One day I sat down with a friend and we were talking about A Silent Voice. He read the manga before watching the movie and said how the movie wasn't as good so I decided to read the manga too after watching the movie. And I will say this, if you never did both, I say do both! Doesn't matter what order, because I don't think one is superior to the other. As the movie tells a story more visual with it's great directing and how it's little attention to detail that we get to see a narrative being played out.

Now I'm not here to talk about the movie as I gave that a 10/10 myself but here to talk about the manga. I think compared to the movie, the manga has a more in depth character built of who they are and to see the inner struggle of each of the characters. We get to see what they are thinking and witness how they struggle to grow or change. Those of us who used to say stupid stuff and do dumb thing, we still think about those things as we grow older. It's not like you can just be like, "well that didn't bother me." Wait I think that back, there are people like that, and I believe Miki was a perfect illustration of that type of person. People who doesn't acknowledge their wrong doing and believe they are in the right without truly maturing.

Then there are those of us who are like Shouya who struggle to learn to accept that people can change. That we contemplate with life and suicide and I'm always sad to see many young people take their life away because of dumb mistake they made in the past. We all make dumb decision in our life, but it's about learning to own up to these mistake and growing and maturing.

Then there's Shoko, those of us who feel like we're a burden to the world and feel like we are useless. That we only hinder others and wonder if people would be better if we never existed. I too know this feeling and reading this I can relate to her so well. For someone who doesn't say much, she speaks in so many volume to those who feel the same way. And if you're someone who's thinking the same thing, seek help.

The overall theme of this manga is not about a relationship between the two main lead though I do hope they end up together (which is implied). This is a story about learning to communicate with others, learning to not only speak... but listening... but not just listening... hearing someone, not their words only, but what's on their heart. Sometimes we only hear the words but not the deeper things. A silent voice captures that beautifully.

There are many other manga that deals with such issue but I feel like this stands out more then most because of how it handles a lot of stuff. It feels more real to each other and we can go on and break down each characters, but this is just a review for now about the manga and I highly recommend reading it! And also watching the movie as you can see the two different way of how they told the story. Is one better then the other? No, they both are masterpiece.