I feel especially qualified to speak about this masterpiece of an anime/manga, because I have not only watched the animated movie multiple times, I have also read the manga in its entirety. I will talk about what I liked about the adaptation, where I felt it came short of perfection in adhering to the original storyline and some of the elements that I found most powerful as well as characters I loved and ones I loved to hate.
The story follows Shoya Ishida, as it begins he is your garden variety grade schooler. He gets bored easily, so when a deaf girl (Shoko Nishimiya) transfers into his class, he amuses himself by leading a group of other students in bullying her. The anime just glosses over much of this in the opening montage because it is the setup to the full story, but the whole of it, and especially the teacher's complicity in it, is especially disheartening. The manga is more powerful in the regard that you actually see how much of poor Shoko takes and how earnestly she just really wants to be friends and blames herself for what is happening. The teacher telling his students that having her there is a bother is really sickening as well. Since most of the actual bullying is just part of the opening sequence in the anime, you don't really see the teacher's role in it all. One student (Miyoko Sahara) actually tries to learn sign language but then moves away, presumably because she becomes a target for trying to help poor Shoko. In the end, Shoko's mom has to complain to the school because the expensive hearing aids she's been buying keep disappearing (one of the ways in which Shoya has perpetuated his bullying is by stealing her hearing aids and tossing them around the classroom). When the bullying comes to light, Shoya is forced to take all the blame as the other kids lie to get themselves out of trouble. His mom, who is a single hairdresser, uses her meagre income to pay Shoko's mom back for the hearing aids and Shoya watches as she grovels and is subsequently slapped by Shoko's mother. The knowledge that he has been a burden on his mom, who already has it rough, is hard on Shoya. He hides the fact that he is being bullied from her when the bullying energy of the school turns from focusing on Shoko to focusing on him. His shoes are stolen, but he lies and says he lost them jumping in the river. Shoko tries to help him at first, but he lashes out at her instead of letting her help and after their confrontation she leaves the school. Shoya then endures bullying for the remainder of his gradeschool life and finds himself isolated and alone. The friends he once surrounded himself with have all abandoned him and this feeling of isolation is indicated by showing all others around him with x's over their faces. He can't look people in the eye. He is in his third year of high school when the montage of the anime ends, and he is planning his suicide. We see evidence as the date he has planned to do it is marked on the calendar and each day leading up to it is filled with preparations. On the day of, he realizes suddenly that he has never apologized to Shoko since she moved away. He has one bit of unfinished business.
When he goes to find her, we learn that he has studied sign language. He brings her the notebook he stole from her as a child. Shoya's feelings of isolation and guilt and his subsequent salvation are what make this story one of the best depictions of bullying not only in anime, but anywhere I've seen. Bullies aren't inhuman and I think the idea that they are just perpetuates the cycle. Bullies are often hurt or bullied and lash out at others because it's all they know or because looking down on others makes them feel better about themselves. Understanding that bullies are people too does not condone bullying and this story is not saying that bullying is harmless. It actually says quite the opposite. By humanizing the bullies, by letting us see that they are all just misguided people, it allows an understanding that could very well lead us to find real solutions to bullying.
Shoya finds his reason to live when Shoko forgives him and they begin an unlikely friendship. This is the beginning of what will eventually open Shoya's world up beyond just his family and help him to find real friends again. His first male friend is a young gentleman (Tomohiro Nagasuka) who he witnesses being harassed by a group of kids who are trying to steal his bike. Shoya intervenes, allowing the boys to take his bike instead. When Tomohiro brings Shoya's bike back to him, after finding it discarded in a ditch, the x falls from his face and Shoya makes his first friend since grade school. The characters are all very realistic, and realistically there are those whose motivations and actions are petty and less understandable than others. First I will talk about the various characters I liked and why I liked them.
Miyako Ishido is Shoya's mom. She is understandably upset when she learns of his suicide plan after he has already given up on it. She burns the money he gave her to repay what she spent to replace Shoko's hearing aids telling him in no uncertain terms that if he tries anything like that again she'll do the same thing. He'll never be able to expunge the debt if doing so means he is free to take his own life. This scene shows just how much Miyako cares about her son despite being unaware that he was being bullied in school. Given that she is a single mom with at least one other child to care for (Shoya's older sister, and later her daughter as well) and that Shoya actively hid the fact that he was bullied by playing it off like he was goofing around with his friends as always, Miyako can be forgiven for not seeing her son's pain before it got to the point where he was planning his own suicide. I like her because, despite her lack of awareness of what her child is going through (mostly because he's hiding it from her not wanting to cause her trouble) she does her very best for her children. She puts up her daughter and grandchild, possibly just while her son-in-law is out of the country on business, despite running her own hairdressing business in the same building where they all live. She takes responsibility for her son's misguided behavior without being harsh with him over it. She is just overall, the best mom she can be given that she has to do the whole thing by herself.
