Did Anyone Die in A Silent Voice?

A Silent Voice has taken the world by storm thanks to it featuring teens’ struggles and their brush-ins with death.

A Silent Voice is one of the most popular anime films in recent years, and not without reason. It has an extremely relatable plotline, a cast filled with redemption-worthy characters, and stunning graphics to boot.

This has also made Koe no Katachi an extremely emotional anime that fans often line-up with the likes of Clannad, Your Name, and Anohana. A similar theme all of these shows share is death, be it literal or symbolic. Especially in A Silent Voice, there are a lot of concepts related to it that make an appearance.

Themes of suicide, isolation, and bullying are also present, which may be trigger people who watch the film without knowledge. However, currently, what we will focus on is death and the characters that might have fallen victim to it.

There will be spoilers for the people who haven’t watched the movie yet, so only read further after taking that into consideration. For the ones who have already watched it and want to torture themselves once again, let’s get started!

No one died in A Silent Voice, and every character is alive by the end. However, Nishimiya and Ishida almost died when the latter tried to save the girl from falling.

While none of the characters died, as I said above, there were instances where it was a very distinct possibility.

1. Shoko Nishimiya

Suicide is a weighty and fragile theme, and it was heavily portrayed in A Silent Voice. Bullied from a young age because of her disabilities, Nishimiya already had extremely low self-esteem.

After meeting her bully, Ishida, and befriending him, she finally felt as if a burden had been lifted off of her shoulders, and yet, there was always a lingering feeling that she was dragging everyone down.

When an incident caused by her created a rift between Ishida and his newly found friends, she relapsed once again and attempted to commit suicide by jumping off her balcony. Fortunately, Shoya reached in time to pull Nishimiya back, but he fell in her stead.

While this was a blatant suicide attempt, there were mentions of it even before in the movie and manga.

2. Shoyo Ishida

After bullying Shoko, Ishida was isolated from his friends and began to view everyone around him in contempt.

Referencing a popular still from the movie, he saw every person as a series of crosses, or instead as a bunch of pretenders. Ishida was filled with guilt, pity, and loathing, towards both himself and the world.

He contemplated suicide many times, and before finally committing the act, he decided to apologize to Shoko in a last act of penance.

When he met her, Ishida acted on impulse and asked her to be his friend. However, his motivation was still guilt, which was finally resolved when he saved her life.

The victim, Nishimiya, almost died, and so did her bully, Ishida. With both sides saved, and down a point, they could start afresh, as seen when Ishida and Nishimiya held hands when greeting their friends in the last still, thus indicating their blooming relationship.

About A Silent Voice

A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi) is a japanese animated film based on the manga of the same name written and illustrated by Yoshitoki Ōima.

When Nishimiya, a grade school student, is bullied due to her disabilities, she transfers to another school. Years later, as a final act of penance, her bully sets out to make amends and befriend her.