Hey guys what is up welcome back to my blog I’m so thankful that you guys took the time out of your day to read my blog post. Hope you all are safe from the COVID-19. This anime made me cry, I’m not going to lie. It was tough just watching it all the way through because I take emotions very highly and I cried on multiple occasions throughout the movie. The only warning I have of this one is that you need to keep a lot of tissues around, because you’ll need it.
The story follows Shoya Ishida as he goes back to reconnect with the deaf girl he tormented in grade school, Shoko Nishimiya. We see the story from the start from when Ishida bullied Nishimiya and how his friends also joined in. The representation of the social construct of the school is pretty accurate. It is all about bullying the kid who’s the least popular and doesn’t stand up for themselves. The accurate example is when Nishimiya just puts up with her bullying and instead apologizes to her bullies, this works in their favour as they take it as positive reinforcement and bully her more. I can say it because I’ve seen it in action and most of the time I stand back too like most people and let it happen. Each of Ishida’s friends also represent a different form of bullying, Ishida bullies Nishimiya directly, his friend Kawai laughs along, then Ueno who helps Ishida and talks behind Nishimiya’s back then comes in his friends Hirose and Shimada who when Nishimiya leaves turn to bully Ishida and single him out for being the bully to Nishimiya showing karma comes around and hits pretty hard. There is also another girl Sahara who first befriends Nishimiya but then leaves. These characters all represented the different forms of bullying prevalent all across the world in all sorts of schools.
Ishida now in high school thinks that he doesn’t have the right to live and tries to take his own life but he is stopped by a last moment thought and instead tries to be better. He shows a single act of kindness and it returns to him tenfold which in turn motivates him to reconnect with Nishimiya and apologize to her. His battle through depression is a fierce one as he faces his demons one by one by first making friends with Nishimiya and then getting her to talk to everyone in the group that bullied her earlier to create a community that supports her which shows that everyone finds their tribe sooner or later. At the start of the movie, Ishida doesn’t look anyone in the eye and instead sees crosses in place of everyone’s faces showing that he is punishing himself for the sins of his actions and during that time the movie also shows scenes mostly below the waist representing that Ishida is down in a dump and needs to go through severe change to come back stronger while at the end the movie is shot from the waist up. Ishida shows real character development as he not only battles depression but also faces his sins and stops pushing them away, giving all his strength into being better and leaving the outcome up to God.
This anime shows how much we need to talk about mental health and how everyone is doing, first off the kids in the school if taught what an effect it could have on a person if bullied for their disabilities could have gotten them to stop, secondly there were no resources available to Nishimiya and Ishida as they both go through a phase of depression and only have their friends to look to for help but they are mostly alone. I believe that this movie has shown just how dangerous it can be to ignore mental health but has also shown that everyone can recover from their lowest and come back stronger, everyone can find a support system. The show touches some serious concepts of death and suicide so please if those things have an adverse effect on you then watch this with someone that can help you through it. In the end all I want to say is that everyone needs to watch this anime at least once so that they can see what a great masterpiece it is and how even anime can be good to teach people lessons of life.
I haven’t written any rap for this movie because I believe that it is such a masterpiece that it doesn’t need my work to make it known to people. It is solely out of respect for the creators and the art itself that I don’t make the rap. Anyways please do tell me what you thought about the anime and what were your special takes on the symbolism that is heavily used (I didn’t talk about it because it would spoil the entire movie but keep an eye out for the fish and the photos they really do show you something) in the movie. Don’t be mean to people, help the victims when you see them and always remember to ask for help if you’re the victim, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
So that is it for this post guys hope you got some value from this. Thank you guys for reading to the end hit me up on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn with your thoughts and if you have any ideas which I should write about. Stay safe from the COVID-19. Thank you again and I’ll see you all next week.
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