Figures from A Silent Voice

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A Silent Voice lettering
Koe no Katachi logo.svg
Koe no Katachi ( 聲 の 形 ) - Japan, 2013
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Manga lettering - International, 2014

This article reproduces important characters from A Silent Voice , a seven-part and completed manga series and its adaptation as a movie .

Due to the fact that the manga series was implemented as a cinema film, it is possible that character information in the film is missing or possibly changed. This list is therefore based on the manga by the illustrator Yoshitoki Ōima .

Both the manga and the movie were written from the perspective of Shōya Ishida, with Ishida also acting as the narrator in the manga , while the film dispenses with a narrator. In the manga, the friends meet again to tackle a film project; this aspect is completely absent in the adaptation.

main characters

Shōya Ishida

石田 将 也 Ishida Shōya

Shōya Ishida is the main male character of A Silent Voice and acts as the narrator in the manga . When the deaf Shōko Nishimiya joins his class as a new classmate, he quickly takes pleasure in teasing her. When the bullying becomes rampant , several hearing aids are destroyed and Nishimiya changes schools after a physical altercation with Ishida, the teachers identify him as the culprit. After identifying several classmates and friends as accomplices, they turn against him and start harassing Ishida. Over time, Ishida begins to ignore those around him - shown with a capital X on their faces - and gets on the verge of mental stability , causing him to commit suicide. His attitude changes when he apologizes to his previous victim and begins to hang out with her. He learns sign language in order to apologize to Nishimiya for his behavior towards her during the time together at the elementary school . The manga shows that he has a talent for sign language. Ishida is of the opinion that he has not been punished enough for his behavior at the time and wishes he could kill his younger self. He seems to have come to terms with the idea that he will never be able to make friends again. Furthermore, Ishida considers himself an unreliable narrator as he evokes many of his memories of the other classmates who also bullied Nishimiya in order to feel better. In fact, his classmates also bullied Nishimiya; however, in order not to oppose their responsibility for it, they have made Ishida the scapegoat for their actions . Ishida helps Nishimiya in the course of the manga to re-establish contacts with his former classmates, with whom Shōko never had the opportunity to make friends. In the process, Ishida makes amends and concludes that he is able to make friends after all. At the end of the manga series, Ishida and Nishimiya, who studied after graduating from Tokyo high school, meet again at Seijin no Hi .

In the film, the X does not stand for Ishida's ignorance of the people around him, but for the inability to look them in the faces.

Shoko Nishimiya

西宮 硝 子 Nishimiya Shōko

Shōko Nishimiya is the main female character in A Silent Voice . She has been deaf since she was 3 years old. In the manga, the reason for her impairment is revealed: Her father infected Nishimiya's mother with a virus during her pregnancy , which led to Nishimiya's deafness. The father's family put this under pressure to file for divorce after they learned of the impairment of Shōko. In elementary school, Nishimiya was bullied because of her deafness - above all by Shōya - which forced her to change schools. Years later he is looking for her to apologize for his behavior at the time. Although she holds a grudge against him, she accepts the apology and begins hanging out with Ishida. She is shown as a person who mostly does not feel anger towards her attackers, but smiles at them. Others, above all Naoka Ueno, think that Nishimiya is making a fool of them and confronts them. Shōko Nishimiya has a form of self- loathing due to her impairment and develops fatigue . When she finds out that Ishida has lost all friends because of her, she tries to kill herself, but at the last moment is saved by Ishida at the risk of his life. After this event, Nishimiya realizes how selfish she has been and decides to do better for Ishida. She is in love with Ishida and tries to reveal herself to him, but he does not understand her due to her speech defect and remains unconscious of her feelings. At the end of the manga series, she returns to her homeland after completing her studies in Tokyo and meets Ishida again on Seijin no Hi, a national holiday in Japan in honor of reaching adulthood.

In the film, Nishimiya is portrayed a little differently. There she has no grudge against Ishida, but appears fearful the first time they meet after the events in elementary school . She is also shown as an insecure person who apologizes for every little mistake.

Minor characters

Yuzuru Nishimiya

  • 西宮 結 絃 Nishimiya Yuzuru

Yuzuru is Shōko's younger sister and attends middle school. She had her hair cut short so that her mother would not cut off her older sister's hair. She has kept her hairstyle ever since. As a result, Yuzuru is often mistaken for a boy; Ishida also initially considers Yuzuru to be Shōko's friend. Yuzuru has a strong protective instinct and hates anyone who has ever bullied her sister; so is Ishida. However, when she realizes that Ishida has changed, she gives in and helps Ishida go out with her sister. However, she is frustrated with her reluctance to take their relationship a step further. Yuzuru often skips classes and takes photos of dead animals, much to her mother's annoyance. It is known that she took the pictures with the sole aim of showing her sister how terrible death is in the hope that she will not harm herself. This is portrayed as a futile effort with her sister's suicide attempt.

