A Silent Voice: You Can’t Say It Didn’t Shoot For the Moon

This movie was selected by our Patreon Supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard! 

Ani-May is almost over, but there’s still room for one more episode! Melanie and Melvin discuss A Silent Voice, the popular Kyoto Animation project from 2016 about an elementary school bully who seeks amends during High School. The catch? He incessantly bullied a deaf girl, and must overcome his shame before he can apologize.

Topics:

• (FREE PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 54-minutes reflecting upon Princess Mononoke, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica while also discussing the recurrent themes of Ani-May: ‘Self-Destruction by Evil Desire’, ‘Acceptance of Reality’, and ‘The Maturity of Growing’ complete with biblical verses and theological discussion! (FREE PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• Melanie was still processing A Silent Voice  and verbalizes that something felt off, but she doesn’t know what. The two explore what that may be.
• Melvin details what makes the original A Silent Voice One-Shot so great at exploring themes of bullying, shame, guilt, and the fear of reconciliation.
• Melvin then shares some thoughts on the Manga adaption, a seven-volume expansion on the original one-shot that goes in strange directions, never fully satisfying the promise of a complicated, mature teen romance.
• Melvin then catapults into discussing his thoughts on the movie, all wrapped in his thoughts on both the One-Shot and the Manga, and how it may be one of the worst things he’s ever seen.
• Even accounting for cultural differences, Melanie, as a school teacher, was really upset with how the bullying was handled by the school staff to a fault.
• Upon reflection of Ani-May, Melvin observes that Princess Mononoke, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica permit an open-ended exploration of their complicated, mature themes. A Silent Voice, however, hand-holds so aggressively it almost bruises the knuckles.
• Unlike the Manga and especially the One-Shot, the fact that Nishimiya has such little screentime is stupendously felt.

Recommendations:

• Your Name. (2016) (Anime)
• Nichijou: My Ordinary Life (2011) (Anime)

A Silent Voice is Not Rated. It features Miyu Irino, Saori Hayami, Aoi Yûki, Kenshô Ono, Yûki Kaneko, Yui Ishikawa, Megumi Han, and Toshiyuki Toyonaga. Directed by Naoko Yamada. A Silent Voice is available here.

Consider supporting Cinematic Doctrine on Patreon! As a bonus, you can gain access to a once-a-month movie poll where you decide a movie we discuss on the podcast, early unedited episodes of the podcast, and merch!!

Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

Cinematic Doctrine is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other major podcast apps.