Violet Evergarden

"When I die, I want KyoAni lower me down in my grave so they can let me down one last time."

From the dome of quality differences comes Violet Evergarden. Show half episodic, half character-driven, half story-driven. Yet all these halves barely make one show.

We mainly see try-hard attempts on making the viewers cry with melodrama. Most of the time it feels like spoon-feeding. Open your mouth, the emotions are coming! Let's take a bite whilst this every-sad-piano-song-ever plays on the background.

The show does bring some interesting topics on the table, but instead of trying to do much with little, instead of developing ... the characters and playing around with all the good things the series already had, it starts expanding itself with irrelevances, 3rd parties and events so unnatural it felt like Hachimitsu no Clover S02 all over again. The focus always being on emotions, yet 0 emotional depth is present.

The characters on the other hand are bland and make no sense whatsoever. Violet comes with different personality and reaction based to the current episodic plot. Emotionally dead, hysterically crying little girl, I AM A WAR MACHINE - CYBERNETIC ORGANISM - LIVING TISSUE OVER ENDOSKELETON. Just choose your favorite version. Mine was the one in episode 6 who liked stargazing. I wonder where that personality disappeared for the remaining episodes.

Gilber's brother makes even less sense. "You will be my brother's dog." And 3 episodes later "There is no emotional bond between my brother and you." Who wouldn't bond with their own dog? I don't get it. Does this guy hate dogs or what is he even saying. What a cunt.

At the end of the day, Bialetto Evelugalden is a common drama series to this industry, and its saddest part is not the actual drama writing, but the waste of potentiality, the single thought about -not only how much better this series could have been- but how much better it should have been.

Violet Evergarden is the best looking show of the new year. Yet, beneath its alluring veneer lies something
grotesque.


Art & Animation: 10/10 ("Outstanding")
The art is stunning and consistent with its pseudo-European world. Hard work has gone into to animating even the most mundane moments, adding brief glimpses of humanity to otherwise lifeless characters.


Sound: 8/10 ("Very Good")
The Orchestral music is apt. Yet at times the music clashes with scenes, taking away from moments are best left quieter. Some of the best moments in cinema and animation have relied on sound effects over dialogue and music.
...

Story: 3/10 ("Poor")
Some changes must happen when adapting a light novel to anime. Yet, the changes made in adapting Violet Evergarden are lackluster and timid. The writers must have recoiled when faced with a story that begins in medias res. (Lit. "Into the middle of things") So instead they altered the flow of events. Even if it was disruptive and even if scenes no longer made sense.


Further, the anime has taken a complete departure from the adaptation. In fact, it would be best to say there is no central narrative. The directors have instead chosen to adapt Violet Evergarden as an omnibus. (By their own admission.) As a result, Kyoto Animation has opted to abandon foreshadowing. These changes have weakened the story on the whole. It has become something that is disposable and lacks character. Kyoto Animation's use of brute force and crude manipulation is unsuitable for a story about post-war recovery.


Characters: 1/10 ("Pathetic")
As bad as the story is, the characters are worse. A weak story makes weak characters. The shuffling and omission of events make attachment to any character difficult. Violet's desire to learn what "I love you" means is too grandiose to empathize with. The scope is too far removed from reality to be the sole string which ties the omnibus together. So, each episode Violet manages to feel less and less human.


To conclude, I find this show guilty. It is guilty of being bad despite the clear hard work and talent that went into it. In some ways Violet Evergarden is a bigger travesty than a bad anime which had no effort put into it. This show could have been great, but it isn't, and nothing after these first four episodes can repair it. This show is a solemn reminder not to judge a show based on the quality of its original content, animation studio, or appearance.

My recommendation is to read the light novel, or watch Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu instead.

Violet Evergarden feels like the anime equivalent of Oscar bait. It's big and sweeping, trying desperately to convince you that its sappy story really means something, but it's ultimately shallow and entirely surface level. Everything that really matters, the meat of the story - its characters, its themes, its ideas - are so basic that it actually brings down the visual presentation. You're wasting this incredibly detailed art on this story, of all things? Why?

Violet Evergarden is a story about a girl who is some sort of superpowered golem woman (?) who somehow has just been given robotic arms (??) despite living in a setting ... where most people are illiterate and typewriters are still the new hotness (???). She was used as a soldier, but now she's a glorified traveling secretary, writing letters for others in the hopes that she can answer one nagging question: What is love? (Baby don't hurt me)

There are problems with this setup. The setting is a mess, and I have been struggling to try and get a grasp on it. I'm all for alternate reality settings based on Europe (Fullmetal Alchemist nails it) but the schizophrenic tech levels and people's relatively muted reactions to Violet's robotic arms makes it hard to get a sense of anything. There’s other weird inconsistencies, like a scene where characters apologetically bow in a Japanese manner or when a character gets Chinese takeout, paper box and all. Violet herself is also confounding, as the show has yet to make her origin clear, and while that might sound like the setup for a mystery, it certainly doesn't feel like one when every character seems to take her existence for granted.

Violet's character is also a major hindrance. If you've seen one "robot wants to be human" movie, then you've seen all she has to offer. She's dull and monotone and utterly uninteresting to watch because she’s got nothing else to her. I can literally summarize her character in two words: "Muh Major." The emotional core of her arc is her relationship with her now-dead Major, but it's hard to care when they seem to be dragging out Violet's discovery of his death and we only see him in quick flashbacks. His story seems a lot more interesting than anything going on in the present; it's a shame the whole show couldn't have just been set around him as he trained Violet.

She's a weak anchor for the show, and the rest of the characters around her are even worse. For a show that presents itself so ostentatiously, it's really jarring when all of her coworkers are immature, one-note anime cliches that could be from any generic shounen or slice of life show. There's no chemistry among the cast, either, so I have absolutely no interest in learning their "deep and mysterious backstories". Episode 4 was probably the best so far because it actually fleshed one of the cast members out, but her story was predictable and thin so it's not like it makes her all that much more interesting. If that’s the level of quality I have to expect from the rest, I’m not holding my breath.

You can have all the pretty visuals in the world, and some of these landscapes really are gorgeous, but if you don't have a good story or characters to carry it through, what's the point?

