I just finished re-reading the manga since I didn't get to attend the 5th anniversary viewing of the movie in theaters. This is only my second read through, but sincenI learned the general plot differences from the anime on the first read, I was able to pay more attention to the details. Some particular things that stood out to me:

• Shoya's mom always seems to be smiling and happy, but she definitely has incredible strength and integrity. In the anime, of course we see her paying off Shoko's mother for the missing hearing aids. In the manga we see how she works to learn what Shoko really wants for a haircut, how she had to run business and take care of her family after her husband left, how she decided to walk away instead of potentially yelling unfortunate things to Shoko after Shoya's fall. There are other examples, but these stand out.

• Mashiba gets barely an introduction in the anime, but he has a much richer personality in the manga. Ultimately, I find him kind of off-putting in how he deals with any injustices with direct violence and how he is happy to lead Kawai on although he is mostly indifferent to her. But his backstory was explained in a way that you understand his motivations even if you don't agree with him

• Ueno is a lot more self-aware than the anime portrays her. I think this sub already ranks her as slightly more tolerable than Kawai Miki, but her growth towards the end of the manga makes me really respect her.

• Sahara Miyoko is another character with a surprising amount of self-awareness, character growth, strength and maturity. She tackles her bully Ueno head on in a way that makes Ueno confront herself, and Sahara show cases how to grow in your own confidence even when deep-down you are still afraid

• Tomohiro Nagatsuka is really such a loyal friend and all-around decent guy. Even when he and Shoya are having arguments and disagreements, he would never drop Shoya and he has a strong sense of justice and self-confidence

• Shoya Ishida could really do with someone leading him through his feelings, he is so dense about how he feels about Nishimiya Shoko. I'm sure it's very confusing to feel so guilty about his younger self's actions and then have romantic feelings thrown in the mix.

• Yuzuru is far too young to have felt the need to be her sister's guardian, to her own detriment. She skips school to be by her sister's side, she is the interpreter between her mother and Shoko, she took pictures of all the death she could find in a misguided attempt to help Shoko see the best in life. The end of the manga shows Yuzuru coming to terms that Shoko is her own person who can lead an independent life, and it comes off like a parent having a child leave the best vs a younger sibling seeing their older sibling go to college.

I have more thoughts to fit an essay, but I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on characters based on the manga!