Violet Evergarden

Waking up one day and discovering Violet Evergarden getting an anime adaptation by Kyoto Animation should be a blessing. At least that’s what it looked like on the surface. The light novel series earned the grand prize from the Fifth Kyoto Animation in the novel category. Even with two volumes, my expectations going into this anime was high. In particular, the sheer visual quality is a sight to feast on. However, Violet Evergarden isn’t exactly just known for that but does that mean it’s something to be praised? Written by Kana Akatsuki, the light novel series is a story about Auto Memory Dolls. They are dollsare made by Dr. Orland, a scientist who used them to assist his wife in writing novels. However, these dolls were also rented out to others for service. The main plot revolves around an Auto Memory Doll named Violet Evergarden as she tries to discover her purpose in life. As someone who came into this series half prepared (I have read parts of the light novel), I felt I was ready enough. The first few episodes came in as anime originals and that left me with some mixed reception. However, I will say that the pilot episode was a terrific picture. Beyond the lush quality and the visual magnificence, Violet Evergarden presented a story with heavy emotions. It synchronizes with the drama and melancholy of what I had anticipated. However, the main selling point of the show is titular character Violet Evergarden herself. The story feels like a character study that puts over her above the rest of the cast. Every episode focuses on Violet in some way through her role in the story, her interactions with others, and how she develops as a character. The conflicts she experiences tests her feelings and how she responds to them by trying to understand others. It draws viewers into asking questions about how she can develop as a character and in a lot of ways, I think the show did do that quite well. For instance, Violet displays a lot of human characteristics and tries to understand others. The most prominent scenes features her desperately trying to learn what “love” is and to me, this series chronicles her experience like a life journey of discovery. Unfortunately, I can’t really say that the first few episodes were well thought out in characterizing Violet as a memorable character. Beyond her expressions and role, it seems the show repeats a lot of the same things over and over. The example includes Violet expressing why she is an Auto Memory Doll and it gets tedious fast. It also doesn’t help much that the other side characters seemingly react in similar ways to Violet. My main concern for the first few episodes were mainly how this can keep viewers interested with such a way of storytelling. Fortunately, the series does get better and puts emphasis in some of the side characters. While the plot feels non-linear at times, some of the other characters do get spotlight through effective background storytelling. For instance, one of the episodes featured a 14 year old princess who gets engaged to a prince and while this seemed like a cheesy love tale at first, it resolved in a very emotional way. It gave me the impression that certain side characters are worth investing time into. In the meantime, the series does eventually step into the light novel adaptation territory as we learn more about Violet’s past and connection with someone very important to her. That person would be Gilbert Bougainvillea, a major in the Leidenschaftlich Army and someone that influenced Violet a lot since she met him. As we look at Violet’s past, we learn how they met and how much he treasure her like a person rather than a doll. It’s also important to note that Violet feels comfort whenever she is around him and not lonely. The anime in the present timeline portrays Violet as a very lonely character and doesn’t have someone to depend on. In doing so, it establishes Violet as a character that has a hard time understanding others. This is especially true for her after she heard Gilbert’s final words. The show dedicates time to explore Violet’s change since the past and how she reflects her experiences in the present. As I mentioned before, the series takes a lot of time into examining Violet as a character and getting viewers to understand her. The side characters play important roles in later episodes to make Violet reflect on her past deeds. To me, it’s effective storytelling as it really made me understand her behavior. The more I understood her, the more compelling her character became. I don’t know if this was the creator’s intention from the start but honestly, it does come together as a well delivered plan. Now you’re probably thinking of the story contains too much drama for its own good. In some ways, it does but in other ways, it’s also important for the main story. You have to remember that the timeline takes place after a war that Violet was previously involved in. Stories about war often involves pain, tragic memories, and even death. For Violet, she experienced the realities of war. Obviously, there’s going to be a lot of drama and its effect on the storytelling can be received with mixed receptions. I had some mixed feelings in general about Violet’s past as while it can definitely evoke emotions, it doesn’t feel unique enough to be memorable. In other words, I’m more interested in how she develops as a character in the present rather than focusing on her past. Even if it’s significant for her characterization, the drama presented in the background stories doesn’t always feel too impactful. I get it though. Some people will probably point fingers and say that it’s necessary. Others may agree with what I mentioned here. To me, I’m still more interested in Violet’s development in the present than who she is in the past. Otherwise, Violet’s role in the show feels more than just a protagonist. She is the character. Anyone watching this series will easily recognize the powerful production of the show. This is perhaps one of Kyoto Animation’s best work yet in terms of technical quality. The world setting has natural and lush landscapes with European style architecture detailed with vivid colors. Every camera shot feels impactful and there’s no drop in quality in any episode. Body movements are also timed precisely well to highlight every fine detail such as Violet’s character expressions and role as a doll. Speaking of which, Violet’s character design makes her look very elegant. If you haven’t known about her background story, it’s hard to recognize her as a former soldier. Her signature hand is also a trademark animated with impressive features. It communicates the message to viewers as what she is. Other characters in the show also stand out with their human characteristics. While there’s no fan service in the show, there are characters such as Cattelya that can be very pleasing to the naked eyes. It’s clear to me that Kyoto Animation and the creative team poured a sheer amount of effort into making this series as a whole. The theme songs also highlights a sensitive feeling of melancholy to match the series’ tone while character voice mannerism for the majority of the cast are able to keep up with their momentum. The music and OST also hits the mark to deliver what's intended especially for the emotional drama. It’s definitely a series that felt different to me compared to some of other Kyoto Animation’s recent works. This one was an emotional storyteller that gave us a reason why we should care about Violet Evergarden; not just the story but Violet’s own journey of discovery. While I can’t say it’s always an effective tearjerker, it’s still a show that’s worth investing time into. Well done, Kyoto Animation. You gave me a better hope for your future.

