Back to Tobywobydog's Profile Tobywobydog's Profile

As an LGBTQ person I enjoy reading yuri, yaoi and other LGBT manga from time to time. Yuri is my job is no different and after the first few chapters I had high hopes.
The manga did not disappoint for the first bunch of chapters with the twists and turns and all kinds of different relationship dynamics. However, problems begin to arise once one of the characters back stories is revealed and it reveals the past of the Cafe and the drama that went down before the FMC started working there. I do not understand why we need to have this toxic lesbian side character ... who seems to be a horrible person who destroys other people's lives. It does not give lesbians positive representation and strikes me in a wrong way.
After introducing this character, I came to the realization that ofc she was going to come back and about 40 chapters in she does come back and starts messing everything up. In fact its not just her. A lot of the characters strike me as very problematic considering the FMC supposedly does not fall in love and is not in love with the other major female character even after they went through a lot of character growth together and based on the way the FMC acts it definitely makes you think she is in love with her coworker. Another issue is the FMC's best friend. She is like obsessed with the MC but she refuses to admit it because she "wants to be seen as different and wants to be "special" to the MC". This is so idiotic to me and causes a lot of problems that could be easily fixed and leads to her relying only on one person when it comes to talking about the MC and her feelings towards her. This all boils over into a downright horrible twist where the "best friend" begins relying on the person who ruined the cafe in the first place that led to my decision to drop this manga. Especially considering the fact the woman the friend originally begins relying on for support of her crush is totally against romance and hates it. But of course, she ends up falling in love with the friend but tries to deny it because she dislikes romance. AND THEN if that wasn't bad enough the MC's friend "confesses" to the romance hater and she comes to terms with the fact that she's fallen in love, just for the confession to be fake. It was all a ploy by the toxic lesbian character because of course it is.
I sincerely do not care if everything gets resolved after this point. The twist was that bad.

STOP WRITING YURI MANGA WITH HORRIBLE REP AND HORRIBLE PEOPLE

My suggestion to anyone interested in reading this manga would be to read up to chapter 50 when the twist is revealed because the manga is pretty good up until that point.

This manga will forever hold a place within my heart and be a manga that really stirred something within me. Anyone who has experienced bullying, depression, anxiety, or other similar mental disorders will be able to relate to Shouko and Shouya as characters. People who have disabilities can feel Shouko's struggle almost as their own and can relate to how Shouko felt when she attempted to commit suicide due to feeling like a burden on others. Each and every one of us can connect to Shouya on some level. Even if you haven't ever bullied anyone as he has, we have all hurt people around ... us and have wanted to try and make up for our mistakes. Everyone has and will make mistakes in life and the author of A Silent Voice realizes that and utilizes the desire to make up for these past mistakes in the manga.

One of the best parts of this manga are the incredibly complex characters and relationships. Anyone who has a sibling can understand Yuzuru's desire to protect her sister from Shouya causing her to be extremely warry of him at the start, in order to protect her from being hurt by the same person who ruined her childhood. But as the manga progresses, so does the relationship between Yuzuru and Shouya. One moment that sticks out to me as changing this relationship is when Yuzuru's and Shouko's grandma dies and Shouya walks her back to the funeral and listens to Yuzuru as she puts herself on full display for the first time. Through this interaction Yuzuru learns to forgive people for their past mistakes and learns that people can change just as Shouya had. Another relationship the author portrays really well is friendship. From the moment that Nagatsuka finds and brings back Shouya's bike you can tell that he is a real friend. While Shouya had friends when he was younger (Shimada and Hirose), he never had a true friend, as they and everyone else within the class immediately blamed Shouya for all the bullying even though they were a part of it too. But the relationship between Nagatsuka and Shouya is so much more than the surface level friends Shouya had when he was younger, and the author does an amazing job of demonstrating it, as even when Shouya regresses into his old habits on the bridge and says rude things to Nagatsuka, he still has his back after that and instead is worried about what caused his friend to revert back like that. Then of course you can't forget Ueno and Kawai. The way that the author utilizes Kawai as a sort of static character surrounded by dynamic characters further demonstrates the other characters growth. The way that Kawai refuses to take responsibility or admit to playing apart in Shouko's bullying almost makes her the worst unforgivable character (yes even more then Ueno). Although Ueno is not a good person, she is a really good character in the way that she admits to having been involved in Shouka's bullying but refusal to believe that what they did was wrong. Ueno tells Shouko that she did not try to understand the rest of the class, when it was in fact Ueno who refused to try and understand Shouko.

There is so much more about this story that captivates me, but I will leave it here. Feel free to message me to talk more about this in greater detail

This manga is one of the best things that I have read within the last few years. My only gripe with it, is the fact that it only lasts 20 chapters and therefore doesn't leave a lot of room for character growth and that sort of thing. Otherwise, the characters and the plot of the story itself is incredibly unique and refreshing and the mc is one of the best as of late. The mc has a solid reason behind the actions that she does within the story and its very refreshing to see a female mc that is able to get by in a ... dangerous environment without the help of male characters. Overall, a 10/10 manga that could've been even better with more chapters.

This manga had such an amazing premise and beginning...however it feels as though the author is trying to drag out the story by introducing new enemies and by having his "grandpa" and his brother die. That part feels heavily unnecessary. Like the mc deals with the first 4 guys extremely quickly and with good pacing and then all of a sudden, the pacing changes after they are killed and it's just the main guy left. I also extremely dislike the decision in the latest few chapters to have the mc lose his memories and enter into a time skip. This just feels as though the ... main antagonist is going to be way more difficult to kill now and thereby dragging out the story for longer which will make a 9/10 become something closer to a 6/10. Overall, I think the manga could have easily been finished in 100 chapters and going beyond that makes no sense.