As Much As I Love The Stardew Valley Spouses It Always Kinda Bugs Me That They Stay Stagnant After You

release that girl

It's inktober time of year again! Going to be animating every day for the 4th year in a row. ✨

Day 01: Dream

Character Analysis: Shouya from A Silent Voice

(Spoilers for A Silent Voice/Koe no Katachi)

Shouya Ishida is one of my favorite anime/manga characters ever, and I’ve been meaning to make a post about him. In my opinion, he is the poster child for the perfect redemption arc. I want to talk about some of the reasons why his change of heart was foreshadowed/under the surface right at the beginning, and why we as an audience are rooting for him, despite the horrible things he did to Shouko.

A Silent Voice is currently one of the top anime movies of all time, and while I do really love the movie (KyoAni is amazing) I am a much bigger fan of the manga; it has more time to expand on the characters and introduces some smaller important plot lines. In this post I will be quoting some moments that were in the manga and not the anime, aka, Shouya’s internal monologue. Anyway, let’s get into it. I want to start with why I think Shouya went down the bullying path in the first place.

Environment and Role Models

One of the biggest factors that influenced Shouya’s class’s toxic environment and led him to be a bully was having an uncaring ableist teacher. In the manga, the phrases “something we just have to deal with” and “this is your responsibility”, things that the teacher said to him regarding Shouko, repeatedly echo in Shouya’s mind whenever he interacts with her. At some points, the teacher actually laughs when the other students make fun of Shouko, letting Shouya (as well as the others) believe that it’s an ok thing to do. If Shouya had an adult figure in the classroom with a stronger sense of morality, he might have changed his tune earlier.

Shouya was also highly influenced by his peers (which makes sense because he was literally 11 years old). When another teacher comes into the classroom to explain what sign language is, there’s a very small panel before anyone else says anything, where Shouya thinks “that sounds fun”. At first, he’s interested in sign language and may have been willing to give it a shot. But then, Ueno suddenly starts complaining about how it’s much easier for them to use the notebook than sign language, and Shouya absorbs this and immediately goes back to thinking about how much of an inconvenience Shouko is to him.

Another influence on Shouya’s behavior is his home environment. I do not want to shade Shouya’s mom completely because overall I think she is a loving parent, but unfortunately she was not able to fully be there for her son because she is a single mom with a full time job. Even though he was in a caring home, he was not necessarily in one that gave him enough attention, and by the time Miyako realized what her son was up to it was too late. If she had given him more guidance earlier on in his involvement with Shouko, they may have been able to avoid disaster.

But all of these reasons aren’t excuses, they’re explanations. Regardless of why, Shouya contributed to Shouko’s severe trauma and did unforgivable things. So why do I think he’s the best case for redemption in anime?

Recognition/Guilt

Shouya is repeatedly shown as having actual remorse for his past actions. This is why other bully characters like Ueno and Kawai are seen as far less likable than Shouya. Other people on here might have actual analyses about those two characters, but as for this post all I’m going to say is that I believe they are much more widely hated than Shouya because of their initial denial of having done anything wrong.

It’s also important to remember that Shouya changed his tune as soon as Shouko left. It wasn’t years after she left his school that he realized he was wrong, it was days. He as an 11 year old realized he was wrong for hurting her; he figured it out as soon as he noticed how she was protecting him from being bullied. And once he himself started to be harassed by his peers, he finally recognized the full weight of what he had done to her.

Some might criticize this moment, saying “Shouya only realized bullying was bad because he got bullied himself”, but frankly, what’s so wrong about that? Many kids who bully don’t realize the full extent of the emotional damage they’re doing until it happens to them. Through this experience Shouya was able to realize, “this is how much pain she felt from the things I did to her”. And that unfortunate shared experience is what drives him to have so much guilt and a desire to change.

Change of Behavior

After his realization of the severe damage he had done to Shouko, Shouya started actively being more kind and thoughtful to others. He learned sign language in order to properly apologize to Shouko. He started helping out strangers and not judging people who are different (Tomohiro, Yuzuru). He acknowledged the severe financial strain he put on his mother and worked hard to pay her back.

And the whole point of the ending of the story is that him feeling sorry for himself and hating himself for the rest of his life isn’t going to undo his past behavior. All he can do now is operate with a better mindset going forward and make a positive difference instead.