"When I die, I want KyoAni lower me down in my grave so they can let me down one last time." From the dome of quality differences comes Violet Evergarden. Show half episodic, half character-driven, half story-driven. Yet all these halves barely make one show. We mainly see try-hard attempts on making the viewers cry with melodrama. Most of the time it feels like spoon-feeding. Open your mouth, the emotions are coming! Let's take a bite whilst this every-sad-piano-song-ever plays on the background. The show does bring some interesting topics on the table, but instead of trying to do much with little, instead of developingthe characters and playing around with all the good things the series already had, it starts expanding itself with irrelevances, 3rd parties and events so unnatural it felt like Hachimitsu no Clover S02 all over again. The focus always being on emotions, yet 0 emotional depth is present. The characters on the other hand are bland and make no sense whatsoever. Violet comes with different personality and reaction based to the current episodic plot. Emotionally dead, hysterically crying little girl, I AM A WAR MACHINE - CYBERNETIC ORGANISM - LIVING TISSUE OVER ENDOSKELETON. Just choose your favorite version. Mine was the one in episode 6 who liked stargazing. I wonder where that personality disappeared for the remaining episodes. Gilber's brother makes even less sense. "You will be my brother's dog." And 3 episodes later "There is no emotional bond between my brother and you." Who wouldn't bond with their own dog? I don't get it. Does this guy hate dogs or what is he even saying. What a cunt. At the end of the day, Bialetto Evelugalden is a common drama series to this industry, and its saddest part is not the actual drama writing, but the waste of potentiality, the single thought about -not only how much better this series could have been- but how much better it should have been.

*I wrote this review a while ago and decided to finally update it to MAL* Violet Evergarden is a story of love and of lost, how do you cope with losing the person whose life filled your own? The playwright who mourns his daughter, the soldier who never came home, the little girl who lost her beloved mother but at the heart of it all though is the girl who wants to know the meaning of the words the major said to her "I Love You" the girl named Violet Evergarden. She can be described as someone with a slightly different sensibility to that of thenormal person. It’s not that she doesn’t have these feelings it’s because she was in a environment where she didn’t learn these lessons in humanity. She possesses these emotions she just doesn’t know how to express them or understand the feelings of others yet but through the people she meets she finds how to improve herself and begins to go through these complex, heavy emotions but the pain she experiences throughout the anime results in her growing as a person and it’s truly beautiful to watch. "I know we said goodbye, but I didn't know. It was forever." - Violet Evergarden Violet Evergarden will always hold a very special place in my heart. No anime has truly touched me so deeply and made me cry so many tears but tears of joy, despair, empathy and so much more that this anime expresses. I got so emotionally attached to Violet and her pain in the search of understanding and accepting her feelings and things that can’t be undone/forgotten. Violet Evergarden in my opinion is a truly emotional masterpiece and I am eternally grateful to experience it. She brings hope and love to people. She brings hope and love to herself. How her letters can bring you so much ~love ~hope ~happiness ~sadness ~bad news Thank you KyoAni for this masterpiece. Hope you enjoyed this review :)

