

In [Koe no Katachi (OOIMA
Yoshitoki)](http://myanimelist.net/manga/48621/Koe_no_Katachi) (one-shot
version), at the end of the story,

> the boy, Ishida Shouya, finally met up again with the deaf girl he bullied
> in the past, Nishimiya, Shouko.

My question is about the exchange in sign language between them in the last 3
pages of the story. What do the signs mean?

> Why did the boy blush and reply "That's so embarrassing! How can you even
> say that?!" in page second to last? And in the last page, when the girl
> grabbed his hand, why did he say "That's not what I meant!"?

The relevant 4 pages. (negative page number, since I am counting from last)

**Page -5** [![Page
-5](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wNkhB.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wNkhB.jpg)

**Page -3** [![Page
-3](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ka5Xj.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ka5Xj.jpg)

**Page -2** [![Page
-2](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F6Ejp.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F6Ejp.jpg)

**Page -1** [![Page
-1](https://i.stack.imgur.com/SXyvW.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/SXyvW.jpg)


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question
japanese-language sign-language koe-no-katachi
Can anyone explain the ending of "Koe no Katachi" one-shot?


It says "you-me-friend" in JSL. The pronouns appear to be the same as ASL,
(finger pointing at the relevant person stands in for you/me/he/she/it) and
clasped hands by context appears to mean friend. In ASL, it would be hooked
index fingers & clasped hands means "to congratulate".

I didn't see any other panels with likely sign in them. On an unrelated side
note, JSL is distinctive for it's usage of air-writing, where some signs like
place names are the Kanji written in the air with your finger.


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He actually blushed after she had shown him a piece of paper with something
written on it, if I remember correctly. So we can only imagine what actually
was written here ("I like you", maybe?)

Grabbing one's hand should mean "don't leave me" (it is so in english and
russian deaf language).

The I/me/friend part is already answered, and it's correct.


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2013-07-14T13:37:38.560
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He was repeating what she had hand signed to him when they were in elementary
school, "Can we be friends?". Now that he understands what she said at the
time his reply to it now was how she could have asked that of him (which he
views as embarrassing). Both times she clasped his hand as an agreement or
asking for an agreement from him (in elementary).


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He's blushing while saying "you, me, friend" or maybe just "can we be
friends?" while reminiscing what Shouko said back then. It's after he said all
that that he realizes that it was a pretty embarrassing thing to say
(culturally, Japanese rarely say something as straightforward as that). The
next panel when he says: "Why did you even say that?" is the proof. His rebut
"that's not what I meant" is essentially to hide his embarrassment.


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There's one possibly-relevant translation issue (Japanese -> English, nothing
to do with JSL) in the pages @nhahtdh posted that might be confusing people's
interpretations of the scene. On Page "-5", Ishida's last line is more like
"Not being able to hear your voice made _my_ life difficult." - he's talking
about himself, not sympathizing with Nishimiya. On what would be page "-4", he
goes onto say that things would've gone better if each of them could hear what
the other had to say.

Contra @ssh's answer, there's no reason to suspect that Ishida blushing had
anything to do with Nishimiya showing him something on a piece of paper -
she'd only just gotten her notebook back from Ishida after 5 years, and we
don't see her writing on it.

> Why did the boy blush and reply "That's so embarrassing! How can you even
> say that?!" in page second to last?

Here, Ishida is referring to the scene around pages 26-27 where Nishimiya
signs to him "you-me-friend" / "can you and I be friends?". This is a very
touchy-feely and generally non-boyish thing to say, which is why Ishida
expresses that it would be "so embarrassing" to say something like that
(especially given his treatment of her prior).

> And in the last page, when the girl grabbed his hand, why did he say "That's
> not what I meant!"?

As we saw on page "-3", clasping hands indicates "friend" (or, per the text
given there, maybe something like "become friends"). By taking Ishida's hand,
Nishimiya reaffirmed that she still would, in fact, like to be friends with
him. I imagine that Ishida's startled reaction there indicates that he viewed
their meeting not as a chance to make up with her and start over, but more of
a chance to say "hey, I'm kind-of-but-not-really sorry about what happened
back then" - he wasn't expecting Nishimiya to be so congenial to him, I guess.


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After being scolded by his teacher for partly ripping off Nishimiya's ear,
Ishida was angry with Nishimiya, because she supposedly would have snitched to
her parents for bullying. So when they met again at page 24, they didn't
really want to talk to her, but instead of being angry for being bullied,
Nishimiya apologized. And despite being bullied all the time by Ishida, she
still wanted to become friends and get to know each other. So that's when she
took Ishida's hand and asked to be friends on page 26-27

[![enter image description
here!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PERO7m.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PERO7.png)
[![enter image description
here!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/vhGuIm.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/vhGuI.png)

Unable to understand her true intentions, Ishida got upset and threw away her
booklet and started bullying her even more severely the following days, until
he ended up being bullied himself. After being bullied himself, he couldn't
forget about Nishimiya and grew more curious by the day, so he learned sign
language. After five years he finally understood what she had been trying to
say. She just wanted to be friends after all.

[![enter image description
here!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ka5Xjm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ka5Xj.jpg)
[![enter image description
here!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F6Ejpm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F6Ejp.jpg)

As Senshin mentioned in his answer, grabbing someone's hand and asking to be
friends like that isn't a boyish thing to do, especially in elementary school.
And on top of that it was rather embarrassing to ask your bully to become
friends. That's why he started blushing, remembering the scene from five years
earlier.

Ishida was just repeating what Nishimiya had said, but as she still wanted to
be friends with him, she took the opportunity to reply to his question by
grabbing his hand, telling him she still wanted to be friends. This made him
blush even more, because holding hands to confirm friendship is embarrassing
and even though he doesn't mind being friends, he didn't pose the question. He
just repeated what she had said five years ago. It wasn't supposed to come
over as an actual question for friendship.


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I read through all the answers, and while a lot of them are good, I think
they're kind of failing to get to the main point here, which is to interpret
and explain this scene.

Shoya does the signs for asking to be friends, but he's only doing it in the
context of asking about when Shoko did the same signs as kids. We see this
because immediately after doing the signs, Shoya asks how Shoko could say that
back then, and that it's embarrassing. Thus, when Shoko answers with an
affirmative "Yes, I will be friends with you." Shoya replies with "That's not
what I meant." Shoko has misinterpreted Shoya's signs as him asking her to be
friends, and Shoya gets embarrassed as a result.

Another way to interpret it might be that Shoya asks Shoko to be friends, but
immediately gets embarrassed and reneges on it, and makes excuses that he's
just asking about back then. And when Shoko agrees, he's still embarrassed, so
he continues with his reinterpretation.

This second interpretation is actually exactly how things go in the main
story's version of this event in Chapter 6.

> Nishimiya... Could you... and me.. be friends?
>
> (Oh crap!! I went too far!! I was planning to apologize and disappear! Why'd
> I bring "friends" into this?!)
>
> I mean, that's what you were saying back then, right?! I can't believe you
> said something so embarrassing with a straight face!!

After Shoya says all this, Shoko grabs his hand as in the other version. Shoya
does not say the "That's not what I meant!" line, but instead just looks
surprised in silence.

The theme of _A Silent Voice_ , as stated by the author, is miscommunication,
so it makes sense that even after Shoya learns sign language, there would
still be hiccups like this.


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