Koe no Katachi

I have a new classmate and it seems that she is going to change my life. How fortunate, hein?!

Name: Koe no Katachi | A silent voice

Author: Yoshitoki Ōima

Year: 2013

Status: Completed

Volumes: 7 (62 Chapters)

Genre: Drama, Psychological, Shounen, Slice of life, School Life.

Synopsis:

The story is about Nishimiya Shouko, a deaf girl that is transferred to a new school where she is bullied by her peers, especially by Ishida Shouya. When she is transferred, Ishida ends up being ostracized and is bullied by the same people we thought were his friends. Years later, he decides to redeem his mistake. Will he be able to do it?

Review

Koe no Katachi is presented as a drama manga, but ends up turning into a complex and sentimental work that crushes us on the inside and makes us look towards ourselves whether we want to or not.

“It’s very nice to meet you. My name is Nishimiya Shouko. (...) I am deaf.”

It’s with this sentence that we are introduced to one of the most important characters in the story. Nishimiya Shouko is a young deaf girl that is transferred to a new school, where everyone around her can hear. However, the class that Nishimiya is in ends up not being as welcoming as the girl expected.

The story is being narrated by another important character, Ishida Shouya, if not the most important one. Ishida Shouya is an irreverent boy that, not knowing how to deal with Nishimiya’s difference, unleashes a collective bullying wave against the new classmate. Unaware of the huge mistake that he is making, Ishida only realises that when Nishimiya is transferred again and all the classmates, in order to rid themselves of the guilt, turn him into an escape goat. Ishida ends up becoming the new target of his colleagues’ bullying, even being turned away by his teacher when he asks for his help. From the moment he starts to feel the damage he started, Ishida decides to change and fix his mistakes, no matter the cost.

The story unfolds in a fluent and impactful manner, where everything that is shown to us becomes important. There are several subjects portrayed in this manga, such as bullying, empathy, suicide, among others. Personally, that was what pleased me the most in this work, its ability to portray such current and urgent themes in a simple and realistic way.

As we progress in the reading we discover that all the characters are complex and that their fate interlinks in one way or another. I also found interesting the fact that all of them have strengths and weaknesses like in real life. None of them is perfect, not even sweet Nishimiya Shouko, that only wishes to see everyone around her happy. With that, the author makes each one of us ponder about the characters’ behaviour and, consequently, about our own behaviour in a similar situation.

Regarding the graphics, I liked the drawing style and trace. If there is one thing I hate is reading mangas with several characters and they look like each other. In Koe no Katachi that doesn’t happen. Each character is different and has distinct traces.

In the same way that the narration is made by Ishida from a specific point in his and Nishimiya’s life, it also ends in an important moment, leaving us guessing what happened next. I confess that I was not disappointed. I thought the ending was quite appropriate, for we get to know the fate of, not only the protagonists Ishida and Nishimiya, but also of the remaining characters.

Whisper of the Heart

When the author Yoshitoki Ōima wrote Koe no Katachi she was 24 years-old. Inspired by her mother’s job, a sign language interpreter, Yoshi shared with the world the importance of being listened to, especially when we are different. What pleases me the most in this work is exactly the fact that it approaches so many important aspects and small details that we might not always take into consideration such as, for example, children’s cruelty.

We generally consider children to be loving and active “creatures”, but in reality they can be very cruel towards each other. First, they don’t have a filter and are very blunt. Although, I consider them to be more open-minded than many adults. They don’t judge easily, especially if they are taught that way. That is exactly what we do not see happening at the beginning of Yoshitoki’s work. Because he doesn't know how to deal with Nishimiya’s difference and with the discomfort she makes him feel, Ishida Shouya decides to bully his colleague. Although, in my humble opinion, the problem starts even before that, when the head teacher in charge of the class doesn’t know how to teach someone with hearing deficiency and doesn't seem interested in trying. It worsens when the teacher himself begins to discriminate against his student, thus giving permission (albeit silent) for the rest of the class to do the same. At this point, I think the author touches another important part: the fact that not all professors know how to be it. It’s true that, sometimes, not even a good teacher can prevent one of his students from being bullied by others, but it’s a big step when that adult decides to take action and try to solve the problem. The child learns through example, and if the grown up is educating and teaching with a good role model, then that child has everything to become a good adult.

Nowadays there is an increase in the number of bullying cases in schools, and being myself someone who was bullied as a child, I know that it is not easy to overcome that. Unfortunately, from withstanding so many physical and verbal violence, the victim starts to feel as if everything that is happening is her fault and, consequently, the only solution she sees is suicide. All of this is seen in Nishimiya Shouko’s character, which leads me to believe that the author approaches it as a “wake up call” for society and its standards. Very often the evils of the world are inside us, fed by what’s around us, and we aren’t always aware of that.

Even though the story’s focus is always around the bullying that Nishimiya endured, there are other subjects that are approached such as, for example, living our life with a clear conscience. I believe in the Law of “what goes around comes back around”, that everything we do to others will, eventually, come back to us. It’s the Universe’s way to stay balanced. However, I also believe that even Life’s harsh lessons are always intended to make us grow. An example of that is Ishida’s character, to whom the Universe starts to ‘teach’ right after Nishimiya’s leaving, making him go through everything that his colleague endured. Sometimes it is necessary for us to feel it ourselves in order to understand our mistakes. It’s up to each and one of us to fix them, or to learn how to live with them, but always with the intention to move forward.

Another interesting subject is the fact that we don’t always know how to deal with our regret. It takes a great level of maturity to accept what we have done wrong and the consequences of our actions. In my opinion, Ueno and Kawai are two of the few characters in Yoshitoki’s work that only understand that when it’s already too late, for they are very focused on themselves and their own thoughts. One chooses to blame others for her own mistakes, while the other considers that not doing anything when something wrong is happening in front of her, like not intervening when Nishimiya is being bullied, doesn't mean that she is wrong.

Also in Koe no Katachi there is a question on what it means to be friends with somebody. When do we stop being acquaintances and start being someone’s friend? The author makes her characters dwell on that, and concludes that throughout our life, people come and go but few remain in it. And, really, if we think about the amount of people that have appeared in our life from birth up until now, we don’t have a clue on the precise number, but we are able to determine the ones that impacted us and that, maybe, are still with us.

Last but not least, Yoshitoki’s work mirrors the need that the current society has for empathy. It’s very important for us to cultivate that ability, and to put ourselves in the other’s shoes, but also to know how to really listen. Each one of us has our unique way of communicating. Some is through words or sign language, and others through music or painting. Nishimiya and Ishida’s characters are different, one is deaf and the other isn’t, but they both realise how hard it is to be listened to. Being able to listen is an ability that not everyone has, but it’s one that is possible to learn.

To sum it up, Koe no Katachi emphasizes how much we differ from each other, but also that there is nothing wrong in that. We are who we are, virtues and flaws, and we mustn’t go against our essence just to please someone else.

For the topic “A manga you think it’s so brilliant, it’s like literature” of the Ecletic Heart 30 Post Challenge, I chose this wonderful piece from Yoshitoki Ōima, for all the reasons I have stated above, since it gave the author the New Creator Prize at Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2015, the Rudolf-Dirks-Awards for Best Scenario (Asia) in 2017, and at the Japan Expo the award Daruma d′Or Manga in 2018.

Rating - 🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉 (10)