Violet Evergarden

There it is, a body on display, delicate fabric hugging its frame as if a part of its existence from the very beginning. Porcelain skin adorned with silk, the material complements the complexion. The figure stands there without concern for the wondering gaze of any passersby, a translucent wall erected between it and the endless faces. Society is kept at bay. The soft glow of light dancing on the surface of the sheet of glass serving as its imprisonment. It shimmers ever so slightly, creating prisms of color in the endless shuffle. The rays of light trails over the delicate frame of the figure. Beauty ... blossoming from a thing of tertiary value.

But this is not Violet Evergarden I'm describing.

Look beyond the object, beyond the fabric; zoom pass the crystalline glass wall, and suddenly, the true image of my purple prose takes shape. There it is, coming into focus, a JC Penny's mannequin positioned at the window front of a shopping mall district. The dancing lights, nothing but the cheap glow of neon signs from neighboring competitors adjacent to it. The wondering gazes, nothing but customers with money to spend.

If embellishments for something so minuscule is all you need to be entranced by the item being described, then Violet Evergarden will not bother you. However, if you desire content equally as deserving of the words being used to describe it, then it might benefit you to move on to greener pastures, because like this opening paragraph, so too is the material on display hyper-stylized rendering of a truly insignificant thing. The main difference being the tool; flowery words traded in for audiovisual frontloading. Layered color gradients supplemented in place of proper diction. Lots of icing, very little cake.

But it's not all a lost cause. VE's story is one of relation. Or rather, everything surrounding it facilitates sentiments easy to relate to. One that practically writes itself. A person used as an instrument of war attempting to find ways to rekindle their lost humanity. An appointed position that gives opportunities to do just that. A girl disciplined in strict military decorum. A puppet with its strings cut loose, unsure as to what to do with her newfound freedom. She's a lost child, forgotten by society, forced to start from scratch. A holdover from a wartorn nation whose usefulness is brought to a crossroads. The story ends with the closing of one chapter, as we begin the journey of another. The journey is that of recovery. A journey aided by the guiding hands of someone not there in the flesh. Efforts made from beyond the grave for her betterment. One that will serve as her driving force towards improvement as well as the source of her grief as she draws closer to the answers she seeks.

Through her, we're introduced to this world. One made up like a quilt of different time periods and cultural influences, all stitched together to create something new. Victorian-era structures serve as the city skyline while the undeniable look of early 20th-century technology takes the form of motor vehicles, as well as a wide assortment of widgets and trinkets littered throughout the environment. Our person of interest, Violet, equally as blended. Her appearance is that of an unassertive young woman, while her mechanical limbs tell a different story. A story of violence and darkness. This temperament reflected in her personality. She only sees things in utilitarian ways; typewriters are weapons, school is a mission, her job becomes headquarters, saluting whenever given orders, requesting permission for all her actions. Social graces are completely lost on her. Her upbringing robbing her of the privilege to decide. There was only ever one path for her to take. Until recently, her actions were that of a blade, sheathed, just waiting for the time that its usefulness was required once again. An instrument of death whenever its wielder sees fit.

Her new job changes that. She must write for others as an "Auto Memory Doll," a profession where she's tasked to transcribe the feelings and thoughts of others, giving a voice for those that have trouble doing so on their own accord. A job where recorded sentiments are captured in a letter. A chance for an emotionally stunted girl to learn what feelings are. A "doll" wanting to become a doll, when in fact, the act of becoming one is what brings her closest to humanity.

As I said, the show writes itself.

A self-oscillating arbiter of "good content" for anyone wanting to express why it's "good content." The mere act of explaining its basic premise does the legwork for them. Except for the fact that when the content is lifted from the pages of its screenplay and brought to life by the magic of animation, it's equally as flaccid as the diegetic information would have you believe when following a character of such stunted social growth. It's a show perfect for overthinking, perfect for negating any naysayer, where issues are fended off as "it's meant to be that way." Subject matter created to facilitate a drab character doing things in a drab fashion. A machine-like girl with mechanical limbs given a task to emulate empathy. Her stilted, often wooden personality is accounted for by her upbringing. She's that way because she's SUPPOSED to be that way. It's all very self-serving. "To wear one's faults on their sleeve" taken quite literally.

It would have worked too, had there been no viable means to circumvent such insular logic. But here's where knowledge supersedes those counterarguments. Where one's experience can allow criticism to stick. This isn't the first anime to house such themes. And of those that did so before it, there are definitive examples of "better" out there disallowing the open acceptance of wooden behavior solely for the fact that the character's given circumstances allows it. Humans aren't that flat. To enable such simple-minded evaluations in place of spotting genuine issues is to trivialize the complexities of the human race altogether.

We already know what it would be like for an apathetic person unable to function without the strict regiment of paramilitary life because we've seen it done with a pedigree of writing befitting the serious subject matter. People that carry the baggage of their actions, the haunting memories of the things they've seen, unable to let go, to fully allow oneself to be integrated into society. We know what this looks like because well-developed personalities like Kazuki Fuse from Jin-Roh exists. Major Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell exists. Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist exists. PTSD is not a scapegoat for underwritten performances, and it should never be accepted as one.

These issues are made visible by VE's very crowning achievement. Pristine art and animation that ends up highlighting the thin veneer of its inherent value. The undeniable look of sterile sleekness. The artifice of humanistic warmth made bare by the prim and proper order towards everything on display. Everything and everyone is made beautiful. Age, circumstances, genetics; none of it matters. Mandated aesthetics dictate this world. You die beautifully. You get angry beautifully. You get beaten up with style. Even tears are delivered with streams of diamond-like orbs, with the owners' faces made for the camera. Everyone in this world like that of runway models, all given a chance to play civilians. Realism made implausible when all inhabitants look like they should be doing photo ops for H&M brochures. Any attempt at realism placed further on cease-and-desist when glimpses of battles are depicted with shounen-like fight sequences. A place where even the grim outcome of war must be performed with a sense of commissioned poetics, all done to appease the vision of a director too busy with their pursuit for a particular aesthetic to let the content speak for itself. Content that effectively gets in the way of its own vision because it's never granted the chance to breathe.

Natural light emulation that aims for Call Me by Your Name but lands somewhere along the lines of The Visit. How an anime could suffer from overexposure is beyond me. Goes to show you that when you emulate without understanding, the issues are copied as well. Time-lapse photography used in every episode, not for any purpose other than to show off. Lens blur effects used for flashbacks and present-time, not because there's a reason to but because the director can. Everything is in service of this perfectness. This very unnatural attempt at being "natural" utterly self-defeating of its intentions.

This is equally true for moments underlined with genuine character outbursts.

Silence is powerful. Playing music over every scene is amateur. Words drowned out by plucked strings, the steadily held notes of a violin, piano keys dolled out just as quickly; all of this without concern for what the characters are saying. Entire dialogue exchanges where silence is appropriate is washed out by a wall of sound. It doesn't compliment the material; it hijacks it. There's a time and a place for everything, this anime never come to realize that fact.

It may take drowning out its content before one take notice of what good is there, but in that regard, Violet Evergarden is not without merit. Our protagonist may be an empty vessel with flickers of humanity tucked inside, but thankfully we're not made hostage by her presence, as every chapter in VE is in service of someone else. People of far greater interest than herself. Their emotional range not limited—even when presented with the same aesthetic brushstrokes that everything is painted in—their humanistic tendencies find a way to radiate outward. And as a vessel, Violet is given a chance to charter her clients' emotions to those on the receiving end of the expressed affection, and through that task itself, is able to find a way to expound upon her own feelings in return. The broad spectrum of accumulated emotions serving as the proxy towards finding her own. The idea itself is very appropriate. I would even go as far as saying that it's thoughtful. It also operates with a pace befitting the subject matter, even if that pace is considered to be a problem to some. These things need time to happen. Thankfully, Violet is alotted that.

It's all told through carefully selected vignettes, being brought together by motifs relating back to nature, its seasons, and the various foliage that comes to represent them:

▸The story of Iris, a girl named after the flowers in bloom in her small village, seeking out an existence away from her meager upbringing. Unwilling to accept rejection, an act of stubborn pride catalyzes her steps forward.
▸The story of Luculia, a pleasant disposition befitting the flower she's named after. She puts the feelings of her loved one ahead of herself. Hoping for their eventual emotional recovery from a tragedy that robbed them both of normalcy.
▸The unofficial sigils of two kingdoms: one a white rose, the other red. Lovers-to-be and penpals brought together by political circumstances, but share a love that aligns beyond the expanded power and peace of their union.
▸The final days of a mother, the autumn leaves fall as a countdown to her departure from the land of the living, wanting nothing more than to find a means to comfort the daughter that she's leaving behind.
▸The blanket of snow that covers a warring nation in frozen stasis. People refusing to move forward. Like their winter surroundings, they too remain cold towards each other, leaving their country in a state of civil unrest.

And then there's the story of Violet herself, named after a wildflower in bloom; she's plucked out of the custody of a heartless man and into the care of one that sees beyond her reduced form. A disheveled mess, only treated as a tool, one meant to be used and later disposed of; the man sees differently. He wants her betterment at any cost, even if that means paying the ultimate price.

There is a beauty here when you view the intentions behind every chapter. The problem stems from the execution itself. Beautiful on paper doesn't translate to well-done in reality. Funny enough, the doll-like nature of the protagonist and her initial attempts at writing serves as a sort of meta-commentary for the content on display:

Her intent is earnest, she wants to understand the expressions and feelings being directed her way, but like her mechanical limbs, so too is the show written with a sense of artificiality. An emulation of real-life that can't muster up to being anything more than that.

Violet Evergarden is a beautiful plastic rose with stuck-on water droplets. It's well-kept. Never finding the beauty in decay. Never needing to accept the full spectrum of life simply because its creators are wholly content with being "perfect." True beauty is found in the blemishes. Within the scuffle of humanity's futility towards greater ambitions. True beauty comes from the majesty of life itself making mankind a mere moment in a pool of infinity. True beauty is humbling.

It's through the imperfections that true beauty is emitted. Violet Evergarden is pretty to look at, but with the absence of this understanding, it could never be the real thing, it could never be "true beauty."

“♫♫♫ When you try your best but you don’t succeed…
When you get what you want, but not what you need… ♫♫♫”

Emotions play a powerful part in storytelling; holding the capacity to tell more through expressions than words could ever hope to achieve. Furthermore, the degree of sentimentality and pathos one feels when watching is able to override any logical fallacies or flaws a story may have. Because of their poignant effect, these “feels” are often used and abused by anime to hide a plethora of writing problems underneath obvious emotional manipulation on the viewers. But whilst there are shows that come off mawkish and melodramatic, ... there are certainly those where sentiment is deserved. Violet Evergarden is the most recent anime that struck a chord with the community, practically built as a masterpiece before the first episode was even released and I could see why: an award-winning light novel getting an adaptation by Kyoto Animation – a studio adored for their gorgeous art style and animation – sounds like a perfect match to many. But does Violet Evergarden live up to its expectations? And, perhaps more importantly, is the emotional ride warranted?

Violet Evergarden follows a titular young girl whose purpose was to be nothing more than a weapon bred for war; a dog of the military, actions akin to a beast fighting for survival. She was never taught how to speak, write or communicate at all, only to kill. Treated as property by the military she was gifted to Gilbert, a major in the army who feels sorry for her, taking it upon himself to teach her valuable skills so that someday she may live the life of a normal girl. As time goes on their relationship grows stronger with her initial animalistic nature subdued and instead displays a more robotic-like behaviour in public. A romance between the two also brews, but their responsibility as soldiers of war takes priority and their affection for each other forced into stagnation. Unfortunately, war holds no mercy on the battlefield and results in Gilbert’s death. His last words: “I love you” – words that she doesn’t understand from the man who gave her the name of a wildflower in bloom, Violet.

The aforementioned acts as backstory to the main plotline that is not revealed until later, whereas the series begins with the aftermath: Violet is found in hospital, bed-ridden with prosthetic arms. The war is over and her purpose fulfilled, now she must adopt a civilian lifestyle. She meets Claudia, a former army commander who had befriended Gilbert during the war and is now president of a postal company that provides mail and ghost-writer services. Initially hired as a postal worker, she witnesses how the ghost-writer department works and wishes to become an Auto Memory Doll – a ghost-writer for those unable to write in order to learn the meaning of words and the feelings of others. The beginning is honestly a poor first impression, coming off sappy, predictable and acts as a shoddy introduction to each of the characters. Violet especially comes off almost insufferable here; her backstory is barely referred to with most of the details left in the dark, effectively throwing viewers into her moment of crisis without any proper context. It’s a perplexing choice on behalf of the staff, considering that Violet’s personality here leaves her a bland, dreary main character to follow from the start, lacking enough reason to care about her struggles to begin with. This is made worse with how the story begins at such a slow pace, making it hard to judge whether the show is worth continuing. However, Violet Evergarden is not a show that should be judged from first impressions, as there certainly is merit to be found.

Over the next few episodes Violet finds herself working and learning from other Auto Memory Dolls from their interactions with clients. The contrast between Violet and her fellow workers easily shows how far Violet truly is from her goal: currently emotionless and blank in her interactions, yet her desire and drive to understand the clients shines across the screen. This is further touched upon as Violet attends a training school and is unable to convey one’s feelings onto a letter. On her own, she is still unable to properly recognise emotions, but through those around her she slowly begins to grasp what they feel and how they express such. Here Violet’s bland personality acts like a blank canvas where those around her can leave their mark on her, allowing for parallels between side characters and herself to cause short instances of growth in Violet and a resolution on the side-character’s behalf. However, the show is never able to capitalize on these instances well. Rather than take adequate time and focus to let these small but important moments have appropriate build-up and climax to truly have a resonant effect, the show just treats them as merely parts of the plot that could very well be considered isolated from each other, devaluing each achievement Violet makes in her development as the show goes on. I personally found it appalling with how Violet finally learns to effectively convey feelings in an extremely short and concise letter, then not even a few episodes later she is extremely proficient in her writing. If only writing IRL was that easy ☹

It’s at this point where the pacing takes a sudden shift and the shows changes to an episodic format, focusing on Violet’s travels away from her workplace for different clients, each with their own set of issues to overcome, but all revolve around the idea of awakening their true feelings. As an Auto Memory Doll her job is to help her clients express what they feel, but here Violet sees the inner conflict present and aims for them to address and come to terms with it, with her acting as a catalyst when necessary. Whilst doing so, Violet continues to gain more appreciation for different forms of communication and gradually shows more signs of human behaviour. Her facial expressions able to tell more and more with each passing episode. It also gives a greater sense of the importance of society learning to feel again, accepting the tender aspects of individuals and its value. Relearning traits such as kindness, compassion and knowing how to best care about each other, so that when her time comes, Violet will be able to do the same for the own problems. Knowing this, these episodes should be lovely short stories to sit through, but that’s not the case. The way emotions are expressed here sound all well on paper, but in practice come off sterile – a “clinical” sense with how an entire spectrum of emotions are presented. There’s certainly logical reasoning behind why each feeling is portrayed, but as a viewer, these sensations are only being observed, never experienced. A sense of detachment always lingering beyond the screen, breaking any chance to bond with what is happening in the narrative. The series never tries to be melodramatic in its attempts of sentiment and I can respect that; through sheer visual flare it seeks to emulate like none before it, only to end up feeling artificial for the rest of the show.

It’s hard to get passionate about a series like this with such a lack of connection, but following Violet’s journey to self-discovery holds enough value that’s worth mentioning. Understanding her background and circumstances is crucial in understanding what Violet Evergarden is trying to achieve. She is initially a tool for battle, completely devoid of human emotion and understanding, simply bred to kill. It is only when she is away from the battlefield where she is aware of her apathetic nature and slowly starts to change. Her development can come off sappy, but it’s justified here in my eyes; slowly grasping how to sympathize and feel for others regardless of her actions in the past. It’s a war with herself, can her bloodstained hands really be used to help others? Is she worthy to? Constantly told she is on fire, it’s when she finally learns about her former lover’s death does the burning sensation set in and eat away at her soul. She gives in to despair and unsuccessfully tries to end her own life. Just when hope looks bleak, she finds a letter sent specifically to her. It’s her colleagues; they miss her. Violet decides to help deliver letters at night, and witnesses the people that anxiously wait for these letters. Cheerful, elated to receive words from those they care about, their emotions key to her understanding her newfound purpose as a ghost-writer. Her hands that destroyed so much – can now bring people together. While the supporting characters will come and go at the drop of a dime, it is Violet who blossoms through the show.

The production of Violet Evergarden is constantly praised for the exquisite animation and beautiful art design, both of which are well deserved. Kyoto Animation once again prove why they are one of the best in the industry and raise the standard for TV animation to new heights. Everything looks beautiful… almost too beautiful. The fluid animation, impressive character designs and attention to detail are all obviously here, but I would not consider it all to be a positive. Violet Evergarden draws a fine line between breathtaking beauty and over-stylization; scenes are “too overloaded” with their artwork and digital effects, with the first few episodes smothered in excessive brightness, chromatic aberration and filters than hinder the great animation on display. When a pen is dropped, it doesn’t just fall, it descends in dramatic fashion! It’s overwhelming. Part of the problem falls to the directing which is just blatantly amateurish at times, as if the man in charge is unable to grasp feelings himself. There’s a natural beauty to be found in subtlety when it comes to emotionally-driven shows that Violet Evergarden lacks. The need to present itself in such grandiose fashion manages to expose itself to how amateur the artistic choices taken are; techniques such as depth of field and time-lapse photography are used with the sole purpose being imitation to previous works that did them better. Don't get me wrong, Violet Evergarden still looks visually pleasing, but rather than a home-grown garden gleaming with a myriad of colourful flora, the flowers are plastic, and knowing such loses its lustre.

So, with having finished Violet Evergarden, my thoughts are as followed: I rarely laughed, I never cried and this certainly will not change my life, but there is value here worthy of one’s admiration. While it lacks on an emotional level to me, the intent is pure and still holds a sense of beauty that deserves to be seen. It’s a nice show one can easily sit through to pass time, but unfortunately I can’t say much more. It’s just a shame that for a story aimed at learning empathy, this message never reaches past the screen. For it desperately wishes to be as perfect an emotional experience can be, it’s the stories holding imperfections that have the most powerful impact.

Violet Evergarden was one of the most anticipated anime of the winter season, with its stunning promotional material showcasing beautifully animated scenes and character designs. It could be said that in that regard it was amazing and lived up to expectations. However, when it comes to the characters and overall narrative, sadly it isn't nearly as good as it could have been. The main problem can be associated with a lackluster cast of characters in combination with a seemingly aimless narrative.

The anime is based around Violet, a young girl that knows nothing else than war: when the Great War ended, she was left with no ... other option than to adapt a civilian life. By joining the Auto Memory Doll postal service, she will embark on a journey of self-discovery. Quite an interesting premise so far right? The different travel destinations the protagonist undertakes, offer each a diverse story of the client and their needs, while simultaneously developing Violet. These serve to shape the setting, as well gaining an understanding of the sociopolitical climate the story takes place in, helping viewers immerse themselves. Sadly, for a Victorian setting, Japanese customs are too prominent, making it a bit harder to engage with the narrative. In addition, the various stories on different episodes are quite predictable and cliché - some good, others not as much. Lastly, the narration lacks in continuity, and therefore coherence, as each episode jumps from one story to the other. As standalone episodes, they work, but as a package, it needs more context. One such example is where a character of apparent importance is introduced to the viewer, making them wonder what will happen next, just to fully ignore said character for the following episodes. This leaves a bad taste in the mouth, especially considering that the episodes, in general, feel slightly random. These aren't necessary issues, as characters play the most important part in Slice of Life/Drama anime, yet somehow they were lackluster as well. Allow me to elaborate.

First of all, the main character is bland and boring, robot-like; which is not counterproductive in such cases (when done correctly), since that is the whole point of the anime. However, character development of Violet was done poorly, where the actions she performed felt forced, often falling back on her main motivation to do this ordeal in the first place, which may appear as a cheap copout. Another slight problem is that she seemingly gains emotions, then to suddenly just lose them for the convenience of the plot. It could be argued that it is natural for an emotionless human being, although personally, I'd disagree, especially when taking into account how little it does to the plot. In addition, little effort is made to make her a likable character, whether it be through interactions with her surroundings or just some simple characteristics of her that could be expanded on.

Protagonists aren't necessarily the foundation of a character-driven story: secondary/supporting characters can fulfill that role too. Disappointingly, it even fails in this regard. The whole cast is generic as it can get, with not a single interesting personality to root for - they simply lack identity. Character interactions with the supporting cast are scarce, and when done, lack meaning. The anime tries to flesh these out with the limited screen time they get, but quite frankly, it leaves much to be desired. Admittedly, there are a few background stories that could be relatable to the audience, whether it be the reason why people work for the sake of working, or how people regret things only after they lose it. As a whole, the character dynamic problem lies in Violet hardly having any meaningful relationship with any of the cast, making hard to invest oneself. Such dynamics are not a necessity since, for example, Mushishi manages to do this perfectly.

Animation wise, Violet Evergarden is stunning as mentioned earlier: after all, it is done by KyoAni, a studio renown for its gorgeously animated scenery and character designs. The studio makes good use of close-ups (whether it be objects or actions of the characters) to emphasize the meaning of the scene together with the different emotions it wants to evoke. The used color palette works great for the format, although it must be mentioned that the occasional grey filter that is applied feels unnecessary. The opening and ending are beautifully drawn and shown, albeit offering little addition to the anime.

The voice actors did a good job on their respective roles, including the monotone voice for Violet that embodies her character - anger, despair, sadness, and exhaustion were conveyed in a graceful manner, although in some in instances it felt forced. As for the soundtrack used, it is befitting of the anime with the use classical instruments, such as the violin, piano, etc. These are reminiscent of Ghibli-like works, which I personally am a fan of. It does a fantastic job to immerse the viewer into the story of this Victorian like era.

Violet Evergarden as a whole was a beautifully animated work but lacked considerably in the most important parts, characters and story, causing a significant clash in immersion: the characters made it hard to feel engaged in it, while the animation and sound work invited to do so. For a slice of life anime, it fulfills its purpose, yet for a supposed story of self-discovery, it is arguably dull. This doesn't necessarily mean its bad/unwatchable; it simply could have been more than it ultimately was, since, despite all the issues mentioned in the review, I found myself enjoying the whole journey. All in all, Violet Evergarden had potential, but its shortcomings made it your average seasonal anime that comes and goes, just to be forgotten.

Thank you for reading.

Violet Evergarden game out in 2018 to near universal acclaim from the online anime community. The premise is…kind of odd. The main heroine is an ice cold, killing machine with supernatural abilities and amnesia. Sounds pretty anime so far. However, her country is now at peace and her days of slaughtering faceless mooks are over. So, she decides to get a career ghost writing love letters in order to learn what love is like. The way to get a 9.00 rating on MAL is apparently to mix Elfen Lied with Cyrano de Bergerac.

What this anime is actually about though is a robot created solely for ... combat learning to become human and develop a heart. Have you seen Terminator 2? Have you seen the Iron Giant? Good, you’ve basically seen Violet Evergarden! My favorite version of this character journey is the Xenosaga trilogy in which the battle android Kos-Mos develops over 3 games and 90 hours of play time. The Nietzschean undertones make it more unique. Not only is she becoming a real girl, she’s becoming an ubermensch who thinks entirely for herself and creates her own values. The last game BTW is called “Also Spraque Zarathustra” because subtlety.

This Pinocchio story archetype of a non-human becoming human and gaining a heart is quite old and has had a long-lasting appeal. There are parallels to the journey every child takes in growing up and learning right from wrong. The anime never explicitly states that Violet is a robot, but it’s pretty heavily implied. Even if it turns out she’s an alien or bio-weapon it’s the same journey. Personally, I’d rather follow a character journey more like the ones in Vinland Saga and Berserk. Those 2 main characters grew up as child soldiers and were treated as tools of war, but they were always human underneath. They forcibly repressed their emotions and their conscience in order to survive and keep killing people, but they always knew how wrong it was. Young children don’t have firmly established morals yet, but they don’t think like computers. I’d rather watch the journey and development of a human being than a computer because I’m a human and I’m biased.

Despite all I’ve said, I’m not going to be as harsh on this title as most of the Metacritic club was. There’s no point, since this isn’t actually a terrible anime and it’s not my job to sink this show’s reputation. 2,300 years ago, a rabbi who wrote under the pseudonym Kohelet, stated that “there is nothing new under the sun”. This statement was true then and continues to be true now. While Violet Evergarden’s character journey is one that covers well-trodden ground, that doesn’t make it bad! For many on MAL, this was their first exposure to this story and we old farts must respect that and understand how they feel.

“Human! My sensors indicate that you’re under some type of emotional distress. My instructor taught me a song. If you’d like to hear it, I can sing it for you. It’s called Daisy.” – Waifu 9,000

So how boring is Violet for the first half of the series? I think the HAL 9000 might actually have more personality and likeability. Violet feels like she’s not even an AI, but a robot we could build right now. Violet is like a hot version of the annoying robot in a trashy OVA called Cyber City. “Your welfare is one of my primary programming directives” Me: “Yeah, well my welfare requires that I get away from you!” Our male hero is some military asshole who falls in love with Violet during the time that she’s a soulless robot who executes basic command files and that’s it. Oh, and he believes she’s 14 years old based on her appearance, so there’s that too. None of the other characters get much development, so if you don’t love our main couple, you’re SOL. The main girl from Chobits was an android, but at least she was an actual AI! She showed fear, joy, concern, and demonstrated empathy right from the beginning. Since the main character is a country bumpkin with no experience dealing with women at all, it’s believable that he would fall hard for her.

So now that I’ve written about the plot and characters, let’s look at the animation. Kyoani is one of the most beloved studios out there and for good reason. They typically do a phenomenal job and put so much passion into their projects. Violet Evergarden was the first effort of its director, Taichi Ishidate, and it shows. It has an odd mix of cel shading and CG that looks fine sometimes and rather off-putting at others. Compare this with Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, which Kyoani put out the year before Violet under the leadership of the late Yasuhiro Takemoto. It sticks to a visual style that it’s comfortable with and it looks a LOT better for it!

I normally don’t cover character designs in my reviews, but I can’t help pointing out what looks like egregious plagiarism on the part of Violet Evergarden. The heroine Violet looks WAAY too close to Saber from the Fate/Stay series. I spent the entire series waiting for Violet to randomly bellow out “You speak to Arthur Pendragon, King of the Britons! Sovereign of all England!” There are only so many ways to draw a cute anime girl but come on! It looks like they just blatantly ripped off one of the most famous waifus in all of otakudom! This isn’t generally a problem that plagues modern anime. It’s not like the heroine in Arte is a carbon copy of Rei Ayanami. This is specifically a problem with Violet Evergarden!

Overall, this series is fine for what it is. If I were younger and in the right mood, I could definitely see myself liking this series. If you loved Violet Evergarden and it spoke to you in some way, that’s awesome! If it made you feel strong emotions, those are your emotions and that’s perfectly valid. Just because some cranky old man on the internet didn’t love it shouldn’t hurt your personal relationship with the series. I’m not sure I would actually give this one a recommendation, but it’s on Netflix and is widely available if you want something to binge from the comfort of your living room!

Dear Violet Evergarden:

With news of your arrival, you managed to rally up our community in a way no upcoming first installment title has before. The way you presented yourself was inviting, enchanting even. Few knew exactly what they were in for, but while not many expected a work as flawed as yourself, they knew to expect something beautiful. Your approach to conveying emotion is interesting, to say the least. Your intentions were rather wonderful: to show someone adjust to life after a war in which her entire existence was predicated towards, while trying to understand and convey emotions via letters and experiences in order to ... understand the last words of someone she loved. You take this robotic husk of a human being, slowly piece her past and how others are affected by said past, and have her grow as a person thanks to the people she encounters and the experiences she has. You showcase the brutality of war and the despair it has on civilians who will never see their loved ones again, all the while showcasing the struggles of adapting to civilization and coping with loss. On paper, it seemed to be a precious concept. While you seem to understand how to convey emotion, how to tie emotional moments together for maximum payoff, and how to truly utilize the audiovisual medium of animation to accentuate every emotional moment, you seem to have a difficult time earning emotional climaxes thanks to your pacing, how you like to spell out how a character, most commonly Violet herself, has grown, and the sheer lunacy you display in occasion. In a way, you’re eerily similar to your main character.

You don’t entirely lack subtlety per se, but you tend to spell out how Violet or another character has developed after an experience or what one of them is thinking that the audience is supposed to take away from a scene. It is the equivalent of Violet telling people how they are feeling. As they do not like it when she does it, it is bothersome when you do it. I like how you try to clue us into the fate of Violet's beloved major early on, simply with the characters’ pauses, their expressions, and how they try to dodge the issue. If you were more like that, simply letting the visuals convey a character’s feelings and what they mean in any given situation, you would’ve been even more emotionally resonant, especially early on and in the very end.

Another hindrance to the power of what you convey is how you skip events. For example, in episode 3, Violet enrolls in a program to improve her skills, and by the halfway point, she still cannot convey emotions in her writing, so she fails the course. After one more exercise after an unknown amount of time has passed, after the course is over, she writes a small, satisfactory letter, and automatically passes. Moments like this feel far too sudden, too undercooked, and thus, unearned. Each story is episodic in nature, in that they begin and end by the end of any given episode. With the way you employed this style of writing, you failed to give yourself enough room for some of these stories to play out properly. As such, you resort to nebulous and/or blatant time skips such as a few month time skip in episode 5, which makes everything feel ridiculous and cheap. The progression of Violet herself is not only spelled out to unfortunate degrees, but erratic and unnatural. Her character builds with each interaction, each letter, and each new event she finds herself as a centerpiece of, but the effects feel ill-prepared. It does not feel disingenuous or forced, but it feels awkward and confused at times. The silliness and even stupidity of some of your situations and outcomes make it even harder to take these tear-jerking moments seriously.

Violet is your primary focus, as she is molded by those around her. She is incredibly well-constructed, with every story hand-crafted to tie into her in some way, and make her grow as a person and understand emotions and love better than she did before each encounter, even if they sometimes feel like overdone conveniences for the sake of more tears. Additionally, her progression feels awkwardly handled, and as if she grew far too fast too quickly. The time skips make this even more apparent, such as in episodes 3 and 5. It is also a shame that the characters do not click as well as expected. You give us a few entertaining individuals such as Cattleya, but the rest feel less like distinct characters whose plights shake you to your knees, and more like people designed to get violet to grow and relate for the sake of pruning your doughy eyes. This would be fine if everything felt natural, but it doesn’t, so the cast, while not inherently bad or weak, are not nearly as impactful as Violet herself. Even the rare comedic moment feels forced, and moments of Violet being blunt are somehow far more amusing. Some of the more asinine moments you showcase are equally hilarious, unintentionally so. At the very least, these side-characters generally do a satisfactory job at what they are intended, so emotional scenes work with them, but there is a surprising lack of chemistry between them and violet, or between each other. Some almost feel like they should never be allowed to interact with certain characters lest they become harder to put up with. Other characters can be borderline laughable or outright pathetic, such as miscellaneous military men in episodes such as 8, or the male tsundere in episode 6. Violet cannot carry the weight of your cast on her own, especially when some do the dolls don't even get their closure unlike the one-offs.

However, as mentioned prior, you have a clear path you intend to tread, and you know exactly how to tie things together, even at the borderline frequent cost of the naturality and subtlety required for you to succeed at your goals. The purposeful irony behind your usage of “doll” is brilliant, as Violet is described as a doll in a variety of ways, from her job description to her as a person. Each story reveals something new about Violet that causes her to relate to them, such as how she got her name, or feeling the warmth of knowing a soldier you care about is alive. These are thinly-veiled, however. They are small, fleeting moments strung together in rapid succession to build without realizing the time there must be set aside or how natural and unspoken the growth must be. Combined with the borderline confusing and barely explored world-building, you’re ultimately a worse Mahoutsukai no Yome in this regard, and that's a shame given how you weave everything together to piece Violet more and more together each time, and how you utilized its audiovisual strengths to bolster your moments. These moments grow all the stronger, all the more painful in the second half, as things feel much more grounded, well-paced, and devastating on the whole, while the moments of nonsense stopped interfering for most part, ending entirely excluded.

Evan Call, oft known as someone who composes good music for bad shows, seems to have broken that reputation thanks to you, as he furnishes you, an actually competent show, with a myriad of emotional pieces that compliment their scenes in a satisfactory way. A few pieces stood out, such as “Never Coming Back” and “Inconsolable” for being the most emotional of them all, and “Torment” for being the only notable string piece full of violins and cellos. While none of his work here truly rivals his magnum opus “One More Time” for an inferior show named Chronos Ruler, this is probably the best soundtrack he has composed overall. Where the music he has gifted you truly shines, however, is with the opening: “Sincerely”, by TRUE. As one of the best opening of the year and one of the most emotional openings, even songs I have listened to, this song represents everything you hope to achieve, and moves me even more than your emotional climaxes do. Your ED theme, "Michishirube (みちしるべ)" by Minori Chihara, tries a similar approach, but the vocals can downplay the effects of the sad song.

Even with all the grievances I have laid down against you, I cannot deny your beauty. Kyoto Animation worked diligently to craft every scene with luscious detail, with gorgeous, intricate designs, subtle animation movements, and so much more. Even when the light saturation becomes intense at times, those moments have a distinct purpose. Even with the occasionally awkward CGI, it is barely present, so it barely detracts from your beauty. They may have gone overboard in terms of blurring backgrounds for the sake of depth of field, but it does not detract too heavily from what a sight you are to behold. The metallic hands, with all sorts of wonderful coloration, really feel as detailed as a fantastically animated anime film. Even with men that often look far too similar in face, the designs are as beautiful as the women you showcase. It is more than obvious that an immense amount of effort was put into the intricate craftsmanship of your appearance. The directing in some scenes, such as the graveyard scene of episode 8, or the first scene of the first episode, only strengthen the raw emotion being poured out in some of your best scenes. Even with the fight scenes that can only be described as competent, I can barely do justice to how gorgeous you are. Rest assured, as barring borderline insignificant moments and relatively understandable decisions and whatnot, you are one of the best-looking television productions I have ever laid eyes on.

In some ways, one might consider the hype surrounding you to have been incredibly excessive. In others, many seem to have been truly fulfilled by what you presented. Even with emotionally stunted and borderline laughable moments throughout the early half in particular, you succeeded at being impactful. Apologies are in order, as I cannot give you my happiest regards, regardless of your beauty and wonderful intentions. To the team that crafted you, I wish them luck in future endeavors, and on the prospect of making even better shows in the future. Enjoy the feelings you’ve invoked, and the fleeting moments you showcased to the world, for you’re under the service of many for now.

Sincerely,

Cattleya's secret admirer

[5.0/10]
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Filters, dolls, and grooming children Woody Allen style, the somewhat contentious Violet Evergarden attempts to do so much. From the precise, focused presentation by Kyoto Animation's art team to the messy, bloated, and ugly narrative, there is a lot to consume within the series. A lot to consume, but not a lot to digest. Like an airy, mediocre castella cake, it slips into your mouth with an initial hint of sweetness but once you really begin chewing it is just a piece of soft, bland bread.

With KyoAni's dark horse in the director's chair struggling desperately to milk every ounce of emotion from this series, ... we get a holistically fake experience. One, like the dolls presented, lacking all forms of nuance, subtlety, and pacing. It is too slow when getting through exposition, too fast when the trajectory is on the action, and ultimately a confusing, directionless mess of scattering debris and disappointing characterization with equally banal storytelling.

It looks pretty incredible though.

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[Beauty Hides the Beast]

Yeah, so Evergarden is unarguably a looker. It delivers in virtually every aspect of animation. Kyoto Animation has, in my opinion, the most talented and proficient group of animators in the entire anime industry and then some. With a relatively small team, they release products that put every other televised anime to utter and hilarious shame. They even put some films to shame with this series. It really is that good looking.

Evergarden's aesthetic exists in the minutia, too. Not just how time-saving techniques pioneered decades ago are virtually not present within this series, which might be one of the most captivating things about the show, but it is in the lighting. How meticulous the effects work is. How they managed to convey manga-level detail into fully animated characters is literally unlike anything else I've seen in the television anime hemisphere.

The soundtrack is solid, even if it is overbearing. We get backing tracks over almost every scene. Thankfully, a few of them are earworms and others are simply serviceable. The opening and closing tracks are pretty forgettable and I honestly ended up skipping past them when I could.

Everything isn't perfect in the land of lens flares and filters, unfortunately. The direction is weak. I say weak in comparison to just about any other KyoAni product I've seen. Ishidate either struggled with restrictions or simply couldn't develop a coherent and unique style for himself, which is rare for the beautiful palate of directors KyoAni has the privilege of working with. The few episodes helmed by other names were substantially easier on the eyes.

That's not to say the direction is awful in the grand scheme of things. It is serviceable and this series is generally directed like a mediocre drama anime. We get all the famous, cliche, and boring shots that you'd expect from any other drama of Evergarden's ilk. I was thoroughly underwhelmed. The beauty here really masks the beast underneath, though. While the art is unquestionably jaw-dropping and audacious. There is a lot under the hood of this series that is decidedly not so. This leads me to the beast.

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[The Beast]

Violet Evergarden is a super-soldier from an unknown location that is never explained or mentioned in any detail. The world here is a steampunky post-victorian England. She was trained to be nothing but a weapon. Violet is treated poorly by all the generic military men you can imagine until she is gifted, as a tool, to a random generic military guy that isn't a douchebag for some reason. This guy is Gilbert, a handsome blue-haired anime boy that is probably around twice Violet's age. He buys her a knick-knack and because this twelve-year-old girl has been treated like the gum on the bottom of a shoe by everyone but this one Gilbert fellow she instantly grows attached to him.

He proceeds to follow orders rigidly, throwing this twelve-year-old girl into battles where she promptly slaughters everyone. How does this twelve-year-old girl do this? Never explained. Regardless, she's overpowered as hell and probably has ninja-genes because she naruto-runs all over these redshirts. One thing leads to another and in a war-ending battle Gilbert is injured and she tries to save him. In the process, she loses both arms and he kind of maybe sort of dies.

Now, post-war, she begins work as an "auto-memory doll", which is pretty much a ghostwriter for letters. She vows to find the "meaning of love", which is as corny as it sounds. Violet meets a few colorful characters, and by colorful I mean lacking personality but are literally colorful. After that, we are treated to a few vignettes that are presented throughout the series.

Here's how they go :

--> Problem/Task is introduced.

--> Violet needs to travel and write.

--> Violet takes off her gloves and everyone goes "OwO what's this?"

--> She writes something about this problem, which is somewhat related to her experiences in the past through virtue of thematic resemblances.

--> Problem resolves in a way which is either bittersweet or mostly bitter.

--> Someone monologues about something vaguely related to the story.

Ironically, these vignettes, barring episode five, are the best narratives of the series. There are two specific highlights. One is a sweet, albeit corny story of a struggling drunk playwright and how Violet reminds him of a lost loved one. The other is a short about an ill mother. Both of these hold a decent, saccharine emotional punch that genuinely is good enough for this series. Unfortunately, Evergarden quickly relapses back into the "main narrative" which actually unbearable.

Before I touch on that, I want to mention that episode five is honestly disturbing. In this vignette, Violet attempts to assist a bratty crybaby princess in writing letters to a prince she's "in love" with. This marriage they must engage with is political, clearly, but of course, she is head-over-heels for this guy. She's fourteen. He's twenty-four. The parallels here are beyond clear and they are quite creepy. More so because unlike a lot of anime which does include this kind of cringe-inducing nonsense and more, this series plays itself disarmingly straight with this. You are supposed to believe and connect with the idea of a fourteen-year-old girl being married to a twenty-four-year-old man. But to make matters worse, this princess recalls the first time she met him (and the only time), which prompted her to fall in love with him.

She was ten. He was twenty. We get treated with an absolutely delicious bone-chilling flashback to when she was alone, crying, and this twenty-year-old man comforts this girl. It wouldn't be creepy if they weren't getting married four years later. The excuse I see here is that this was "Victorian England so it's fine! It's acceptable to promote child abuse!" Yeah...no? That isn't the case.

We aren't making movies about slavery and painting that in a positive light just because "oh it's a period piece!" No. It was morally wrong then, it is morally wrong now. I don't enjoy how this series is promoting these issues as if it is some grand romantic statement. Violet goes so far as to say "Love knows no age." Violet. Stop this. Stop it. If the argument here is, "she's a dumb robot-Esq girl." Yeah, she is. But the whole point of writing something this abhorrent is to eventually correct her, not play every following scene as straight and supposedly romantic. Bad choices here. Bad.

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[The Beast... on Further Review]

This leads us to the main narrative. We never get Violet's origins. The show bothers to explain them in maybe one or two vague lines that don't actually explain why a twelve-year-old on the battlefield is somehow socially acceptable to this decently structured and seemingly morally just society. I mean, I get a general being a cartoonishly inhuman asshole. What I don't get is soldiers not questioning this in any situation. It is downright silly and, due to this, no verisimilitude is created.

It is as if every piece of detail was forcibly thrust into the animation and presentation, but not the actual writing. Even the minutia begins to slowly fall apart under any critical lens. There is this strange facial-gag that Violet does a few times where she squeezes and pulls at her cheeks and forces this wonky looking smile. It is admittedly cute. It, unfortunately, makes no sense.

She smiles. She smiles a lot in this series at crucial points. She isn't incapable of smiling. Why does she do this? This strange gag was included multiple times and there is no reason for it. It doesn't make sense and this already messy character becomes even messier. A gag isn't worth that pain. Pulling back, though, we get this limp story about almost nothing. Finding the "meaning of love" seems to be vague enough if it were given nuance to sprout. Unfortunately, it has been a dry season for nuance for Kyoto Animation's writers it seems. There is not a shred of it to be found. I get that character nuance is kind of a rarity within this medium, but this series gets really abrasive about not having it.

I'm talking flashbacks to remind you of shit you should not be forgetting. Constantly. Constant barrages of flashbacks that utterly decimate the pacing. Everything is completely over-explained, especially the emotions. There are scenes where poor ol' Violet is bawling her eyes out but has the decency of explaining exactly what emotions she's feeling to us. No one else, just us, the viewer, gets a front-row seat for clunky expository dialogue anyone with half a brain can deduce.

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[Much Ado About Comparisons]

This season we had two series about girls who have to deal with the loss of a loved one. One being Violet Evergarden and the other being A Place Further Than the Universe. If you asked me, based solely on description and preview, which one of those would thoroughly trounce the other in almost every way? I'd have to go with Evergarden.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

When this series decides it is a quasi-romance it is a very bad quasi-romance. I've seen some arguments regarding how Violet is supposed to be a "daughter figure" to this Gilbert guy, but unfortunately, when the first thing you parallel this relationship to is an underage and really creepy romance, I can't really drop the fact that it feels like a creepy romance. Even if it is thankfully never established explicitly as such. However, there are, as much as it pains me to write, even more flaws here. Firstly, I can't be brought to give a single shred of a fuck about Violet or this Gilbert Grape fellow. His personality is... "Nice Guy". While that might resonate with someone who also considers themselves to be a "Nice Guy" who wants nothing more than a semi-sentient doll-like girl to issue commands towards. For anyone else, I'm struggling to imagine a scenario where you'd connect with these two characters.

They have no chemistry.

Violet and Gilbert are at odds as a couple or even as a father/daughter archetype. A father would do all he can not to send his percieved daughter into the midst of multiple battles whilst yelling such lines as "Follow as she leads!" Yes. Let us follow this emotionally stunted twelve-year-old during our siege on a castle. Great idea. If the argument here is that he was "under orders", then he isn't much of a caring father, is he? That he'd be willing to potentially lose this daughter figure if it meant getting a discharge from the military. Nothing about this felt realistic. I didn't buy these two characters being together and Violet's attachment to him was akin to a lost puppy rather than a loved one.

The second option here is that she is a marketing choice. Otaku seem to love this kind of character archetype, much to my surprise, and perhaps that is why she was created like this. I, personally, can't imagine someone who would want to marry or get to know this kind of person. Can you imagine how boring she must be on a date? What would you even talk about when she can hardly even speak? Regardless of my pondering on the logistics of waifuism in anime, the ultimate truth here is that her development, whilst unarguably there, is messy as hell. Most of her revelations are kept offscreen and reserved to the multiple time-skips in the narrative from episode-to-episode. She jumps from incompetent writer incapable of even understanding the basic nuance of human emotion to easily writing letters between royalty. It is preposterously paced.

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[Conclusion]

Evergarden really struggles. Both as a character and a series. There are moments of real highs, especially in two one-off stories that have a nice emotional punch to them. However, every single aspect of the narrative is either wholly underwhelming or utterly ludicrous. There isn't a shred of verisimilitude to be developed and this series often reaches too far for cloying emotional drama.

If you find yourself connecting with a lot of dramatic anime that usually have bombastic orchestral or J-pop insert-songs suffocating every ounce of dialogue that usually just amounts to girls crying a lot, then you might enjoy this if you look past some of the horrendous pacing. Otherwise, I'd, unfortunately, advise you give this show a skip.If you find yourself interested in the aesthetic, maybe sitting through the first episode is worth it. If you value aesthetic as much as I do it might be worth the entire series in and of itself. It truly is unlike anything else. It is like a tech-demo of the Kyoto Animation Engine at Ultra-settings running on a super-computer. This is how television anime can look. Mindblowing. Even with sub-optimal directing.

There are themes here. The seasons play a role and plenty of the characters have names that represent different kinds of flowers. It's sweet, really. I think in concept, with a sturdy hand and a sturdier pen it could've worked. These themes don't serve a purpose, though. They shouldn't even be brought up because apart from being frosting on a cake you can point your finger and ogle at, they are ultimately nothing. Scratch the dressing metaphor, they're like those plastic toys atop an expensive cake you'd think were edible but are proven to be nothing but hazards to your three-year-old.

I think the aesthetic does wonders to carry just how upsetting and mundane the rest of the series is. So much so that I'd average it to being a wholly mediocre experience and not an outright bad one. Even if there is a depressingly large amount of crap to sift through, it looks great. It's like a Lamborghini transporting piles of horse manure. Keep your eyes trained on that astoundingly gorgeous ride and maybe you won't smell the shit.

Quite simply this series as of 4 episodes can be summed up as "pretty, but boring".

The characters and story leave very little impression and it's difficult to become invested in a main character who is as close to an emotionless robot as I've ever seen. What intrigue existed in episode 1 with Major Gilbert and Violet's roll in the war has been pushed too far into the background and feels like it won't be revealed for far too long, and in it's place we are forced to sit through some of the slowest, uninteresting character progression I've seen in a while.

I wanted to like this ... series, but it's putting me to sleep. It's sad that such pretty visuals are being wasted on such a bland and excruciatingly slow paced story.

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.

The battlefield.

Loud, deafening explosions numbing the senses. Rapid, unsteady breaths being taken by the soldier as they prepare for combat. With shaky hands they grasp their weapon tightly and launch themselves into battle. They quell the urge to run and steel themselves, for they know its either kill or be killed. The chaos of war and many a hectic skirmish have dulled their emotions and rendered them no more then a machine merely following orders until the bitter end. If by chance they are blessed with survival after the fighting has subsided, some troopers find themselves unable to regain their lost feelings even after returning ... to their peaceful lives at home. So even if they return alive and victorious, a part of their humanity died on the battlefield.

For the soldier Violet Evergarden, she seemed to never have any emotions to begin with.

Molded from the beginning to be nothing more than a weapon for war, Violet finds herself at a loss when the fighting ends and she is forced to assimilate with society. After starting her life anew, Violet discovers that there is much about the world that she doesn’t understand. The most puzzling thing to her however are the final words she heard from Major Gilbert, her commanding officer:

“I love you.”

Having no knowledge of anything outside of the battlefield and being unable to contact Gilbert, Violet embarks on a journey to discover the meaning of these three words, all while gaining valuable insights on life from those around her. And through these interactions, Violet unconsciously helps her companions develop as people as well. This is a story about a girl who gradually learns what it means to be truly human.

Violet Evergarden has an appealing premise with beautiful visuals and sound to back it up, but is it able to deliver? Well, that depends entirely on whether or not you’re able connect emotionally with the characters and plot of the anime. Now the show is designed in a way that tries really hard to tug at the heartstrings of its audience with each passing episode. However, Violet Evergarden isn’t just a collection of shallow dramatic moments that have no meaning when thoroughly examined. Otherwise it would ultimately fail as an anime. Instead, the show attempts to bring the cast to life by illuminating their qualities through a variety of ways, such as providing viewers with their backstories or showcasing their beliefs and vulnerabilities. Finally, the anime puts these characters in a situation where they are able to interact with Violet, thus allowing for both Violet and the rest of the cast to help each other develop as people. This characterization is important, because without it, why would anyone watching care about the struggles that the characters face? However, even with this characterization, many of the supporting cast barely have any screen time, so despite receiving some growth, most of the time it wasn’t enough for me personally to really feel for the characters. So then why did I find the anime’s presentation to be successful? Simple.

It was because of the girl named Violet Evergarden.

Being the titular character, it would be odd for Violet not to be the best member or the cast. But her presence went beyond that. As I mentioned before, the troubles faced by the supporting cast really didn’t affect me on an emotional level because although the anime desperately tried to paint them as tragic characters who viewers should feel sorry for, there just simply wasn’t enough material on them for this to work in my opinion. What really touched me though was how Violet was affected by her interactions with these characters and how she was able to help change their lives for the better. In order to explain why this works for me, I’ll provide some insight on Violet’s character. First off, she seems to start out with no personality. Violet is, to put it bluntly, just like a machine in the eyes of others. Yet there is far more to her than initially meets the eye. Her journey begins when she decides to work for a former superior officer as an auto memory doll, which is basically someone who takes people’s words and feelings and uses them to write letters to others.

Now one of the issues that I personally had with the anime was its slow start. The first several episodes came across to me as quite slow, and I admittedly was initially bored with the whole Violet becomes an auto memory doll arc and was wishing that the anime would have instead showcased more of the war that Violet participated in. After completing the anime, I can now definitely say that my impatience was uncalled for and the direction that the anime took was superior to my own vision. This is because the beginning episodes were vital in showing Violet’s determination to discover her humanity and how she believed that her work as an auto memory doll would be the most effective way to accomplish her goal. We see her consecutively try and seemingly fail to comprehend the complex nature of human feelings. But she never gives up. And throughout her journey, she gradually picks up bits and pieces from those around her about how to understand emotions, and Violet eventually blossoms into a truly beautiful person.

The pinnacle of the anime for me would have to be the flashback episodes covering the war. Their placement near the end of the anime as opposed to the beginning like I initially wanted was a good choice. That way, viewers got to first go on a journey with Violet during the previous episodes and start to connect with her as a person. Then, when she finds out what happened to Gilbert and we get to see her past with him, we feel for her and can really see how far Violet has come as a character. For right before the flashback, Violet is shown to be feeling genuine regret for all of the lives she took during the war. Because through writing and delivering letters conveying emotions from one person to another, Violet realizes that those whom she killed will never be able to share feelings with their loved ones again. It seems like she has come far from her initial emotionless state. But honestly, I feel like these scenes, especially the one in the flashback where Gilbert reveals his love for Violet, show that she has always had feelings. I don’t believe that Violet was an empty husk who learned how to be human through her experiences, but rather a lost and confused girl who merely didn’t know what emotions were. Violet always apologized to her companions whenever she was unable to understand what they were feeling and attributed it to her lack of humanity, yet, no matter how subtle, she always expresses emotions of her own. Whether it be feeling bad for a friend or crying over someone else’s misfortune, the anime always showcases Violet feeling for others. Even if she doesn’t understand them, she has always carried these emotions within her. For Violet is not a doll, but a living, breathing human being. And deep down, she has probably always known what love is. Because its the way that she has always felt about Major Gilbert.

Violet Evergarden was an experience. While it may have overplayed the drama card, it still had many genuinely investing moments. Violet was a lovely character, and watching her develop as a person was truly heartwarming. Now some might think that the show is sappy, and others may feel like they can’t connect with the protagonist. For me personally however, I was immediately drawn in by the breathtaking visuals, and the touching plot and immense growth of Violet kept me happily watching until the very end.

Violet Evergarden is one of KyoAni’s most critically acclaimed series ever. It’s a show that represents harsh truths told to people who aren’t aware of what’s happening (or what happened) until now. It’s been loved for its drama and storytelling. While I completely understand the hype revolving around it, I personally cannot say the same as others did. Aside from the admittedly amazing art and sound, I just can’t bring myself to resonate with or like what the show offered in practice.

Before we dive into my personal problems with the series, I’ll first explain what Violet Evergarden is about. Violet Evergarden is an episodic story ... about a stoic girl who roughly fought in a war and now works for a postal company as an Auto Memory Doll, basically sending letters to people she’s assigned to. Her goal is to write letters and send them to her clients to make them resonate and feel with what happened to their pasts and/or relatives. The premise behind this is actually really good. It’s not too amazing or anything but it can show how characters connect to recent events and relating to them is an art of creating melodrama. Of course, you make that premise better if you combine it with a very consistent pace of character build-up and show you when the drama will occur.

Sadly, however, this isn’t the case for how the show turned out. You see, the show had a pretty decent start with Violet Evergarden herself learning about a beautiful-looking world covered with harsh truths and how she starts her job to inform her assigned clients about how everything created nicely will never be the same. This series really had potential, it’s just that it’s been reduced with how rushed its scriptwriting was. Like we keep needing to come back to, the show’s attempt at showing a harsh reality to people who didn’t know they lost something/someone valuable until now is really nice. The dialogue and drama together, on the other hand, are the biggest cause of this.

The biggest issue with this series is that the build-up for character interactions and such is surface-level which isn’t too bad until the series unironically triggers a big shock just because. This is honestly embarrassing, to say the least. The characters when Violet Evergarden is around don’t really have much going for them aside from displaying great ideas in mind. All they do is do a lot of talking which doesn’t carry the storytelling and the next few moments, they cry and feel very story. This is more comedic than emotional. Let me clue you in again, the dialogue in this series is as wide as an ocean but deep as a puddle, and yet, we immediately get ourselves to a big drama that doesn’t really compensate for shallow build-up. If you want to make heavy and good drama, at least make the characters have interesting chemistry with each other before you start a crying party.

The story for the most part is just too melodramatic for its own good. I’m not saying have minimal drama but don’t add too much drama. It’s not remotely bad if you’re very melodramatic but because Violet Evergarden draws more quantity of drama than Rohan Kishibe draws manga panels, it’s hard to tell if the show even makes a point. The intentions behind it make sense, sure, but they’re executed poorly. One of the most infamous examples is episode 11 where Violet beats up a bunch of bad guys and writes a letter to a dying innocent soldier and his family. We don’t really know much about the soldier aside from being Violet’s next client and a few minutes later the other characters cry so much for him. I don’t think I’ll elaborate further on how laughable this is. Again, very surface-level interactions and big drama occur when some random-ass soldier who doesn’t add up dies.

Speaking of soldiers, let’s talk about this show’s other important feature: its iterations of war… Yeah, it’s also mid at that. The war aspect in Violet Evergarden is actually very interesting. Y’all know how Violet was once raised by soldiers, most notably Gilbert, and was commissioned to be one. When the War technically ended, Violet left while being armless as well as leaving Gilbert dead. Violet then lost most of her emotions and as an Auto Memory Doll, she would be traumatized or even sadder every time someone near her mentions something about war. This would be a nice edition if not for the fact that this series has the tone shift from a tale of ghostwriting clients to a silly save-the-world plot. Stopping bad guys is definitely understandable but why would you add save the world elements to your story if you’re starting to run out of ideas? That kind of defeats the purpose of showing people sad truths. You’re not really ghostwriting for your clients anymore, you nearly effortlessly became a hero held by people you met after defeating some evil soldiers. Not only does it feel like filler but because this is implemented for the last 2 (3 if you count the notorious moment where an innocent soldier dies) episodes, this makes for a bad ending.

Okay, enough of that. Let’s move on to characters. Starting with Violet Evergarden, the protagonist who sends letters to clients she’s assigned to. Violet is not a good MC. In fact, she’s probably the worst part of the whole show. The purpose of the story is her ghostwriting for certain characters to resonate or feel with what’s going on. While this looks like it would make her a compelling main character at first glance, in practice, she’s very dull and only shows gimmicks to keep the plot going. She’s essentially a plot device who presents interesting ideals only to leave them on the floor, never having them touched ever again. It doesn’t really help that she became a save-the-world hero archetype at the end where evil soldiers are brought up as we mentioned earlier. Such a shame because she actually has a really interesting backstory, just that her entire character falls depressingly short.

The side characters are better written than the show’s protagonist by default but they’re yet another flock of mannequins with admittedly functioning brains that I don’t really care for. They do their stuff but they don’t add enough to their character. Like Violet, they exist solely to keep the series moving forward. Most of the side characters are used for either the sake of showing what Violet does on a minimum level or outright comedic purposes just to keep the show far from being too boring (it’s still boring, to be honest). The villains are all ass and don’t do anything to the story despite what they did in Violet’s backstory.

Despite this show’s shortcomings, there are some things I think we can all agree on. For starters, the art direction and production value are amazing. I’d say this show is on the levels of Kara no Kyoukai, Fate, Liz and the Blue Bird, and Revue Starlight for the best animation and visuals in anime ever. Violet’s art has a perfect blend of simplicity and complexity. The details are shiny without making things look like plastic. Of course, it only gets better in episode 7 where we see the lake scene. The sound design is also great. The music is calm while also connecting to the plot very nicely. The voice acting is my personal favorite part of the series barring the visuals and production value, with the best amongst the cast being of course, the iconic Ishikawa Yui as Violet.

Although I dislike the whole series, I don’t really hate it either. In my eyes, it’s a bland and boring show that tries too hard to be deep and philosophical. I’ll admit that I occasionally had fun with how silly the drama was but for the most part, the show’s approach to its premise isn’t really the best. It wants to present something really interesting but most of it is filled with weak drama and some parts feel like filler despite the intentions behind them. However, it’s saving grace besides the amazing art and animation while it’s really dry, it’s not practically offensive either. Despite the inconsistencies, it doesn’t necessarily take the farthest things possible. Even some of the most absurd episodes don’t really try to overstay their welcome. Because of its relatively short runtime, it’s not very painful to watch so there isn’t too much trouble going on. Regardless, this series sucks.

It is surprising that an anime with such high production value has at best a mediocre story to it.

The art is fantastic, one of the best I have ever seen.

With the exception of Violet, although they haven't developed her much, the characters are mundane, predictable, and quite frankly boring stereotypes.

The dialogue and story are laughable, I literally laughed at how bad they are, it is on the verge of being ironic how bad the story is. It's one of those things that you might see on MST3K. It is beyond me how little they invested on the writing for this show.

Secretaries do more than these ... "Dolls" their function is to write letters in a world where many (most?) are illiterate but have the technology to make robotic limbs. It is horrible, and the dialogue in such a slow paced character driven show is ridiculous, nobody has conversations that stupid.

Overall it is a laughably vacuous piece of predictable sappy asinine nonsense.

At its core, Violet Evergarden is about the silver linings of loss. The story centers around Violet, an emotionally stunted war veteran finding her place in a peacetime society, working at a job that requires interacting with clients on a personal level; learning to know herself as she learns and explores emotional–and often tragic–experiences of others. We follow her as she grows as a person, eventually realizing and coming to terms with the toxic past she was forced upon, and seeking redemption for a brighter future... An interesting concept with execution that leaves to be desired. This show tries to implement too many things, but ... falls short in some regards. The worldbuilding is sloppy at best; and some plot elements just don't seem to fit the mood of the anime other than for superficial reasons, ultimately feeling unnecessary.

The 'strongest' aspect of the show, aside from the stunning visuals, is the characterization. Competently developed through both showing and telling, Violet is very literal, blunt and surprisingly perceptive depending on the context. She was used as a weapon her entire life and thus thinks of herself as one, she believes her value as a person is entirely dependent on her usefulness as a tool of war. At first, she is oblivious to her own shortcomings and flaws–mainly her lack of touch and common sense–causing problems for herself and those around her, but it is this dynamic that lets people see their own contradictory nature and allows Violet to peel out their façade. Violet eventually develops her own sense of empathy, not by putting herself in other people's shoes, but vice versa. Projecting her own experiences and point of view onto other people in order to better understand the situation.

Sadly, there are several missteps when it comes to a few major characters and how they are presented, more specifically with Gilbert. 'The Major' is a very shallow and two dimensional character, we don't get to know a whole lot about him other than he cared and fell in love with Violet, all while being remorseful for using her as a weapon. His lack of development makes their relationship feel somewhat contrived. Honestly, he's more of a plot device, a catalyst for Violet's development. This would be OK if not for the fact that a big chunk of the show is spent trying to sell us their connection. Other major characters include Hodgins, Benedict, Cattleya, Erica, Luculia, and Iris. Some of these are fairly fleshed out considering the limited airtime they got; with their own history, internal conflicts and personal goals, but that end up being underused due to the episodic nature of the show.

I also have some clear-cut complaints about several pieces of dialogue, nonsensical character actions, and even a couple of plot holes, but that would be getting into spoiler territory.

One of the weakest points of this series has to be the worldbuilding, which was left mostly unexplored aside from some surface-level expositions about the previous war, some anti-peace group with cookie cutter motives, and the several countries Violet visits. There are plot elements that leave you with a petulant feeling of inconsistency: Technological marvels like robotic prosthetic limbs or speech-to-text machines that are beyond even our level of technology, all while the rest of this fictional world is stuck in a Belle Époque-esque time period, including weaponry and transportation. Violet's inhuman abilities make very little sense, and seem to be created solely to provide an impetus for more captivating action sequences, a task that in my opinion failed miserably, as the choreography, editing and overall mechanics of the action are overdone to the point of being ridiculous.

The art and animation is some of the greatest I've seen for a TV anime, but most importantly, they serve a narrative purpose, be it by subtle symbolism that is easy to miss, or setting a visual theme. An adept use of cinematography and mise-en-scène to visually reinforce a certain state of mind or a specific theme, like conflicting ideas in upside down reflections, a room visually pushing down on a character feeling remorse, or the frame of a chair's backrest trapping someone as she questions her own abilities as an Auto Memoir Doll. The character linework is also very sharp and clean. My only nitpick is that the layouts tend to be somewhat safe, very much made-for-TV kind of deal, which is understandable.

In short, Violet Evergarden reaches a bit too high for its own good, but still manages to provide a decent, albeit flawed experience.

I think there are some spoilers forward, but I don't care, since nobody actually read reviews before watching anything, anymore.

I actually liked Violet Evergarden. It was my first anime since 2014 that I watched week after week, after every new release, without getting bored. However, the ending pretty sucks. It was pretty anticlimactic and it didn't felt as a proper ending. I think it's mostly about structure, since the ninth episode would be a better series finale. They should have switched the order, making Violet's discovery about Gilbert's fate after the end of the war. Her breakdown and overcoming would be a proper ending ... for the main character than that stupid finale. I dare say that episodes 10, 11, 12 and 13 are just filler.

Besides that, the art and music are gorgeous. Most of characters are pretty likable, even if they don't have more than one episode of development for each one. However, since this anime is called "Violet Evergarden" and not "Violet Evergarden and Friends", it doesn't matter at all.

Overall, it's a nice series. Pretty overrated, judging by what people are saying about it, but still nice.

I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.

"Monotone robo ninja girl learns to write letters"

More or less, I've just described the entire first half of this anime and it's every bit as riveting as it sounds. I was hoping this anime would make me fight off tears, but more often than not it made me fight off sleep.

Main character violet is a one woman army and can kick ass and take names like a superhero, but no explanation whatsoever is ever given as to why. She just can. It feels unbelievably convenient, lazy and cheap. The pacing in the first half is ... brutal. Watching Violet learn to write letters and then *gasp* actually write them just isn't entertaining.

There are also many moments where Violet is written as being unrealistic levels of naive and unaware. She was in the military and around death constantly, and her work sees her be around death all the time to, and yet it absolutely never occurs to her that the one person she cares about could be dead too. I'd be a lot more accepting of it if internally she knows it and simply cannot accept it, but it's instead presented in a way to where this being possible does not even occur to her, which is just stupid.

On the plus side, the animation is gorgeous throughout. They did an excellent job here. The soundtrack is reasonably good but it definitely gets repetitive. The second half is definitely better than the first with improved pacing and a couple of borderline emotional moments, but this anime never escapes from its lack of entertainment value as a whole and plot problems.

I love love love Kyoto Animation and have thoroughly enjoyed what I've seen of their previous work so I am very disappointed to say this is the first piece of theirs I've seen that I quite frankly didn't overly care for. It wasn't bad, but, I really didn't think it was especially good either.

Glad I watched it once (I guess), wouldn't watch again and wouldn't recommend.

OBJECTIVE RATING- 6.75-7
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 6.5-7

I want to love Violet Evergarden so much. It has beautiful art, animation, music, and writing - it's core themes are about a girl discovering who she is and what her place is in the world. And more importantly, it's about learning how to live.

So what's wrong? The entire last episode, (and the pedo part with the princess but i don't think I need to elaborate on that)

Violet's entire character development is thrown away with one simple revelation: she will continue living...for Gilbert.

Huh.

The entire show was about her learning who she is *without* him, how to live *without* him...how does she just go a ... complete full circle to centering him in her life? It makes no sense and completely destroys everything. This series is a solid 9 if the last episode didn't end how it did. I was sobbing literally the entire time because of how profound and emotionally impactful the messages were, the character stories are so beautifully written and they feel real!

I'm still giving it a high rating purely because my only negative is that one line at the end but it is such a disappointment to an otherwise masterful show.

Every now and then, an anime turns up that stands out from the rabble. An anime that has the potential to be something truly memorable. Violet Evergarden is one show that had all the makings of being ‘that’ anime for Winter 2018. With high production values and Kyoto Animation behind the wheel, it was a no-brainer for many. Ever since the first preview was released back in 2016, fans have been eagerly awaiting its eventual airing… But as to whether or not Violet Evergarden lived up to these expectations, that’s a different story altogether.

Story (6/10):
The story of Violet Evergarden is fairly simple when you look ... at the bare basics. An emotionless soldier, a girl known as a human weapon, searches for a reason to live, and for the meaning of love. The premise seems fairly overused, but the execution and the attention to detail are done quite well, which makes it stand out from its peers. Still, the show suffers from its fair share of problems as well.
First and foremost, the greatest issue with the story would be the pacing. The series initially starts out with a continuous pacing, which went alright for the first three episodes or so. From the fourth episode, it suddenly took a detour into an episodic format, which was quite detrimental to the whole experience. From the eighth episode, the show returned to its continuous format. This process is repeated time and again over the course of the show. This meandering of pacing between continuous and episodic negatively affected both the character development and the viewing experience on the whole.
The one other aspect of Violet Evergarden’s story that stood out in a negative way would have to be the melodrama. The show has a habit of making even relatively mundane situations and events overly dramatized, simply to elicit some sort of emotional response from the audience. There were some moments in the show were the drama felt extremely forced and unnecessary. While it wasn’t at the level of say, Clannad: After Story (where the melodrama was so thick that it was almost palpable), it does suffer a considerable blow from it.

Art and Sound (9/10):
The art is perfect, or about as close as it gets. Just from one look, it becomes clear that Violet Evergarden had an extremely high budget, and Kyoto Animation seems to have made very good use of it. The lights and shadows are managed brilliantly, and the CGI is almost unrecognizable. The attention to detail when it comes to the artwork is quite praiseworthy.
The soundtrack and songs in the show are quite pleasing to the ears. Yet again, the budget clearly shines through. Also, the voice acting stands out (in a good way) at a lot of places, especially the emotional scenes.

Characters (5/10):
The characters of Violet Evergarden are certainly a cut above the average crop, when taken as a whole. The main cast has a fair bit of depth, and they have been explored to a satisfactory extent. Each character was given at least one episode focused mostly on them, which served to adequately develop them. There were some characters near the end whose roles became something along the lines of ‘showing the audience that Violet has grown’, which felt rather forced. That said, the real reason why I have scored the show relatively low in this category is the show’s namesake, the protagonist, Violet Evergarden.
To put it bluntly, Violet has about as much characterization as a brick, in the initial few episodes. She is thoroughly dull and boring, with no defining characteristics other that looking like Fate/Stay Night’s Saber with metal hands. I didn’t mind this all that much, since the show was supposedly about Violet’s growth as a person, or more accurately, her growth from a tool of war to a human being. I was looking forward to how this growth would be handled, since she made a rather poor impression to begin with. Unfortunately, this development was an utter mess, chiefly due to the aforementioned pacing issues. Especially in the episodes which followed the episodic format, it felt like Violet was a completely different person in each episode. Time was clearly passing between these episodes, but the way in which it was done was quite jarring.
I would like to stress on the fact that most of the other characters in the show were done relatively well, and the problem lay almost solely with Violet. Even then, the protagonist carries much more weightage than any single side character, hence my score in this category.

Enjoyment (5/10):
While the melodrama was rather overpowering at times, and the whole ‘searching for the meaning of love’ theme was rather sappy, Violet Evergarden managed to entertain to a decent extent. A few of the episodic stories, as well as Violet’s backstory were quite enjoyable. There was even an episode or two that managed to make me feel something – as someone who laughed through Clannad: After Story, I call that quite an achievement on Violet Evergarden’s part.
On the other hand, there were also some parts or stories that fell flat, or just defied logic altogether, which served to dampen my enjoyment of the show. A quick example of such a moment would be when a whole troop of soldiers armed with bayonets, standing at a fair distance from the unarmed Violet, charge at her instead of simply shooting. Of course, as per the laws of theatrics, this leads to her overwhelming all of them with little or no difficulty. Slip-ups like this were seen every now and then throughout the show, which felt rather annoying whenever it happened.

Overall (6.25 ~ 6/10):
All in all, Violet Evergarden is by no means a bad anime. The positive aspects outweigh the negatives, and it is certainly a visual treat. Yet, like any show, it suffers from quite a few issues as well.
Is it a masterpiece, like many claim? No. Is it unwatchable, as some others say? Most certainly not. Would I recommend others to watch it? Depends. Violet Evergarden is not for everyone. Some may see an emotional masterpiece, while others see an overly dramatic show with no substance. If you liked shows like Clannad, Little Busters, and Angel beats, you would probably like this one. If not, you can give this one a miss, and you wouldn’t lose out on much. With this, I conclude.

Fuck I was crying

"Violet Evergarden" is an anime that can fairly be called a "glass story" — a story like broken glass can hurt you, because it literally makes every episode pull tears out of you. And it does it absolutely perfectly.
The Kyoto Animation Studio project immerses the viewer into deep emotional experiences through the story of a girl named Violet, who experiences her way from a killing machine to a person capable of understanding and expressing feelings.

Anime that often causes a storm of emotions in the audience. The story of a girl turned into a perfect weapon, who is trying to find her ... place in the post-war world, is designed to touch the most delicate strings of our soul. And she certainly does it. But it's worth asking: is such a deliberate desire to cause tears a sign of good taste?

From the first to the last episode, "Violet Evergarden" stubbornly strives to draw tears from the audience. And although it does work out for many, such deliberate pressure may seem unnecessarily manipulative and even loud. The quality of the animation, the music and the elaborate characters certainly deserve praise. However, when you feel like you are literally being made to cry every episode, it can cause irritation and a feeling of bad taste.

Some viewers may feel that real drama should not be imposed by such explicit methods. The emotional manipulation that "Violet Evergarden" is full of contradicts the idea of natural plot development and deep feelings. True drama should feel organic, forcing you to cry not because the authors intended it that way, but because the story and characters relate to something very personal and real.

In conclusion, even with all its virtues, "Violet Evergarden" may seem like an unnecessarily tearful and manipulative spectacle. This work undoubtedly evokes strong emotions, but whether it evokes them in a natural and appropriate way remains an open question.

Much like the protagonist of this anime, from whom it gets its name, Violet Evergarden is like a doll: a beautiful exterior with an empty fluff filled center. What Violet Evergarden does so greatly in the animation department is almost completely overshadowed by the dull empty story that sadly amounts to little to no value. Like a doll, you can go on a couple imaginative adventures with it, but once realize it's simply a hollow piece of fabric you move on to more interesting things with your life, as should everyone who reads this review thinking of watching this anime.

Here we are with yet another ... anime to get pumped out by Kyoto Animation with absolutely amazing visual quality and no substance. At this point, I’m not sure if I should expect this continuing forward or should still hope for anime like they made in the past. For a while back there Kyoto Animation only made incredible anime, but currently, at least for me, I've felt an incredible emptiness from all the anime released there from. It's all so very hit-and-miss at this point. That aside, I'm sure you could tell by my opening and that number "5" sitting at the top of my review; I don't really like this anime that much. I went in pretty excited, as I usually am for anime from this studio, because they've got a pretty good track record, at least in the past, of excellence, but Violet Evergarden is anything but excellent.

The story revolves around a street girl who's taken in by a military commander who teaches her to speak and kill people during a civil war era in a fictional Victorian country. She basically becomes some super assassin who only follows orders, but then the war ends and the commander dies and tells her to live on in a regular life, much to her confusion. The main bulk of the anime is this girl, Violet, going around the country with her newly acquired job as what the anime refers to as a "doll", or a glorified ghost writer. Each episode she helps write a letter for some person and it inevitably tries to be sad and emotional in some way. Over many letters Violet learns about the emotions she didn't know she had as well as what "I love you" really means, or so the story claims.

I felt a massive disconnect with this story. The main protagonist is extremely boring, and robotic. Ironically, it would have been more interesting if the protagonist was a robot trying to understand what love is, because I would have an easier time suspending disbelief and understanding the character's perspective. Then, with that perspective the story could potentially explore love in ways that you wouldn't have normally thought of it and brought new understanding to the character and the viewer at the same time. Instead every episode you just get hit around with a generic sad plot that's trying really hard to be emotional and sometimes Violet will exposit aloud about how she’s sad now too. When I can observe the writing effort to make something sad rather than just getting injected with emotion by my viewing, it really takes me out of the experience and makes the emotion feel forced, as does most of this anime. Each episode presents a new sad story of someone I have no reason to care about with a sterile doll of a person interacting with them as they tend to end up crying. You would be reasonable to believe I think sad and sappy stories are bad, but feel free to check my anime list here to see that that's wrong. I don't think sad and sappy stories are bad, I think this story is bad. It’s forced, gives no reason to care about characters in each new setting and just doesn’t get to me at all.

The main reason why this anime falls short is the characters. No one in this anime is interesting, most especially Violet. Very few characters get multiple episodes of screen time except the small amount that work at the main work place of Violet, most of which are very basic and uninteresting and in the end serve no purpose. Violet is the pinnacle of this being almost quite literally a living doll. Even a little girl later in the anime thinks she's an actual doll, she's just that boring. This could be fine, because this essentially removes her character from scenarios putting the entire brunt of the quality on the story of the people she's writing for in each episode, making her the same as you, just a viewer. This is ineffective because of two things though. One, the stories of the other characters are mostly uninteresting and uninspiring forced emotional experiences about characters that are difficult to care about. Two, the story keeps trying to go back to Violet's story and past as if it's interesting or important. Pick one, she's either a bystander and the story of everyone else is important and we learn about love through interesting stories, or Violet's growth is important and we learn about Violet. This anime unfortunately splits the baby here. The baby is dead now, but at least it's wearing a pretty dress right?

The visuals, in my opinion, are also really mediocre. As always with Kyoto Animation, the quality is through the roof, but that's really the only good thing I can say about the animation. Quality alone does move mountains for my opinion of art, but it's not getting anything past a 7/10. The visual's purpose is to serve and strengthen the story. The visuals are almost completely irrelevant to the story, the beautifulness of it all really doesn't mean anything, it just is high quality and that's it. The cinematography is basic, simple, which is fine, but I couldn't possibly say that it's anything great with just basic and simple. No interesting visual moments, no use of interesting lighting or perspective, just basic. Once again, this puts the brunt of the show's value into the story and in fact focuses on it, which I once again say is weak. The visuals only further illuminate to me the flaws of the story.

The sound was unobtrusive. I don't remember any of the themes musically, but I don't recall them being bad, which is fine. The voice acting is also fine; no one gave a notably good or bad performance. The opening and the ending theme are both skip worthy; I never listened to them past episode 1.

Naturally, with all this grief I gave this anime my enjoyment level was very low. How could it be any different? I always hate when I catch myself already analyzing a show while I'm watching it because it's so uninteresting. I want to be enveloped by the story and not really think about whether it's good or bad until after I'm done watching, but I'm torn out of this anime's world so easily due to its boring characters and story. I can’t just sit 13 episodes straight ogling at visual spectacle alone, eventually that novelty wears off and your left with a boring old doll. Do yourself a favor if you haven't seen this anime and just go watch something else, we've long since moved past playing with dolls, or maybe that's just me.

This review is based off of watching the first six episodes of Violet Evergarden.

Story: 3 - So much potential, so much wasted time dancing around trying to actually develop the plot and protagonist. It's a hodgepodge of short stories really, all extremely loosely correlated through the ruse of Violet being a Auto Memoire Doll. Short stories themselves are pretty good for the side characters themselves, but contribute nothing to the grand scheme of things.

Art: 10 - It's beautiful, simple as that, but you probably could've come up with that yourself.

Sound: 8 - Nothing too notably bad nor stands out as outstanding. Voice acting isn't a ... detriment, Violet has a very well performed monotone that fits her character... Which brings us to...

Character: 3 - There's simply been next to no character development for the one that matters, Violet. There's so much potential for development, but instead the producers try to "develop" Violet through the interactions and development of side characters in the individual episodes, or "short stories", but it's only the side characters that develop, leaving Violet in neutral, seldom moving forward.

Enjoyment: 4 - Oh, how I wanted to love this anime, but the lack of continuity and development is frustrating. One could literally watch episode 1, skip to episode 6, and miss nothing. There's that little development. It's like watching a sunflower grow, only to see 5 weeks later, it didn't really grow.

Overall: 5 - This is pretty generous, and mostly because of the outstanding work on the animation. Some may love the short story format, but personally, there is too little development of plot and Violet to rate this higher.

(Below is pretty rough edit of my initial feelings after watching episode 6. It's not particularly well articulated, but it is raw feelings and frustrations)

I don't know how to feel about this honestly. Everything screams at me that this is great, but I can't help that there's just no development of plot, or even characters aside from people we never see again. It's like a series of short stories after all, but I just can't bring myself to say it's great. Violet has had little character development, especially over the last couple episodes (5 & 6), no realizations about herself or anything. Instead, they spend so much time developing short story characters who, in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter. I want to love this, but I'm not looking for a series of unrelated short stories that don't develop the characters that really matter. I'm getting tired of the dance that they play around the Major's current status. I wanna see development, I want to see Violet work, struggle, and come out with new knowledge about herself, learn about how to cope with the grief of loss. So much wasted potential with the stellar animation. Do better. No more short stories. Development.

I should have known the moment I saw the word KyoAni, and that it can turn into shit very quickly. You probably heard this so many times, but the anime had so much potential, instead it’s a pile of slush with very flowery art that matter jack shit.

I admit upon first sight, it’s extremely visually appealing, the trailer gives almost the same phenomenal feel a Makoto Shinkai trailer gives. But 2 episodes in, you’d be gone and the last thing you care about are the specs of dust particles glowing in sunlight, and 4 episodes in, you don’t remember a single shit that happened ... in episode 1. I would argue that some(most) shots are pointless because you are screaming for a plot.

Another thing in terms of production quality, I only found out upon completion that the anime has this high-tech surround sound incorporated, great, I didn’t know, I certainly won’t revisit the show, I couldn’t experience the greatness, tragic.

Yeah okay, I am having a dig at the art and surround sound, but objectively, how many of us have the fancy equipment to hear the difference, hell, some of us watch dub, do you think they care?

Story and Character:
The main review that actually matters -I care about none of the characters.
Let’s talk Violet, she is essentially a robot with no emotions, she doesn’t get any character development, the “ideal” plotline is that she learns emotions and eventually finds out what “love” means – which she doesn’t, or maybe she does I don’t know I can’t tell her emotions. The origin of Violet is also too ambiguous for its own good, what is her back story??? Who is she???? I understand at the beginning it’s vague and we go “ohlala” is she human? Is she roboto? But then it was never explained why a tiny 5 year old human is the strongest thing in war over guns.

The problem with this show is that it follows the one of request kind of story line, similar to Natsume Yuuchinchou, there’s a bunch of characters that come on for one episode and tell their sad life story and then you’ll never see them again. However, in Natsume, there are fixed characters you see over and over and begin to form attachment to their quirks. While in VE you don’t have a very interesting main, or relevant supporting characters.

Let’s break down what we know about the characters:
1. Violet: a robot
2. Gilbert: dead? But not dead? Green eyes?? In love with an underaged girl? Is it platonic or romantic?????
3. Hodgins: Violet’s boss, that’s it
4. Gilbert’s brother: a mother fucker and I can’t even remember his name
5. All the other people at the postal place, boobs mcgee, shounen in heels, the other two girls who are as bland as uncooked pasta
6. Other people: the guy who liked stars, depressed dad, dead boy, I cannot remember anyone else

I really wanted the show to be good and was praying it gets better till the very last second – because it’s really a waste of good art and “sound”. For the record I actually attempted to read the light novel a few years back, I never got past the depressed dad chapter – which is the first chapter, I’m not sure if the translation I read was lacklustre or if VE is just not for me.

Please Violet, please acquire some likeable characteristic, I'm hanging on with a single thread right now trying to make me love you.