Shōya's elementary school friend and accomplice in bullying Shōko. Kazuki later starts to bully Shōya. One of Shōya's friends in elementary school who later starts to bully him. Shōya's elementary school teacher. Shōya's mother. Shōko and Yuzuru's mother who disapproves of her daughters being around Shōya. Maria's mother and Pedro's wife. Shōya's niece and the daughter of his older sister and Pedro. Shōko and Yuzuru's grandmother and Yaeko's mother. Maria's father, the husband of Shōya's older sister and Shōya's brother-in-law. Production The anime adaptation of the manga was announced in the manga's final chapter that released on November 19, 2014, later specifying that the adaptation will be an anime theatrical film on December 17, 2014. In the Weekly Shōnen Magazine 46th issue of 2015 that released on October 14, 2015, Kyoto Animation and Naoko Yamada were announced to be the animation studio and director of the film adaptation, respectively. The film's distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures, listed the adaptation releasing in Q4 2016. On April 8, 2016, the film adaptation's official website opened, announcing that Reiko Yoshida would write the script for the film, Futoshi Nishiya would design the characters and the film was scheduled for release in Japanese theaters on September 17, 2016. Kensuke Ushio and Pony Canyon composed and produced the music, respectively. The film's theme song, titled Koi wo Shita no wa (恋をしたのは), was performed by Aiko, while "My Generation" by The Who was used during the opening credit. For the English dub, deaf actress Lexi Cowden was cast as Shōko. Analysis Themes The cinematic adaptation, based on the manga of the same name by Yoshitoki Ōima, covers a large part of the original plot. Some segments have been shortened for runtime reasons. Individual scenes were weighted differently so that the manga can be considered supplementary literature, for example, of the characters' backgrounds. The more obvious themes covered by the film are school bullying and the integration of disabled people in society. The film then tackles with handling guilt within a community (although this aspect is exposed more in-depth in the manga), redemption for mistakes of the past, forgiveness and self-respect. Director Naoko Yamada explains that bullying should not be considered as the central theme of the film but rather a means to explore Shōya's personality as he gets older. The course of bullying is presented precisely and intuitively, in rapid sequences. It is depicted as a collective