Koe no Katachi proved to be one of the hardest reads to put down I have ever encountered (and those reads include, among others, Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising and Without Remorse, Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire and Tolstoy’s War and Peace). On the surface, it’s one young man’s attempt at rectifying his past mistakes, if initially for rather selfish reasons. But underneath, the current of this story swirls into depths addressing bullying (and the types of people involved – victim, bully, and enabler), depression, family dysfunction, and personal redemption.

The premise is compelling enough to start reading it: 12th-grader Shōya Ishida seeks out fellow senior Shōko Nishimiya, a deaf girl he bullied during 6th grade into leaving the school he attended with the intention of trying to set right what he did wrong. This raises questions that offer interesting possibilities. Without divulging too many spoilers, we learn that Ishida, who started as the bully, eventually became the target of bullying at the hands of the same classmates he thought were entertained by his mistreatment of Nishimiya. During the next five years, Ishida withdraws from practically all participation with his classmates and spirals into a depressed state. It’s only when he attempts to apologize to Nishimiya that he learns that, contrary to all expectations, she had forgiven him and this begins to draw him out of the slough of despond in which he had become ensnared. Ishida cautiously starts a friendship with Nishimiya, but, after a dressing down from her younger sister, realizes that the change he made – apologizing to Nishimiya and learning sign-language – are only skin-deep and something bigger must change to prove he’s not just trying to assuage his own conscience. From there, Ishida actively works on building trust and friendship with Nishimiya and her sister, and starts working on becoming empathetic to those around him.

Ōima-sensei’s artwork is excellent. The use of varied angles, wide-scale images, and fine detail give a clear view of the world in which her story is set. One particular two-page spread worth mentioning is in Chapter 57, the final two pages, depicting the outdoors portion of the school festival. Ōima-sensei’s attention to detail for this one critical scene, including giving many of the surrounding characters specific details, should not be passed over quickly. Her color art is beautiful. With the sharply outlined characters and focal points against beautiful backgrounds, it’s hard not to pause and enjoy the imagery she presents to us. Given the serious tone of her story, Ōima-sensei doesn’t employ wild take style expressions, but, rather, keeping her characters expressions true-to-life.

The story itself, as I’ve said, is quite compelling. I think I ran through 18 chapters before I could put it down to go get a refill on my water glass. In fact, I wiped this whole series out in under 10 hours. (The perk of being a grad student on a non-class day. Yeah…yeah…I should be studying for that exam next week.) Ōima-sensei keeps the story focused on her primary subjects and doesn’t stray too far from them, addressing the serious emotional on the main characters that come from their struggling friendship, their friendship with their newly found friends, and the struggles that come with their family lives (particularly Shōko Nishimiya). The characters react reasonably as would be expected from their situations, including Nishimiya who starts as a quiet and timid type but eventually comes into her during the story’s latter-acts’ crisis. The supporting characters all have well-developed personalities with sold, foundational backgrounds that reasonably explain their story-present-time natures. Their presence not only provides the environment in which the two mains’ develop, but they create the seminal events that drive Ishida and Nishimiya’s characters to their fullest development.

With these thoughts in mind, I happily give this manga a 10/10 and eagerly await the anime adaptation’s arrival in the US.