Shoko Nishimiya

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Cosplayer as Shoko Nishimiya, Taipei , 2017th

Shōko Nishimiya ( Japanese 西宮 硝 子 Nishimiya Shōko ) is the main female character in the manga series A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Ōima from 2013 and 2014, as well as its implementation as a movie in 2016 by Naoko Yamada and Kyōto Animation .

For information on the other characters that appear, see Figures from A Silent Voice .

Fictional biography

Shōko Nishimiya was born on June 7th as the eldest daughter of Naeko Nishimiya and an unnamed father. 1 This left the family under pressure from his parents after Shōko was diagnosed with deafness at the age of three as a result of an infection during pregnancy. At this point, Shōko's mother was pregnant for the second time.

Shōko changed elementary school in the course of the sixth grade and came into the same class as Shōya Ishida, who shortly thereafter found pleasure in bullying her and inciting the rest of the class. Initially limited to nodding, Shōya soon starts willfully destroying several of her hearing aids , so that Shōko stays away from class due to the increasing and harder bullying attacks over time. Shōko changes after a physical confrontation with Shōya, who after a disciplinary measure by the teacher and school principal reveals his school friends as accomplices and thus himself became an outsider and a target of bullying, again the school.

At the age of 17, five years after what happened in elementary school, she meets her tormentor again when he was on the way to a sign language course . He befriends her and meets regularly at a bridge to feed carp with bread. While Shōko's younger sister Yuzuru doubts his intentions, her mother is still angry with Shōya and forbids their future meeting, they continue to date. Over time, several former classmates from the time at elementary school as well as new acquaintances from high school join them . After a lengthy argument with Naoko Ueno and a violent dispute between Shōyas and other friends, she blames herself for his social isolation . In the evening, a large fireworks she attempts suicide to commit, but by chance in Apartment saved located Shoya at the last minute, and this falls into the depth, is seriously injured and the coma falls.

When he wakes up from his coma and hobbles from the hospital to the bridge , they meet again. They apologize to each other and decide together to attend the cultural festival at Shōya's school.

Differences between film and original

Much of the information in the manga was either shortened in the film or left out completely for reasons of time. For example, viewers of the film hardly learn anything about Shōko's past. Neither her father nor the reason for his leaving the family are mentioned there.

The plot in the film also differs from that of the original. Shōko and her newly found friends are part of a film project by Tomohiro Nagatsuka, a classmate of Shōya's high school and his self-declared best friend. It is also not shown in the film that Shōko reveals her feelings to her adversary in a letter and that this is presented by Naoko after Shōko's failed suicide attempt before she hits Shōko.

In the manga it is also shown that Shōko knows who pulled Shōya out of the water after his fall from the balcony, but has to keep it from him. While the film ends with a visit to the school culture festival, the manga goes a little further. There Shoko studied after their school days at the high school in Tokyo and returns on Volljährigkeitstag - one in Japan statutory holiday - back home where it meets again on their school friends.

character

Shōko is reserved and has low self-esteem , but tries hard to make friends. Her mother Yaeko wanted to have her cut a boyish haircut to cover up her insecurity . She is deaf and has difficulty communicating verbally with other people. A variety of facial expressions is often used in media presentations to express emotions as compensation for a lack of linguistic communication. In her case, you can hardly read emotions from facial expressions. Shōko constantly smiles to hide her uncertainty as to whether or not she understood what was said. Only in a few situations does she show emotions such as sadness or anger in her facial expressions , which have a particularly strong effect, since otherwise she is always assessed as gentle and quiet. Her character is described in the film as provocatively "rigorously passive".

Shōko always appears friendly and always smiles. In many situations she apologizes to her tormentors in order to avoid any trouble , which gives Shōya and his friends additional motivation to continue teasing her . Shōko's smile, which she shows when she tries to get in touch with her classmates, often looks put on. Even years after the incidents at the elementary school, she has difficulties communicating with other people without feeling herself as a burden, which goes so far that she blames herself for Shōya's loneliness and tries to kill herself.

She is aware that she is a burden to her fellow men and inwardly suffers from this certainty. However, she is unable to show this suffering to her environment.

analysis

Another cosplay, 2017.

Shōko embodies a rather stereotypical image of a deaf figure. According to James Valentine in his work “Disabled Discourse: hearing accounts of deafness constructed through Japanese television and film” from 2001, deaf figures are assigned specific personality traits in the media, depending on their gender : Deaf women are thus seen as weak, in need of protection, without the help of their hearing fellow human beings cannot cope alone but at the same time is portrayed as meek and selfless. In relation to this, this subjective image of a deaf person can also be seen in Shōko; Her reliance on other people to clear her up about ambiguities and to be patient with her when she needs more time for various actions than her classmates. Shōko's gentle side is shown, for example, in the scene in which she wipes off insulting sayings from the table of her classmate Shōya.

