Metrics
Genre:
Coming-of-age, Romance, Drama, Anime
Rating:
8.9/10
Audience:
Teens, for sure. Young people definitely need to watch this. Preferably alone.
Rewatch Time:
It’s 2h, and quite emotional. Once in a couple years.
Winner:
Shouko Nishimiya (Saori Hayami)
Review
The number of times I yelled at the screen… this movie is OUTRAGEOUS. There’s tugging at the heartstrings, and then there’s ripping them out. Violently. Take a guess which one this movie chooses. There’s so much tragedy in each character’s mind that you don’t know who to hate and when (lesson: kids suck). The director, Naoko Yamada, does a great job with motifs and visual storytelling for Ishida’s (Miyu Iruno) character. His relationship with the other characters in school, mainly the deaf Nishimiya, is the main plot of this movie. But it is TRAGIC. Not in the Julius Caesar way, but in a really psychologically probing way. The animation is great, the voice acting is wonderful (especially for the Winner) and the plot is something that no one should miss out on. The entire ensemble of characters, Yuzuru (Ao Yuki), Ueno (Yuki Kaneko), Nagatsuka (Kensho Ono), Kawai (Megumi Han), and Sahara (Yui Ishikawa) all represent distinct types of people with real flaws, making the movie hit home to that many more people. The parents, especially Nishimiya’s mom (Akiko Hiramatsu) and Ishida’s mom (Satsuki Yurino) have such devastating reactions to the events in the movie as well. Definitely important to watch, if you’re prepared to understand many complex characters. And if you’re like me, you’ll definitely appreciate the messages about the unseen struggles that deaf people endure - I’m going to try and learn ASL as soon as possible.
Spoiler Territory
The first 20 minutes of the movie? I was absolutely ready to VAPORIZE THOSE KIDS. I’m not a fan of kids as it is, but when Nishimiya’s ears started bleeding, I was going to throw hands. It took me almost the whole movie to forgive Ishida. But kids are going to be horrible, right? So it made sense. And that’s why I was that much angrier at Ueno when she started messing with Nishimiya when they were older. And Kawai’s random outbursts? Loathing. The number of suicide attempts in this movie, too… it’s definitely an important thing to recognize the reactions of the family and friends. So yeah, not the most rewatchable movie, not the most consistently comfortable, but it’s powerful and has a great message.