- Accidental Aesop: Research the proper strategies for when someone you love is suicidal. Tough Love, Blaming the Victim, and blackmail will never cut it.
- Accidental Innuendo: Shoya tells the girls that he's going to the toilet after Sahara starts to playfully fondle Shoko's chest.
- Adaptation Displacement: As is often the case, the film is better known than the original manga in the US.
- Adorkable:
- Shoko is rather socially awkward and childlike, but that doesn't make her any less cute and lovable.
- Yuzuru is an eccentric photographer who is also quite adorable nonetheless.
- Nagatsuka. His interactions with Shoya and Yuzuru are very awkward yet endearing at the same time.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: In the manga, how sincere Ueno's love for Shoya is seems up to debate. As much as she obsesses over him, she did still abandon him to be the scapegoat for the bullying Shoko received for years, suggesting her advances toward him are more oriented toward making herself feel better than out of genuine love. Then there's her remark while Shoya was comatose that she'd rather he remain in his coma forever instead of waking up and getting together with Shoko, showing a selfishness that's more love in the Yandere sense than true. Finally, the fact that she potentially ends up with Sahara brings in the possibility that she was a repressed bisexual who desperately didn't want to face that reality and clung so obsessively to Shoya simply because he was the boy she felt attracted to, meaning she could pass for heterosexual if she became a couple with him.
- Angst Aversion: With how melancholic the source material can be, more than a few people find it quite tough to process, particularly victims of bullying themselves.
- Award Snub: Was completely ignored by the Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature.......in favour of The Boss Baby, of all movies. Needless to say, people were pissed and still are to this day.
- Awesome Music: The film's soundtrack, composed by Kensuke Ushio, combines instrumental and electronic sounds for unique pieces that not only heighten the film's quieter scenes but really speak to the characters' headspaces. Special mentions go to "frc", which plays during Shoko's attempted suicide and gets more chaotic and panicked as it goes; "btf", a melancholy piece during the funeral of Shoko and Yuzuru's grandmother that glitches and fades while still being peaceful; and "lit (var)", the film's closing piece, which starts out simple before basically exploding as all the X's fall from people's faces and Shoya breaks down.
- Base-Breaking Character:
- Shoya. He's not scrappy material, but readers are divided over whether to sympathize with him after his bullying of Shoko in elementary school. This is dependent on the reader believing his character development and attempts to make amends afterward—not to mention the darker parts of his development, particularly his becoming suicidal (and actually planning a well though-out suicide), becoming the victim of bullying himself, and his severe lack of self-esteem to the point that he thinks he doesn't deserve an ounce of happiness—don't make up for what he did as a kid.
- Ueno for similar reasons, although in her case she did start out as The Scrappy prior to the later chapters rescuing her for many readers and thus creating a divide in opinion. Arguably Ueno is really a much greater case of this than Shoya as even in said later chapters her actions regarding Shoko are still very much Moral Event Horizon for a lot readers i.e hurting Shoko again after the latter’s suicide attempt, while other readers still argue Ueno has got Hidden Depths and shouldn’t be so demonised — even if her actions are despicable. It helps that the anime adaptation Adapted Out the important moments from the manga that explained Ueno’s hatred of Shoko and why she’s so messed up and stubbornly immature as a person. Notably the camp that’s sympathetic to Ueno, strongly dislike Kawai and point out how she’s just as bad or even worse in some respects, as at least Ueno admits to her many faults.
- Broken Base:
- The POV chapters following Shoya's coma. While some like that these chapters shed some light on Shoya's friends, others felt that the story was more interesting when it followed Shoya's POV.
- The manga ending. Some people found it like the perfect cap to a very emotional story. Others found it severely lacking since it doesn't give a resolution to any character.
- Related to the ending, the fact that Shoya and Shoko aren’t confirmed as a Official Couple with the manga ending on a Maybe Ever After is a heated topic among fans. One camp argue that that their romance isn’t really the point of the series and formalising their relationship would devalue the unique messages and themes it’s conveying. The other camp argue it’s an unfair cop out after all Shoya and Shoko go through together, particularly since Shoko saying “I love you” to Shoya was misinterpreted by him.
- For completely unrelated reasons there was debate of whether in the final chapter Shimada was living as a woman and dating Keisuke Hirose, considering a female character looked a lot like him. It's generally considered to be due to the art style rather than intentional.
- The news that the manga would get a movie instead of a 12-Episode Anime was met with mixed reception. There were worries about how they would fit the entire series into an under-120-minute film, or whether they would just focus on the elementary portion. Other fans were just elated for an adaptation. Once the film came out, while it received critical acclaim, some fans thought it was at minimum a decent adaptation.
