Japanese Literature discussion

Okay, I'm not seeing much interest in this book. I guess you all don't have much of an interest in manga and I should try to find other book clubs that would like this. Anyway, I read this series up to volume 6. I really identified with the character of the deaf girl who gets bullied. I was bullied in school also. However, I think the whole idea of the bully never quite being able to redeem himself and all the drama between classmates becomes a bit too extreme. I would be curious to see what any of you think if you decide to read this.

I think you're right about the drama between the classmates. Shoya has been making ammends and has changed. The others have just shrugged off their part in bullying Shoko. It gets me worked up. Considering what happened in volume 6 I'd say Shoya has more than redeemed himself. I love that Shoko's mom defended her from Naoka. I was surprised that Yuzuru didn't, but I guess she was disappointed in Shoko's choice that landed Shoya in the hospital.

We haven’t had much manga discussion. I have enjoyed A Silent Voice. I sign some as do a few in my family. Although the series seems to be more about bullying, the sign language and Deaf culture part in Tokyo area is very interesting. There are several signs that are similar to ASL and it was good to see them and understand the sign. Finger spelling in JSL is impossible to understand unless one knows Japanese and JSL. (I think Unless one knows the “shape” of the spelled word.)
I have recently stocked the complete Manga series for our rural library.

I read this in mid-2021 and quite liked it. I appreciated the mix of independent and public schooling, bullying, and redemption.

It was far better than Flower by Wada Naoko, the manga about a girl in a wheelchair fighting against a lack of accommodation. But not as good as Cat Street by Kamio Youko, which while not about a physical handicap, is about bullying and social mis-adjustment.

I haven’t read the manga but watched the anime. This made me cry for hours. Such a beautiful story but so so painful

Didn't care for the film. Couldn't get behind it showing me this guy be so unspeakably awful and the immediately try and get me to empathize with him.

It's probably much better in manga format, as condensing the story into a movie-length runtime necessitates a lot of cuts and makes certain aspects feel rushed.

I like the subtitled version of the film best, although having Lexi Cowden, who is deaf in real life, as Shoko in the English dub added much to the impact that some of us felt. I bought the manga series for our local library.

A little bit about the author (credit Wikipedia for most of the below)::
Yoshitoki Ōima (大今 良時, Ōima Yoshitoki) is a Japanese manga artist and writer, best known for her manga series A Silent Voice, Vol. 1 and To Your Eternity, Vol. 1.

Ōima was born on March 15, 1989, in Ōgaki, Japan, as the third daughter of a sign language interpreter mother and has an older sister and an older brother. Due to her mother's work as a sign language interpreter Ōima was inspired to write the A Silent Voice manga series where she got help by her mother and her sister working on the series. All 7 volumes of A Silent Voice are available in English. The film was released in Japan on September 17, 2016.

Her first manga was Mardock Scramble 1 which was an adaptation of the same-named novel written by Tow Ubukata and was released in 2009. All 7 volumes are available in English. Mardock Scramble anime would be turned into a film trilogy. The film trilogy was animated at GoHands studio and produced by Aniplex, directed by Susumu Kudō and the screenplay was written by Ubukata himself. The soundtrack was composed by Conisch.

The first film, The First Compression, was released in Japanese theaters on November 6, 2010. It was also aired on Anime Festival Asia 2010.
The second film, The Second Combustion, was released in to Japanese theaters on September 3, 2011.
The third film, The Third Exhaust, was released in Japanese theaters on September 29, 2012.

She was also responsible for an illustration of the ending sequence of the ninth episode of Attack on Titan. After her success with A Silent Voice Yoshitoki Ōima worked alongside other manga artists on a collaboration manga called Ore no 100-wame!!. In 2016 Yoshitoki Ōima released her third full manga series under the moniker To Your Eternity.

In 2015 , Yoshitoki Ōima won the New Creator Prize for A Silent Voice at the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. A Silent Voice was nominated for an Eisner Award a year later, the Rudolf-Dirks-Award and the Max & Moritz Prize in 2017 and 2018. In 2018 she won at French Japan Expo the Daruma d′Or Manga for A Silent Voice and the Daruma de la Meilleure Nouvelle Série for To Your Eternity.

To Your Eternity (Japanese: 不滅のあなたへ, Hepburn: Fumetsu no Anata e, lit. "To You, the Immortal") has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine since November 2016, with individual chapters collected by Kodansha into twenty-one tankōbon volumes as of January 2024. The story is about an immortal being, Fushi, who takes on multiple forms and freely utilizes their respective natural abilities at will, including that of an abandoned white-haired boy and his white wolf, in order to further evolve and stimulate as it learns what it is to be truly human over the decades and centuries. Volumes 1 - 19 are available in English as of 5/27/2024.

On January 8, 2020, Kodansha announced that the To Your Eternity manga would receive an anime television series adaptation, to air on NHK Educational TV. The series was animated by Brain's Base and directed by Masahiko Murata, with Shinzō Fujita handling series composition, Koji Yabuno designing the characters, and Ryo Kawasaki composing the music. Originally scheduled to premiere in October 2020, the series was delayed until April 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The series aired from April 12 to August 30, 2021, and ran for 20 episodes. A second season was announced in the final episode of the first season. Drive replaced Brain's Base in animating the second season, while Kiyoko Sayama replaced Masahiko Murata as the director. The rest of the main staff are returning from the first season. It aired from October 23, 2022, to March 12, 2023, and ran for 20 episodes. A third season was announced in the final episode of the second season. Crunchyroll has licensed the anime for streaming outside of Asia. Medialink has also acquired the series to stream it under its Ani-One brand. Hikaru Utada performed the series' opening theme song "Pink Blood", while Masashi Hamauzu composed "Mediator", which was used for the first season's ending theme.

I am reading the manga Mardock Scramble (eng translations ~2011-2013) by that author/illustrator.
(Completed)
I think there is an animated version of this. I am interested to see if they stayed with her drawing style in the manga.