Yuzuru Nishimiya is Shoko's sister. We meet her for the first time when Shoya comes to talk to Shoko as a teenager. Yuzuru pretends to be Shoko's boyfriend since she's young enough her gender is ambiguous and she dresses in tomboyish clothing. She does this in the hopes that Shoya will leave Shoko alone assuming that he's there hoping for a romance between them. Yuzuru is very protective of her older sister and her photography hobby is mainly used to show Shoko what death is like because her sister has talked about suicide. Yuzuru is an interesting character because she starts off hating Shoya for what he did and trying to keep him away from Shoko, but eventually realizing that he is human and not the same as the young boy who hurt her sister horribly all those years ago. She's also interesting because she's both immature in ways and more mature than she should need to be in others. Their mother is not the best person at handling emotions and giving maternal affection, however her mother is. The Nishimiya girls' grandmother is shown to be very tender and understanding unlike her daughter who tries to handle situations more practically.
Tomohiro Nagasuka is a favorite character because he is tenacious and he defends his friend vehemently. He is also different enough that he doesn't really have many friends either. He lies and says he has friends to save face, but it is pretty obvious that he is lying from the outset by the way he acts.
Shoya's character growth throughout the series is palpable. I really enjoyed seeing the x's start to fall off people's faces as he got to know them and started opening up more. There is a major setback about halfway in, which causes some x's to reappear. I enjoyed how this small detail was able to give a major insight into this character's thinking and state of mind at any given time.
Although Shoko's self-loathing may be difficult for some westerners to understand (because our society emphasizes individuality over community), I got where she was coming from. The idea that you're really just a burden to everyone around you, and that they'd be better off if you weren't there is not new to me. Those of you who know how I was raised will understand why there is a great deal of guilt that I associate with taking charity or being helped in any way. I can't even imagine not being able to get out of that mindset of being a burden because I had a physical handicap which kept me at least somewhat dependent on others. It also doesn't help that the teacher basically calls her a burden and that all her classmates see her as one, hence the bullying in the first place.
Now to main characters I loved to hate (I will not include the teacher, although he was loathsome because he has a minor role) -- Naoko Ueno has always kind of crushed on Shoya since they were kids. True she did nothing to stop her classmates from turning on him or him from being bullied for the remainder of gradeschool, but then again she didn't want the same thing to happen to her. She is a very selfish character and she does so many horrible things out of jealousy. After the climactic event of the story which lands Shoya in the hospital, Naoko refuses to let Shoko in to see him even though she has no right to keep anyone out (she is not family). She also physically attacks Shoko because Shoya's injury could be construed as her fault. Not only that, Naoko had a hand in the dissolution of Shoya's friend group thanks, again, to her jealousy of the bond that she saw forming between Shoya and Shoko.
Second on this list is Miki Kawai and her character is so awful it makes my skin crawl. She pretends to be nice and friendly to get close to a guy she likes. Then she throws Shoya under the bus faster than you can blink as soon as she thinks her reputation might suffer. She is just a loathsome character and incredibly selfish and self-centered. She is also incredibly self-righteous, always acting as if she had nothing to do with the bullying even though she laughed right along with everyone else when it was happening.
Shoko's mom makes a close third. I know she means well, and is only doing what she sees as best for her children, but damn that woman is cold. It is not until near the end, after Shoya's accident, that we actually see a different side to her.
But what is so good about this story, and these characters, is that they all experience at least some character growth. Ueno and Kawai have the least character growth out of everyone and even they have some.
What is different between the anime and manga? Well, they made the anime a movie, so there was a lot they left out. Major things that got left out were: the movie (the friend group was making a movie to show at the cultural festival when they dissolved), the teacher's role in the students' behavior (I think they touched on it, but didn't really show the extent to which he turned a blind eye to the bullying and even somewhat encouraged it), much of the bullying and interactions from when they were kids (because this part was just a montage in the movie), the extent to which Ueno interfered and tried to keep Shoko from seeing Shoya while he was unconscious in his hospital bed, Shoko's getting the friend group back together to finish the movie (it does show her going to everyone, but in the manga they finished the movie and brought Shoya to the premier as a get well present). For the most part, this is a very good adaptation. I understand that they could not have included everything as that would have made the movie much too long. The movie was very good in both sub and dub versions making this one of the few anime that I am willing to watch dubbed.
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