- The movie being done by Kyoto Animation was met with disdain and joy from fans. It often came down to a Fandom Rivalry with other studios that the fans would have preferred to animate it. There were also many fans who wanted a true-to-style adaptation and were scared that Kyoani would use one of their in-house art designs, which in themselves are criticized for being too similar looking. Other fans noted that the characters designs in the manga resemble Kyoani works and said it wouldn't be a huge leap in style. The film ended up using the manga designs rather than the typical "Kyoani style".
- Catharsis Factor:
- A Tear Jerker it may be, but Shoya finally snapping and calling everyone else around him out for their faults and how despite them they all are content making him the lone scapegoat for everything that happened to Shoko also feels like it was a long time coming.
- Yuzuru calling out her mother for being so aloof and only trying to make amends when Shoko is already broken is quite satisfying.
- Shoko's mother slapping up Ueno when the latter tries to beat up an injured Shoko is this in-universe — Ueno literally gets sense knocked into her about what she's done — and out of universe.
- Crosses the Line Twice: Shoya having to earn 1.73 million yen (about 15,000 American dollars) to pay for damaging Shoko's hearing aids is karmic, especially since it takes him five years of hard work, cancelling his cell phone contract and selling many of his possessions. His mother yelling at him for being suicidal after he gives her the money and confesses his plans is dramatic. Her burning the money by accident, right after he promises not to commit suicide if she doesn't burn it? A Funny Moment.
- Diagnosed by the Audience: Ueno:
- Less charitable fans, particularly those who only watched the movie where her eventual remorse is downplayed to near non-existence, have been known to view Ueno as somewhere on the sociopathic spectrum for her lack of empathy and remorse in addition to her wild mood swings.
- Manga readers are more prone to diagnosing Ueno with Borderline Personality Disorder, as its symptoms match a lot of the mental and emotional problems that she's shown to have throughout the series, including her violent outbursts that are followed by depressive episodes.
- Die for Our Ship: Ueno suffered greatly from this in the first two-thirds of the story, but later this was prevented thanks to her only casual encounter with Shoya in the final of the manga and a strong Les Yay involving Sahara.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Shoko's grandmother. Being one of the few truly good supportive adults in the manga definitely helps.
- Mashiba, who initially seemed very suspicious to most readers. Then, he stood up for a young girl being bullied and revealed that he too had been bullied as a kid. Then he threw water in Takeuchi's face. Needless to say, people warmed up to him a lot.
- Maria, Shoya's kid niece, is quite popular for being both a rare (half-)black character in anime/manga and being so cute.
- Sahara, due to her generally easygoing and kind nature making her come off as a great friend and total (female) bro for Shoya and Shoko (and possible girlfriend for Ueno in the manga).
- Fandom Rivalry: On certain forums, with Your Name and In This Corner of the World, due to their movies coming out in 2016. You can't go one thread without comparing the three.
- Fan Nickname:
- Amusingly enough, on /a/ Nagatsuka is called "Broccoli" mostly due to his curly hair.
- Central pairing is called Sho x Sho for convenience.
- Shoko's mother has two: Bitch Mom (for her initial icy demeanor) and the/Nishimama.
- Shoya's mother is referred to as MOTYAY (Mother of the Year All Years).
- Funny Moments:
- Nagatsuka provides most of the humor in the series. On a meta level, he's even funnier since he looks like an older Steven Universe.
- In chapter 28, Ishida follows Yuzuru's advice and tries to compliment Nishimiya. He ends up just rattling off a bunch of compliments one after another, leaving Nishimiya more baffled than flattered. Saraha and Yuzuru's faces make it even funnier
. - At the end of the manga, Ueno shows up in Ishida's bed waiting for him, where they then ask him what he'll do if they don't leave. His response? A Beat followed by threatening to throw peanuts at her. The next page has Ueno complaining with peanuts in her hair, clearly only budging once he actually did it.
- Iron Woobie: Shoko. Despite everything she gets put through, she remains kind and forgiving to everyone.
- Jerkass Woobie:
- Shoko's mom once you find out what happened to her husband. Her in-laws blamed Shoko's deafness on her, claiming that she must have done something wrong, and pushed their son to divorce her because of it. Almost immediately after that, she found out that she was pregnant with Yuzuru. Her seemingly cold behavior is largely a façade that she uses to cope with the stress of being a single mother to two children, one of whom is disabled and a bullying victim. This does not justify or forgive how she tends to treat or behave around her daughters, but it does add another dimension to her that wasn't previously seen.
