The teacher encourages the class to befriend her, but after a few half-hearted efforts, everyone soon tires of having to communicate by writing in her notebook.

Set in Oima’s hometown Ogaki, in Gifu Prefecture, the story proper begins at elementary school when Shoko Nishymiya (voiced by Saori Hayami) arrives as a transfer student. In fact, the film opens with the high school boy attempting to commit suicide but doesn’t connect the dots till the second half. Still, by narrating the entire story from the viewpoint of protagonist Shoya Ishida (voiced by Miyu Irino), audiences can peer into his troubled, often defensive psyche, daring the them to continue to empathize with him even when his behavior is inexcusable. Sometimes, Yamada is so finely tuned to the adolescent mindset that the narrative becomes choked with conflicting emotions. With this all-female combo, it’s no wonder the film exudes a delicate, reflective sensibility, especially in its light-handed treatment of the romantic undercurrents flowing between the three main characters.

Her screen rendering of Yoshitoki Oima’s multiple award-winning manga is written by anime-adaption guru Reiko Yoshida and produced by Kyoto Animation, an emerging anime studio founded by Yoko Hachida.

Yamada, whose first two TV-spinoff films “K-On!” and “Yamada Love Story,” were highly rated, is regarded as a rising star in Japan’s competitive anime industry. Moreover, the film boasts a fresh and engaging approach in tackling the ubiquitous Japanese subject of school bullying from the perspective of the bully rather than the victim. The third feature directed by Naoko Yamada has roped in nearly $20 million domestically and reverberated into cinemas in territories all over Europe, Latin America and Asia it may create as much noise internationally as Japanese phenomenon “Your Name.”

Narcissism, self-loathing, secret crushes and longing for acceptance - all the trademarks of puberty are vividly evoked in beguiling hand-drawn visuals. Deafness becomes a metaphor for isolation and miscommunication in Japanese anime “A Silent Voice,” which tracks the fracturing friendships in a school class when a hearing-impaired girl enters the mix.

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