Curious Manga

You know those times when you've just found the most hilarious/amazing/unbelievable thing in manga but you have no one to share it with because it's 3am and your friends are asleep or just sick of hearing you rambling about Japanese comics? Regardless of your answer, here's a blog about all that off-beat humor and cool art that manga holds, among other mildly related things.

[unclefather]

[jigglypuffsvevo]

[mattibee]

Important facts about Ho-oh

HE SCREAMED FOR THREE GENERATIONS STRAIGHT

[synthientmain]

“The one time I actually use a Pokemon with a type advantage. The one time.”

[wormdaughter]

[metiredlr]

Favorite character: *appears* Me: 

[maxkirin]

when you want to write something really deep but it ends up sounding like

[knightly-scholar]

I mean I’m just being honest

[oocmanga]

The Shape of Voice

Koe no Katachi , Vol. 1 by Yoshitaki Oima

In 2013, Kodansha Weekly Shonen Magazine published a one-shot by a 23-yeard-old mangaka. The first page drowned in the large characters asking "Can we really print this?" and i hesitated reading something that boasted its own controversy.

The 61pg one-shot introduces an elementary school classroom and its new transfer student: a deaf girl named Nishimiya Shouko. The children are apprehensive, but welcome the new girl with a hospitality that is learned and fragile. Nishimiya's difference soon becomes more than the children can handle, and Ishida Shouya is the catalyst to the deterioration of their well-played facades.

This is one of the biggest emotional investments i've experienced in manga. The portrayal of the bullying is concise, effective, and raw, but what astounds me is how incredibly real all the cruelty seems. This story shows bullying from the perspective of the perpetrator and it bares something present in all of us: the fear of isolation and blind self-preservation.

I'll leave it to you to decide why these people acted as they did, and you can judge the accuracy of this story based on your own perspective. I will agree with anyone that Nishimiya's temperament seems crafted to allow this story to continue, for i doubt any bullying survivor would be as indulgent of her attacker as she. However, Ishida also becomes the other extreme as a repentant and self-chastising bully as he frees himself of his self-centered fears and turns his actions towards amendments that are hopeless in their endlessness. Please keep in mind as you read (and i hope you stick with it) that the story doesn't seem to depict any specific or real bullying incident, but rather fantasizes as it poses a difficult question: how far must one go to sufficiently right the wrongs done against others and forgive oneself in the process?

A Silent Voice is currently licensed in English. You can access it on digital format with a Premium Crunchyroll membership (Ch. 62 is the latest). Kodansha Comics USA has taken over its paperback publication, with Vol. 5 (likely to cover up to Ch. 40) coming out on 01/19/16.

[iraffiruse]

[blamethewolf]

calibraptor:

Oh my god I’m glad I’m not the only person that sees this

[pancakeabomination]

Wondergirl and Queen of the Underworld theunadventureous shewasalesbian

[nellachronism]

This is fucking AMAZING.

[i-have-no-gender-only-rage]

Tumblr and pokemon.

Part 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

[i-have-no-gender-only-rage]

Tumblr and Pokemon Part 3!

Part 1 2 4 5

[i-have-no-gender-only-rage]

Tumblr and Pokemon part 4!

Part 1 2 3 5 6 7 8

[i-have-no-gender-only-rage]

tumblr and pokemon part 5

1 2 3 4 6 7 8

[i-have-no-gender-only-rage]

Tumblr and Pokemon part 8

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

[i-have-no-gender-only-rage]

Tumblr and Pokemon part 6

Parts 1 2 3 4 5 7 8