Back to tinshard's Profile tinshard's Profile

Warning: this is not a detailed breakdown that takes everything into account and try to be as objective as possible, it's a personal opinion. I share it with you to to explain my score and for people who might feel similarly.

Greetings everyone.

I could write a lenghty synopsis but I'll jump to the point, the thing you are probably here for. Why didn't I like this wonderful show?

First of all, I don't want to offend anyone. If you liked this show, good for you. However, it didn't work for me and I'll explain why. One thing I realised after reading countless of anime reviews is that ... objectivity doesn't exists. Our past experiences will always influence our decisions (to a certain extent). And that's the case with Silent Voice too. I was thinking about why people love Silent Voice so much. I have two ideas: they had a similar first hand experience and they can relate to the characters and the story. Or, they didn't have experiences that could hinder their enjoyment on the show. As for the second theory, I had such experiences.

My problem is when a medium tries to increase sensitivity towards a topic. In my opinion, it's emotional manipulation. And I... let's just say, strongly dislike this. The Media floods me with it. And it really bothers me. I'm not a child who has to be told "Bullying is bad. Don't do it." I already know this! You don't have to remind me![*] If there are so many people unaware of this problem, well, humanity is doomed and I'm disappointed yet again. In short, this feels like a personal attack for me, even if it's not.

"So what if it's a little manipulating? It's still a beautiful story!" you might say. The thing is, Silent Voice has a core concept and relies on it entirely. It makes Nishimiya maximally likeable without flaws to make it easy to relate to her. So much it gets unreal. And sure, it's fiction, and I don't reject it solely because of this, but still. If you like the concept, you like the show. If you don't, you are like me. Is this a bad strategy to make a film? Well... no. There are other shows that do the same and many of them are amazing. And in the case of this film it's also not a mistake, the large fanbase proves this. But it'll be a hit-or-miss if they build solely on the viewer's sympathy.

To show a counter example, 86 was also manipulative, it almost shouted at you who to like and who to dislike, but it had action and a cinematic feel rarely found in anime series, giving other reasons to like it. Of course I don't think Silent Voice should contain action, that would be absurd.

To sum up, your enjoyment will depent on whether you can relate to the characters. Silent Voice is not missing anything, it doesn't need anything extra. It just contains something that bothers me.

Thank you for reading.

---
[*]This is the part where most people will disagree, so I want to make something clear. I know this is not the focus, I know the focus is Ishida's personal growth. But I can't concentrate on this. It's too distracting for me.

Edit: I considered this long ago, I wanted to do this edit the next day I wrote this review. I raise the score for Ishida. He was able to thrive after all.