Koe no Katachi

Koe no Katachi (聲の形) is a shonen drama by Oima Yoshitoka.  The manga was published between 2013 and 2014 in Weekly Shonen Magazine and has been collected into 7 tankoubon.

    Ishida Shoya is a kid who doesn't like being bored.  His continuous fight against boredom causes his single mother more stress than he can understand.  He convinces his two best friends to join the fight with him and when a troublesome transfer student shows up he sees a golden opportunity.  Nishimiya Shouko has transferred to Shoya's school to get away from bullying problems she had in her old school.  She didn't expect the level of abuse she would suffer at Shoya's hands, though, for nothing more than his own entertainment.  Nishimiya is deaf and Shoya at first doesn't believe it.  What begins as amusement quickly turns into abuse as the rest of the class supports his attacks.  Even their home room teacher mildly supports the harassment of what he considers a nuisance.  The fun changes after numerous expensive hearing aids are broken.  Nishimiya's mother demands restitution and an end to the harassment.  The class outs Shoya as the perpetrator and when he tries to spread the blame around the class turns on him.  The abuse becomes so much that Shoya directs all of his frustration and rage on Nishimiya.  He sees her as the root of all of his problems.  The way she fake's her smiles and ignores all of the hatred directed at her.  Shoya's attacks on Nishimiya escalate at the same rate the class attacks him.  Nishimiya tries to show him compassion, further frustrating and angering him.  When the final straw breaks the camel’s back Nishimiya and Shoya get into a physical altercation, Shoya is suspended and Nishimiya transfers out of school.  Alone and dejected Shoya closes himself off, rejecting everyone around him, trying to inoculate himself from their hatred.

    As senior in high school Shoya has only one thing on his mind, to atone for his sins and end his life.  He learns sign language and saves up all of his money to repay his mom for the hearing aids he destroyed years ago.  He learns that Nishimiya attends a sign language school in the afternoons.  He marks down his calendar for the confrontation day, quits his jobs and sells his belongings.  He confronts her to tell her he is sorry for everything he did to her and that he regrets how horrible of a person he has been.  He's hoping to reconcile his guilt within him before he ends it all.  He gets flustered when he tries to tell her the pain he has had to deal with, his selfish ideas, and asks her to be his friend so they can get to know each other more.  Taken in by the moment, she surprises him by agreeing to be his friend, destroying any idea he had of killing himself.  The person he has been fixated on for years throws his life into disorder again.  He has to evaluate his intentions for killing himself and confronting Nishimiya.  He has to deal with the horrible things he did to her and to others.  Has he really changed, can he change?  Is he a better person than he was when he was younger?  Can he really understand this girl who he has been obsessed with for much of his life?

    This was an amazingly well done manga that deals heavily with bullying, social pressure and self evaluation.  The main character and majority of the view point come from Shoya.  We see the world through his eyes.  Throughout the course of the story a small band of characters are introduced, mostly people who were in the same class as Shoya and Nishimiya in elementary school.  Partial backgrounds and motives for these characters are developed, but not to the extent of the two main characters.  Even Nishimiya is barely focused on with much of the internal dialogue coming from Shoya.  There was one issue taken from her point of view, aurally, which was well done.  It would have been nice though to have more in depth analysis of her personal space.  Most of what you gather from her thoughts and processes are taken through her interactions with others and the notebook(s) she uses to communicate with.  What would be welcomed is another run at this story from her point of view and reference.

    This manga is completely set in the realm of reality.  At one point Nishimiya's mother, who has her own demons that have affected her personality, gets in an all out brawl with one of the girls tormenting her daughter.  Suicide is an ever present theme in the manga as well.  The characters look at it as a way to no longer be a burden on those around them and to make up for their indiscretions.  One side thing I thought was interesting and speaks volumes about the current state of Japan was Shoya's older sister.  She barely makes a presence in the manga; you don't even get to see what her face looks like until the very end.  She is instrumental in fostering Shoya's boredom fighting drive, she herself pursuing the same goal.  While he jumps off of bridges she sleeps with as many guys as she can.  Her presence in the manga is through her young daughter though, whom Shoya and her mother care after in her absence.  The little girl, named Maria, is half Brazilian.  This speaks of the growing community of South American immigrants in Japan, somewhat earning bad reputations among the native Japanese as criminals and lowlifes.  Between both of her children and their recklessness you would think Shoya's mother is a worthless parent.  The opposite; she is quite strong and has done well by herself, to raise two kids the best she can, run the house and her own business.  She's just a bit overwhelmed with her situation and perhaps not the brightest person around, but she does the best she can.  Mrs. Nishimiya on the other hand is struggling with her responsibilities and has taken on the traditional father role in the family.  She works hard to provide for her daughters and is in complete control of their lives, feeling this is the best thing for their futures. 

    It's nice to see a well done series that deals with some very important issues in Japan.  It's a breath of fresh air to see a character with a legitimate handicap instead of some moe eye patch wearing empty archetype.  There is an improving but still poor reality for people with disabilities in Japan.  It speaks volumes that the artist worked with the Japanese Federation of the Deaf as he produced the manga.  There is no fanservice and no shonen romance convention in this story.  No wishy-washy dialogue about whether or not so and so likes so and so.  No arcs where misinterpretations are construed and pointless arguments flare up.  I don't recall Shoya once uttering that he has anything like love for Nishimiya.  You can tell through his actions, though, that he grows to care about her, but he even struggles with that care being for selfish reasons.  The manga seems to have been just about the right length, really being split into roughly 2 story arcs.  Many people will be upset with the ending but if you pay attention I think you can figure out what’s going to happen to everyone.  This story focuses on the importance of communicating with more than just your words and how doing so will help you understand yourself and those around you.  Well worth the read.

    This series is currently available on Crunchyroll Manga.  The first tankoubon, under the name A Silent Voice, will be available in North America in May of 2015 by Kodansha.  There is a movie in production but no word on when it will be released and what it will cover.  I am assuming it will be live action and be a condensed rehash of the series.