Manga about bullying - "Koe no Katachi"

[Grahav]

"A one-shot about a grade school class that accepts a girl with impaired hearing. Everything is not as happy as it seems. Although this one-shot won the 80th Weekly Shounen Magazine Newbie Best Mangaka Award, the vector of the content made it difficult for publication on any manga magazine, until it was picked up, after months of legal dispute, by the February edition of Bessatsu Shounen Magazine, where it got first place despite its being a one-shot. This one-shot was recently publicized again on the 12th edition of the 2013 Weekly Shounen Magazine."

Spoiler

You can read it here: http://www.batoto.net/read/_/158679/koe-no-katachi_by_futari-wa-pretty-anon

I made a search and found no post about this one. So I am recomending it.

Chapter 0 is a stand alone story. It began a serialization.

If anybody feels like to discuss it, post away.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'm always up for a good manga. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Casual Shinji]

Looks okay.

Worth following for now.

But I hope this girl isn't going to be the typical gentle at heart character. During that Chapter 0 I was anticipating somekind of catch to her personality, but she just retained her "I like everyone" mentallity throughout.

 

[Grahav]

Looks okay.

Worth following for now.

But I hope this girl isn't going to be the typical gentle at heart character. During that Chapter 0 I was anticipating somekind of catch to her personality, but she just retained her "I like everyone" mentallity throughout.

That was one of the points. In the final encounter with the boy at school he calls her out on it: "fucking coward!" and she is able to break out of it.

 

[Plucky]

It was alright, glad that there was some inherent reasoning for her being happy before the end...turns a little bit tearful slightly.

Spoiler

So basically, she was happy because she might have thought that the bully was mean to her because of how hated he was (namely the words on the desk, which she cleaned up), but the bully himself didn't knew that he was hated, thus became a semi-figurehead in the bulling against her with the hearing aids. the whole 'coward' thing was probably intentional, even after she tried to learn how to sing and hope he'd be liked a bit more....which indirectly made him more sour before he realized it was too late. so on top of that kid missing his chance to be friends with her. the random girl was presumably distant until he bumped into her again?

I'm reading into this right, right?

 

[Grahav]

It was alright, glad that there was some inherent reasoning for her being happy before the end...turns a little bit tearful slightly.

Spoiler

So basically, she was happy because she might have thought that the bully was mean to her because of how hated he was (namely the words on the desk, which she cleaned up), but the bully himself didn't knew that he was hated, thus became a semi-figurehead in the bulling against her with the hearing aids. the whole 'coward' thing was probably intentional, even after she tried to learn how to sing and hope he'd be liked a bit more....which indirectly made him more sour before he realized it was too late. so on top of that kid missing his chance to be friends with her. the random girl was presumably distant until he bumped into her again?

I'm reading into this right, right?

Actually, it seemed to me that the main bully wasn't hated until the class and the teacher needed a scapegoat for the behavior of all of them. Her kindness was the way she used to face the bullying, she thought that by being nice and prestative the problem would stop but she also felt responsible for the bullying because she felt she hampered her class by having special needs (writing, lack of musical ear, need of patience). Victims blaming themselves is really common in these cases, one of the reasons that bullied kids don't tell their parents. She kept her pain, frustration and anger boiled up inside her, the other kid was pissed because she never expressed, talked or acted on them.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Looks interesting but I hate bullying stories. I remember the one instance that could've developed into a lifetime of bullying, in my life. Just punch them. Punch them in the face. No passive aggressive bullshit. Punch them in the face. Simple as that. Suck up the detention, go back to school, boom: no more potential bullies.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Looks okay.

Worth following for now.

But I hope this girl isn't going to be the typical gentle at heart character. During that Chapter 0 I was anticipating somekind of catch to her personality, but she just retained her "I like everyone" mentallity throughout.

That was one of the points. In the final encounter with the boy at school he calls her out on it: "fucking coward!" and she is able to break out of it.

Yeah, but then the following chapters show her to be just the gentle fragile flower you see in many manga/anime.

 

[Queen Michael]

Looks interesting but I hate bullying stories. I remember the one instance that could've developed into a lifetime of bullying, in my life. Just punch them. Punch them in the face. No passive aggressive bullshit. Punch them in the face. Simple as that. Suck up the detention, go back to school, boom: no more potential bullies.

Now that's what I call ahands-on approach.
Heh.
(See what I did there?)

 

[Norithics]

Yeah, but then the following chapters show her to be just the gentle fragile flower you see in many manga/anime.

God, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's annoyed by the prevalence of this character type. I have never in my life met somebody who acted like that and wasn't the result of Stockholm's Syndrome. It doesn't make me think "Oh, she's so shy," it makes me think "Welp, she's got a horrifically abusive parent or two."

 

[Scarecrow]

Looks interesting but I hate bullying stories. I remember the one instance that could've developed into a lifetime of bullying, in my life. Just punch them. Punch them in the face. No passive aggressive bullshit. Punch them in the face. Simple as that. Suck up the detention, go back to school, boom: no more potential bullies.

