A Silent Voice captures something I haven’t seen and I didn’t want to see again…in a good way.
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Yoshitoki Oima
Translation: Steven LeCroy
What They Say:
Shoya is a bully. When Shoko, a girl who can’t hear, enters his elementary school class, she becomes his favorite target, and Shoya and his friends goad each other into devising new tortures for her. But the children’s cruelty goes too far. Shoko is forced to leave the school, and Shoya ends up shouldering all the blame. Six years later, the two meet again. Can Shoya make up for his past mistakes, or is it too late?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
How do you even go about unpacking something like A Silent Voice? It’s a comic that hurts and angers just to read it, and that is exactly what is so good about it. A Silent Voice brings to light something that not a lot of outlets want to, especially not a medium like comics, or even anything outside of indie film probably (but that’s unfair; indie film does everything). Childhood bullying is a real problem and it’s something that can hurt forever and longer for the victim. It’s not just in the brief glimpses of Shoko that we get, but especially in the few pages of Shoya. Even something like saying Shoya deserved what he got (he did, to an extent far lesser than what he received) is the cruelest of punishment.
So what’s “wrong” with A Silent Voice? What’s wrong with it is exactly what’s so very, very right about it. Shoya’s bullying of Shoko is wrong, Shoko’s acceptance of the bullying is wrong, Shoko’s mom’s attitude toward her daughter is wrong, the children’s antics toward Shoko and then toward Shoya is wrong. I think most importantly, the teacher was wrong, and that’s what angered me the most. The teacher is impeding Shoko’s learning and he even laughs at a joke that Shoya makes. The worst part? The ONE effort another teacher tries to help Shoko is shot down simply because of poor planning on the teacher’s part. I thought it was going to be a reprieve of the bullying and finally a little light in the series, but I suppose that happens in high school.
These are all very real things that happen in all too many schools (too many schools is more than zero schools). People are made fun of just for being disabled and, worst of all, kids sometimes just don’t get that they’re being mean. A Silent Voice captures all of that beautifully. The teacher is there to guide them, to teach them, and to facilitate them, but none of that is found and that is all too real. And why? Because it would inconvenience us. Why make life easier for her if she can make life easier for us? It is, indeed, the majority that rules.
In all of this, Shoko is a bright light amidst a sea of darkness. Her entire class, teacher included, are pretty terrible people—most of whom don’t really understand they are being terrible, which is worse. She can not only roll with the punches, fighting only when confronted directly, but she puts on a brave face through all of it. She even helps her own aggressor by cleaning off Shoya’s desk of the nasty messages his classmates are leaving after they turn on him. She was a guardian angel he truly didn’t know he had.
In Summary:
I hate giving blanket statements about something, but I do just kind of want to give A Silent Voice two thumbs up, A’s all around, 10’s out of 10 and call it a day. But instead I’ll say that it is at once one of the most beautiful and touching comics I’ve read in a long time AND one of the most frustrating and infuriating comics I’ve read in a long time. And that’s exactly what I love about it.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: May 26th, 2015
MSRP: $10.99