"As human beings, we all mature physically from childhood to adolescence and then into adulthood, but our emotions lag behind." - Bernard Sumner This is the most memorable quote that had gone through my mind whenever I watched Violet Evergarden, and led me to ask myself this question: how do you learn an emotion? Experience? Knowing its definition? Or perhaps... By writing letters for others? Thus is VE's answer. Story: 7 I liked the novel, so obviously I liked the story. They did make me get worried with those original episodes at the start but later on they managed to adapt most of the best chapters. There arequite a few which are standalone: 5,6,7,10,11. The rest involved Violet and her co-workers. The first half didn't look that promising, but the second half improved a lot. I think it's because they put in a lot of her adventures in the second half, only involving Violet and the customer, which gave a lot more room for growth instead of being surrounded by the other workers. She's the type who learns fast when she's alone, you could say. Watching her change bit by bit a girl from emotionless and to some extent irritating to one who is able to experience emotions was very enjoyable. The story is not unique in the sense that she's trying to find the meaning of "love", but as it unfolds she learns other feelings as well, and soon enough we don't get the "I want to know the meaning of "I love you"" line. Pacing has sometimes been a problem, for example episode 6, where I barely got to know about Leon. They could've done more but I guess you have to expect that when you've got less than 20 minutes to cover an adventures. But in most cases they provided us with the right flashbacks and details to get to know the customers well. The anime did remove parts of the novel which were pretty bad: I'll start with witchcraft, a giant battle axe almost twice the size of Violet. I just couldn't believe that she could maneuver the axe so well, before she even got those robotic arms. Glad they got rid of that. They also made Violet very pacifistic compared to the novel, which helped to emphasize her growth even more, but this was at the cost of making her fighting scenes towards the end of the series ridiculous, since she chose to go head on without weapons at all, but still managed to take them down. Other reviews have pointed out the technological and cultural inaccuracies in VE, but personally it didn't affect me that much except maybe for those robotic arms which seem to be more advanced than one we have today... Rather, I was more annoyed by the battle scenes: a 14/15 year old girl fighting against trained soldiers, sometimes without weapons... I get that she is OP, but... the way her adventures unfold so conveniently at times was one of the main weaknesses of this show. There were some parts of the novel I would've liked them to include, for example Hodgins was supposed to visit Violet quite a few times when she was in the hospital and that helped to develop a parent-child relationship. They kind of tried to fit it in in between the adventures, but I don't think it was sufficient. The other thing is Violet's origins. They didn't go deep enough on that, and made people think that she became emotionless because of her time in the army. Art: 10 This is probably the best part and what made VE get such high expectations. The face expressions were great, the landscapes were great... If I was to point out the best ones, I'd say the scenes of the starry night (Ep 6), street lamps and the city of Leiden as a whole. I also liked the way they included flowers a lot throughout the series (especially Ep 5, you could see one almost very 5 seconds). The reason I'm mentioning this is because flowers are an important theme here: if you look at the names of most of the characters, they're all related to flowers. "People’s names always have some sort of meaning." —Akatsuki Kana (author of VE) If I was to point out a negative... Sometimes, maybe this was just once, they put too much emphasis on scenes which didn't really deserve it. In Episode 4, when Violet was first introduced to the villagers, they suddenly went all out with the animation, including sudden gusts of wind and leaves dancing everywhere. It was amazing, but not really worth it. Sound: 7 I liked the OP and ED, but that was about it. It didn't make me listen to it over and over again like Aimer's Ref:rain (best ED for me this season). The background music was alright, but they were often hit or miss: they would sometimes repeat it for too long and in other cases the music just didn't match the mood at all. But still enjoyable overall. Character: 8 From the blind obedience to kill to the development of a conscience which can heal, Violet's growth was truly remarkable, with the difference between her past and present crystal clear. Her blunt and fearless character had often been an obstacle against her success as a doll, but as the series progressed she managed to use them in the right circumstances. Her military salutes, her formal language, her expressionless face... They all changed. This is what the novel couldn't provide, those subtle details that show signs of growth. Only disappointment is the development of the other characters, especially Hodgins, Cattleya and Benedict. The novel lacked this as well, but I guess it was expected since so much was invested into Violet and her customers. Enjoyment: 8 Overall: 8 Good, but not a masterpiece. Would I recommend you to read the novel? Give it a try unless you hated this. But there are going to be differences, both good and bad. If you can't be bothered reading the novel but still want to know what happens, you can PM me.

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