The film shows that Yuzuru uses her boyish appearance specifically to keep other people away from her sister. Ishida reveals to Yuzuru that he blames himself for the fate he has suffered and is by no means just looking to ease his conscience, whereupon she forgives him. She is responsible for Ishida's suspension from class because she posted a photo on the internet of him jumping off a bridge into the river, which appears to be forbidden. She later received tutoring from Ishida. In addition, it is said in the film that Yuzuru showed a talent for photography and therefore her pictures were entered without her knowledge in the prefecture competition that she would later win.

Tomohiro Nagatsuka

  • 永 束 友 宏 Nagatsuka Tomohiro

Tomohiro is a short, stout classmate of Ishida's high school. Like Ishida, he is a loner . After another classmate tries to steal Tomohiro's bike , Ishida offers his own bike. Nagatsuka sees this kind act as an unbreakable act of friendship and immediately becomes Ishida's self-proclaimed best friend, the start of idolizing him. He is shown to be somewhat possessive and doesn't like Ishida to make other friendships. Nagatsuka is still very helpful and often gives Ishida advice. Tomohiro has plans to become a millionaire and he often lends money to his friends. Convinced that he would later become a director , he entered a film competition with Ishida . It is revealed that both Ueno and Kawai find Tomohiro repulsive, while Ishida is uncomfortable that Nagatsuka goes to great lengths for him, even though he knows little about Ishida. Even if the film ultimately turns out to be a disaster, it encourages Tomohiro to study film studies at college .

Tomohiro is also portrayed as affectionate in the film. However, Kawai does not find him repulsive, but rather funny. It is not shown that he has an interest in films and later wants to work in the film industry.

Naoka Ueno

  • 植 野 直 花 Ueno Naoka

A former classmate of Shōya Ishida and Shōko Nishimiya during elementary school. She was closest to Ishida. Ishide recalls that she bossed him around and that she was his main accomplice in bullying Nishimiya. After Ishida and Ueno went their separate ways after moving to middle school , they happened to meet again. Ueno visits a girls' school with Miyoko Sahara and in the meantime works in a cat café , the "Miau-Miau Club". It is revealed that Naoko is in love with Ishida and for this reason has started harassing Nishimiya in order to impress him. When she finds out that Nishimiya is removing insults from Ishida's table at school , she concludes that Shōko may also have developed feelings for him. She also thinks that Nishimiya is using her impairment to get Ishida's attention, thereby harboring resentment and jealousy towards Nishimiya. In contrast to Ishida, Ueno does not learn from her past and continues to bully Nishimiya after their reunion through Miki Kawai and Miyoko Sahara. Although she and Ishida go to different schools after elementary school, Ueno overhears Ishida being bullied in elementary school for his behavior towards Nishimiya. She feels bad because she was unable to do anything about it. She blames Nishimiya for everything that happened and for her sadness. She thinks Shōko is a weak personality, as she never defends herself when harassed by others. Although she is among Ishida's friends in the group, the latter mistrusts her - represented by the X on her face - she shows her jealousy towards Nishimiya and confesses that she can never consider Nishimiya as a friend. She agrees to compromise Ishida over a compromise, although she still has feelings for him. Even after Ishida's release from hospital , he distrusts Ueno.

The film implies that Ueno may have feelings for Ishida when she reveals that she wanted to spend more time in elementary school. In the amusement park she tries to bring Ishida and Kazuki back together. After Ishida is hospitalized after falling from a balcony, she does not leave his side. It is also shown that Ishida only mistrusts Ueno for a short time, but in the end becomes friends with her.

Miyoko Sahara

  • 佐 原 み よ こ Sahara Miyoko

Miyoko is a former classmate of Shōya Ishida and Shōko Nishimiya. She is friendly and the only one who was willing to learn sign language in order to befriend Nishimiya, which led to Sahara becoming the target of various bullying attacks and therefore taking her lessons in the school's sickroom. Several years after the incidents in primary school, Ishida visits Sahara so that she can make friends with Shoko again. She is bullied by Ueno for her unorthodox fashion sense. Nevertheless, both are close and Sahara continues to refer to her as a best friend. Over time, Miyoko has grown and due to the fact that she wears high heeled shoes , she looks a lot taller. After Ishida, she spends most of her time with the Nishimiya family, although the relationship is strained by Ishida, who loosens all ties and insults his friends. Ishida describes Sahara as a coward who immediately runs away when a problem arises. Sahara contacts Ishida and asks how she can prove that she has grown. Sahara is fed up with Naoko blaming Shōko for everything that has happened and defends Nishimiya for Ueno's attacks while Ishida is in hospital. After graduating from high school, Sahara goes to Tokyo to work as a model and takes Ueno with her.