I tried that, and I was in hospital with a fractured skull. It could never be pinned on the bullies because...well there were no witness, no evidence, nothing. Because I had mental issues, more apparent back then compared to now, they said I just tripped and fell.

I don't think that is a very good idea friend, because it's not solving the problem. It's trying to put out a fire by throwing a blanket on it. Maybe it will suffocate it, but more likely than it, it will blow up in your face.


Edit: Oh yeah, right, the manga. It's pretty good. I don't know why, but I found the layout kinda hard to read. It also kinda phones it in after chapter one.

 

[Hagi]

Read it but can't say I really liked it.

It felt way too designed, deaf girl being bullied. Bullying boy ending up to experience what it's like himself. Them meeting again years later with him regretting it and wanting to be friends.

It just feels fake. Not a story being told for it's own sake but manipulated to get the most reaction from the readers.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

It's a nice little story. Not anything special, but it's heartwarming enough.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Looks interesting but I hate bullying stories. I remember the one instance that could've developed into a lifetime of bullying, in my life. Just punch them. Punch them in the face. No passive aggressive bullshit. Punch them in the face. Simple as that. Suck up the detention, go back to school, boom: no more potential bullies.

I tried that, and I was in hospital with a fractured skull. It could never be pinned on the bullies because...well there were no witness, no evidence, nothing. Because I had mental issues, more apparent back then compared to now, they said I just tripped and fell.

I don't think that is a very good idea friend, because it's not solving the problem. It's trying to put out a fire by throwing a blanket on it. Maybe it will suffocate it, but more likely than it, it will blow up in your face.


Edit: Oh yeah, right, the manga. It's pretty good. I don't know why, but I found the layout kinda hard to read. It also kinda phones it in after chapter one.

Next time do it live in class. It's what I did. No mistakes there.

 

[Grahav]

Yeah, but then the following chapters show her to be just the gentle fragile flower you see in many manga/anime.

God, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's annoyed by the prevalence of this character type. I have never in my life met somebody who acted like that and wasn't the result of Stockholm's Syndrome. It doesn't make me think "Oh, she's so shy," it makes me think "Welp, she's got a horrifically abusive parent or two."

Read it but can't say I really liked it.

It felt way too designed, deaf girl being bullied. Bullying boy ending up to experience what it's like himself. Them meeting again years later with him regretting it and wanting to be friends.

It just feels fake. Not a story being told for it's own sake but manipulated to get the most reaction from the readers.

I guess the manga seems stereotyped. I think it is because this kind of thing is talked on here the west while in Japan the politic is to just shut up about it. The teacher is the face of japanese schools in regard to this.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Looks interesting but I hate bullying stories. I remember the one instance that could've developed into a lifetime of bullying, in my life. Just punch them. Punch them in the face. No passive aggressive bullshit. Punch them in the face. Simple as that. Suck up the detention, go back to school, boom: no more potential bullies.

Yep. Flawless strategy. Unless the person being bullied doesn't know how to fight, or the bully is much bigger/older/stronger, or being backed up by 5 of their mates, or they're brandishing weapons, or you do beat them down once and then they come back to jump you with their mates and with weapons, but apart from that, yeah, nothing could possibly go wrong. Glad we have you on the case to solve the problem of bullying now and forever. It's over people, it's finally over. We canal go home. Seriously, I really don't what the fuck you people who spout the 'just stand up for yourself and deck the ****' line of reasoning think these bullying victims are doing; they're not going to huddle up into the fetal position and politely ask the assailant to stop kicking their fucking ribs in. I'm pretty sure most sentient humans have mastered the ability to form a fist and swing it, but that doesn't mean that any street-shy scrawny teenager is going to magically start flooring people like he's fucking David Haye, if it were that easy then you'd be right, bullying would vanish overnight but regrettably shit ain't quite so simple and as it stands you come off like an ignorant fucking dunce.

Going roughly back on topic, I'll probably give this a read later. I've never personally been the subject of what I'd call a bullying problem and I've never been in a proper fight, so I'm thoroughly willing to admit that I don't have an answer to this issue which seems to be more than what a lot of people are willing to concede. I'd probably try something stupid that could backfire horribly like going to town on them with a cricket bat (a la the short film Soft) or try to get a friend to covertly record the abuse on their mobile for evidence but for all I know maybe tons of kids have tried and failed along that route and there's any number of variables where things could go wrong, but the point is I don't think there's ever going to be a one fix solution for this. Everybody's going to have a different situation on their hands. All I can say is fuck victim blaming.

 

[Hagi]

I guess the manga seems stereotyped. I think it is because this kind of thing is talked on here the west while in Japan the politic is to just shut up about it. The teacher is the face of japanese schools in regard to this.

I'm all for more attention to prevent bullying, it can seriously hurt someone, especially at that age.

