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Panels, panels, and more panels
🕑 Added 2016-09-04 18:20:05 +0000 UTC I think Oima's strongest skill in Koe no Katachi is her absolutely phenomenal paneling. There's a mix of both purposeful alignment and precision to them and at the same time there's a clear flow to them. I read a lot of shoujo manga, and one of the things is replicating a sense of ephemerality, an ethereal sensation through these blending open-ended 'panels'.You've probably seen them: they're the half-page (or more) spreads that have open, flowery objects or tones. It's meant to not only let the reader hold in the details and slow down the pace of the story, but it also ties all subservient panels together. For Oima, that happens very rarely. Most of her panels are closed, tightly constructed. They're like prisons, showing snapshots of life, rarely allowing more than necessary to burst forth.
That's really important, I think, for a story about people who have a very specific, unreliable understanding of reality, of history, of relationships. That's also incredibly important when we get into synaethesia, that sensation of mimicking noise through visuals. The girl has a hearing disability. She has difficulty hearing. We don't hear when it comes to the comic medium. I think a strong connection can be made there.
I know I'm straying quite far from the original thesis - that Oima's paneling is stellar - but I wanted to stress, as if I already hadn't stressed enough, that Koe no Katachi's story is so strong because of how well it takes advantage of its medium. And, well, it starts with paneling.
