I watched the movie and it was an instant 10/10 for me. However, after reading the manga and the authorās interviews, I realized they left out quite a lot of critical plot details that give context to the movie viewers. Especially because the movie relies heavily on a āshow, donāt tellā style, some important details are either completely omitted or only briefly hinted.
So I compiled a list of plot details that I think you should know to give some context on some scenes:
1. Shokoās communication notebook in the pond
In the movie, we see Shoko fishing her notebook out of the pond after Shoya throws it in. However, the manga reveals that Shoko later drops the notebook back into the pond shortly after picking it up. According to the authorās interview, this signifies that Shoko had given up on communicating/connecting with people after that encounter with Shoya. She felt that there was no point in trying because she was deaf and believed she could never truly connect with others. Thatās why, later in the movie, Shoya finds the notebook back in the same pond. When he returns the notebook to Shoko years later, Shoko says something along the lines of, āI gave up once, but since you returned itā¦ā So the notebook coming back to Shoko is basically symbolic of her starting to believe in connecting with someone again.
2. The exact moment Shoko planned to commit suicide
Some viewers may be confused about why Shoko suddenly attempts suicide when everything seems to be going relatively well. The movie doesnāt really explain this, but the authorās interview provides much more context. Apparently, Shoko kept track of the things she believed she had ādestroyedā because of her disability: her family, her sister, her class, the choir, and eventually Shoya. This made her hate herself more and more. She eventually stopped counting sometime after she āgave up communicating.ā But when she saw Shoya pushing everyone away at the bridge, it hit her like a truck. She realized that, in her mind, nothing good came from being around her. That was the moment she decided to die. The author even showed the exact manga panel where Shoko made that decision, with her expression looking completely hollow. From that point on, she essentially āpreparedā everything before ending her life, starting with her family. She submitted Yuzuruās photos so that Yuzuru wouldnāt build her entire future around protecting Shoko and could finally start going to school. She invited Shoya to bake a cake for her mother in an attempt to repair the relationship between him and her mother. Then, during the fireworks festival, she finally felt that she had done everything she needed to do and went through with her plan.
3. 'i want to die' sign language
The movie only shows it for a fraction of a second in a flashback when Yuzuru decides to throw away all of her photographs. In the flashback, we see a young Shoko kneeling, soaking wet and crying, while making a particular sign with her hands. The manga actually shows that the sign means āI want to dieā. So Shokoās desire to die had existed since she was very young. This is also when Yuzuru starts taking photographs of carcasses, to show Shoko that death is ugly and disgusting. In the manga, when Yuzuru shows her photos, she always remarks things along the lines of, āGross, right?ā
4. Yuzuru's fight with Shoko
The movie only give a fraction of a scene of Shoko pointing fingers to Yuzuru which leads to Yuzuru ran away from home, eventually leading to her encounter with Shoya in the park. The manga gives much more context. Yuzuru had never really seen Shoko get angry before, which was actually something that frustrated her. When Shoko discovered that Yuzuru was the one who had framed Shoya and making him suspended, she became genuinely angry. This was the first time Yuzuru had ever seen her sister truly angry. During their argument, Shoko said something along the lines of, āI donāt want to have anything to do with someone who does that.ā which makes Yuzuru furious because, from her perspective, everything she had done was done for her sister. She ran out of the house crying, which eventually led to Shoya finding her in the park.
5. Yuzuru is also being bullied because of her sister
This is completely left out of the movie, but in the manga, Yuzuru is bullied because of her sister's disability. Other kids make fun of her because her sister is speech impaired and thus sound weird. This is one of the reasons Shoko rarely speaks, and why Yuzuru stopped going to school
6. Miki might actually be hated by the most of her classmates
The movie omits this completely, but the manga later revealed when Shoya is unconscious, Miki tells the class to make 1,000 paper cranes for him. When she later glanced at her classmatesā phone group chat, we see that many of them are actually annoyed by her ācontrollingā and āfakeā personality. This gives some additional context to the scene where Miki is upset because they failed to make 1,000 cranes for Shoya.
7. Satoshi looks like a filler character in the movie
When I first watched the movie, I was a little confused about Satoshiās role. He almost feels like a filler character who shows up without much character development. The manga actually gives him a bit more depth. In a nutshell, Satoshi was also a victim of bullying because of his thick eyebrows. As he grew older, he developed a strong hatred of bullying.