- Shoya, definitely. This poor guy's life is a roller coaster of feelings. As a child, while he wasn't the only student who bullied Shoko, he was the first and definitely the worst of them. His actions ranged from calling her names, to physical harm, to ruining her hearing aids. And he did all of this while feeling proud of himself and not thinking about the consequences of his actions. It all comes back to bite him, though, when his classmates and friends quickly threw him under the bus when the time came to fess up for Shoko's bullying, and soon he became the class scapegoat. Shoya spent his years through middle and high school without any friends or support because of this, and grew to disdain and distrust people so much, he started mentally x-ing out their faces just so he didn't have to deal with them. During this time, he was also hit hard with the guilt of what he did to Shoko. This guilt was so bad that he spent those lonely years working and trying to resolve himself, so that one day he can earn Shoko's forgiveness, and maybe even forgive himself. And since his reunion with Shoko, his life has just been filled with way too many emotional twists and turns to list. Seriously, someone give him a hug already.
- Les Yay: Sahara seems to be a magnet for this. There's her groping Shoko after her reintroduction, her group of admiring kouhais, and her Vitriolic Best Buds relationship with Ueno. In the finale, Ueno shows off a ring that she received from someone asking to be her partner, someone 5'11", gorgeous, and starting their own label, who turns out to be Sahara.
- Memetic Badass: Shoko's mom, who apparently has the ability to teleport and pimp slap those who have wronged her daughter.
- Memetic Mutation:
- "Where is the healing?!", in reaction to the manga getting more and more depressing after Kawai's outburst.
- Comparing Nagatsuka to either Steven Universe or Mineta Minoru because of their identical hairstyles.
- Moe:
- Shoko herself. With her mild-mannered, kindhearted personality and somewhat childlike mannerisms, she is absolutely precious.
- Maria, Shoya's Cheerful Child of a niece, is also quite precious.
- Yuzuru is a rather sarcastic tomboy but is nevertheless cute and endearing.
- Narm: As tragic as Shoya's fall is, it was hard for some readers not to snicker when the translation said that he suffered "major damage to his buttocks." Played up when Chapter 55 opens up with Ishida on his side while his doctors are examining the injury site.
- Nightmare Fuel: Various elements of the bullying and the results of circumstances involving it aren't exactly shied away from here. It also doesn't help that with the story mainly following Shoya's perspective, we get to see how the aftermath affects him and all the desperate or occasionally broken results of his attempts to make amends when guilt doesn't overcome him. Plus, there's the occasional creepy moment, like a certain Kawai expression that showcases negative thoughts boiling beneath her smiling façade, or Ueno's explosion of pent-up hatred towards Shoko.
- Realism-Induced Horror: The main reason this series gets so much praise is how it demonstrates the authentic portrayal of trauma brought on by bullying. Even when Shoya genuinely tries to apologize to Shoko for mistreating her in grade school, she is still visibly traumatized and uncomfortable. It only takes a while for Shoko to feel comfortable around him again. Ueno's Psychological Projection and Blaming the Victim mentality (specifically in the ferris wheel and hospital scenes) are also common for people who are unrepentant about their actions.
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- Shoko and Yuzuru's mother after Chapter 44. In short order, she apologizes to Ishida's mother over what happened to Shoya, ruthlessly beats up Ueno in defense of Shoko, then offers to pay for Shoya's hospital bill (although the Ishida family has insurance, so it isn't necessary) and bonds with Mrs. Ishida over their ex-husbands. She's still a sharp and at times severe woman, but she's much more relatable than she used to be.
- Ueno after Chapter 44 as well, when her own POV is shown that makes her more sympathetic. She finally admits to her faults and ultimately makes peace with Shoko. The Les Yay she shares with Sahara also contributes to this. The other less forgiving camp of readers still regard her as a Karma Houdini who almost helped drive Shoko to suicide though.
- One True Pairing: Shoko/Shoya, obviously. The fact the manga only hints it will become canon in the future, and that the film removes most of the romance (except for Shoko's confession), makes fans' desire even stronger.
- The Scrappy:
- Ueno gets a lot of this, such as on the Ferris wheel she tries to shift blame from herself to Shoko for Shoko's bullying and Shoya's loss of friends and current state, then responds to Shoko saying she hates herself with a slap and a flippant "so what". Then there’s the bit after Shoko almost committed suicide where Ueno attacks Shoko (who’s got a broken arm) again blaming her for Shoya’s coma which put Ueno into complete Hate Sink level for many fans. She is Rescued from the Scrappy Heap for a good deal of fans in later chapters of the manga though, after her Freudian Excuse is fully explained and she finally accepts defeat. Though other readers still think Ueno got off too lightly for her actions.
- Shoko's mother gets some flak for not letting Shoko use sign language in front of her and seems to have no interest in wanting to learn it so she can communicate with her. Many people say she's a bit too authoritarian for her own good. She gets better after some defrosting and even Rescued from the Scrappy Heap for many after chapter 44, where she apologizes to Shoya's mother for Shoko causing Shoya's accident and slapping Ueno for hurting her daughter.
