Warning: the following review cointains some spoilers and is meant to be read by those who have either some previous knowledge of the manga or have already finished it. If you don`t want to get spoiled, don`t read it.

Ok, before i begin, let me get this out of the way: this manga is great. It`s an extraordinary shounen/slice of life story and one of the best i`ve read. If you haven`t yet, go read it now!

I`ll start with what i think it`s the main point of this series (besides the bullying and the deaf people wake up call) - communication. How people communicate. How people share their ideas. Their feelings. How they establish relationships. Love. Hate. Jealousy. Kindness. (Self) Awareness. Friendship. How they are able to connect to the world. How the world connects back to them. In other words, what shape has their voice.

Such is Koe no Katachi.

You see, communication exists because people interact with each other. They need to.

“Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god. ” - Aristotle

And people have their own circunstances. Different cultures, different upbringings, different life experiences. They are shaped by the good and bad things life gives to them. And then there`s society. There`s nothing worse than society. Society bleaches your mind with the things everyone think it`s good or bad. It limits your freedom and autonomy. Your way of thinking starts blending with the masses, you start losing your identity.
And yet you still need it and can`t live without it. You need to associate with others because you`re a social animal with basic social needs, it`s something that`s inherent to being human. That`s why society is there. And there`s nothing better than society.

Koe no Katachi works with that notion and explores the idea of communication. Precisely because people are different and have their own circunstances, some communicate better than others. Some need help in order to communicate because they can`t do it normally, like Shouko. Others just can`t bring themselves to communicate through normal means, so they got to work extra hard to do it while still following their own convictions, like Shouya.

I`ve got to say that i like how much Ishida grows throughout the story. From being a childish bully to an independent, completely mature young man. How he tries to make up for all the shit he did against Shouko, how he tries to deal with his "old" friends, who betrayed him and let him get all the blame. How he battles against own his self-loathing attitude and his self-imposed moral impossibility to be happy after having done what he did to Shouko. How he fights his own flaws and insecurities and, especially, how hard he works to do that. Hell, even his denseness towards both Ueno`s and Nishi`s feelings for him were kinda endearing and funny to watch. From the 1st chapter to the last one his development was brilliantly done and there`s was only two minor things i didn`t like in there. On one hand, it was his career choice. I hoped he would become a person who would work with deaf/disabled people, i always thought that would be the most logical choice, event though i completely understand why he chose to be a hairdresser); on the other hand, it was his behaviour towards Nishimiya. Sometimes (not always, only in one or other chapter) it felt like he was trying too hard to be her friend and to be friends with everyone else to the point of being almost obsessed with it and i didn`t like that.
Actually, that edginess in the characters behaviour at certain points in the story is the main criticism i have for this manga. Sometimes, you could feel a certain edginess not only in Ishida, but also in Nagatsuka, Kawai and Ueno. And that holded back my overall enjoyment and their own characterization quite a bit, to be honest.
Aside from that and back to Ishida, his development was flawless.

And speaking of flawless character development, we have to mention Shouko`s little imouto, Yuzuru. What a great character she turned out to be! The kid suffered as much as her sister, yet she matured so much over the course of the manga, it was one of the most pleasant things in the entire story, to see her grow up for the sake of her sister and for her own sake. Yuzuru is probably my second favorite character in Koe no Katachi, only second to Ishida.

In fact, both siblings were great. Shouko was one of the best female leads i remembre seeing in shounen manga. Extremely likable, a superbly mature and kind kid who deserves all the happiness in the world because she suffered way too much when she was a kid, to the point of wanting to die. Those chapters when her depression hit the highest point and she attempted suicide (as well as her suffering after Ishida went to the hospital right after saving her) were heart wrenchingly beautiful, so realistic and sad it almost moved me to tears. With Ishida or without him in her future, she build up something special with him, something that goes way beyond regular friendship or even romance. Something that won`t change forever, no matter what.

You see, Koe no Katachi is great because it delves deeper than most shounen manga in delicate themes, which are poorly/irrealistically portrayed more often than not. Fortunately, KnK isn`t one of those cases and naturally challenges upfront complex themes like love and hatred, bullying and depression, and most proeminently, friendship.

In the complicated human relationships that are established here between the characters lies the driving force of Koe no Katachi. For me, characters are always the ones who should drive the plot forward (and not the opposite) and that`s what happens here.

Personally, i really liked Ueno`s character. She was indeed a “hurricane”, like Ishida rightly says in chapter 61. Even though i didn`t like certain things in her character development, she was one of the main reasons why i love this manga. She`s strong yet emotionally fragile, determined yet insecure. She hates the world as much she hates herself and, most importantly, she knows Ishida better than anyone else and is quite similar to him in many aspects, which is something she bluntly tells him and something he rapidly acknowledges. In a way, she is what Ishida would have been had he not been punished by what he did to Shouko. Luckily for her, she was still able to meet Shouko again and most importantly Sahara. She grew up while realizing that what she did was wrong and even if felt like a slow change, it`s still there and we`re able to see that change in the ending chapters, pretty much ever since Ishida got out of the hospital.

As for the rest of the characters i still haven`t mentioned, i must say that while they were interesting, they fell kinda flat in comparison to Ishida, Yuzuru, Ueno and Shouko. They were still pretty good characters. Nagatsuka was annoying sometimes but it was still entertaining for the most part, Mashiba was plain weird and Kawai was one of the biggest bitches i`ve seen in manga. Sahara is a really kind girl. Shouko`s mother and Ishida`s mother were totally awesome. Maria was the cutest thing ever and i`m still pissed we never saw Ishida`s sister face.

Lastly, a short mention to the Ishida/Nishimiya relationship in this story (once again, heavy spoilers!).

Before you guys jump on me and burn me in a stick while throwing me stones at the same time, i must admit that a part of me didn`t want them to end up together. A part of me would rather have them keep being friends, in a "more than friends, less than lovers" kind of relationship, you know? Just like Kasuga and Nakamura. Or Kurosawa and Kitahara. Chapter 54 made me realize that when Ishida said to Nishi "I want you to help me live." I feel that those words feel 100% more powerful and meaningful than a simple - and i daresay clichéd - "I love you".
You see, i`m one of those people who doesn`t think that a story needs to have the two main characters absolutely ending up together. KnK is one of those cases.
Even though i still think that in this case those two ending up together is obviously a 100% legit outcome, i still think that their relationship is so much more than that...we`re talking about something more essential here, something deeper than love to the point it disappoints me to stop there, at the "love" part. That`s why i think Aku no Hana or Onani Master Kurosawa are perfect examples of this, both authors in those two works understood that perfectly and, to me, they`re the quintessential examples of what a coming of age story truly means - which is to grow up, to become an adult and, most importantly, a better human being. And I can`t be more happy because Koe no Katachi understood that just fine.