I guess in countries where the very existence of the thing is denied this might be effective, but outside of that I honestly doubt it. It simply presents way too much of a black and white situation, everyone knows trashing the hearing-aids of an innocent deaf girl is wrong.

If you really want an effective bullying story it'd be much better to have a character the reader feels deserves it being bullied, because that's how real bullying starts, it's not seen as bad. It's seen as just a joke, as something the victim should've seen coming and adjusted his/her behavior to prevent it, which is why so many go along with it.

Get a story where at first the reader feels it's just a joke or the victim deserves it. Then have it slowly escalate whilst retaining that feeling for as long as possible, even halfway through the reader should still be thinking "well... he is kinda bringing it on himself...". That story I'll happily read and be impressed by, because that's a real story about real bullying. This just seems intended to make the audience feel comfortable about themselves and able to say how wrong bullying is and how they'd never trash the hearing aids of an innocent deaf girl.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Looks interesting but I hate bullying stories. I remember the one instance that could've developed into a lifetime of bullying, in my life. Just punch them. Punch them in the face. No passive aggressive bullshit. Punch them in the face. Simple as that. Suck up the detention, go back to school, boom: no more potential bullies.

Yep. Flawless strategy. Unless the person being bullied doesn't know how to fight, or the bully is much bigger/older/stronger, or being backed up by 5 of their mates, or they're brandishing weapons, or you do beat them down once and then they come back to jump you with their mates and with weapons, but apart from that, yeah, nothing could possibly go wrong. Glad we have you on the case to solve the problem of bullying now and forever. It's over people, it's finally over. We canal go home. Seriously, I really don't what the fuck you people who spout the 'just stand up for yourself and deck the ****' line of reasoning think these bullying victims are doing; they're not going to huddle up into the fetal position and politely ask the assailant to stop kicking their fucking ribs in. I'm pretty sure most sentient humans have mastered the ability to form a fist and swing it, but that doesn't mean that any street-shy scrawny teenager is going to magically start flooring people like he's fucking David Haye, if it were that easy then you'd be right, bullying would vanish overnight but regrettably shit ain't quite so simple and as it stands you come off like an ignorant fucking dunce.

Whoa there, name-calling? "Ignorant fucking dunce"? This is the stuff banned posts are made of, dude. You probably want to edit that.
As to the more elegant part of your retort - yes, not all of us know kung fu. But tackling (sometimes literally) the issue from the start is a good way of stopping potentialy bullying. I know it worked for me. And when I did the same for the chubby girl that was getting bullied, it worked for her, too. OK, so not everybody's up to it, fine. The moral here is be more proactive about it.

 

[Grahav]

I guess the manga seems stereotyped. I think it is because this kind of thing is talked on here the west while in Japan the politic is to just shut up about it. The teacher is the face of japanese schools in regard to this.

I'm all for more attention to prevent bullying, it can seriously hurt someone, especially at that age.

I guess in countries where the very existence of the thing is denied this might be effective, but outside of that I honestly doubt it. It simply presents way too much of a black and white situation, everyone knows trashing the hearing-aids of an innocent deaf girl is wrong.

If you really want an effective bullying story it'd be much better to have a character the reader feels deserves it being bullied, because that's how real bullying starts, it's not seen as bad. It's seen as just a joke, as something the victim should've seen coming and adjusted his/her behavior to prevent it, which is why so many go along with it.

Get a story where at first the reader feels it's just a joke or the victim deserves it. Then have it slowly escalate whilst retaining that feeling for as long as possible, even halfway through the reader should still be thinking "well... he is kinda bringing it on himself...". That story I'll happily read and be impressed by, because that's a real story about real bullying. This just seems intended to make the audience feel comfortable about themselves and able to say how wrong bullying is and how they'd never trash the hearing aids of an innocent deaf girl.

That is a good story proposition and needs to be told.

Just be careful. The danger with this kind of story is that the audience may think that the bullying is deserved, even after the ending. Even if it is well presented there will be stupid people.

I guess you may want to read this. "Onani Master Kurosawa". http://www.mangareader.net/399/onani-master-kurosawa.html
It is a very unusual manga but it is a grey story that you are saying.

Also there are places where this is so bad, that you need a black and white story.

Edit: About your last paragraph, that is exactly what happens later in the story.

Ah...........................

I just read everything, all the Chapters in one sitting. Wow I mean, I feel SO bad for her. And yet she's like me very apologetic and tries to not let anything bother her ever. A lot of things got me sad when seeing how bad the bullying was.

Also that teacher man- that teacher.... *sigh* Sadly quite a lot of teachers are like that. It's really messed up.
Thank you for showing me this manga. I really appreciate it. I do want to ask, is it continuing? I wanted to know what becomes of the two main characters.

I am glad that you liked it.

Well. The second series is continuing. Curiously, I have only found spanish translations from chapter 2 onward.