The film does not show that Sahara is being harassed by Ueno. After secondary school, she goes to a girls' school with Ueno and is friends with her.

Miki Kawai

  • 川 井 み き Kawai Miki

Miki Kawai is a former classmate of Ishida and Nishimiya. She was on the student council in elementary school . She is popular, bears responsibility for many situations and appears friendly at first glance. However, their actions seem to be influenced by their academic standing. Kawai has a narcissistic side, believes that everyone should love her and wants to be viewed as a victim of any problem. In elementary school, Ishida paid little attention to Kawai and thinks that Kawai was also involved in the bullying. Although she was largely uninvolved in the bullying, she did nothing about it and occasionally laughed at Nishimiya with her friends, which also bears some responsibility for Nishimiya's change of school. Kawai's accusation that Ishida was a bully acts as a catalyst to his social isolation . Kawai and Ishida become classmates again in high school. She participates in Tomohiro's film shoot and brings with her Satoshi Mashiba, whom she has feelings for. It is revealed that she has always been afraid of Ishida and accuses him of not facing the truth when he falls out again with his friends. When she later encourages the class to fold paper cranes for Ishida, who was hospitalized after rescuing Nishimiya, her classmates are disgusted and begin to secretly harass Kawai. Through the experience of being bullied himself, Kawai decides to become more empathetic towards other people. At the end of the manga, she hands Ishida the paper cranes made by his classmates, and follows Mashiba to university to take up a teaching degree .

In the adaptation, Kawai is portrayed as less narcissistic. However, in the cinematic implementation she can be seen as a follower . After the bullying became known, Ishida identified her as an accomplice, whereupon she found herself wrongly accused. After Ishida later learns from Satoshi that Kawai has let him in on past events, the latter confronts Kawai. She then announces to the entire class that Ishida bullied Nishimiya in elementary school. Her narcissistic side depicted in the manga is only hinted at in the film when Ishida reprimands his friends. He told Kawai "that she has always loved" to "hear herself talk."

Kazuki Shimada

  • 島 田 一 旗 Shimada Kazuki

Kazuki was best friend during their time together at Ishida's elementary school and a major accomplice in the bullying of Nishimiya. When Nishimiya changes schools, he puts all the blame on Ishida and soon becomes the leader of the bullying actions against Ishida: he steals his shoes, beats him up and writes insults and threats on his desk every morning. Naoka Ueno wants them to make up and become friends again. Because of this, she takes Ishida to an amusement park where Shimada works. When Ishida sees him, he runs away. He doesn't care about Shimida and doesn't want to be friends anymore. It is known that he fell into Ishida after rescuing Nishimiya from the river. Ishida doesn't know about it, especially since Shimada asks Nishimiya not to tell him about it. Ultimately, it is Naoka who reveals to Ishida that Shimada pulled him out of the river and saved his life. However, it remains unclear whether the two have reconciled, as the manga ends before the two of them possibly meet again.

Keisuke Hirose

  • 広 瀬 啓 祐 Hirose Keisuke

Like Shimada, Hirose was one of Ishida's best friends while in elementary school. After Nishimiya had to change schools due to Ishida's constant bullying attacks, he joined Shimada and participated in acts of revenge against Ishida. After graduating, he will keep close ties with Shimida and probably Naoka as well.

Takeuchi

  • 竹 内

Takeuchi was Ishida's class teacher in elementary school. He is a superficial man who considers Nishimiya's presence in the class to be unfair. While expressing his disappointment with Ishida over his bullying actions, he laughs at the jokes made about Nishimiya. After switching schools, it is Takeuchi who leads the class to use Ishida as the scapegoat for bullying. He is reluctant to believe that Ishida herself is bullied after saying so. Years later, the two meet again when Ishida is looking for suitable film locations. Takeuchi says that Ishida has grown into a good young man and that all the bad experiences in the past have contributed positively to it. Satoshi Mashiba hates the way Takeuchi talks about Shōko and pours his drink in his face. As a result, Takeuchi initially forbids filming at his school. With Ishida's admission to the hospital and Mashiba's apology, he still lets the friends shoot the film at school.

In the anime film, Takeuchi is not portrayed as unfair, but as a teacher disinterested in the situation. Only in the scene when he asks Shōko to read a passage from a book is his displeasure shown halfway. When the bullying became known, the Ishida directly suspected him of being the main culprit and asked his classmates whether they had heard anything along these lines. However, it is not shown that he behaved condescendingly towards Nishimiya.

