聲の形・こえのかたち, by 大今良時・おおいまよしとき, translated into English as “A Silent Voice”.
As I haven’t yet seen the film adaptation of 聲の形・こえのかたち I decided to have a look at the manga. I am not a big manga reader, and I do not usually like this kind of story but I did enjoy reading the first two volumes. I mainly appreciated the fact that the manga gives a good insight into Japanese school bullying while the focalisation is made on the bully, the boy Shoya. I am also curious to see if Shoya will regain the reader’s approbation. Striving to get closer to the girl he bullied in elementary school, Shoya is also evolving in the reader’s mind, becoming more likeable.
I like the characters of the manga, except for the female protagonist, Shoko, who I find very annoying. Being deaf should not prevent her from expressing her feelings or her way of thinking but she remains (at least in the first two volumes) impenetrable. Is it a characteristic of manga female protagonists?
I will probably stop after the third volume (I just bought the first three volumes – out of 7) but I recommend this manga to anyone looking for something relatively easy to read in Japanese. I like to have some relaxing things to read in Japanese when I don’t feel like reading a novel, and this manga is a perfect choice. The story is easy to follow, so I don’t bother to look out for words I don’t know.
I will probably watch the film, too!
About
I’m learning Japanese, Korean and Chinese to read detective novels in these languages. I post about my reading progress and language study here. Best way to get in touch is on Mastodon 🙂
I have the opposite situation to you – I have watched the film and started to read the novel. It’s definitely true that Shoya becomes more likeable early on but all of the characters do develop in interesting ways too (I don’t want to spoil anything in case you continue to read!)
I will maybe read the manga until the end, then. I am curious to see how the characters will develop. 🙂