Most people have been bullied in some way shape or form, and some have had it worse then others. Here in Koe no Katachi, we watch as the main character Ishida who bullied the female main character (along with many others), Nishimiya, who is deaf, try to change himself and make up for the childhood that he took away from Nishimiya.

Some of the things that really made me like this manga storywise was how real the actual setting of the show is and how it can be a very controversial thing to cover in a manga. The bullying is realistic, it isn't kiddie bullying that some people get, its the real full on, bullying that can cause many incidents in our world, and the depictions in the manga about the bullying in their world were actually fair and fair the same or even maybe worse then some other cases. Its even worse how its towards a deaf person, where as people with disabilities are the ones who are often times the easiest targets for bullying.

The art of the manga in all honesty isn't that good, in fact the art wasn't really good for most of the series, but the art isn't really the thing about the series that drags you in, its the storyline and the characters. I think the art isn't bad enough to completely drop the show, I think the art fits in most of the situations but is poor in quite a lot of other areas as well.

The characters in this manga we're in all honesty, very good characters. I mean good as in "they're realistic." not "they're amazingly great."

The characters in this series all are pretty much assholes at the start. Even Nishimiya had her fair share of problems, but we understand why she acted that way from basically the start of the manga.

Ishida was by FAR the best character in this manga, and honestly I would read it again for his development as a character in this series. I was simply amazed and inspired watching Ishida grow and mature throughout the series, especially while his former classmates and future people that came into play not wanting to change for a MAJORITY of the series, but they do end up changing, for the better, I think.

I rate the characters so highly in this series because it shows that, really change DOES NOT happen overnight, and you can't expect it to, it shows a very accurate depiction of how humans are and how the teenage years work a number on you and how they shape you as a person, and that if you want to change ONLY you can do that, and Ishida was a prime example of that throughout the entire series.

The series even has the hateable characters for a while but it does a very good job closing and setting the scene for change in them.

My enjoyment level of this series was at a high for a while, I started reading the manga 2 days prior to finishing it. Its a short 64 chapter manga that can really keep you entertained throughout the whole manga.

My only disappointments for this series is a very lackluster, rushed ending with basically a ending that anyone can spin anyway they want to. I'm not really a fan of those types of endings (except for Code Geass) because they have to be executed well, but in this case the closings on the characters were not so great, the ending didn't really give anyone a look into what happened after, or anything of the sort.

So don't read this series if you're looking for a romance-esque type series, I thought that it would be like that going in, but frankly there's no kissing scenes, full on confessions (there are halfassed ones) but I think the manga is definitely better without it because I think the story was more focused on change and how to improve yourself as a person overtime and that more people have these problems then you might think.

Overall I rate this series a 9/10 because of the ending being lackluster, everything else was amazing and its one of the best mangas I've read in the past few years. Be sure to check this out if you're bored and looking for a read.