And actually, I do want to take aim at the story's visuals - or, rather, the directing. I don't think enough people are ragging on this point, but this is not a well-directed anime. There are so many laughably overwrought sequences that it feels as if the show is desperately overcompensating. I was giggling during the opening of the first episode when Violet's letter flies out of her hand and then proceeds to fly around the city in GRAND, MAJESTIC shots until we've apparently gone from the country to the motherfucking ocean. It's like the opening shot of the feather in Forrest Gump, except whereas in Gump that feather is a visual metaphor for the course of his existence, in Violet Evergarden it's just a way too obvious attempt to impress the audience.

Another galling example is in episode 4. Violet gives another character a curtsy. This is not an important interaction, she's basically just saying hi, and there is nothing pivotal about the moment. Despite the mundanity of the gesture, however, we suddenly get a million cuts and the animation goes into maximum overdrive as a massive gust of wind causes her dress to flutter like the show is announcing, "This is the most important thing ever!" It's completely over the top. Look, being over the top can be great, but it's all about tone, and it totally does not gel with the feel of that particular scene and the general "serious" tone the show so desperately wants to convey.

The directing is a mess because it never seems to know when to stop or when to pull it back. It’s as if the director is convinced that if you make it look epic enough, then you trick people into thinking it’s actually deep and resonant. Instead, it has all the emotional resonance of a fucking Michael Bay product.

And while I'm bitching, can I bitch about the soundtrack? The musical choices (big, blaring orchestras) sometimes come in at the most inappropriate times, or the music is mixed so poorly as to drown out the characters' dialogue. The ED is complete trash, and sounds as if the singer dared herself to perform the song entirely through her nose. From Kyoto Animation, who usually nail the soundtracks and sound designs of their shows, this is just baffling.

Ultimately, Violet Evergarden’s biggest sin is that it’s mostly boring. Everything this show has to offer has been done a million times better elsewhere. Even the “sakuga” isn’t all that enthralling because, in the end, it’s in service to nothing. I can appreciate moving wallpaper as a screensaver, but I’m not going to enjoy watching it for 24 minute chunks. I guess I’ll keep watching to see if it ends up going anywhere, mostly because I don’t want to think Kyoto Animation would fuck up this badly, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend this show to anyone else.

Maybe I’ll be wrong. Maybe it’ll get better. And maybe I’ll win the lottery and they’ll finally announce Nichijou Season 2 and Donald Trump will fulfill his campaign promise of making anime great again. Fingers crossed, everybody!

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

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

Cheers!

The most hyped anime of Winter 2018 and one of the most hyped of the year, Kyoto Animation's Violet Evergarden took the season by storm as fans were bewitched by everything about it from the trailers and beyond. And while many fans might have tons of love letters to describe the beauty and painful realism of this show to their daily lives, I sadly have to leave a different kind of letter for this show. A letter that this show and its fans might not enjoy reading from me.

Story (0.5/10)

Violet Evergarden is mostly episodic where Violet will visit her client and help them with ghostwriting. ... A simplistic concept but something that could easily work if done right.

When I heard of this before the show started, I thought that it'd be great and very interesting. But alas, having expectations that are high for any show like this always seems to bite me in the ass because instead, I felt that the story was just a giant flop.

Drama is a genre I love so much. It's a genre that when done naturally and organically, creates storylines that sends chills down my spine. Like the character-drama that is March Comes in Like a Lion which was airing its 2nd cour for its 2nd season at the same as this. What makes the drama fantastically written there is how methodically and organically the approach for it was. It wasn't a show trying to force drama down my throat each and every episode, it was a show that built up Rei Kiriyama's psychological issues and showcased his progression along with the Kawamoto sisters so well that the drama only adds magic to its storylines.

Hell, shows that have the best drama for me mostly, are shows that don't even have drama in the first place when you hear about the synopsis and just bite into the show. Like with A Place Further than the Universe which was airing this season, a show with four girls striving to travel to Antarctica and accomplish their respective goals. You have them bond with each other, create memories, and sprinkle in elements on drama here and there and it's all good. It develops the characters in such a great way that payoffs for Shirase and Hinata, and everyone's character arcs pay off massively and the storytelling is a huge success. This season has had some prime examples of how the genre 'drama' can be done right, and can create a compelling experience like no other. But the show that everyone focused on this season was the Kyoto Animation show, Violet Evergarden, the show that failed in nearly every way of creating any sort of compelling storyline whatsoever, or story that got me feeling any sort of emotions for these characters.

Why? Cause Violet Evergarden is STUFFED TO THE BRIM with drama that get quickly resolved in certain ways, therefore alienating me and making me not care for any of it whatsoever.

It's a show that's just pure Oscar-bait. A show that tries to showcase different situations in an episodic format, each designed only to emotionally manipulate people into feeling sorrow for them. I love episodic shows, but the problem with implementing stuff like this into these kinds of shows, is that you only get 20 minutes to create all these new characters, create a new situation and try to emotionally grab me right from the getgo with some bullshit with no depth or real organic development whatsoever. Everything just happens and I'm expected to feel anything for these characters, what utter nonsense. With no real time or earnest effort to write, why should I care for them if the writing isn't able to get me emotionally attached to them in a small period of time.

I won't say it's impossible to create emotional content in an episodic format, since the original Kino's Journey for me managed to do that. Albeit not with every episode, but that's the beauty of it for me. It doesn't try to force down philosophies or drama down our throats so when unexpected tragic events do happen, or when bad events do occur that make me irritated or sad, it works really well. In a short space of time, they're able to build genuine character interactions at a nice pace without feeling heavy handed and when something sad happens in an episode, it works. AND IT'S NOT EVEN A DRAMA SHOW.

HELL, you even have comedy shows that organically develop characters over time and the drama just works there too like with Assassination Classroom, Gintama and SKET Dance just to name a fucking few. It's not hard as long as you can do it properly without intentions to MAKE people cry from the start itself.

But Violet Evergarden feels way too unnatural, way too heavy handed and way too plastic on the surface and even below it that the concepts that it has for episode just fails to click. From it's original material to even it's horrendously written filler, Violet Evergarden's storytelling is an utter manipulative flop with horrendous pacing too.

Plus take away the melodrama, and it's just fucking boring. Nothing really interesting about the world, setting, the job and everything else about this show.

Characters (0.5/10)

Violet may have a cute design, but is such a watered down character that because of its poor writing, gave me absolutely no reason to care for her development whatsoever since all her interactions that made her supposedly develop were so fake and ingenuine for me. If you have to rely on trying to shove melancholy down my throat for 24 minutes for 13 episodes, don't expect me to feel any care for the characters whatsoever, especially the main character here.

Side characters had absolutely no one for me that I liked. Everyone might as well be mannequins since their personalities resembled that.

Art & Animation (10/10)

Very well done, although the drawings do look heavy handed at times. The animation clicks really well and works really smoothly in creating a cinematic experience like no other and even though the lighting maybe too bright for me, I'm still overall impressed by the visual production for this show. The designs, drawing, movement all look fantastic and top-notch for a TV anime. Shame it was wasted on a substanceless show like this.

Sound (8.5/10)

I liked the OP song a lot by TRUE, well sung and feels right at home with a show like this. And the OSTs do work very well with presenting the show with its own sort of magic and fantasies involved. It sounds very good although again, a bit forced too. Less is more for me at times like these. The voice acting was solid too for both Japanese and English versions.

Enjoyment (1/10)

I hated every single minute of watching this show, since there's nothing real about it. Everything's just forced, manipulative garbage that has nothing else to really add to the show to help make the stories work.

Major letdown, and a major stinker. What a horrendous show this was, and a disgrace to the "Drama' genre as a whole.

Score 1/10

“I do not admire greatness that has no substance.”
Mary Balogh
Before the Winter 18 season had even began Violet Evergarden was set out to be one of the most anticipated animes of the year. It has been heavily advertised on social media anime websites as well as being first anime to be released weekly on UK Netflix. When I first saw the trailer for this show I was really excited because I thought this show would continue the Kyoani streak where they constantly gave us greats shows like Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Sound! Euphonium 2 and A Silent Voice. Maybe I was expecting too much as ... this point because I forgot that Kyoani is the origin of the style over substance shows where despite having great production values and music the story and characters simply don’t hold well especially when you try to re-watch them. There are a few expectations such as Full Metal Panic, K-on, and the shows I just mentioned in the Kyoani streak but the end of the day I don’t value Kyoani all that much compared to other studios like Bones, Sunrise, Madhouse and even J.C Staff.
So how does this relate to Violet Evergarden you may ask? Simply put Violet Evergarden repents almost everything that is wrong with Knoani shows as a whole. It took everything that was wrong from past Knoani and makes them worse. Combined with the great production values and music that covers up the lackluster story and characters than you got a show that feels like a tech demo instead of a complete product. Seriously what the hell happened Knoani? You took 3 steps forward with Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Sound! Euphonium 2 and A Silent Voice and now you’re taking 5 steps back.
Just wow!!!
Now with all that said hello everyone this is Shawn aka KurataLordStage and welcomes to my review Violet Evergarden and with all said let’s begin.

Story.
The story follows a former young military girl named who after serving in the war is now crippled both physically and mentally where not only she lost both of her arms she also has temporary amnesia where she cannot remember anything. One day a person named Colonel Hodgins an old acquaintance of Gilbert arrives to pick up violet from the hospital so she can be adopted by the Evergarden family which Gilbert had already arranged. However since Violet cannot adjust to civilian life due to her military indoctrination and amnesia Hodgins hires Violet to being a postal worker. Shortly after she witnesses the Auto Memory Dolls which is a group of writers who carry people thoughts and converts them into words. While witnessing Auto Memory Dolls she remembers the words "I love you" that was told by Gilbert towards Violet. Wanting to meaning the words she decides to become a Auto Memories Dolls and from there here journey begins as she comes face to face with various people’s emotions and differing shapes of love as well searching the meaning of the words "I love you" told by Gilbert.
The story has quite a bit of decent things in it but at the same time a lot of bad.
One of the things that I liked about Evergarden is its episodic nature in the beginning as Violet does her job as an automated writer who writes for others. I liked the concept of it. However, as the series progressed it, unfortunately, got repetitive and predictable and it got to a point where am watching the same thing over and over again in terms of how almost every episode ends.
If there’s one thing that I liked about Violet Evergarden that is not the great production values and music are the themes. No matter how predictable and shallow the show was Violet Evergarden least did a decent job exploring the themes of understanding one another, emotional and love. When this show is not predictable as actually having good writing it actually showcases how these themes can affect the characters especially with violet where at the beginning of the series where actually a living robot with no personality thanks to amnesia however as the series goes she's slowly starting to understand people emotions as well understanding true love. Am much I enjoyed how Violet Evergarden presented it themes I feel at times it got kinda preachy where certain characters just annoyingly preach how they don’t understand people feelings and love etc. It just got really annoying and at times the show really tries to shove down its messages right down our throats.
Now that’s all the decent about the story let’s get to the bad things about the story.
For starters, most of the episodes are hit or miss. Some episodes were good and it was decently written while others episodes ranged from mediocre, boring to downright awful
Another big flaw of Violet Evergarden is the terrible pacing. Good lord this show pacing is very slow but not in a good way. I know it’s a slice of life show/ drama and all but did they really have to make it into a snooze feast especially in the first half.
No wonder why me and my group of friends called this series Violet Everboring or worst No Man’s Evergarden (No Man’s Sky) because not only the pacing was terrible where it people to sleep but it was ultimately uninteresting thanks to its shallow writing emotional moments and characters.
I also didn’t like the fact that it was trying to hardest to be a tearjerker. Excluding episodes 10 and 11 all of the emotional moments were pretty lackluster and had no real impact thanks to its dull characters and shallow/predictable writing. It doesn’t help the fact that this show directing is up there with the god-awful Transformers movies that were done by Michael Bay
By far this shows biggest sin is that it's a another style over substance show where despite the having great production values and music the show’s writing and characters are terrible and I hate shows when they do this. Okay, I will admit that this show at times has some substance where it does a pretty decent job with its themes’ and developing a very small handful of its characters which other shows of its type don’t even do it at all looking at you DARLING in the FRANXX. However, these good things come far between as this show throughout most of its run likes focus on showings of its production values and music while having subpar characters and writing.
4/10
Characters.
If the story a couple of decent things in it than I almost nothing positive about the characters in Evergarden.
Violet herself is a pretty alright character sure she starts off being very bland but as the show progresses she very slowly becomes quite a decent character that gets’s good character development. However, I will admit she’s a pretty hard character to relate due to her wooden personality especially in the first half of the series where she’s literally unlikable. The rest of the characters are one note and they are just as interesting as watching grass grow thanks to the other characters being bland, boring, annoying to downright awful.
Overall despite Violet being a decently developed character I just cannot relate to her at all plus almost of the supporting characters are all generic drama that we all seen being before in better drama animes. I really wanted to like this characters cast but I couldn’t due to the characters being utterly unlikeable and development with the expectation of violet who is decent characters at best despite her being unrelatable as hell.
3/10
Visuals and sound.
If there is one thing that was great about Violet Evergarden it would be the visuals and soundtrack.
This is quite simply one of the best looking animes I have ever seen in my life. The amount of detail that was showed in this show is insane. Characters designs were great, the background scenery was wonderful to look at and the color direction was great. Like with The Ancient Magus Bride this show has wonderful camerawork and lighting but its way better as this show has great shot composition. As for actual animation, it’s pretty amazing. Every scene is very well animated, all the scenes flow well to each other and it the movement was fluid. I have no complaints with the visuals whatsoever.
As for the soundtrack like the with the visuals, it’s amazing. Every single track in the show was a joy to listen and it fits tones with the show for the most part.
The opening theme "Sincerely" by TRUE is a pretty great opening theme that I liked.
The ending theme Michishirube by Minori Chihara was pretty good but not as great as the opening theme, however, the ending that plays in episode 9 Believe in by Aira Yuuki was fantastic.

Now for sub vs dub.
The sub is great as you expect as every Seiyuu did a great job with the roles that were given so I have no complaints with the sub. The dub, on the other hand, was actually surprising pretty good with a lot of good talented voice actors.
10/10 for both Visuals and Sound.

Final Thoughts.
Violet Evergarden is just an another Oscar bait type of anime. It got a lot of attention from anime fans thanks to great advertisement and trailers. It also tried to convince the audience that this show is going to next big thing but it ultimately fells flat in almost every way possible if you don’t count the visuals and music. The story was lackluster at best that is filled with subpar/predictable writing, shitty pacing, weak emotional impacts that at times was written by a 12-year-old. All of the characters besides Violet were pathetically bad thanks to them being clichéd as hell as well being very unlikeable. The only actually good things about this show are the visuals, music dub and some of the well-explored themes in this.
Everything else is pretty much a dumpster fire by comparison and it really made sad because I really wanted to like this show but this show just failed to deliver thanks to its on-going problems that never seem to go away and at the end of the Violet Evergarden is a beautiful train-wreck that barely has any substance whatsoever.
Easily the most disappointing anime I have seen from 2018 by far and I know it’s pretty early to say that but once 2018 comes to a close this anime would be number 1 for most disappointing animes list.
Don’t buy into the hype from people about this series because it’s not worth it at all as it will heavily disappoint you.
Final Score 4/10

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER

Violet Evergarden, another anime of the popular studio KyoAni. Let's start.

The anime occurs after a war. Our MC is called Violet, a blond girl with prosthetic arms. She is working as a Doll (a woman that writes letters) because she needs to know the meaning of 'I love you'. Then, she will know many people in her journey. A nice story awaits us. What could go wrong? Everything!

The story. Most of the anime is episodic (3-8 and 10-11). The ploblem is that the writing is very bad and repetitive. No matter how good the production quality or the soundrack is, ... the writing is more important. If the writing IS bad, the anime IS bad. Every episode is just some forgettable, artificial and generic melodrama that tries so hard to be tragic/sad rather than telling a good story. Reasons: 1) I don't care about a character that i just recently met. 2) Every episode have the same repetitive formula: Violet showing her prosthetic arms → the side character is surprised → Violet writing the letter and the drama starts. 3) Many of that side character have no personality besides of being just plot devices. I'm going to explain this much latter. 4) Many episodes are a just wasted of time that barely affect Violet. That's not 'character development'. The anime relies too much on tragic backstories to the point of being unrealistic. Also the story is pointless when suddenly changes to a poorly explained war story. Finally, the show seems addicted to start with the stories of the side characters instead of giving more backstory to our MC first.

The main character. Violet is a cute, innocent and stoic girl, i cannot deny that. But that the only decent traits of her. The anime tries everytime to make her look perfect for the sake of the plot. The most clear example is in the third episode when Violet goes to the school to be a Doll. She doesn't pass the course yet she pass after write some letters. Violet could accept his mistakes and later do the course again. It's too convenient. Another trait is that she is a killing machine super soldier. She can -for unexplained reasons- kill many trained soldiers easily. How she can do that? We never know. The prosthetic arms have no purpose in the story besides being pure shock factor -the way of how she gotten them is not explained-. I supposed that she can kill many people because of that arms but the flashbacks say otherwise. His character development is almost nonexistent, even after she learns the truth about Gilbert. The worst part is how she loses both arms doesn't really make sense. First, did she feel pain after losing both arms? A normal person never could carry someone after that inmense pain. Second, didn't she passed out of blood loss? And finally, the enemies only shoot them one time before being killed by Violet and Gilbert, rather than shooting many bullets in the first place. If the they're smart, Violet and Gilbert will be killed in seconds. Another similar scene ocurrs in the episode 12: the train hijacking. A unarmed Violet -she doesn't want to defend herself despite that she can be killed by armed guys- defeats many armed soldiers. Many of them are armed yet nobody shoots until is too late. Why didn't they just shoot Violet on top of the train? That not making any sense.......Finally, the anime poorly explain the origin of Violet. She is just a Mary Sue.

The Bougainvillea brothers. Gilbert is an army major and the love interest/father figure of Violet. The anime doesn't make it clear. We only known of him is that he is nice and a good person to Violet. He is nice guy anything else?. And then, Dietfried, the opposite of Gilbert. He is mean, rude and hate Violet. Also, he is the man who found her. His only trait is being a dick to Violet because she killed his subordinates -the context was never explained- and blames her for the death of Gilbert -something that makes no sense-. That is a bad plot idea to keep it relevent. The worst part is that the anime attempts to paint him as an angsty asshole in every scene rather than giving him decent traits.

The CH Postal Company where Violet and other two Dolls works have some characters. The most interesting are Benedict and Cattleya. I like their chemistry and was one of the few decent moments in the entire show besides the animation. Sadly, they have limited screen time. It's feels like a wasted potential. Now, the other side characters that receive tons of screen time -in their episode- are merely plot devices or are poorly written. A random example from episode 6 with the character of Leon. He had discontent for Dolls, yet he was immediately enamored by Violet as soon as he laid eyes on her. Their only purpuse of is existence is to remind you that they are tragic people and nothing more. The animes fails to present a light-hearted story and gets repetitive.

Mrs. Evergarden is the worst side character in the entire show. The first episode give us to understand more interactions with her foster daughter. Too bad. She disappears for 7 episodes and returns to explain a plot point and then disappears again. What is the point of her character?

The villains from the last three episodes are just your typical bad guys. That was clear when one of them wants to torture a side character and in another episode he is giving us a evil smile to reminds us that he is bad guy.

The soundrack is decent in most parts, sometimes is forgettable anyway.

Finally, looking beyond the extremely good production (best of the season), interesting soundtrack, and amazing backdrops, there’s just not much there.

Story 2/10 Bad written, emotionally manipulative, poorly paced and pointless. A lot of plot holes.

Art 8.5/10 Very good.

Sound 7/10 Passable soundrack, decent voice actors.

Character 1.5/10 Generic, bad written, little to no development.

Enjoyment 3.5/10 Boring.

Overall 3.5/10

I have never wanted to stop watching anime as much as I did when I was watching Violet Evergarden.

For some reason it never came to my attention that watching landscapes was entertaining. I implore MAL to create a rating lower than dreadful just to scrutinize this atrocity. If I wanted to stare at a screen and watch pictures of scenery go by I would turn my desktop background to auto change and watch that. I wasted over 260 minutes pretending to be interested in the lifeless show that is viOlEt eVergAdEn.

If you have ever believed in a higher power now would be the time ... to stop putting your faith in them because they allowed this disgrace to roam the human plain unpunished. I am here acting as a vessel of the gods to run its reputation into the dirt and bring justice to all that is holy.

Thank you for reading and remember, violet evergarden is the most disappointing thing ever to be achieved by mankind.

I've heard a lot about this show whether from friends or from media, so I went into it with great expectations. Starting the first episode with great anticipation and excitement for what seemed to be a bright and refreshing new show, I sat down and focused. Despite how hard I tried, inevitably I fell asleep. Waking up and seeing that it autoplayed to the last episode, I rewinded it to the first episode where I left off - I fell asleep again. Thinking that I was just tired, I slept a 10 hour sleep and came back. I fell asleep again. Drinking energy drinks and ... coffee, I finally tanked through the first 3 episodes until I realised that I was simply just bored out of my mind. Would recommend if you have not had a good night's sleep in a while, otherwise for me personally it was just too boring.

This series has very smooth animation, decent cinematography, and uses scene transitions in interesting ways. In terms of anime as an artistic craft, there's a lot to recommend here. It certainly looks very expensive, and it's easy to tell that there's been a lot of care put into each frame.

The big problem is with the story, you see. And the characters. And the pacing. They're just... not very good.

Admittedly, a lot of this is merely my own personal taste -- I don't like melodrama, and this is a Melodrama with a capital M. There's a character crying in almost every episode. There's *multiple* ... bouts of crying in over half the episodes. A few episodes had over half a dozen instances of crying, and in some cases it felt like the story was moving from one instance of characters busting out the waterworks to the next, like a chain-smoker that doesn't know how to quit.

Beyond my personal taste, I think episodic melodrama is especially hard to do well. Characters are introduced but typically only have a single episode (only 22 short minutes!) to work through their issues. This flatly isn't enough time to really do much, and the resolution often consists of just a single pep-talk, which leads to a double-bind:
Option 1) the issue is so facile that a single pep-talk really could realistically solve it, but that makes the characters seem like childish babies for having an issue in the first place.
Option 2) the issue is bigger, so it seems like a problem a real person could have, but then it's ludicrous for that type of thing to be resolved in a single pep talk.
The end result was that the melodrama felt somewhere between "fake" and "annoying". Maybe this type of show would be a tearjerker for teenage girls that score 100% Feeling on their MBTI tests, but for me it fell completely and utterly flat.

Furthermore, the show isn't helped by the protagonist Violet being unlikable. She starts out comically awful in a way that many anime protagonists do so the storywriter can easily show character progression. Her blundering in social situations verges on severe autism, then she "grows" into a regular human that can think for herself and who has normal emotions, but this is mostly expressed through crying. Ugh.

Not a fan.

Note to Anime: It is very important to make sure your viewers can easily tell whether or not your characters are human or highly advanced robots, especially when your world is set in a steampunk Victorian era and their occupation is literally called "Doll."

Spoiler: none of the "dolls" are actually robots. Just girls training to ghostwrite. Why is it only girls? Dunno. Why do they have to be called "doll"? Dunno.

Violet Evergarden. An anime that has all the glamour and musicality, but not a lot of sense. That was my review 2 episode into the series. The art is gorgeous, the music and voice ... acting are top notch. Animations are fluid and subtle. A pretty house that is furnished with terrible, dated furniture. The premise is cliche and the story makes little sense at times and tries way too hard to be "thoughtful" and "touching."

How have things fared since the start of the episode?
Spoiler ahead.

In episode 2 we see violet send a letter that pissed off the client because she's a robot (not really but she acts like one and has robot hands). This was done in an extremely forced, and illogical way. For starter, Violet is new. And yet no one proof-readed the letter for her. They just let a complete newb, whom they know talk and act like a robot and have trouble fitting in, ghostwrite a letter on the company's behalf. Also, Violet was a soldier that relies on order. This being the first letter she ever wrote, you'd think she would ask someone if the content was okay. This is BS storytelling. Sacrificing logic for plot is weak writing and I honestly didn't expect it in an anime everyone has been raving about.

Having re-adjusted my expectation, I watched two more episodes with a less critical eye and just genuinely trying to have fun. Unfortunately, this anime tries very hard to be dour and serious and touching, but ended up being very boring and devoided of fun and genuine moments.

