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

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.

As one of my favorite films and manga, with a story that personally means a lot, I felt I had to make this set for my first Lego Ideas design. The angled walls and detailing of the bridge has made this an enjoyable challenge to design and I hope I have successfully captured the look of the location whilst keeping to the 3000 piece limit.

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 film 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 have submitted several shots of the model recreating scenes from the movie, although two do not take place at this location (the return of the bike and the 'moon' incident).

Also included are the main poster and shots showing the front and back of the two main model sections. Being aware that this is a large model I have made sure it can be split into two sections that can be displayed separately as well as being connected (using 4 pegs).

The ten characters all make appearances at the location during the film. I didn't realise the meeting between Miyako Ishida and Yaeko Nishimiya was behind the waterfall until I recognised it from this model! 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.

The accessories include items notable in the film, such as the bread, camera and a three pronged stem to represent the gift given to Shoya. There are two bikes, Tomohiro's red bike and Shoya's white bike (shown in the two forms it appears in the film).

The most important accessory is 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, although I have had to simplify the floor tiling and I hope my choice of tree design captures the feeling of the cherry blossom trees.

Due to limitations of LDD I have had to correct the images to use the 2x2 triangle piece (35787) in place of 1x1 squares; and apply the five stickers - on the posts and stone marking the entrances to the bridge and waterfall.