Day care center

  • 喜 多

Ishidas and Nishimiya's primary school music teacher . She is the only teacher who has tried to get along with Nishimiya. She tries to get the class to learn sign language, but was refused because she does not speak any signs herself. Kita later integrated Nishimiya in the school choir and despite hard practice the school lost the choir competition.

The film shows that she tries to animate the class to learn to sign. In contrast to the template, this was rejected by the students because they consider the sign languages ​​to be too complicated and instead see the notebook with which the students are in contact with Nishimiya more advantageous.

Satoshi Mashiba

  • 真 柴 智 Mashiba Satoshi

Satoshi Mashiba is a young man who takes an interest in Ishida's friends after finding out they want to make a movie. He is willing to star. He's handsome and has enough talent to take on this role. As a child, Mashiba was lonely , which the other children who bullied him took for granted. Because of his experience with bullying, he has developed an intolerance for bullying. Basically he is a calm and level-headed person, but he reacts extremely violently when he hears bullying. He is in the dark about Kawai's feelings until Ishida makes this public. It later becomes clear that he befriends Ishida because of his social awkwardness. Ishida asks Mashiba to beat him up for his past deed. He then hits him lightly. Ishida is the first person he can forgive for bullying. He later studied teaching .

Many facets of Mashiba are not mentioned or shown in the film. Nor is it Ishida who tells Mashiba about his past as a bully, but Miki. He is shown to be a calm and level-headed person.

Yaeko Nishimiya

  • 西宮 八 重 子 Nishimiya Yaeko

A rather cold person. She is the mother of Shōko and Yuzuru. Her husband left her under pressure from his family after it became known that Shōko was deaf. At that point, she was pregnant with Yuzuru . Together with her mother Ito, she raised her children. For example, Ito takes care of the children when she is at work. To Yuzuru she has a distant relationship, as evidenced by Yuzurus truancy is amplified and the images of dead animals. She left her eldest daughter at the elementary school where she was bullied for so long in hopes that this would strengthen her. She planned to cut Shōko's hair to make it look boyish and tough, but Yuzuru cut her hair short in protest. She hates Ishida for bullying her daughter. When she sees him again years later, she slaps him in the face . After her mother's death, she begins to be more open-hearted towards Ishida and thanks him for his friendship with Yuzuru.

Nothing about the family background is revealed in the film. In the adaptation, too, she initially has a hypothermic attitude towards Ishida. Only when he helps her daughters with the baking does the relationship gradually change. She is grateful that Ishida saved her daughter's life and apologizes first to his family and then personally to him after his discharge from the hospital.

Ito Nishimiya

  • 西宮 い と Nishimiya Ito

Is the grandmother of Shōko and Yuzuru. After her father left the family, it is she who raised the children with Yaeko. She is caring and wise. She buys Yuzuru her first camera and tries to convince her that her mother doesn't mean it. She dies at an old age.

Miyako Ishida

  • 石田 美 也 子 Ishida Miyako

Miyako is the single mother of Shōya and his older sister. She runs a hair salon . She is loving and kind mother. When she learns of her son's bullying attacks against Shōko Nishimiya and pays the 1.7 million yen for the destroyed hearing aids , her son is disappointed. She stated that she knew about his plan to kill himself and threatens to burn the repayment if he ever tries to kill himself again. In doing so, she accidentally burns the money Shōya earned. She takes great care of her granddaughter and son and often lets Yuzuru play near her house. After Ishida falls into a coma after his rescue operation , she feels awkward despite trying to be friendly around her. After Shōya's awakening, the two are reconciled and develop a personal closeness to each other.

In the film it is shown that Yaeko apologizes to Shōya's mother when he is in a coma and not only when he is released.

Maria Ishida

  • 石田 マ リ ア Ishida Maria

Maria is Ishida's niece . She is Japanese- Brazilian because her father is Brazilian . She is amazed at the difference between dead and living beings. After the crash of her uncle Shōya, she is afraid that he might have died. Yuzuru feels it is her responsibility to bring her closer to the difference between death and life.

Shōya's sister

  • 将 也 の 姉 Shōya no Ane

Ishida's much older sister. She graduated from college when Ishida was in elementary school. She is the only character in the manga series whose face is never seen. According to Ishida, his sister had many relationships with men, one relationship ended because of Ishida's bullying. She later goes out with Pedro, a Brazilian. This is the father of Maria. At the end of the manga it is implied that she is expecting Pedro's second child.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rating: A Silent Voice '(' Koe no katachi '): Film Review | Annecy 2017
  2. ↑ Jake Wilson: A Silent Voice review: Manga adaptation lacks emotional force. The Sydney Morning Herald , April 5, 2017, accessed June 15, 2018 .