Obviously, no one should be forced to or feel obligated to forgive their bully/abuser. But the story isn’t about whether Shouko should forgive Shouya, it’s about whether Shouya can change into a better person. I think it’s a very harmful ideology to believe that people who were bullies as children will be the same person forever. The world isn’t divided into ‘good people’ and ‘bad people’, it’s made up entirely of people who are capable of doing both good and bad things. And I really like how the protagonist of A Silent Voice is someone who had done bad things but is now choosing to be different.

Anyway, this was super long so thank you if you read all of it. Please let me know your thoughts on Shouya or any other characters from this movie/manga.

Thanks for reading!

-threecheersforinking

I wrote some stuff based on The Four Winds album collection by The Oh Hellos.

Idk what these are but I really love them, so do with them what you will 💙

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The calm before the storm. Letting go of the past, yet always longing to cling on. The deep unsettling despair that comes with nostalgia. A haze of memories, blasted in the sun until they become unrecognisable. The dragging of a whirlpool, deep into the sea. The humming of cicadas from far in the distance. Notos brings the winds of Summer. A warm, bold season. Her colours are dull but her spirit sturdy. Summer brings many memories, but those come in many varieties. Summer days spent joyous, and those spent alone, in sweltering heat that blisters your very bones. A warrior, a queen, a hero, a leader. Notos carries unimaginable burdens. The Southern Wind heads The Four Winds, stoic and strong. Every word a torrent, like the sea that froths and foams when children splash amongst its waves to escape the warm weather. She remembers the things of the past, the days of summer long gone, even when those around her do not. It is her fate.

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A deep sense of community. Love, everlasting and ever fruitful. Bountiful harvests that bring such joy. The coming of great change, for better or for worse. Celebration. Eurus is the carrier of the autumnal winds. He carries a light disposition, bringing in a season of thanks. Be grateful when he arrives on the tail of Summer, a reprieve from the heat and a buffer from the cold. Harvests are plentiful, and allow for feasts that feed many. They bring friends and family together, a feeling of communal love that spreads across the land. Dancing until the night fades away, drinking until the sun rises and sets the leaves of the trees alight like a raging fire. While creatures begin to slumber and vegetation withers with the chill in the air, some life prospers and grows. The feeling of warmth within us carries us through the nearing cold, and into a feeling of lightness. Eurus is the Eastern Wind, the youngest of The Four Winds, and the most naive. He is not yet wise to the ways of his winds, the death that Autumn heralds alongside the joy it promises. In time he will learn the truth.

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An endless despair, reaching into your very soul. A sense of impending doom, yet with nothing you can pinpoint to cause the dread. Repetition and routine, over and over until it becomes unbearable. A longing for something more, but it's just out of reach. The long darkness of the far north. The bitter cold and biting winds that freeze your heart. Boreas brings with her the season of winter. She is a dreamer, always wishing for more, despite the cards she's been handed. Many despise her. When she arrives, so does the snow that lays thick on the earth and kills all life beneath its smothering weight. The shortened days that bring early darkness that causes a sadness that clings to even the hardiest of beings. Life is short, and Boreas makes it shorter. Yet she brings beauty as well, the Aurora Borealis, dancing above the world, ever intangible. That's the problem with Boreas. The most beautiful things are always intangible. The Northern Wind is one that carries with her a deep depression. She desires nothing more than for change, but every day is the same blank canvas of snow and ice. She just wants to know the warmth of the sun once more.

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Creativity, ever blossoming and ever expanding into worlds of its own. Growth, learning from the past and looking to the future. The blossoming of new life, born from the womb or hatched from a seed. Colours bursting from beneath a world of black and white. With Zephyrus comes the winds of spring. He brings in hope for the future after the dull dread of winter. His bright energy brings new ideas to light, spurring those inclined to it into great displays of the creativity that rests within them. Paintings of the most magnificent trees, poems of playful animals, and songs of hope and life born anew. Growth is his most powerful weapon. While new life rises and transforms, so does one's spirit. Lessons of the past take shape, as new bonds are formed and new mistakes are made. The Western Wind is the bringer of hope. He ushers in a season of progressiveness, urging those around him to make big decisions, no matter the consequences. He is carefree, always carrying with him a sense of joy. Yet with that joy there comes the intrinsic knowledge that things all come full circle. The times of darkness will return, and if one does not learn from them now, then they never will.

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Their tales as old as time, their stories never ending, they traverse the world on the wings of inevitability. Just like the seasons, the four winds flow together and apart in a constant ebb and flow, changing with the days and always entwined.

Hello welcome from Twitter, here are my favorite flower illustrations I’ve done

whoa i just thought of something really cool we could do during pride month it's called including aces and aros

Protector, huh?

I guess he is: