Violet Evergarden

The Great War finally came to an end after four long years of conflict; fractured in two, the continent of Telesis slowly began to flourish once again. Caught up in the bloodshed was Violet Evergarden, a young girl raised for the sole purpose of decimating enemy lines. Hospitalized and maimed in a bloody skirmish during the War's final leg, she was left with only words from the person she held dearest, but with no understanding of their meaning.

Recovering from her wounds, Violet starts a new life working at CH Postal Services after a falling out with her new intended guardian family. There, she witnesses by pure chance the work of an "Auto Memory Doll," amanuenses that transcribe people's thoughts and feelings into words on paper. Moved by the notion, Violet begins work as an Auto Memory Doll, a trade that will take her on an adventure, one that will reshape the lives of her clients and hopefully lead to self-discovery.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Evergarden, Violet Main

Ishikawa, Yui Japanese

Bougainvillea, Gilbert Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Blue, Benedict Supporting

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Baudelaire, Cattleya Supporting

Endou, Aya Japanese

Hodgins, Claudia Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Marlborough, Luculia Supporting

Tadokoro, Azusa Japanese

Stephanotis, Leon Supporting

Uemura, Yuuto Japanese

Bougainvillea, Dietfried Supporting

Kiuchi, Hidenobu Japanese

Cannary, Iris Supporting

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Abelfreyja Drossel, Charlotte Supporting

Nakajima, Megumi Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Saitou, Shigeru Producer

Umeda, Kazusa Producer

Reviews

Jun 5, 2024

XOArama

Recommended

Finished rewatching one of my all-time favorites many years later. While I do think my opinion has changed in some ways, I still think it's an amazing series. There are some cons to the series I noticed more this time around, but I will not be taking the movies or anything brought up in them into consideration here.

For starters, I feel like the pacing and length of some of the episodes could have benefited greatly by being longer. Some of the episodes fit the story perfectly, such as episode 10, but others, such as the fan-favorite episode 7, felt a little too rushed for the ... amount of emotional payoff they're supposed to produce. Then there are other episodes where they fit in some personal background or main story stuff with Violet and then proceed to use the remaining time on an individual story, which is just not enough time. One of the better episodes is the OVA, which had an extended 30-minute runtime, and even that small bit of extra time positively impacts the story being told.

That's really my only main complaint. I didn't dislike any of the episodes, though some had somewhat strange stories; I think they all help Violet grow as a person. Then there is Violet Evergarden herself, who still remains one of my favorite anime characters ever. From her amazing design to her remarkable story progression, she's almost perfect. Watching her grow from a weapon of war to a real person is truly amazing, and the development is done perfectly in my opinion. Every job she takes on helps her learn about her emotions and come to understand the meaning of love, and the way it's portrayed is very real and vulnerable.

Lastly, the animation itself is downright beautiful, really setting the scene of the anime perfectly. KyotoAni did a great job. The soundtrack is on point and helps lift those emotional beats. Overall, I still love the anime. I'm a bit older now, so I can recognize more of the flaws, but it will still remain one of my favorites.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 20, 2024

Ryan_the_Bread

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

Aw man, I really wanted to like this :(

Brief - Violet Evergarden follows Violet Evergarden as she deals with adjusting to civilian life after having been embroiled in a harrowing war for the past 4 years. Now that she's out of the service, she finds it difficult to adapt to her new life and the rigors unique to it. Quickly she becomes an Auto Memory Doll (transcriber, essentially) and sets out to find the meaning of "love" through her work and experiences with others.

From here, the show takes us through Violet's experiences as a Doll and how people she meets through her job impact her ... and vice versa. That's roughly half the show, anyway. The other half deals with Violet's past in the war and how she came to want to know the meaning of love. I'm a semi-firm believer that few premises are (inherently) bad, and that what's more important is how the premise unfolds. Violet Evergarden isn't an exception to this, I found the premise interesting at first and wanted to see where it went, but before long I found myself not being at all invested in either story the show wanted to tell (Violet learning what "love" means and what her past in the military consisted of).

Story - In Violet Evergarden, you'll find overarching themes but not much in the way of an overarching plot. I'll justify that by saying that the storytelling feels much more like "and then" rather than "therefore". About half of the episodes are their own contained stories concerning Violet's clients, their troubles, and what they want her to write for them. That's fine in and of itself, but a problem arises when, after the second or third vignette, you realize that all of these stories will play out almost exactly the same.

The sequence of events is typically as such: Violet gets a request to visit some far-off land to transcribe someone's thoughts into a letter -> The client is currently facing some dramatic personal crisis -> They tell Violet to stay out of their business -> Violet, usually through not understanding social norms, in some way helps them to face/overcome their issues -> Violet gains some skill points towards empathy -> She leaves, having enlightened the client. Also, gobs of tears are usually shed by someone at some point.

Episodic television isn't the issue here. Columbo always gets his man, and that's compelling. The issue here is that all of these vignettes lack any sort of emotional nuance and bite. It's always SO obvious what the show wants you to feel. You could maybe make that argument for any sort of storytelling medium, but VE's tactic for eliciting emotion is less akin to strategic precision and more like a sledgehammer to the chest. This show could also learn something from the old adage "show, don't tell".

In every episode, some character will melodramatically spell out their trauma to Violet (and the audience) set to the backdrop of swelling orchestral music and impossibly bright and beautiful natural scapes. While I wouldn’t call it misery porn, there is certainly a lot of (literally) shiny people ugly crying. In media, misery displayed without depth or meaning usually leads to a feeling of (attempted) emotional manipulation on the audience’s part. Again, you could accuse most stories of this, but the way in which VE handles it is especially groansome.

VE is one of the few shows I would call “unpretentious” and not mean it as a compliment. It’s essentially baby’s first exploration of empathy and the human condition. It’s just so plain, obvious, and self-important in its intentions that it’s hard to become seriously invested. Have you ever felt bad for someone else and been even slightly introspective at least once in your life? If so, then chances are you’ll easily pick up what VE’s putting down. While some might say the moment when one of Violet’s clients breaks down crying, the music swells, and they become bathed in golden light is the part where it “all comes together”, I’d instead argue that it’s where the show becomes less than the sum of its parts. To so frequently rely on these overly-saccharine and melodramatic cry-fests shows a lack of original thought on the writer’s part. Needless to say, 9 times out of 10, the show failed to make me really get in my feels.

The other half of the story, concerning Violet’s past in the military, can often times cause an extremely jarring tonal shift. The fighting is portrayed as pretty grounded (for anime standards anyway) until 12 year-old Violet comes Naruto running through a wall of flames to effortlessly take out an entire squadron of men. Maybe it’s just me, but it always took me out of the moment when stuff like that happened. It’s never once explained how she got her hands on the Super Soldier Serum.

Beyond that, the war just isn’t compelling. It, like the themes, lacks in nuance. The bad guys are literally just called “The Anti-Peace Rebels”. Yeah, okay, Nazis aren’t exactly nuanced either, but in a work a fiction it might behoove you to give different factions actually coherent motives beyond just being mad butthurt over some lost battles.

Characters – I personally liked Violet better when her name was Rei Ayanami, she had an actually interesting backstory, and she wasn’t the main character. Perhaps I’m selling her short, but the main thread of “discovering emotions” is still the primary concern. My main issue with Violet is that she just isn’t all that compelling of a protagonist. Her “discovering emotions” and finding out what life’s all about just wasn’t very well done. She’ll smile naturally in one episode and then forget how to in the next. She’ll cry in one episode and then show no emotional development in the next. After she finds out her commanding officer is dead, she reacts in a very human way; she cries and pleads with others to reassure her. After that, however, she’s still prone to acting like a robot whenever others unload their trauma on her. Her humanity wavers depending on whatever the writers felt like having her do at any given moment. Most of the show is just other characters bouncing emotions off of her, which wasn’t very interesting for me.

Ah. I’ve just realized that most of the other characters aren’t worth describing. Partly because that’d be boring, but mostly because there’s nothing to them. They’re mostly all just perfectly nice.

Art – This show is gorgeous. The art is vibrant, detailed and pleasing to look at. The animation is fluid. It’s movie-level at almost all times. If I did have to point out something I didn’t enjoy, however, it’d be that some scenes are unnaturally bright. Not as in that the lighting is unrealistic for certain environments, more so that it genuinely hurt to look at due to how bright it was at some points.

Music – Not especially memorable, but pleasant.

Miscellaneous –
* Gilbert’s brother’s character made almost no sense to me. “Use this child as a weapon of war, brother. Okay Violet, now that you’re a weapon of war, I hate you. Despite being a military veteran, I’m going to blame you solely for my brother’s death. Obviously it was ALL your fault.”
* Injuries in this show are so borked. Violet didn’t bleed to death after having both of her arms severed and not receiving medical attention for an entire night, but some soldier gets shot in the back ONCE and it’s lights out before sunset?
* Violet nearly runs on water at one point. Again, HOW did she gain these abilities?
* Should’ve mentioned this in the character section, but Violet is the most Mary Sue of Mary Sues.

In conclusion, maybe I just wanted VE to be something it wasn’t. Despite that, what it IS still isn’t great. The emotional subtlety of a thrown brick, the Pinocchio arc done with basically no originality, the lame ass war dramatics and the supporting cast’s lifelessness are most of what contribute to this show being just “fine” for me. I’ve certainly seen worse shows, but I’ve also watched a lot better. Despite my ambivalence to it, it’s one of the most popular and hyped anime ever so what the fuck do I know? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Scores:
Art (9/10)
Music (6/10)
Characters (4/10)
Story (5/10)
Objective (6/10)
Subjective (5/10)

Perhaps good to watch if you’re not as emotionally jaded as a lot of people (myself included) and it’s undoubtedly beautiful. Just know that the beauty only runs skin-deep.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 23, 2023

mexicancat

Not Recommended

Funny

After ep.10 I complained about this title to my friend and he told me that Violet Evergarden was written by an 18yo girl. Idk if that's true but it certainly is evident that neither writing experience nor talent went into making this. The protag girl for some reason was intentionally made to be as dull as possible and in absence of any interesting supporting characters this makes the story utterly unenjoyable. What we have then is yet another KyoAni eye candy without substance (alright +1 star for visuals).

So for the recommendation part: I would argue that if you're a 10+ year old male ... and you have a higher emotional intelligence than that of a hamster, there is not going to be a single second in this that will impress you.

Cheers!

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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