Author Yoshitoki Oima has amazed me with their manga series called A Silent Voice, which I recommend people to check out. A Silent Voice follows the plot of Shoya Ishida, a high-school boy, who during his elementary school years bullied a deaf girl named Shoko Nishimiya. This traumatic event caused Shoko to move schools and Shoya live with the guilt of making Shoko’s childhood the worst. As he grows up, he learns and reflects that what he did was wrong and wonders what would happen if everything was different: Could he have been good friends with Shoko? When he encounters Shoko after a few years, he apologizes to her for what he did and decides to make things right by becoming friends with her and getting to know her. He will do whatever it takes to make up for the years he made Shoko’s childhood the worst. 

This manga is one I would recommend to people because it had a pleasant and twisting plot with awesome character development. The plot in the book was really good and interesting because it had suspense, with shocking, happy, and sad moments where you would find yourself wanting to keep on reading more. The plot was also on-point with the topic about bullying and so much more. It went in-depth about how one traumatic event affected many people, causing them to have character development later in the story. The character development of all characters was awesome because they were no longer the people they used to be. They had some big and small changes due to their own realization of how they were in the past. As a character changes during the story, it makes the plot have a twisting turn, which makes it twice as interesting.  

The characters in A Silent Voice were incredible and it made me feel different emotions towards each and every one of them. Each character’s behavior and actions really helped to show serious topics and their aftermath. Their actions and emotions were similar to how people can be in the real-world. People can lie, be funny, helpful, mean, encouraging, brave, depressed, and almost anything that you can think that we humans do, the characters in the manga show it. Each character has their own perspective in the story, which I really think is great. Why? Because it is helpful to understand how each character feels about something through their eyes. We get to learn more of them, rather than just focusing all the attention on the main people. So when reading the book, it is something I recommend you to look forward to. 

The morals and topics were really powerful in this manga because they brought my attention to serious things that cannot be ignored. Some topics were bullying, depression, disability, and suicide. This manga helps people understand how important these topics are. For example, it shows people how bullying happens and how it would leave an impact on someone. It also shows how depression happens, what would happen to someone with depression, and how it can be cured/helped.  When someone has a disability, it shows how their life is, how they feel with a disability, and the thoughts that go through them. Finally, it shows how suicide occurs in someone’s mind. The morals in the manga are something else I really liked from the series. It taught many things like “Karma comes back” and “True friends” aren’t always as they seem.” 

Moreover, the illustrations in the book were admirable to see. Each setting, character, emotion, food, hit, trace of blood, and so much more were incredible to see because they looked so realistic and well-drawn for a series that is just in black and white. Adding cute and funny drawings in the manga definitely made the story fun to enjoy too. As you read the manga, you will see that the illustrations go perfectly with the plot. It gives so much information about everything through each drawing. Illustrations in a book really help it to stand out from other books, since it has drawings. Books with no drawings, just words, tend to be a bit boring than those with illustrations. 

Overall, A Silent Voice is a series that I recommend to anyone that is into inspiring, emotional, teaching awareness, and plot twisting graphic-novels or to anyone that is interested in reading something new. This book has been one of my favorites that I have read. The twisting plot, illustrations, to the rest, really made this manga be one to capture my heart and never regret reading.