- With her inability accept any kind of responsibility regarding Shoko's bullying, not understanding why she should feel remorse nor why the others do, her hypocritical attitude towards Shoya, and using Crocodile Tears to make herself look innocent, it's very easy to hate Kawai. Even more so after she blows her conversation with Shoya out of proportion and lets everyone know that he bullied Shoko in the past, especially Mashiba, pulling the same exact stunt she did in the past and, in general, making everything far worse than it should be without getting any comeuppance other than a well-deserved Take That, Scrappy! from Shoya.
- Given the revelations from chapter 45 to chapter 48, Ueno comes as slightly more sympathetic, given that she admits that she's aware of her personality issues; that she's a Clingy Jealous Girl and has a crush on Ishida, hence why she dislikes Shoko; and that she just doesn't know how to handle it. Compare with Kawai who is still in denial about her involvement in Shoko's bullying and manages to make Ishida's accident and Shoko's suffering be all about her. The fact that chapter 48's climax sets up a confrontation between Kawai and Ueno, the fandom was actually cheering for Ueno because Kawai comes across as the bigger Hate Sink due to her near-pathological It's All About Me/Never My Fault attitude.
- Signature Scene:
- The bridge scene of Shoko and Shoya feeding the koi bread together is generally what most manga and anime fans associate with the series. In addition to them jumping into the river after the notebook falls into the water.
- Most people remember the scenes of the entire class bullying Shoko more than anything else from this manga. The anime makes the situation somewhat better by cutting many of the elementary school scenes.
- Shoko's introduction—holding up her notebook, which says "I'm Deaf"—is the most iconic scene in the manga.
- Shoko’s suicide attempt that Shoya prevents with the fireworks going off in the background is hauntingly iconic for many fans.
- Shoya seeing all the X's fall off of everyone's faces, especially the anime version.
- Take That, Scrappy!:
- Takeuchi-sensei, Shoko and Shoya's elementary school teacher and the shining example of Adults Are Useless, shows up when Shoya and Mashiba visit the school and he's just as shallow as ever, showing virtually no regret for how things turned out and even claiming that the Nishimiya family is taking advantage of Shoko's deafness. This led to much rejoicing when Mashiba sprays him with his water bottle. Ishida mentally notes that he wished that he, instead of Mashiba, was the one who had sprayed with the water bottle, making the reaction In-Universe as well.
- While the entire scene where Shoya essentially disowns his entire group of friends is a major Tear Jerker, more than a few people were glad to hear Shoya say exactly what the audience felt about Kawai.Shoya: Kawai, you disgust me to the very bottom of my heart. Please don't say anything else.
- Many fans cheered for Shoko's mom when she slapped Ueno in an effort to stop her from attacking Shoko, and kept on slapping her when Ueno just wouldn't stop insulting her daughter.
- Values Dissonance:
- In general, a major part of the series is that bullying is not taken very seriously, it's often blamed on the student being bullied, the bullies are rarely punished and never seriously punished, and the fact that the student is being bullied for an uncontrollable disability does not reduce any of these factors. The series portrays these things as horrible, which, to a Western audience used to anti-bullying initiatives being heavily institutionalized and enshrined, comes off as agreeable, but bizarre that it would even need to be said in the first place—somewhere between a Captain Obvious Aesop and a Windmill Crusader. In Japan, though, these statements are considered radical enough that the series endured a fair bit of controversy for it.
- If the story were taking place in the United States, Shoko's mother could have sued the school for violating ADA compliance — due to being an institution that failed to give her daughter proper accommodationnote especially given that one of the students destroyed 1.73 million yen's worth of hearing aids. Shoko's bleeding ear would have been grounds for Shoya to be arrested on charges of assault. As it turns out, in Japan all she can do is demand compensation from Shoya's mother, with the school pressuring Mrs. Ishida to pay off the amount, but that's about it. With the burden falling on Shoya's mother, it ends up driving them into debt because she has to take out a last-minute loan to pay off the amount. While this does make Shoya realize the harm he caused not just to Shoko but to his loved ones, it also is unfair that the burden falls on his mother and Shoya has to work off the debt while the school doesn't receive any retribution whatsoever.
- Wangst: It's one thing to feel remorseful for one's cruel actions, but Shoya constantly beating himself up leads up to this, especially when we see that Shoko still has it much worse than he does. Though it's questionable to use Shoko's situation as some sort of counterpoint, when 1)their personal issues are different in themselves even if intertwined and 2) Shoya doesn't pity himself for what he's done or gone through, which is kind of the point of this trope.
- The Woobie:
- Shoko, for being bullied in elementary school, which made her the way she is now.
- Shoya himself after reforming, his misery and self-hatred does make him extremely tragic.
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