A Silent Voice covers the arc of redemption of a bully who dearly regrets his past. After being betrayed, punished, and bullied himself, Shoya becomes the one in the story with the 'silent voice' rather than his original victim, Shoko Nishimiya.

Before reading this wonderful manga, I watched the movie adaptation. The adaptation was so wonderful and even brought me to tears multiple times as I continued to think about these characters. After purchasing the source material and giving it a read I truly believe there was only one part of the movie that did better than its manga. The animation. Kyoto knocked it out of the park and made the heartbreaking scenes in the manga even better by bringing it to life.

Now what the manga did better. Pretty much everything, from character arcs and their depth and development, the plot, the pacing. The manga was a better story overall and showed a lot more love for the more confusing characters in the anime adaptation. For example, Satoshi, a kid who was bullied and lived his time before knowing Shoya's past hating bullies in every way. He would go to the point of hurting children and disrespecting adults if he found them the slightest bit disrespectful. Because of his past trauma, Satoshi hated bullies until he finally met one that changed for the better. All of Satoshi's arc was cut out of the movie... all of it.

Yuzuru Nishimiya is the sister of the main character Shoko and I truly feel that we get a better grasp of her in the manga. We see more of her overall and how she connects with Shoya and the others. We also get to see more of her depressed state and how much she really does for Shoko.

Now for the two everyone hates. Naoka and Miki. I still dislike Miki after this read but it dawned on me that Naoka's character made more sense rather than her just being a nasty brat like she is in the adaptation. As they are meant to be disliked, I like how their selfish personalities show how hard it can be to change even with good people around you. And this really hits, as Shoya is trying to do just that.

We also get to see some more content after the ending of the film. We see what everyone wants to be when the are older and how they go about it. The main duo end up studying to become hairstylists, Shoya, to carry on his mothers business, and Shoko, because she loves it and was inspired to do so.

There is so much more to the written story and I recommend everyon to read it .