A Silent Voice (聲の形): Four Seasons Plaza (Miniature)

A Silent Voice's bridge and waterfall location, also known as the Midori Bridge and Tunnel Falls at the Four Seasons Plaza, 159 Baba-chō Ōgaki, Japan.

映画 聲の形 (Koe no Katachi), known as "A Silent Voice" in English, is a 2016 award winning anime movie from Kyoto Animation based on Futoshi Nishiya's manga series.

The story is about Shoya Ishida's attempts to make amends for bullying a deaf girl, Shoko Nishimiya, and follows their growing relationship whilst depicting the aftermath of bullying and showing the importance of listening and communicating with others.

This location is used throughout the film and the bridge has significant importance to their relationship as they meet their, on Tuesdays, to feed bread to the carp below.

I set myself the challenge to miniturise this model so that it is more marketable at 752 bricks on a 32x32 base, plus a further 92 bricks for the character display.

The ten characters all make appearances at the location during the film. I designed them in the outfits they used most often, and tried to get the hairstyles close, with both Shoko having both long hair and a ponytail. The only non-standard face I've used is for Shoya to give her a smaller smile and a single red hearing-aid. They include accessories notable in the film: such as the notebook, bread, camera and the purple cross that Shoya sees over certain character's faces.

A number of features in this model, including the suspended covered seating area next to the waterfall and the seating area above the waterfall, where not directly shown but I have been able to detail them by referring to the real world location. There are many little features I hardly noticed in the film, like the rocks in the water and the white drain channel down the wall behind the bridge.

I must give thanks to Google's street view and numerous photos online for allowing me to virtually walk round this area without actually travelling to Japan.

I have tried to recreate the various details seen in the real world location, and used printed tiles to replicate the complex tiling.

I also hope my choice of tree design captures the feeling of the cherry blossom trees.

Please support this project and maybe one day #LegoDoesAnime.