Yeah, this is a "pretty" movie. The animation is nice, the character designs are pretty solid, and the voice actors are all good in their own right. The problem with this movie isn't technical, because from a Visual aspect it's all very good. The issue is in it's main story, scratch that, it's with the main characters.
The central plot device here is following the main character, Shoya, who ruthlessly bullied a deaf girl in elementary school until she was forced to switch schools. There are other characters too, a lot of other (to the movie's credit, believably written) characters who also partake in this cruelty, in what is a very well done portrayal of the escalation of torment for kids. The issue is what comes after, in which suddenly Shoya is supposed to be this sympathetic character. That's the chief problem, this movie tries to make you feel badly for someone who has no right to be pitied. It's about him trying to make amends, like that will undo everything and make the world all pretty again. Other characters are there too, and overall they all fall into this central theme, and problem, in that the film seems to assume that just because you feel "Bad" about something, that makes it okay.
These characters go around acting like feeling bad because they were cruel justifies it, that just because they're "sorry" they're suddenly absolved of sin. The film milks this dry and keeps trying to kick you in the gut, but it fails because there's no way this mentality can be sympathized with. Feeling sorry for yourself because you were a bully doesn't render your actions void, it doesn't make everything better, and the damage they've caused never goes away. As much as the film wants you to think that everyone is secretly good, it never gives me reason to believe as such. They haven't learned anything, they're just as selfish and mean as they used to be, they just learned how to make it SEEM different. One of the characters hates Shoko (The deaf girl), slaps her repeatedly, tells her that she hates her TO HER FACE, blames her for her problems, and then suddenly at the end we're supposed to think she's good just because she feels bad later.
In conclusion, it's a visually engaging film, but it's skewed perspective of "redemption" drags it down and makes it impossible to empathize with anything it presents.
The central plot device here is following the main character, Shoya, who ruthlessly bullied a deaf girl in elementary school until she was forced to switch schools. There are other characters too, a lot of other (to the movie's credit, believably written) characters who also partake in this cruelty, in what is a very well done portrayal of the escalation of torment for kids. The issue is what comes after, in which suddenly Shoya is supposed to be this sympathetic character. That's the chief problem, this movie tries to make you feel badly for someone who has no right to be pitied. It's about him trying to make amends, like that will undo everything and make the world all pretty again. Other characters are there too, and overall they all fall into this central theme, and problem, in that the film seems to assume that just because you feel "Bad" about something, that makes it okay.
These characters go around acting like feeling bad because they were cruel justifies it, that just because they're "sorry" they're suddenly absolved of sin. The film milks this dry and keeps trying to kick you in the gut, but it fails because there's no way this mentality can be sympathized with. Feeling sorry for yourself because you were a bully doesn't render your actions void, it doesn't make everything better, and the damage they've caused never goes away. As much as the film wants you to think that everyone is secretly good, it never gives me reason to believe as such. They haven't learned anything, they're just as selfish and mean as they used to be, they just learned how to make it SEEM different. One of the characters hates Shoko (The deaf girl), slaps her repeatedly, tells her that she hates her TO HER FACE, blames her for her problems, and then suddenly at the end we're supposed to think she's good just because she feels bad later.
In conclusion, it's a visually engaging film, but it's skewed perspective of "redemption" drags it down and makes it impossible to empathize with anything it presents.