'A Silent Voice' ending explained: Why did Shoya remove 'X mark' from faces of people

A Silent Voice is a popular Japanese animated teen drama film, which was released in 2016. When it released, it got mixed reviews from fans who either felt that the film was unrealistic or liked it too much for its story and characters. However, a number of people have always looked up for the ending of A Silent Voice and an explanation of the ending.

Plot of the film

The film revolves around a boy named Shoya who is suffering from depression and has suicidal thoughts. The young boy changes his mind last minute as he recalls his time spent in elementary school. He evaluates events in his life that he considered led him to a situation where he was in present.

Shoya had a female classmate called Shoko, who was deaf. Some of the friends of Shoya start bullying Shoko. Soon the complaint reaches the principal and Shoya is singled out as the culprit and he gets the reputation of a bully, hence becomes an outcast. Shoya's classmates pass mean comments to him and he becomes lonely. As a coping up mechanism, he starts to ignore his classmates and crosses out each one’s face in his imagination. That way, he is able to turn a deaf ear to their mean words.

Shoya starts blaming Shoko for the loneliness he was going through. Throughout the course of the film, it is seen that both Shoya and Shoko are going through their lives journeys filled with pain and suffering. Years later, they happen to meet and open up about their feelings.

Ending of A Silent Voice

Towards the end of the film, Shoya meets Shoko and apologises to her for mistreating her. They open up about their feelings and Shoya tells her that he did have suicidal thoughts but has now given up those thoughts. She offers to help him.

Shoko and Shoya go to their school festival and Shoya decides to accept and listen to the people around him. When he does that, he is able to hear and look at other people’s faces again, giving him confidence in himself. The character is able to feel and accept the love and care from his family and friends around him.

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'A Silent Voice' Ending explained

A Silent Voice ending explained: Shoya was always afraid of the voices of others, who talked about him and bullied him. He, therefore, created an X mark on their faces in order to feel safe. But towards the end of the film, he decides to face his ‘bullies’ and listen to the voices of the others.

This enables him to listen to the real voices which are unlike the ones in his imagination. He is able to accept the voices of others even if they were bad-mouthing him and this becomes a turning point in his life. HE realises that good or bad, everyone has a voice.

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