The Powerful Themes Explored in “A Silent Voice”: Film Analysis (2024)

A Silent Voice is an animated Japanese film released in 2017. It was written by Reiko Yoshida, and directed by Naoko Yamada. While the premise of the movie revolves around teenage Ishida, who attempts to make amends with a deaf girl he bullied in the 6th grade; the true story revolves around his relationships with the people around him. Ishida’s journey is a tale of bullying, mental health, friendship, and redemption.

We open with a teaser of Shoya Ishida, our protagonist…sort of. We witness a sequence of teenage Ishida getting his affairs in order before he attempts to commit suicide; ripping out the rest of his calendar, signaling it is time to quit his part-time job, withdrawing his entire bank account, and leaving it for his mother. The central part of this sequence is Ishida walking to a bridge as we witness him executing the aforementioned actions. He leans over the railing, and the next thing we know he is standing on it ready to fall off until a nearby firework stops him. Again, he crosses another day off his calendar, which is labeled, “Final Day.”

The movie truly begins as we shift to a montage of a preadolescent Ishida bonding with his friends; playing video games, fooling around in class, gaining the attention of girls, behaving like...kids. They’re simply trying to have as much fun as they can. This montage ends with Ishida taking a slow stroll through the hall among students who gaze at him. I don’t plan to summarize every section of the entire film, but this scene is significant in the way it sets up Ishida’s downfall.

Ishida is in class when the teacher announces they have a new student named Shoko Nishimiya: a friendly deaf girl. Nishimiya introduces herself through her notebook which she hopes to use to get to know everyone else as well, though her being deaf addles the majority of the class. Nishimiya’s entrance leads the way to our first major theme:

The first person to bully Nishimiya is, of course, Ishida. After Nishimiya attempts to read a passage in front of the class, Ishida follows by making fun of her voice, generating more than a few laughs among his classmates.

Next, we witness bullying in a different form, exclusion. The apparent ring-leader of the girl group is another student named Ueno, who tries to make it seem like she is nice to Nishimiya when in reality she too is a bully. Ueno talks about Nishimiya behind her back with the other girls and excludes her from being around her and her friends.

There’s no shortage of adversity for young Nishimiya. She has dirt thrown in her face, she is made fun of for her fashion sense, and the one person who agrees to learn sign language, Sahara, transfers to another school — which she again is bullied for by Ishida who writes on the board, “Congrats, Nishimiya, you made Sahara disappear.” While writing on the board, Ishida’s friends tell him, “You shouldn’t do that”, “That’s too much”, and “You’re such a jerk,” all while wearing a smile on their faces. But even though they know it’s wrong, they do not stop Ishida. This is also significant because we witness bystanders, but we’ll get to that.

If it wasn’t bad enough for Nishimiya to be bullied the way she had thus far, things get worse when Ueno and Ishida discover she has hearing aids. We witness yet another montage of Ishida, this time he is bullying Nishimiya in various fashions like taking her hearing aids, screaming at her in class, etc. This montage concludes with Ishida ripping Nishimiya’s hearing aids from her ears, causing her to bleed and gaining the concerns of those who watch her get bullied. After being talked to in the faculty office, Ishida is met by Nishimiya as he walks home. Nishimiya apologizes to him, believing she has done something to wrong him and make him bully her.

Finally, school faculty steps in and seeks to find who has been bullying her. Ishida’s friends turn on him, claiming they told him what he was doing was wrong, when in fact they watched everything happen — bystanders. Ishida seeks to defend himself, stating his friend Shimada bullied with him, as if that excuses his actions. He also calls out Ueno and Kawai: the goodie-goodie girl and friend/follower of Ueno, of bad-mouthing Nishimiya. Kawai breaks down crying in class, leading Ishida’s classmates to dislike him.

Ishida’s accusations raise important questions about bullying. Is doing nothing just as bad as doing anything? Does bullying someone less than somebody else does make you less of a bully?

After Ishida’s mother pays Nishimiya’s mother for the broken hearing aids, we see another montage. But this time, Ishida is the one who is bullied by others including the people he used to call his friends.

One day, Ishida sees Nishimiya cleaning his desk, wiping away the mean things other people have written. Ishida gets upset and tries provoking her into any sort of confrontation. Things get physical, emotional, and Ishida falls to the ground. While sitting atop Ishida, fighting him, Nishimiya drops the heart-wrenching line: “I’m doing the best I can!” Because while enduring as much adversity as she has, that’s what Nishimiya does: the best she can.

