[Review] Koe No Katachi 聲の形

 Koe No Katachi 聲の形, a Silent Voice (translated in Italy as "the Shape of the Voice"), an adolescent cross-section that explores the psychological relationships of a couple of boys within society and school. Love, inequalities due to the main protagonist's handicap, jealousies, misunderstandings and that innate "malice" of children which will have dramatic peaks.

The film released in Japanese theaters in September 2016, under the direction of director Naoko Yamada, deals with typical problems of adolescence with situations made more complicated by the presence of one of the main characters suffering from deafness.

Shouya Ishida, a very lively elementary school boy, enjoys his youth with his friends and classmates, nothing seems to disturb that balance, until Shouko Nishimiya, a deaf girl, moves to school.
Shouya enjoys teasing Shouko who becomes a victim of bullying due to her handicap. However, the boy will find himself labeled a bully and will live the rest of his school life in isolation. Over the years, nothing seems to change for the protagonist, but fate decides to let him meet Shouko again, everything changes, becomes more complicated and settles down.

Diversity in Japanese society is always seen in a detached way, almost excluding, even if the support for the handicapped is among the best in the world.
The professor doesn't even know how he should interact with the girl and leaves her "prey" of the class. Children who, not knowing the problem of deafness, failing to interact with her respond in her instinctive way, isolating her, bullying her and hurting her (even physically).

There are many feelings that make this anime stand out, they mix, collide until they get injured, isolate themselves, even leading the protagonists to self-destructive choices.
The characters are psychologically immature and fragile complexes who, however, try to understand, try to self-absolve and seek redemption for the past (like Shouya) but the road is difficult, painful and sometimes brings them back to the starting point.

I was positively impressed by this film, very interesting for the plot and how it unfolds throughout the film. The psychological journey of the two protagonists especially when they meet again, the pains and sorrows I have to face, both the girl who is the victim of bullying and the bully who in turn lives on his own skin what it means to be excluded, targeted, isolated.

The graphics are very nice, I like the strokes of the drawings, and the photography, the environments are very well cared for. What can I say, a film that makes you think, which gives a small insight into what happens to kids when they are not put in a position to understand and deal with those who are different from them.