Koe no Katachi

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What Koe no Katachi has really done is amazing. Evoking such a range of emotions in such a short amount of pages. It's bold and brave and so very real. Its tackles this issue of bullying head on without faltering, the pure truth. The ignorance of the adults, children blaming one another and all of it is so heartbreakingly real. The ending is a good one, though that may not always be the case in real life, but opens the eyes to readers the full impact and effects of bullying. A beautiful story that wouldn't take you even 10 minutes to read but beautiful ... to the core.

It's rather rare for me to catalyze a motion of progress whenever I'm in a state of idleness. But having the thought of flipping a few pages of a sentimentally driven one-shot manga last night not being a bit of a drag, I astonishingly caught myself bawling inside.

Koe no Katachi is undoubtedly a work radiating with prominence. Being a one-shot written and drawn by Ooima Yoshitoki, a promising young mangaka, I marched my eyes forth to the manga without any excitement nor high expectations, only a neutral reading experience. And gratefully for that, my dwindling emotions suddenly underwent rapid maturation and eventually softened the walls ... of my heart. This manga certainly doesn't possess anything that could thrust us to the edge of our seats the way sword fighting, intellectual skirmishes and bizarre brawls often do. However, this 64-page one-shot's density is solely held together by particles of varying emotions and souls; something that we seldom find in our reading media.

The beauty of this short read is engrossed at its plot at the very least, whereas the characters and art are also commendable but not as riveting as the former. Furthermore, the simplicity exhibited in the execution of events really enthralls me. The story is not actually that strong either, but if anything, it's Ooima's kitschy perspective in life and passion in writing which makes this piece of work worthy of all the praises it's receiving. Reading through the pages where Nishiyama Shouko is being ostracized and aggressively bullied for her hearing impairment utterly weighed everything down in my chest. Furthermore aside from bullying, Koe no Katachi tackles the dreadful corners of humanity where hypocrisy reigns. But ultimately, this manga refurbishes the hope overshadowed by the ugliness of human nature, which is quite well substantiated in Ishida Shouya's change of heart as he elaborately realizes his mistakes and reconciles with Nishiyama years after. Despite the bleakness exhibited, this manga is still strongly moving and at the same time cute.

I am indeed easily propelled (sentimentally) by mangas having similarities to this in terms of themes, although I prefer novels better as my reading medium. Also, I just can't neglect the notion inside me that Koe no Katachi is really really close to Onanie Master Kurosawa with the all the bullying cases, but less on the psychological department. In essence, Koe no Katachi is a promising one-shot capable of grasping every fiber of your emotions for a short duration. If you're the same as me who takes a peculiar kind of pleasure in bawling endlessly beneath a pillow, you'll surely love this as much as I did.


Note: I read this last night while listening to MAXIMUM THE HORMONE, and still, my tears ceaselessly fled from my lachrymal ducts. Koe no Katachi is THAT great.

I'm not going to lie and say i truly enjoyed this story, but i will say that the idea of the story truly is amazing. Now i may be contradicting myself with what i just said, but the reason i didn't entirely enjoy the story was that it was just so sad and so real, however, when i finished i found myself saying "what a story" because it was just that good. That's as much as i can say because it is a one-shot after all and there isn't to much i can say without ruining the story.