![]() Up to this point, Fushi has shown no agency or will to act on his own, soiling himself and dying repeatedly before resurrecting. Like the boy who passed away, March cares for Fushi, naming him and showing him how to procure fruit for sustenance. It is when Fushi encounters March, a sweet toddler, that his sense of self truly begins to take form. This emotional and physical stimulation causes Fushi to take on the form of the boy (which becomes Fushi’s default form and why he is referred to as he).ĭespite having a human form, and some experience with emotion, Fushi lacks human consciousness. Upon the boy’s death, Fushi briefly grieves, tugging on the boy’s cloak trying to wake him. When Fushi takes on his second form, a wolf, he meets and befriends a boy, who shortly after dies from blood loss and hypothermia. Eventually, as Fushi takes on more complex forms, the nature of this stimulation changes and becomes tied up with the experience of emotion. This begins small and occurs without intention Fushi’s first form is a rock he bumps into upon first landing on Earth. He gradually evolves thanks to his unique ability: he can copy anything that stimulates him. ![]() At the start of To Your Eternity, Fushi is just an alien orb, with no kind of awareness. Shoya and Fushi, the alien protagonist of To Your Eternity, share much in common as both characters find themselves through the experience of love, though Fushi’s journey enters the realm of the ontological, concerning the birth of consciousness itself. Shoya finally becomes a part of society, feeling worthy of loving, and being loved by, other people. However, in the presence of Shoko and the other friends he has come to know, the Xs fall away and people’s faces become clear to him. ![]() Attending a school festival, Shoya walks around, and like always, feels alone in the crowd with everyone around him blurred from his vision (ever since middle school he has not been able to look strangers in the eye and their faces are obscured to him, blocked by giant Xs). (Shoko and Shoya never become explicitly romantic but the film heavily implies they probably will in time). The ending of A Silent Voice depicts the impact of this love on Shoya. That is to say, saving Shoko also saves Shoya. The beginning of the film echoes this the thing that stops Shoya from taking his own life is the sound of fireworks - a direct reference to Shoko’s suicide attempt, which occurs during a festival filled with fireworks. He is seeing himself as a lovable person. He is thinking about engaging with people and making new friends. ![]() When Shoya saves Shoko from her suicide attempt - and nearly dies in the process - he isn’t thinking about what a bad person he is or how he needs to dedicate his life to making up for his sins. As Shoya becomes closer to Shoko and expresses caring for her, even risking his own life near the end of the film to save her, he finds his own inner goodness and the courage to reenter society. This spark of compassion and desire for connection initiates a healing that occurs over the course of the film and allows him to finally connect with himself. The film begins with Shoya contemplating suicide but, on a whim, he decides not to end his life, instead endeavoring to find Shoko, the girl he tormented. Friendless, and burdened with guilt, Shoya sees himself as unworthy of love and wishes to die. In middle school, he viciously bullied a deaf girl and, as a result, became a pariah. The two texts are entangled and essential to one another.Ī Silent Voice is a story of transformation and starts with the teenage protagonist, Shoya Ishida, wallowing in self-loathing. In this way, the series takes the core ideas of A Silent Voice and puts them in a cosmic context since the classic film is all about how. But in depicting the evolution of an alien’s consciousness, To Your Eternity asserts the transformative power of love, depicting how our capacity to love one another is the bedrock of our conscious experience. The former, adapted into anime film in 2016 by director Naoko Yamada, is a slice of life about a former bully and his victim finding self-acceptance through mutual recognition, while the latter, now an anime series directed by Masahiko Murata, is a grand action-adventure that follows an extraterrestrial being exploring a fantasy world. On the surface, the manga series A Silent Voice and To Your Eternity couldn’t be farther apart, despite being written by the same author, Yoshitoki Ōima.
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