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In Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice) my current interpretation of the X on
someone's face is that the protagonist does not wish to acknowledge or
socialize with this person. An extension of this could be perhaps that he does
not wish to hear their "voice", if we were to stretch somewhat on the themes
of the story.

Ueno is the only person I can think of when in the reconciliation phase gets
the X on and off. I can understand it being a part of the protagonist's
difficulty in attempting to reconcile with her and understand her motives
(which interestingly play similarly to his own of attempting to reconcile
Shoko with her classmates while she tries to reconcile him with his).

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Silent_Voice_\(manga\)#Characters)
suggests it is his disgust for her.

I'm looking for any other interpretation preferably with evidence of when the
X comes on and off. Is there a concrete pattern behind why and when the X is
put on a person?

If I have time and can find the images I'll add a few with chapter references
to better show examples of what I mean.


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2016-10-12T02:18:56.050
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2017-08-01T05:14:12.800
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koe-no-katachi
What is the significance of the X on people's faces from Shouya's perspective and why does Ueno get the X on and off?


> ## Spoiler Warning

. **TL;DR**

So the summary of this answer is:

  1. The "X" mark can be symbolized as "Not My Friend" or "No interest to interact with them". When Ishida feels pissed off because of an act or the attitude of someone/something, the "X" mark would be put on their faces. And when would the "X" mark be taken down? When Ishida thinks like "I like him/her, such a nice person" about someone or something.

  2. Because Ueno is so hypocritical, that make Ishida so pissed and happy at the same time. The X mark on Ueno's face was first marked in volume 3, and it came off in Volume 7 (the last volume), when Ishida tried to change himself. In volume 7, all the 'X' marks that everyone had in Ishida's perspective have already come off

The content from this point on contains spoilers. Read it at your own risk.

From what I could figure, the most accepted answer for this kind of question
is one where you can find in the manga version. Although I have not watched
the anime in full, the anime version seems lacking in explanation. And of
course I have finished the manga.

**1\. What is the significance of the X on people's faces from Ishida's
perspective?**

The X's first appeared in Volume 1, Chapter 5, page 2-6. Here are some of the
pages (read from right to left)

Page 2-3

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hLVBP.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hLVBP.jpg)

Page 4-5

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DVLYP.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DVLYP.jpg)

Page 6

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/as4hW.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/as4hW.jpg)

He has an

> anxiety disorder being with other people. He feels pissed off because of his
> own negative thought about the others. Look at the yellow marker, he hates
> everything, even the friend of friends that he hated. The "X" mark can be
> symbolized as "Not My Friend" or "No interest to interact with them". So
> that's the reason why the entire class have "X" mark on their faces. For
> Nagatsuka why he got "X" mark from the first, there is something that Ishida
> hates about him. For the other people like Sahara that doesn't have "X" mark
> when they met on the train, because Ishida has no reason to hate Sahara for
> some reason (exclude his classmate nor neighborhood that he hate). He will
> put the "X" mark down when someone wants to acknowledge him more and he
> trusted it.

**2\. Why does Ueno get the X on and off?**

It's explained in Volume 3, Chapter 18, Page 12-17 (read from right to left).

Page 12-13

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y3FQ1.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y3FQ1.jpg)

Page 14-15

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ua1Bm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ua1Bm.jpg)

Page 16-17

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/phqDc.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/phqDc.jpg)

Ishida said that he doesn't care about his ex-friend (aka all his elementary
school friends) in pages 12-13, but when he met Ueno for the first time since
junior high school, he did care. At first, Ueno's face didn't have the "X"
mark but in chapter 21, pages 9-10, Ueno did something terrible to Shouko, and
that made Ishida really pissed of with Ueno's attitude. So that's why Ueno got
the 'X' mark on pages 15-16.

Page 9-10

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CPSVi.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CPSVi.jpg)

Page 15-16

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sw0il.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sw0il.jpg)


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