A Silent Voice, Naoka Yamada’s 2016 theatrical film about bullying, friendship, and romance, will finally be released in the US this April. The movie has been rolling in awards since its release, garnering praise for its incredible animation and overall quality. It won the 2017 Japan Movie Critics award for Best Animation of the Year, the Japanese Academy Award for Excellent Animation of the Year, and the Tokyo Anime Award Festival’s Anime of the Year (movie) accolade.

The dramatic focus of A Silent Voice follows the story of Shôya Ishida as he enters high school. Since elementary school, Shôya has struggled with the guilt he feels for the part he played in bullying the deaf Shôko Nishimiya out of his school. The feeling overwhelms him and gives him a new purpose as he moves into the next phase of his young life. In order to make peace with the gnawing guilt within him, he resolves to find Shôko and making amends by doing his best to become her friend.

Now, according to Crunchyroll, Eleven Arts and Shout! Factory will be bringing the frank and brutal look at bullying and young relationships to the US. The film will be available in a single package combining Blu-ray, DVD, and digital versions that include both the original Japanese and the English dub. This package of A Silent Voice will be available across North America on April 2.

A Silent Voice, titled Koe no Katachi in Japan, was based on an original manga of the same name by Yoshitoki Oima. Yoshitoki made a name for herself creating her first manga at the age of 20 with the 2009 adaptation of novelist Tow Ubukata’s Mardock Scramble. She followed that up with A Silent Voice which ran from 2013 through 2014. Currently, she is working on To Your Eternity, a manga about an immortal being sent to Earth that slowly learns how to take various form and develop a mind and emotional heart of its own.

The film adaptation of A Silent Voice released alongside the highly acclaimed romantic drama Your Name from director Makoto Shinkai. Shinkai, upon seeing A Silent Voice, proclaimed that the film was an incredible feat of artistry crafted with amazing attention to detail. The esteemed director even admitted that A Silent Voice was of a quality that he did not consider himself capable of making. Despite that lavish praise, A Silent Voice opened at #2 while Your Name claimed #1 at the Japanese box office.

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A Silent Voice will release for US home audiences on April 2, 2019.

Source: Crunchyroll