Koe no Katachi aka The Shape of Voice

it's a funny coincidence since the heroine from Mardock Scramble can't speak as well(due to her vocal cords being damaged due to her near-death experience,but her cyborg powers allows her to speak through any speaking device and allows us to keep hearing the wonderful and sweet voice of Megumi Hayashibara.)

Talk about Mood Whiplash.

I just heard about this series on Friday. Marathoned the manga twice over the weekend, and I've got an alert set up for when Crunchyroll does the next simulpub.

I'm in. I need to see where this goes. In particular, I'm looking forward to more peeks into Shouko's life - the mangaka seems to tease with occasional details that shows the regular teenage girl that gets ignored because people pay attention to her disability (the end of Chapter 23 and beginning of Chapter 24 in particular were brilliant, in my eye).

Which reminds me, what were those things that Shouko gave to Ishida? They look almost like the old-fashioned kind of hairpin...

My personal guess? They're some sort of puppet.

I'm interested in where the plotline with Mashiba is going. I'm suspecting that he's known all this time about Ishida's past (it was a common topic for gossip, and Ishida has never denied it - to perhaps the point of Brutal Honesty). Moreover, I suspect he's keeping tabs on Ishida in some sort of hope that a bully can be redeemed.

God, will the teacher be there?

edited 16th Apr '14 10:49:00 AM by grahav

They're garden ornaments.

The real question is what if the teacher is there what happens if Mashiba finds out Shouya was a bully?

Judging from his current personality so far, he's going to forgive him. The question will be how he shows that; either he'll inform him past is past cheerfully or Breaking Speech style.

Garden ornaments? Like, umm...where do you put them?

edited 16th Apr '14 7:45:26 PM by Styryder

Interesting, but seems a little overboard? (See the part on ancient China.)

edited 17th Apr '14 6:25:16 AM by ashnazg

Garden ornaments? Like, to demarcate where you've planted certain flowers or herbs?

Could that be a hint that Nishimiya would like to start a garden with Ishida? Another chance besides the bridge on Tuesdays to hang out? How would he even react to that? My guess - go into emotional lockdown as he feels guilty over her past.

I've got only one comment about chapter 35, placed in spoiler tags for those who haven't seen it yet.

Mashiba, karma's enforcer.

Still no update yet. Crunchy Roll scanlator sure love to take their sweet time....

EDIT n UPDATE (hate double post): Chapter 35!

Heh, turns out Mashiba absolutely hates bullying to the point of he just splashed "that" guy without even knowing the entire fiasco between Nishimiya and Ishida. Anyway, not much to happened in this chapter, we still didn't know how Mashiba will react once he knew the entire backstory of Ishida.

edited 9th May '14 5:23:05 AM by Styryder

Chapter 36:

Pretty uneventful chapter. Just some pointless fight between Ishida and Nagatsuka (a Wimp Fight no less).

Oh and Ueno's back.

those kids were lucky this manga's plot isn't about some psychotic serial killer,because telling to a stranger your name because he offered you 100 Yen?Yeah,good thing it's not THAT kind of manga...

Man now I have no idea if Mashiba knows and is just stringing Ishida along or not.

Chapter 37, and things went wrong again!

Chapter 38 is out.

Does this counts as a Villainous Rescue ?

So, looks like after all this time that Kawai is still really two-faced and hypocritical about this entire thing. I mean she can be mad at Ishida about it, and has legitimate reasons to be pissed that he thought he talked behind his back. But it still doesn't excuse the fact that she was as complicit as everyone else, and was one of the people that bullied or at the very least isolated Shouko back then.

Wow. I just read a pseudo-translation of 39, and it gets grim.

Kawai tries to imply that all is forgiven but that Ishida is still sort of a bully. This prompts Ueno to speak up saying that her and Kawai were complicit in it too. The two of them blow up at each other, with Kawai saying that Ueno bullied Shouko too while she was bullied into accepting it. Sahara, who didn't know about the fact that Ueno was bullying Shouko too, starts freaking out a little. Ishida says that he'll just leave.

From there, somehow, it manages to get worse.

Ueno says that him leaving won't solve anything, which causes him to start just calling people down. He says that Ueno isn't one to accuse, tells Sahara that she's a coward because she ran away (transfered out), shouts down Nagatsuka when he tries to come to Ishida's defense because the two of them barely know each other, and just flat out tells Kawai that she makes him sick. Everyone starts to leave, most of them in tears. Ishida then invites Mashiba to punch him, which Mashiba does, and then he leaves. Only Ishida, Shouko, and Yuzuru are left. Everyone else is back to having X's on their faces. Chapter ends with Ishida saying to Shouko that since it's summer vacation they should do something fun. He's obviously downplaying everything, and Shouko's face is just ... despairing, concerned. The expression is not a good one, to say the least.

That could have gone better.

I'm a little confused about some of the reactions to Mashiba in chapter 39. I've heard various people talk about how Mashiba betrayed their expectations. Now, I'm waiting for a proper scanlation, but from the way it looks and from what I've seen translated, it didn't seem like he punched Shouya out of vengeance as a Bully Hunter. I kinda read as an unsuccessful attempt at playing the Get A Hold Of Yourself Man trope, especially when he politely ends it with "See you next term".

The page shows it was a punch punch,a real nasty one, especially in the context of his earlier line about Ishida having basically deserved to have this all blow up like this. Also think of the sub-text of saying "see you next semester" He basically just flat out said will not be hanging out with him over the summer. He'll see him next semester only because they go to the same school.

edited 4th Jun '14 7:50:50 AM by NathanS

Well...that sucked. And I think I found someone more than Ueno that I hate, fucking Kawai :(

Wow, seriously people? Ishida just undid all his attempts to get out from this guilt cage and you guys are actually happy?

Note: I'm referring to comments on the manga website, not tvtropes.

edited 5th Jun '14 1:50:47 AM by Styryder

I think people are just happy he told off Kawai. But yea, its not supposed to be something you cheer for.