

And I think I know WHY they say that and also why I think that thought process is fundamentally flawed… so I have a few minutes, let’s get into it.

Most media, especially lately, has this redemption arc of… not actually having one. It’s usually a “sacrifice play” that a character makes to redeem themselves before they die, or a very quick “forgive and forget” scenario, or something very much “not built up, and often never referenced again in any meaningful way.”

But A Silent Voice/ Koe no Katachi is literally all build up, no use of the “sacrifice play” moment, and the purpose of the film is redemption through hard work to be a better person.

The other part of the problem, from my perspective on those who don’t like the series, seems to come from the fact that certain readers refuse to see the abuse and bullying that the bully is put through as well. Almost to the point of saying “well that’s what you get for doing that” - and … yeah I get it, it’s a lesson to be learned but… if the person who was the bully, is also bullied, then makes an effort to be better and then is bullied and cut off from everyone MORE because of their actions to better themselves… is that really a deserved perspective to have as a reader/watcher?

Do we, as actual people and those absorbing this content, want people to suffer that much even AFTER they have properly shown they are growing, changing, being better, working harder, and making that effort on their own even with the constant bullying they receive never going away?

Simple answer to that is NO.

Which is why A Silent Voice/ Koe no Katachi handles things so well, the main character finds new people who don’t know him or his past, and - through the forgiveness he receives from the person he hurt - begins to try to branch out and become a person again after being forced to lock himself away… both by others and as a self imposed punishment.

So here’s WHY I think A Silent Voice/ Koe no Katachi is so great about what it does or attempts to do…

The people AROUND the main character are, at their own speed, forgiving and opening up to the main character.

But the main character is still struggling to forgive himself.

The story isn’t about other people forgiving him, he already did most of the work to be a better person by the time we - in the present - meet him. But he’s still lost, disconnected, and not understanding where he is going wrong on making things better… so much so that he almost gives up on everything.

And in that exact thought is where we find the purpose of  A Silent Voice/ Koe no Katachi’s story overall.

Each player in this story feels like they have done a wrong, one way or another, and it’s the journey to find their own peace, their own acceptance of self, working for the forgiveness they want, and then ultimately forgiving themselves for what they have done.

And again, that’s where I think people’s view on this series is off… it’s not about the redemption arc, most of the cast (especially the main charcters) have already gone through those redemption moments in their past - and we are shown them - but they continue to carry that weight and fundamental disconnection from life and happiness at all because they feel they need to keep hurting themselves in one way or another because they don’t feel they deserve that forgiveness yet.

But they do.

And it’s shown they do.

And when they finally get to the moment of realization that they do… their world opens up to them again.

The best example of this growth is when the main character STARTS to feel better, but then has a triggering interaction, and experiences a huge flair of rejection sensitive dysphoria that causes him to painfully relapse.

Anyway… I adore  A Silent Voice/ Koe no Katachi because it shows just how difficult overcoming these things can be, even if the world has moved on, sometimes you just can’t deal with it… and yet other times you can find the help you need in the most unusual of places.