Think of an anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion. Aside from being really dark and twisted (also features a heroine similar to violet in the name of Rei), Neon Genesis is also fun and subtly touching at times (not "everybody crying all the time" touching, except Shinji because he's a crybaby) You can argue that the series becomes increasingly convoluted, confusing and overtly religious towards the end, and I'd completely agree with you, but the series, for the most part, had a simplistic story to tell, had interesting side characters, had a focus... all the while being tonally dour and smothering.

Violet Evergarden has a very similar tone. It is serious most of the time and almost completely devoided of laughter. I can count the number of fun moments I had between episode 3 and 4 with 1 hand.

In episode 3, we are introduced to a girl named Luculia, who is good-natured and wants to take care of her brother since he was the only family she had left. This storyline had a lot of promise and had they taken the time to properly set up her struggles and motivations, the payoff would've been far greater. Then, somewhere in the middle of episode 3, she cried. Then towards the end of episode 3, she cried some more. Her brother also cried.

Episode four focused Iris, one of Violet's hot-head coworker, and her trip to her hometown. 10 minutes into the episode she cried and got into a shouting match with her mum. (how dramatic.) Another 10 minute she cried after seeing some dude who rejected her from way back.

There is so much CRYING.

How is any of this "touching"?

The biggest mistake this anime makes is thinking that throwing a sad melody on top of someone crying automatically makes the scene touching. Nevermind letting the audience get to know the characters. Nevermind the circumstances. Just have them cry and your audience will cry along. Spoiler: It doesn't work this way. Instead, it ends up feeling really forced.

There are some good moments in episode 4. For instance, iris asking Violet not to send the letter, and the very next scene you see is violet sending the letter. The dolls at the post office declared to have an official party, only to completely leave out their boss. Moments like this are very welcomed, and sourly needed in a show so devoided of light-hearted moments. Almost all the characters are cardboard cutouts. You can describe them in less than 3 adjectives.

The characters talk, but you never get the sense that they're real people. Just mouthpieces to fabricate conflict. (except Luculia. She had Violet write a letter to her dead parents. She's the first real character I've seen on this show that felt real.) You barely get any meaningful insight into each of the character's life. What's iris like when she's not working? What does she like to do? It's four episodes in already and so far we barely got to know the main cast, beyond one or two descriptors.

Violet Evergarden is like a beautiful piggy bank. The art is fantastic. The characters are pretty to look at. Great music and soundtrack. The exterior of the piggy bank promises riches beyond your imagination, and if you shake the piggy bank ever so lightly, you might even hear a faint rustle of coins or see a glitter of gold through the slit.

When you break it open, however, there's nothing inside but pebbles. No story to tell. No interesting character or dialogue to keep you engaged. What you have is a story that doesn't really say a whole lot, but isn't really fun to hear either.

if you're a teenager and this is going to be your first anime (or one of the first) by all means, watch it. It is pretty to look at, with all that filters and DoF and melodramatic soundtracks. If you are someone who grew up on anime, you can give this a pass.

Brutally boring, the only thing I can rate as excellent is the music, which is quite pleasant, and the animation. Story-wise, it's total bullshit. Major as an officer who loves a 14-year-old girl? 14-year-old girl used as a weapon in war? And isn't it taken as a comedy? They seem to do it with all seriousness? To me, everything here seems so dry that I find it funny how much people described how they held back tears or cried during each episode.
I'm crying because every episode drags on terribly and it's probably not the series for me.
So anyone looking for something epic, emotional tension with ... a great story and a little bit of depression, this is not for you unless you cry at every stupid thing.

Do you enjoy stories that romanticize romance between 14- and 24-year-olds?

Violet Evergarden is an episodic period fantasy set somewhere around the late Victorian era in an alternate world, focused on a journey of self-discovery of the title character, a 14-year-old girl bearing the scars of war. Many of the tales told within are touching, heartbreaking. The art direction is gorgeous, and its score remains an all-time favorite of mine. This show looks—and, especially, sounds—stunning.

It's not enough, however, to distract you. From learning that Violet isn't just some victim of war, but a superpowered war machine, the nature of which will be afforded neither explanation nor ... exploration. From watching Violet dodge a hail of bullets as she Naruto-runs across a snow-covered forest floor before roughing up a group of armed soldiers. From realizing, upon story's end, that it tried to advocate for the relationship of an early teen with an adult a decade (or more) their senior, not once, but twice.

Violet "年齢の垣根はない" Evergarden isn't really a period-inspired drama about a girl shaped by war. You will find no meaningful character development here. It's a wish-fulfillment fantasy for romantically hopeless, socially maladjusted adolescents, bundled up in an ornate wrapper. And the packaging really is beautiful, too.

Very disappointing.
When the thing the anime is named after is not interesting, let's say it's not a good sign... the initial idea was promising, but the actually enjoyable thing about this anime are the stories of the secondary characters, Violet's story it’s not interesting at all, the character development was handled quite badly, they told you it's there and it happens, but in fact the gradual developing that should’ve led Violet from the initial situation to the ending is not shown... everything seems forced, as if this anime is trying at all costs to make the viewer cry, this is a narrative technique that’s often ... used to fill various flaws, in this case problems with the protagonist's writing.
In my opinion, Violet needed more complexity… giving the viewer a tragic backstory doesn’t mean creating a complex character.

However, I don't consider it a terrible anime, the stories of the secondary characters, as previously said, were quite enjoyable... if these had been the structure and intent of the anime I would have even appreciated it, but from how the narration is set up you can perceive that the core of the anime is or at least should be Violet, but the whole part about her in my opinion was handled badly and in a story like this the protagonist must necessarily work well as a character, she should’ve been more complex and not suffer from major characterization problems.

I don't recommend it, there are dramatic anime that can make you cry in a much less forced way. If you are particularly a fan of the dramatic genre you might still like it.

Violet Evergarden

So yeah... I didn't like it and I don't understand at all why this anime has such good reviews, I mean it's really hard to find any negative ones xD

.
The animation is definitely at a divine level and enlivens the anime, but not for me, cool animation does not make up for the boredom, and there is clearly an excess of form over content, it was really hard to watch, some episodes made me feel like I was watching some Turkish movie. soap opera and I dropped out after episode 10.


