I watched the anime movie Koe no Katachi, also known as A Silent Voice or The Shape of Voice. Here are my thoughts:
This is a ~2 hour movie made by Kyoto Animation. My understanding is that it is known for being drama-heavy and emotionally impactful.
The first ~30 minutes were pretty strong. This timespan was well-directed, and the story showed promise. I felt empathy for the characters during this 'grade school arc'. It's common knowledge that the male lead is the bully character and the female lead is the deaf character who is bullied. I'm telling you this for context - I'll talk more about characters further below.
When I do watch movies, I usually prefer longer runtimes. In the case of Koe no Katachi, I'm happy to say that the pacing overall seemed fine. However, one of my major complaints about this movie's direction is that it doesn't handle emotional climaxes well. Hugely important events happen abruptly and without a commensurate level of emotion or seriousness (LOL tone-deaf).
Visually, the animation is quite fluid, as expected. Art style is fairly unremarkable though. Character designs are basically typical KyoAni, but of course with high-quality character animation. I actually think that the unremarkable art style is a smart decision because too much visual flair could distract from the emotional experience. As for the OST, I wasn't consciously aware of it for most of the movie, so I guess it wasn't that intrusive. I recall there being a lot of piano. The soft piano during some scenes did enhance some emotional moments. Voice acting (insert cruel joke here) was unimpressive, and I didn't really like the male MC's voice work. He has this one-note faint soft way of speaking that I grew tired of hearing (very minor complaint).
By far my biggest issue with Koe no Katachi is with the story and writing itself. The lead female character has inadequate development. This is despite all her screentime and her crucial importance in the story. I wish there wasn't so much focus on the feelings of the male MC (at the expense of everyone else, especially the female lead). The movie is utterly dominated by the thoughts, feelings, and development of the male lead. To the point where the female lead is literally just a prop for the presumed viewer's messiah-complex fantasy. It turns out that the character who I empathized with during those first solid 30 minutes is actually nothing more than a prop for what I found to be shockingly one-sided storytelling. At least a typical LN shameless self-indulgent fantasy story doesn't pretend to be anything more sophisticated than what it is. I see the story of Koe no Katachi as being equally crude. Drama doesn't work well when you only focus on the feelings of a single character.
I also didn't like the ending much at all. Particularly among the supporting cast, a lot of the characters' actions didn't make sense. The female lead basically doesn't have a character arc, so there was nothing to conclude there. Of course the ending revolves around the male MC, but it's unclear how any of his own personal issues have actually been resolved. The entire ending felt nonsensical to me.
My overall rating: 4/10 It has some emotional moments but to me it ultimately feels like a good premise was crudely squandered.
Jaxon Martin
Your Name is better.
Justin Carter
-maybe spoiler below- During the beginning of this movie, it felt like there were some good ingredients for a decent drama story. Eventually though, a somewhat typical romance arc develops. This should have been foreshadowed more. I kind of expected it eventually just because this is a blockbuster anime movie with a teenage fanbase, but it was introduced very abruptly. It could have been executed much better. I would have welcomed the romance if it was built up slowly, but in this case I barely felt any tension before the reveal. This also relates back to the weak characterization for the lead female character. The helpless disabled girl with zero characterization. Pretty much the only time the movie ever focuses on her feelings is when she expresses her romantic affection for the male MC. How virtuous. It's never even explained why she becomes attracted to the MC, she just conveniently is, because she's just an object inside of a universe that revolves exclusively around the male MC.
Other minor comments: This is a matter of personal taste, but I never ever want to hear anglosphere music in anime - ESPECIALLY classic rock. The movie added a song from The Who, a song I have a vast catalog of bad memories to associate with. Don't ever pull that kind of nonsense again, KyoAni. Thankfully this was only done at the start of the movie, so my viewing experience wasn't disrupted too much.
Leo Clark
Cryporn made for emotiaonlly underdeveloped adults who mistakenly consider themselves to be grown ups. If you've above the age of 20 and find this schlock to emotionally resonate with your as an individual (and you aren't deaf yourself), you should really gather some additional life experience.
Jacob Lewis
I completely agree. I had similar feelings while watching.
Hunter Gray
The structuring was all over the place, even if you didn't read the manga you just know they're cutting so much stuff and rushing other stuff in this movie.
It's still a really good movie though.
Matthew Perry
Now watch the S;G movie lmao
Josiah Flores
your name was better
Alexander Robinson
Yamada is easily the biggest hack currently working in the industry
Christian Walker
Wrong
Adam Sullivan
>imagine watching the kyoanus abortion when you could've just read the manga ngmi.
The movie is decent but cuts out too much stuff. It had two scenes it really wanted to get right: the childhood flashback and the suicide scene. Everything else is the movie trying to quickly bridge the gap between them and damned the emotional arcs of Sho^2 as an expense.
The story relies on random chance, for people to be in a location at the exact right or wrong instance, for people to meet others they haven't seen in years at the exact time they need to meet them, for people to have events happen to them at the exact time they need them in order to progress the story. Instead on relying on people's personalities and wants driving them it's 'fate' or something unexplained.
Conclusion: It's poorly written manipulative tripe.
Dylan Evans
They haven't watched, read, or experienced enough to realize they're wrong.
Hunter Wilson
Yamada > Takemoto > Ishihara > Ishidate
Hudson Bailey
Phantom World Air Nichijou
If Ishidate can salvage trash source material like Kyoukai no Kanata then Ishihara should've been able to do the same.
I'm not reading that shit nigga great animation, writing was meh, music was nice
Brandon Bell
They're both garbage
David Hill
...
Easton Roberts
I feel like this would have worked better as a 1-cour anime series. I never read the manga, but I can tell that trying to cramp all that stuff into a movie was a mistake. You just can't feel any connection to the characters.
It is a pretty movie though, KyoAni is always pretty.