The aim with characters designed in this way is, according to Valentine, to develop compassion and protective instincts in the reader. Although these points also apply to Shōko and is also perceived as a "weak" person, the reactions of the other characters in A Silent Voice are different: Shōya sees her as a mysterious alien ; Her old classmate Naoko accuses her of just pretending to be in need of protection in order to get Shōya's attention and her mother Yaeko is very strict with her so that she can develop strength and learn to defend herself while her younger sister Yuzuru develops a strong responsibility, her sister to protect. Their fragile character can be interpreted from the spelling of their name, since the characters for Shōko ( 硝 子 ) correspond to the characters for glass (reading: garasu ).

She is described as a mirror for Naoka Uenos - another character from A Silent Voice - complicity and active cruelty at the time, which she is unable to escape in Shōko's presence.

reception

Although one could criticize the fact that Shōko's figure strongly corresponds to the media stereotype of a deaf person and therefore appears uncreative and flat as a character, the appeal of the manga is not due to the attractiveness of the character, but to the actual plot, dealing with deaf people and the problem of harassment towards this population group realistically. The popularity of the Deaf Association in Japan increases the credibility of the depiction of deafness in the manga series , despite the stereotypical figure representation .

In contrast to many other series and films, in which an impairment is used to make the hero of the story stronger and thus mostly stands against the adversary, while this is not the case in A Silent Voice , since the impairment is not proclaimed as a problem . The Deaf Shōko remains an ordinary girl throughout the film. Shōko is described on the one hand as a lovable and as a prominent character in the film. On the other hand, it has a provocative effect through its "rigorously passive" character. Shōko's Japanese voice actress Saori Hayami received much praise for her work. The German voice actor Jill Schulz also received positive feedback from the sign interpreter Sabine Conradi, as she had brought the character of Shōko across very realistically. In English , Shōko is dubbed by the deaf voice actress Lexi Cowden .

The Anime UK Reader's Choice Awards Shoko Nishimiya won in the category Best new character (female) and the Anime trending Awards in the category girls of the year .

By modding it is possible in Minecraft to play as Shoko.

Web links

Remarks

1Cinema goers in Japan received an additional manga entitled Eiga 'Koe no Katachi' Special Book when purchasing a ticket for A Silent Voice , which illuminates Shōko's family background and also contains additional scenes that did not make it into the film.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shouko Nishimiya (Koe no Katachi). MyAnimeList , accessed January 19, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d See Chapter 32
  3. ↑ a b c d Andrew Osmond: A Silent Voice: Anime vs. Manga. All the Anime, 2018, accessed January 19, 2019 .
  4. ^ Robbie Collins: A Silent Voice review: an intricate, beautiful account of teenage politics. The Daily Telegraph , March 18, 2017, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  5. ↑ See Chapter 44
  6. ↑ See Chapter 51
  7. ↑ See Chapter 62
  8. ↑ See separate chapter
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h Maya Matsubara: A Silent Voice: Nishimiya Shôko - "Alien" or tragic heroine? Dr. Elisabeth Scherer (Institute for Modern Japan at the University of Düsseldorf ), February 6, 2017, accessed on January 20, 2019 .
  10. ↑ a b Felix Bartels : reparation. Neues Deutschland , March 14, 2018, accessed on January 20, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b A Silent Voice Review. Accessible Japan, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  12. ↑ a b c d Sven Raabe: How A Silent Voice helps to better understand bullying and its consequences. Moviepilot.de , November 18, 2018, accessed on January 20, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Julian Rizzo-Smith: Review: A Silent Voice is an unconventional tale of loss, regret and conflict. SBS.com.au , April 17, 2017, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Anne Betz: The future does not lie in the past . In: AnimaniA . No. 169 , February 2, 2018, p. 22 .
  15. ↑ Lisa Dietrich: You need more films like this. Leipzig listens, March 17, 2018, accessed on July 5, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Karen Ressler: A Silent Voice Anime's English Dub Cast Revealed. Anime News Network, September 27, 2017, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Teapot, Demelza: Announcing the Anime UK News Readers' Choice Awards Winners! Anime UK News , January 24, 2018, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Results - Character Awards. Trending Anime, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Shouko Nishimiya / Minecraft Skins. Planet Minecraft, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Chrystalyn Hodgkins: Yoshitoki Ōima Draws New A Silent Voice Manga Episode for Anime Filmgoers. Anime News Network , September 2, 2016, accessed January 20, 2019 .