The events that take place in A Silent Voice depict a true, vivid image of how much our mental well-being can affect us. Whether it’s Ishida battling anxiety and depression, or Nishimiya struggling with the scars of bullying, their mental health plays an important part through the duration of this story.

Depression

The morning after Ishida’s first encounter with Nishimiya in years, we get a closer look at his life as a teenager. During breakfast, Ishida’s mother praises him for his progress over the years. Then all of the sudden his mother, oddly calm, asks Ishida why he tried to kill himself. To which Ishida responds, in a similar calm manner, “I’ve just been through a lot of stuff. But, what should I say…” Ishida’s past and current demons have led him to consider and nearly commit suicide.

His mother lights him up. She threatens to burn the money he left her in the teaser unless he promises not to commit suicide; money which we now know is to pay off the hearing aids. Her emotional plea works and Ishida agrees.

Following this incident, on his way to school Ishida explains his current situation. He has ended up alone due to his decision to bear his sins and be punished for them. As he roams the halls we are introduced to another aspect of mental health…

Anxiety

While Ishida roams the halls he is looking down, apparently shameful. Until he lifts his head and we observe his point of view: every face he sees is occupied by a purple cross.

These crosses are brilliant in the way we see through Ishida’s eyes, and how they symbolize his perspective of other people as “not my friend” or “does not like me” or “will only hurt me”. Every face he sees at school has a cross over it. Throughout the film, friends he makes along the way lose their crosses, signaling he is comfortable with them as a friend. Another lead in to a major theme:

There are several instances where Ishida seeks the true meaning of friendship, leaving us with some insightful knowledge.

A great example of Ishida’s simultaneous battle with anxiety and friendship is Nagatsuka: Ishida’s overprotective friend and the first person to lose their purple cross. Ironically, the two meet as Ishida is the one to step in and stop Nagatsuka from being bullied and losing his bike, though Ishida loses his bike in the process. Later on, Nagatsuka retrieves it for him, and his purple cross falls from his face — indicating he is someone Ishida is comfortable with.

While at times their friendship seems to cultivate at an excessive rate, Ishida is able to have an open conversation about friendship with Nagatsuka. At lunch, Ishida asks, “What does it mean to be ‘friends’?” To which his bushy-haired friend replies:

“Friendship lies somewhere beyond things like words and logic.”

This is an exceptional lesson for Ishida because it will apply to his actions throughout the film as he tries to make things right. It doesn’t seem logical for someone who was bullied, especially as severely as Nishimiya was, to one day become friends with their bully, and yet that is the beauty of friendship.

Later in the film, Ishida has applied the lessons he’s learned, and he is able to see for himself what true friendship can be. A large group consisting of Ishida, Nishimiya, Yuzuru (Nishimiya’s younger sister), and some of their friends from school all go to the amusem*nt park together. Throughout the day, Ishida enjoys himself — so much so to where he has to question, “Is it okay for me to have this much fun?” He realizes that he is truly friends with some of the people in their group, people who used to dislike him: because friendship really does lie somewhere beyond words and logic.

One of the setups to Ishida’s inner-journey starts when he is in the 6th grade. After being excluded from Ueno and her friends, Nishimiya is criticized by Ishida; but her perpetual kindness and optimism lead her to ask Ishida to be friends, though he answers by throwing dirt in her face. Fast-forward to teenage Ishida, where one of his last missions on his final day is to visit Nishimiya and return her notebook she lost in the 6th grade. He then asks if the two can be friends, and Ishida has a moment of realization that that’s what Nishimiya wanted all along: to be friends. This particular moment dawns that inner-journey — a journey centralized by:

One of the things I admired most about this story, was that Ishida did not seek to run from or excuse his past actions — but be punished for them instead. At first glance, it seems like a redemption story. But Ishida does not seek redemption, only repentance.

The distinct difference between Ishida in the 6th grade and as teenager is he is regretful of his past and what he has done to Nishimiya. No longer do we witness a mean, hurtful young boy who enjoys inflicting pain upon others; we see a remorseful man who understands the severity of his actions. As he tries to make things right he is constantly tested by the thought of sincerity. Meaning he is asked time and time again whether his choice to be Nishimiya’s friend is due to selfish reasons; but, Ishida reassures that his intentions are solely to help Nishimiya after making her life miserable.

The aforementioned themes are all a product of Ishida’s desire to repent. Along the way, he learns valuable life lessons that will forever change him.

Though this article contains a great deal of information about this film, I haven’t scratched the surface. There is much more to unfold as you watch for yourself, which I highly encourage.

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