About A Silent Voice
A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi, literally 'The Shape of Voice') began as a manga by Yoshitoki Oima. An early one-shot won a rookie award in 2008, a second version appeared in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in February 2011, and the full series ran in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine from August 2013 to November 2014, collected in seven volumes and published in English by Kodansha USA. Kyoto Animation adapted it as a single feature film, directed by Naoko Yamada with a screenplay by Reiko Yoshida, character designs by Futoshi Nishiya and music by Kensuke Ushio. The film opened in Japan on 17 September 2016, runs 130 minutes, and won Best Animated Feature at the Japanese Movie Critics Awards.
The story opens in elementary school. Shoya Ishida is a restless boy who hates being bored, and when Shoko Nishimiya, a girl who was born deaf, transfers into his class and introduces herself through a notebook, he leads the class in bullying her. When the principal finally asks questions, the class puts all the blame on Shoya, his friends turn on him, and Shoko moves to another school. By high school he is isolated and full of self-loathing, unable to look anyone in the face; the film draws large X marks over the faces around him. He has taught himself sign language, and he goes to find Shoko to return her old notebook.
From there the story follows his attempt to make amends: feeding the koi with Shoko from a bridge, winning over her fiercely protective younger sister Yuzuru, making a first real friend in Tomohiro Nagatsuka, and bringing old classmates back into Shoko's life, from the kind Miyoko Sahara to Naoka Ueno and Miki Kawai, who were there in sixth grade and tell the story differently. The past does not stay buried, and the new group of friends falls apart before it can come back together. Oima has said she did not want the manga described simply as a story about bullying: her theme was how hard it is for people to communicate their feelings to each other. Yamada likewise used the bullying as a way into Shoya's character rather than as the film's centre, and the film deals frankly with disability, guilt, forgiveness and mental health.
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What the A Silent Voice Quiz Tests
Our A Silent Voice quiz covers Kyoto Animation's 2016 film and Yoshitoki Oima's seven-volume manga. Questions with no label are about the film; anything taken from the manga alone, such as Tomohiro's film project or the final chapter, says 'In the manga' in the question. Easy levels cover the premise and the cast: Shoko's deafness and her notebook, what Shoya does in elementary school and what it costs him, the bridge and the koi, and the people who made the film. The middle levels follow the story in order, from Tomohiro's bike and Yuzuru's photo to the misheard confession, the trip to the amusement park and the day the friends fall out, along with the music, the sign language and the two families. The hard levels go to the details: Ogaki, the real city behind the story, Tomohiro's nickname for Shoya, the sister whose face is never shown, how Kensuke Ushio recorded the sound of Shoko's world, and the occasion that brings everyone back together in the manga's last chapter.
Key Characters
Shoya Ishida is an unusual lead: the story starts with him as the bully and spends the rest of its length on what it means to live with that. As a teenager he is withdrawn, awkward and harder on himself than anyone else could be, but he keeps turning up, on the bridge and at the Nishimiyas' door, because he wants to repair some of the damage. Shoko Nishimiya, born deaf, is patient and forgiving to the point of blaming herself for everything that has gone wrong around her; years of failed conversations have left her with a habit of smiling to keep the peace. Yuzuru, her younger sister, dresses and talks like a boy and acts tough so that she can protect her, and at first she does everything she can to keep Shoya away. Tomohiro Nagatsuka, loud and loyal, is the first person in years whose face Shoya can look at. Around them stand the classmates from sixth grade: Miyoko Sahara, the one who tried to befriend Shoko, Naoka Ueno, who still blames Shoko for what happened to Shoya, and Miki Kawai, the class representative who insists she did nothing wrong. Satoshi Mashiba, a newcomer with no patience for bullies, joins them, and behind them all are two single mothers, Yaeko Nishimiya and Miyako Ishida, each left to deal with the consequences.
Available Quizzes
A Silent Voice Trivia
50 hand-crafted questions across 5 categories. 10 levels of increasing difficulty.
Which A Silent Voice Character Are You?
Answer 10 questions to discover which A Silent Voice character matches your personality!
Random Mix
Questions from all 51 anime including A Silent Voice. The ultimate challenge.
Characters
Shoya Ishida
Shoko Nishimiya
Yuzuru Nishimiya
Tomohiro Nagatsuka
Miyoko Sahara
A Silent Voice Fun Facts
- Yoshitoki Oima was born in Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, the daughter of a sign language interpreter. Her mother's work inspired the manga, and her mother and sister helped her with it. The story is set in Ogaki, and the bridge where Shoko feeds the koi is modelled on the city's real Midori Bridge.
- The story was hard to place at first. Its 2008 one-shot won a rookie award, but its subject matter kept it out of print until Bessatsu Shonen Magazine ran a version in February 2011. The Japanese Federation of the Deaf reviewed and supported the full serialisation, and the manga went on to win the New Creator Prize at the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prizes in 2015.
- The film opens with The Who's 'My Generation' playing over Shoya and his friends before school, and the song ends as Shoko walks into the classroom. Naoko Yamada said she wanted an evergreen for that scene, a song everyone would recognise.
- Kensuke Ushio built the score around the sound of a piano. For the track 'lvs' he placed a microphone inside the instrument, so that the noise of its hammers and mechanism comes through, an effect meant to suggest how Shoko hears the world. On the film's official site he says that thinking about its music brought to mind the upright piano he has played since childhood, and the small noises it makes.
- The theme song, 'Koi wo Shita no wa', is by the singer aiko, who said on the film's official site that she loved the manga so much she had once told the story of its whole first volume between songs at one of her concerts.
- When Shoko tries to tell Shoya she likes him and he hears 'moon' instead, many readers took it as a nod to 'the moon is beautiful', a line famously linked to the novelist Natsume Soseki as a way of saying 'I love you'. In the fanbook's Q&A, Oima said she had not been thinking of that anecdote at all when she drew the scene.
A Silent Voice Quiz — Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does A Silent Voice have?
None, because A Silent Voice is a single feature film rather than a TV series. Kyoto Animation's adaptation runs 130 minutes; it opened in Japan on 17 September 2016 and reached cinemas in many other countries in 2017. It is the only anime adaptation of Yoshitoki Oima's seven-volume manga.
Is A Silent Voice finished?
Yes. The manga ran in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine from August 2013 to November 2014 and is complete in 62 chapters across seven volumes. The film tells the story in one go, shortening parts of it for time, and it ends before the manga's final chapters, which are set after high school, so the manga is worth reading if you want the whole of it.
What order should I watch A Silent Voice in?
There is only one thing to watch: the 2016 film. If you want more afterwards, read the manga, which covers the same story at greater length and carries on past the point where the film ends. Kodansha also published a two-volume novel version in Japan in 2019, which has not been released in English.
Where can I watch A Silent Voice?
Availability differs by country and changes over time, so check your local services. The film streamed on Netflix from June 2019 to February 2022, GKIDS took over its distribution in November 2024 and returned it to cinemas that December, and Crunchyroll added it to its catalogue in March 2026. In Japan it returns to cinemas for its tenth anniversary from 30 October 2026, including its first Dolby Cinema screenings.
What is A Silent Voice about?
In elementary school, Shoya Ishida bullies Shoko Nishimiya, a deaf girl who has just transferred into his class, until the class turns the blame on him and leaves him an outcast. Years later, as a lonely high-school student, he learns sign language and seeks her out to make amends. The film follows the two of them, Shoko's younger sister and the old and new classmates around them as they try to face what happened, and it deals frankly with bullying, disability, guilt and forgiveness.