It is an anime about a girl who, in order to ... find out what love is, is employed as a "Auto Memory Doll" whose task is to write letters conveying the emotions of clients, the MC goes on a journey during which she will perform her duties and at the same time get to know different emotions better.....


In general, it's hard to get involved when you feel that one simple conversation could solve the main plot in the blink of an eye, as if the MC felt all these emotions and told this to the head of the company and he didn't even think about calling things by their name and instead hired the most robotic woman in the world to write these letters.
Also, in a world with ultra-advanced prosthetic hands, there are no psychologists? why do we immediately choose the most twisted path?

Throughout episodes 1-5 MC does not develop emotions when it comes to emotions until suddenly in episode 6 he starts screeching, episode 6 shows that all it takes is a short conversation and MC already knows what loneliness is and she could learn what love is but the conversation is interrupted by a comet and no one would think to come back to this issue XD the skills of writing these letters also seem incredible and did not go along with the development of emotions that are ultimately needed for this.

This anime is known for being a "tearjerker" but I don't understand it at all, it is too over-dramatized, full of pathos and based on boring or sometimes too extreme scenarios, I can see how it wants to squeeze these tears out of me at all costs but I just stare blankly with my eyes because for me it is not honest and forced xD
Or maybe the MC's "romance" with the lieutenant is supposed to be sad? Bruh no, the lieutenant is such a boring character and we barely see him at the beginning.
Wgl MC is then less than 14 years old and the lieutenant... please tell me that in the end it turned out to be a father-daughter relationship.

MC is too irritating and exaggerated, her actions are so exaggerated, probably just to make her development seem more explicit, although it was not subtle enough and therefore damn boring.

This anime wants to be so "serious" and unique and especially more or less realistic, in most of these boring episodes it succeeds but when we reach the flashbacks from the war, we are hit in the face with ultra stupid anime logic where 12-13 year olds like Ackermann can easily and sometimes even without weapons, he defeats adult soldiers who behave like Stormtroopers from Star Wars and their accuracy depends on whether it is needed in the idiotic scene of shooting off MC's hands... XD if it didn't conflict so much with what happened before, maybe I would accept it or if the anime was interesting, but yes... after a dozen or so episodes of monotony, we get something like this and the scale of bitterness tips.


For me this anime is ultra overrated 5/10

***Spoilers for first five episodes***

I didn't know much about the show other than it being on Netflix, me having exhausted my anime list, and it having high ratings in general. I gave it a good 5 episodes and couldn't stand it anymore afterward. Like a couple of other reviewers here have mentioned, it's all akin to oscar bait. A pretty veneer drenched with fake melodrama that's extremely shallow, and most egregious of all, contradictory and nonsensical. It's a common phrase the main character repeats many times, saying she is confused at human emotions and how contradictory their uttered words and true feelings can be. SHe ... is actually describing her own show.

From the very first episode, the story already creates unnecessary confusion. You have no idea what Violet is. They frequently refer to her as a tool. She is a weapon in the army. You do not know to what extent. She speaks like a machine. Her hand and forearm are shown to be metal contraptions. She reveals them frequently in public. No one is alarmed. They refer to her as a "doll". So with all this circumstantial evidence, and how the Japanese love their robot girl anime, you assume she is actually a robot doll created as a weapon and that this is commonplace enough for people to be accepting of it.

WRONG. She is an orphan. A child soldier they found. A FEMALE child soldier. One that is used as a weapon, but apparently not as an object you place your penis in among an all-male army. The amount of stupid in this anime only gets worse. After the war's end, her age is estimated to be 14 even though she looks like a full grown adult, a copy paste of Sabre from Fate/Stay in fact, but even bigger. Some of the younger looking girls even refer to her as a child.

And she is actually human. Not a doll or machine. Her arms are actually PROSTHETICS implanted after the war and not robot arms. In what army would one end up learning to talk and act like a machine? North Korea? A war between Alexa and Siri? This is fictional Europe. None of the soldiers, her superiors, or anyone else talks like a machine. If she was constantly screaming bloody hell, cursing, having night terrors, and was ultra paranoid of loud noises, sudden movements, and other pepole in general, that would actually be realistic. If she was a deaf mute who seemed to be dead inside from seeing all the violence and death, that would be realistic. An annoyingly clueless and superficial machine that rambles on and on? Maybe if she had been held captive by a fax machine.

On top of that, they've magically invented a new term for typewriters: AUTO MEMORY DOLLS, and refer to typists, copywriters, and transcribers as DOLLS. These are basic, no-nonsense typewriters, yet the anime tries to shoehorn the concept of a DOLL into their existence. The plot revolves around Violet's experience as a DOLL, typing out letters for clients that express their true feelings, going far beyond verbatim transcription. Here is already one of the biggest contradictions the show throws at you. DOLLS write letters that express emotionally complex human thought. They are basically playing therapist and reading between the lines, placing those thoughts concisely onto paper. What does being a DOLL, a soulless inanimate object or machine, have anything to do with interpreting human emotion? Absolutely nothing. More like someone got extremely confused, went crazy with the DOLL theme, and started naming every single object, person, and concept, a DOLL.

In fact, I was waiting for Violet's DOLL co-workers to have Siri-like conversations with her and have the story revolve around the group attaining human emotions together. Nope. They are all humans and behave compulsively just like humans. Yet they are called DOLLS. It get's even worse. VIolet actually attends an AUTO MEMORY DOLL class, where the famed instructor lectures to her prospective DOLLS about expressing the client's TRUE feelings and emotions on paper, a very un-DOLL-like thing to do. And yet, she teaches them absolutely nothing about human emotion, psychology, subconsciousness, or even persuasive writing techniques. All she does is mutter in criticism at the end of the class that Violet's writing is NOT a letter or letter-worthy. That is some high end education right there.

