While not as influential a character as Ueno, she certainly has her part to play in Koe no Katachi, as you’ll see once you read it. Giving off the façade of a well-to-do honour student, Kawai breezes through life by doing whatever best benefits her and her vision of the world. ![]() Kawai may be kawaii in appearance, but personality-wise she is anything but. She speaks her mind, and in some ways is a true driving force for the plot later on. Moreover, her own motivations trump any sort of misgivings she has for her own behaviour, and while she may do a lot of things wrong, she also does some things right. She understands her flaws and she wants to change who she is, but she doesn’t know how to and isn’t sure how to move forward. While she is definitely a dislikable character, she is a well-crafted one. She joins right in with bullying Shouko, and indeed doesn’t seem to grow up, as she carries her hatred with her all the way into high school. Ueno, at first, seems like a fairly pleasant girl, until we learn how bratty and spoilt she is. Some of the most important characters we come across are Ueno Naoka, Kawai Miki, and Sahara Miyoko, all of whom were Shouya’s classmates when he was a child. They are likable and dislikable just like regular old individuals. None of the characters fall into regular tropes such as tsundere or yandere – although it could be argued that Ueno has traits of both – and they all feel like very real people. We have the same amount of information about the other characters in the manga (of which there are numerous), but these characters speak with their voices, which is why we find them to be more readily understandable (and Shouya as well, by extension). What about the more intricate thought patterns, you ask? Well, that’s all up to our own interpretation, and Shouya’s, too, which is where we begin making mistakes, and where the majority of the problems our hero faces stems from. It isn’t too difficult to guess what her emotions are based on the way her eyes blaze or which way her mouth curves – up or down. And, for the most part, she is very expressive. That is all we can use to infer how she feels and what she thinks. The only thing he can see is her expressions and what she says through her hands. I think it is more because we see Shouko through Shouya’s eyes, and Shouya himself doesn’t know very much about her. Now, some people may complain that it is because Shouko is poorly developed as a character. We don’t learn much about Shouko due to his influence. However, since Shouya is the narrator of our story, he is also an unreliable one. His desire to better himself and help his mother (as well as Shouko, when he encounters her again later on) is commendable, and his ability to face the facts and stand his ground despite the shame and hatred he feels toward himself is nothing short of amazing. ![]() ![]() We watch him as he ruins his life, and we watch him try to build it back up again. This primarily unlikable child, Shouya, is the main character of this story, and this story is about his redemption as he transforms from a bully into a good human being. His behaviour toward Shouko and his sudden realization that what he has been doing is wrong is portrayed so masterfully as to be simply exceptional. The first part of Koe no Katachi is written so realistically that we can only feel hatred for Shouya as he goes through the motions of his existence. Still interested in this manga? Hopefully, you are. No, she’s an alien from the planet Nishimiya, and she doesn’t understand human speech. He yells in her ear, pours dirt on her, and tosses out her hearing aids, not thinking for a moment that she is just another human being. When he meets Nishimiya Shouko, a deaf girl who transfers into his elementary school, he does not treat her like a person – he treats her like a tool to alleviate his boredom. Shouya is a problem child, and this is made very clear from the very beginning of Koe no Katachi. ![]() He eggs his two best friends on into getting into the same sort of trouble that he does. What does he do? He jumps off of bridges. boring, living is boring, so he has to do something to cut through that cloud of drivel. You see, dear reader, Shouya is afraid of boredom. We’re first introduced to Shouya as a child, performing a “test of courage” with his friends. If you were a bully, would you try to change who you were? If you were a victim of bullying, would you forgive your assailant? Koe no Katachi (literally translated “The Shape of Voice” in English) by Ooima Yoshitoki details the story of Ishida Shouya, and his growth from a savage terror in elementary school, concerned only with satisfying his own need for stimulation, to a young man with concern and empathy for those around him.
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