I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this movie, but what I'm feeling can't be described as good. The story follows Shouya Ishida as he transforms from bully to bullied to something else. Perhaps I've been lucky not to have been bullied in my early years, but what the movie shows the MC doing to the character of Shouko Nishimiya in elementary school sometimes goes way beyond bullying and into assault. Can someone truly become so suddenly crazy at that age? Furthermore, the school teachers are (or choose to be) criminally oblivious to all of this until the situation reaches breaking point, and to compound the matter further they decide to single out Shouya as the sole bully, thus now leading to him being ostracized and bullied in turn, driving him to the point of suicide years later. I think that turned out grand, didn't it? We also learn Ishida has learned sign language to apologize to Nishimiya, but he also wants to befriend her because. Out of guilt, you say? Probably, but he becomes almost obsessed with this. I kept hoping he would realize why and I thought that was exactly what the movie was leading up to, but that revelation never did take place (or it was poorly translated, that happens). He did finally apologize though. To further emphasize Shouya's isolation throughout the movie, almost every character's face at his high school is crossed with a large X, given that he has become so insecure to the point he won't look people in the eye anymore. When people move into his friend circle, they lose the X, and regain it when they move out. It's quite depressing to be honest and probably overused.

Outside of Ishida, Nishimiya, and Nishimiya's sister, Yuzuru, practically every other character is only there to take up space. Ishida's former friends-turned-bullies are quickly forgotten (save for the one random scene that went nowhere), and the story arcs about Nishimiya's other bullies are frankly irrelevant. What I find hilarious, and not in a good way, is that Ishida's former friends are more worried about apologizing to Nishimiya (save for Ueno, who seems to hate her still), who they bullied for perhaps less than a year, instead of apologizing to Ishida, who they also bullied and/or ostracized for years. This comes to a head during the "bridge scene" where Shouya gets so fed up with all the finger-pointing that he tells his "friends" some harsh truths, to what Mashiba replies something along the lines of, "That was cold" and "I thought we were friends." Who's Mashiba you say? Some throwaway character so I can hardly take what he says seriously. It's true however, that Shouya should look himself in the mirror when speaking some of these truths. Now that would've been a better line!

Damn, the more I keep dwelling on this, the more I think Ueno's the only more or less sane character, and she's supposed to be the antagonist! Honestly, I don't think I like any of the characters in this. Yes, Shouya seems like the only one putting in the effort to make amends but his self-deprecation is utterly depressing to watch and none of his "friends" are there to help him out, except at the very end when we have to round up the movie into some kind of happy ending.

Curiously, A Silent Voice seems to be a fitting title, but I'm thinking it applies more to everyone else than Nishimiya herself. Much of what transpires is because of things left unsaid by and between most characters, but especially Shouya (but that's a given since he's the MC and the one being ostracized*), and some of these still remain unsaid at the end of the movie, like Shouya apologizing to Nishimiya's mother (and viceversa), or Shimada and Shouya having some kind of heartfelt conversation. Ueno is apparently left following in Shouya's redemption arc but in a much less depressing fashion. Yeah, this movie should've been titled Things Left Unsaid. I wonder if any of these were tackled in the manga. I suppose the manga is superior to the movie, based on what I've read. Would anyone care to recommend it or should I just leave it at the movie?

*I feel obliged to point out the strong possibility that part of his isolation is self-imposed and based on how he perceives others see him. In essence, he's punishing himself because he believes he deserves it and not one character tells him, "No, this is not only not healthy, but also not how you make amends."