Shunned by others for his bullying, Ishida stops interacting with them and withdraws. Eventually he’s hauled up by the principal for repeatedly plucking Nishimiya’ s hearing aid off (to the tune of some eight sets).

Naoka Ueno (Yuki Kaneko) encourages his actions. Perhaps she tries a little bit too hard and apologises once too often. In the playground, Ishida throws little stones at her and when she tries to be friendly, he literally lobs dirt on her face. Nishimiya tries hard to be nice to her classmates asking them to communicate with her via the notebook and pencil she carries around. Flashback: in elementary school he is a troublemaker who picks on the new girl in class Shoko Nishimiya (Saori Hayami), who happens to be deaf. He does his last day at work, sells his possessions, leaves the money with his mum to pay off an outstanding debt and goes out to jump off the local river bridge. Shoya Ishida (voice: Miyu Irino) has marked the days up to the 15 th on his calendar and torn off the numbers after. Its effect on the self-worth of the victimised and the perpetrator. Beneath that clean veneer, though, lurks dirt. It’s anime, it’s a high school drama school children are drawn with clean lines and bright colours in bright settings with mostly clear blue skies. Superficially, this is a very clean looking film. Groundbreaking and innovative Japanese drama about school children, bullying, remorse, isolation and self-loathing.

Best anime of 2017 a silent voice