Shoko Nishimiya (Saori Hayami in the Japanese-language version; Lexi Cowdon doing the English dub) is a new student at her school. She's also deaf, and uses a notebook to communicate with her classmates because none of them know sign language. Among them is hot-headed Shoya Ishida (Miyu Irino and Mayu Matsuoko in the Japanese-language version; Robbie Damond dubbing him), a boy who bullies poor Shoko so relentlessly she again has to change schools. This deservedly makes Shoya himself an outcast at school. Then, several years later in high school, his behaviour towards Shoko torments him so much he plans to commit suicide, but not before trying to right that wrong. Shoya now tries to track Shoko down in order to reconcile with her before ending his life.
This anime adaptation of Yoshitoko Oima's manga is brilliant, but almost downbeat enough to make Grave of the Fireflies, a tragic war drama, resemble a slapstick comedy. Yet nonetheless, it's a very valuable and rewarding watch. Director Naoko Yamada and screenwriter Reiko Yoshida both wisely approach this awfully serious thematic territory with a very delicate, restrained touch (yet without sanitising anything), Yamada unites the visuals (realised with deliberately varying animation styles for the dream sequences and so on) with assurance and she paces it all appropriately. The English voice cast (I saw the dubbed version) all give authentic and mature turns (as I'm sure their Japanese counterparts do), and Kensuke Ushio provides a strong and most unusual score: it's very pounding, but only to fully reflect what's going through Shoya' troubled mind. It's arguably just slightly overlong at 130 minutes, but despite that, A Silent Voice is a very effective meditation on guilt, isolation, identity and redemption. 9/10.
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