Silent had a great opportunity to make an amazing drama about Sou's hearing impairment, they could have focused on that and shown Sou's development about his disability, also developing the main couple. I know the drama made an effort to show the prejudices that the hearing impaired people suffer in society in some episodes but I feel like the drama wasted too much time on less important things in the beginning and then tried to rush everything later.

Seriously, what the relationship between Tsumogi and Minato was about? For me it didn't add much to this drama, only took precious time to develop and show most important things. The development of Tsumogi's relationship with Sou was completely affected by this and was poorly done and rushed later. Also this whole thing made the relationship of the three of them so awkward to watch. Tsumogi broke up with Minato but was already going out with Sou in two episodes later because the drama had to develop the main couple relationship. But for a character who said who was in love with Minato, it was so rushed. I felt awkward watching some scenes of Tsumogi and Sou because the pacing was just off and it felt too rushed (altought the actors chemistry makes me find them cute together). Also I think that the writer made things too subjective and it was difficult to understand the characters feelings, especially Tsumogi's and Sou. I could see her connection with Sou but I couldn't see her love for any of the characters in the beginning, especially for Minato, even the character saying she loved him.

Not to mention that besides liking the characters, they do bothered me sometimes. They take completely selfish attitudes and seem not to care about the feelings of others besides themselves. In their heads they think they are taking good choices but in the end, the decisions they make are nothing but selfish decisions. Minato breaks up with Tsumogi without caring about what she thinks and even says that Sou could get back with her, without considering Sou's opinions of this. Sou already being with Tsumogi, decides to want to get away from her because it would be too difficult for both of them. Tsumogi was also a character that annoyed me (even more than the others) because sometimes she just said thinks without thinking and I was like GIRL? how can you say this to Sou?

One more thing that bothered me about the drama is the importance given to the voice by the script. I understand the connection that Tsumogi and Sou have with music, and both characters got closer because of that. But I feel that the script gave too much importance for this and made it seem as if the characters didn't have anything more important in themselves. Tsumogi became obsessed with wanting to hear Sou's voice, the same thing happened to Sou. It's normal to want to hear the voice of the one you love, especially since in the past relationship of both they listened to music together, made calls and etc, but I felt that the script dragged this theme too much until the end and made me think that the characters only liked each other because of these details. As if their personality itself wasn't even important.

But besides this all, the drama do have their positive things. The chemistry between the characters are good, we had some good episodes with beautiful scenes and touching writing (especially the ones with Nana and Sou), the OST also is very good (probably one of my fav of this year), and the acting of the actors were very convincing. I talked about the characters annoying me but they aren't essential bad characters. I loved Sou. Tsumogi annoyed me but I felt that in the end she changed a little bit. Minato and Nana were both characters I really liked in the end too, they were so charming and cute for me. I also liked Sou's sister and Tsumogi's brother.

Silent isn't a bad drama. The characters are charming, they have good chemistry and the acting is amazing but unfortunately, I feel like the writer took too many bad choices in the drama that made the plot inconsistent and made the drama have a bad pacing. It's impossible to hide the fact that the scriptwriter did not seem to know how to develop the theme and got lost halfway through. I don't think it's an awful drama at all but it was disappointing in many things and had so much more potential. In the end seemed like the writer did not understand her own work.

PS: Also, what the scriptwriter said about not wanting the drama to be marketed internationally was so wrong. I understand her in parts but you're writing a drama about overcoming the boundaries with communication and yet gatekeeping people who doesn't speak the language and not wanting to other people besides Japanese to watch it? What a terrible impact to give to the drama.