A Silent Voice

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for A Silent Voice
• a review of A Silent Voice completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 13 April 2017.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

A silent voice is a subtitled animated Japanese film by Yamada Naoko focusing on the relationship between two school students, Shoya Ishida (Miyu Irino) and Shoko Nishimiya (Saori Hayami). When Shoko starts as a new student in an established class, delinquent Shoya begins to tease her as a result of her deafness. However, when he transfers to Junior High, his previous friends turn against him and Shoya finds himself isolated and lonely. He begins to become preoccupied with guilt over his past actions towards Shoko, and frequently thinks of how he could repent for his transgressions against her.

One day, he reunites with Shoko and the two become tentative friends. In an effort to help bring happiness to her life, Shoya sets out to reconnect Shoko with the other students from elementary school whom she never had a chance to know

The two gradually begin to develop strong feelings for one another, although Shoko still experiences feelings of hopelessness that eventually lead her to attempt suicide. When Shoya tries to stop her, he puts his own life in jeopardy and the two must both come to terms with their actions.

Relationships; disability; bullying; forgiveness; suicide

There is some violence within the film, including:

• There is both serious and playful fighting between school students at various points throughout the film. Male students straddle other males, grab and pull their clothes, throw baseballs at the back of someone’s head, and put another student into a headlock (in this scene, the student comments that he is in pain).
• When Shoko extends an offer of friendship to Shoya, he throws dirt at her face.
• When teasing Shoko, Shoya pulls out her hearing aids and blood drips down her ears.
• One of the teachers slams his fist against the chalkboard when angrily asking Shoya to stand up and face claims that he has been bullying Shoko.
• Shoya shoves Shoko and pushes her up against a desk.  Shoko then bites his hand, after which the two physically fight. Shoko ends up kicking him to throw him off her, and proceeds to straddle him in order to hit him.
• Shoya slaps himself after saying something that he believes was stupid.
• Shoya’s mother threatens to burn his belongings at the breakfast table because she thinks he intends to kill himself. She then accidentally sets his money on fire, and Shoya needs to remove his shirt to put the fire out.
• Shoya’s best friend picks up another student by their collar in an effort to threaten and intimidate them. The two end up pushing and shoving one another. 
• When Shoya walks Yuzuru home, her mother slaps him across the face.
• Shoko tries to kill herself by jumping off a ledge, but is saved by Shoya who falls and is injured

Material that may scare or disturb children

Children in this age group may be scared by the above-mentioned scenes. They are also likely to be unable to understand the film which is in Japanese with subtitles

Children in this age group are also likely to find the film hard to follow because of subtitling. They may also be upset by the above-mentioned scenes and the idea of suicide.

Children in this age group may also be disturbed by the idea of suicide and attempted suicide of a leading character. They may also find the death of the grandmother and scenes of her funeral disturbing.

Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by the suicide discussion and attempt in the film

Product placement

Nothing of concern

Sexual references

There are some sexual references, including:

• Students discuss their crushes, with one stating that they really like another student and think he’s ‘cute’.
• There are references to students dating and having boyfriends/girlfriends.
• Shoya’s friend lends him money when he goes on a trip – he tells Shoya the money is for meals, travel, and a ‘love hotel’ to spend the night with Shoko.
• Shoko is told by her female friend Sahara that her ‘chest has gotten bigger’. Sahara then says, ‘I wonder what size they are?’

Nudity and sexual activity

There is partial nudity in the film, including:

• When Shoko and Shoya jump into a lake together, Shoya is almost able to stare up Shoko’s skirt. He averts his eyes after staring briefly.

Use of substances

Nothing of concern

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in the film, including:

• insults such as ‘jerk’, ‘turd-head’, ‘stupid, and ‘moron’
• ‘holy crap’; ‘damn it’; ‘pissed off’; ‘crap’

In a nutshell

A silent voice (also known as The shape of voice) is a moving animated film about teenagers that tackles a range of individual and interpersonal issues. The film explores the nature of friendship and examines the idea that friendship is not something that is founded upon logic and reason, but rather, connection and vulnerability. It deals with important themes such as bullying, suicide and atonement and is therefore not recommended for children under 14. Parents may wish to discuss the issues raised with older teens.

The film is in Japanese with subtitles, so is likely to be hard to follow for younger children.