As you can imagine, the anime is episodic, in which Violet tries to save the next depressed soul who can't fully articulate themselves, using her "amazing" letter writing skills, while supposedly growing emotionally from each encounter. In fact, the first life she changes is that of one of her classmates, who could not directly express to her brother how grateful she was that he had come back alive from the war. The letter was so good, in fact, it impressed her sensei and allowed Violet to graduate from her DOLL school. And guess what that letter said? It had ONE line and repeated VERBATIM what her classmate told her to write. Talk about immense skill! In fact, even though her classmate ultimately declined to complete the letter, Violet took it upon herself to finish it behind her back and give it to her brother without her knowledge or consent. Not only was it irresponsible and relied on a fleeting thought that may or may not have been what she wanted to say, it also had absolutely nothing to do with the impact of letter writing. It was a completely impersonal letter type-written by a stranger. I'm surprised she didn't even ask for his bank account number. Violet could have just repeated the sentiment in her robotic voice and thrown the whole letter-writing BS out the window.

Even before the "heart-wrenching" reveal, this episode was just an absolute laughingstock. They repeatedly show the classmate's brother struggling with his disability. He had gotten a lame leg from the war and relied on crutches. He was being beaten on the streets. He was dragging himself on the ground. He was lifting his bum leg like a dead weight at home, knocking things over. Zoom in shots of his crutches every few seconds. And yet, in every other scene, there is this f--king doll robot girl with bionic arms that can type over 200 words per minute with dextrous robot fingers and pin people down with chokeholds between her robot arms.

The next depressed soul came in the form of one of VIolet's co-workers going back to her hometown to complete a letter writing request. Right before leaving, her hand was burned as a plot device so that Violet could come along and exist in the story. The co-worker's parents were actually throwing her a surprise birthday party while scheming to introduce potential suitors for marriage at the event. She caught on to them quickly and, against her wishes, was forced to meet an old childhood friend who had previously rejected her romantically and whom she did not want to see. Of course she felt betrayed by her parents and ran away from the party in tears. What's worse is she ends up having to apologize to them and the rest of the party-goers via letter (because this is a letter-themed anime). It's beyond f--ked up. Her parents show absolutely no remorse for their mistake. Violet does absolutely nothing and learns absolutely nothing here other than being her typical machine self. The co-worker resolves everything on her own.

And now the final depressed soul in the series before I just dropped the anime like a rock. The Violet machine, against all reason, gets promoted to drafting officially published "love letters" between two members of royalty in a political marriage. DOLLS have apparently gone from simply transcribing addresses, lists, and letters for the illiterate poor to full on state sponsored propaganda. Why in the world they would need the services of a DOLL instead of a proper publicist or statesman is beyond me. The manufactured drama comes from the princess that Violet is assigned to. At first, you are led to believe she is unhappy with the forced marriage to someone she doesn't know and the age difference. Turns out, not only does she know this person and likes him, she also specifically requested the political marriage with him. The princess is just whining about not being able to talk to him privately outside of fabricated "love letters". Here's a bright idea. Let the publicists do their thing and just send private letters that remain private. BRILLIANT. No need for a useless DOLL. Instead, she ends up just printing her private conversations for all to see for absolutely no good reason. Hopefully there were no dick pics in there.

This anime is a complete waste of beautiful graphics. The main character, Violet Evergarden, after which the series is named, is one of the most cringy characters I have ever seen. She shows no emotion whatsoever. The series desperately tries to make her as cute as possible, but what they've actually done is making Violet nothing more than an empty shell with no brains. (or soul for that matter, she is just there for people to drool over) What a horrible cliche. Don't be lured in by the beautiful graphics, these made me stick around for 5 episodes after which I could not handle the ... shallowness of this anime anymore.

Violet Evergarden has been hyped up to unreasonable levels that it could never hope to live up to over the past year. Let alone, scrape even the bottom of its potential. This anime is nothing more than a cheap, uninspired, husk of a drama that thinks it knows what makes other dramas work and try to replicate that. The author doesn't have a clear understanding of how to write good drama or what their work even wants to be at times.

Its focus is split between making violet grow as a character from her traumatic experience in the war and the people she meets who ... help her in becoming an actual person. The problem is, it doesn't do enough of either to make you invested in the world or its characters. Everyone in the story is forgettable and doesn't have enough screen time since it keeps adding in new characters every episode. The post war setting is an interesting take as it's not heavily action focused and more on how it affects people thereafter. This could have been used as a great opportunity to focus on the economic side effects this has on the people but alas its attention lies elsewhere with nobles and artists whom you can't develop an attachment to.

The story is always moving and you'll be left wondering how months or seemingly years have passed with violet writing letters and she'll have suddenly developed to be more empathetic between episodes. This creates a pacing problem and disconnect between the viewer and violet's character. It's especially hard to latch on to violet as a compelling character since we're treated to such an agonizing first 3 episodes, that if you follow the 3 episode rule, you'll have dropped immediately. This is by far the weakest part of the show and makes enjoying the rest all the more difficult.

It finally starts to pick up in episode 4 and this is where the show for me, instantly became more enjoyable, comparing what we had before to now just made me happy we were getting somewhere. Unfortunately all the progress the middle half of the show makes, goes down the drain towards the end. It all falls apart again with it now wanting to be an action driven show once Violet has matured. This creates a jarring plot that is conflicted on what it wants to be. The soldier's fighting the rebels was what I would have liked the show to focus on earlier. If it was gonna do it at all and not half ass it to make a more action driven climax that it didn't need. This also leads me to believe the author doesn't have enough faith in his work to carry it all the way to the end. To top it all off, the "big reveal" that completely goes against the point of Violet Evergarden and shows once again, this author understands their work as little as the fans do.

The soundtrack is also forgettable, it sounds like your typical drama soundtrack. it has emotion but unless you feel a deep attachment to the show, it won't stick with you. kinda like how fate is full of generic "epic" music. The art is the only standout thing in the show and is probably what caught your attention in the first place if you watched it. Being produced by Kyoto animation, this comes as no surprise.

Wrapping up, I'll admit i went in to the show with very high expectations, (no thanks to its fanbase who will swear up and down that its the greatest drama/character piece) and reacted as passionately with disdain for the show as the people who loved it. If there's any lesson to learn from Violet Evergarden, it's that hype can CERTAINLY be a bad thing and make you enjoy it even less than if you went in with no expectations at all.

Typical of a lot of KyoAni anime, Violet Evergarden had a lot of potential but instead settled into the usual boring mush of sparkle over substance. Violet has very little personality and it doesn't develop further over time: she feels like a husk there to be simply "cute" and "quaint" and woobified, which just gets more grating as time goes on. Not to mention the fact that her backstory is just... ridiculous.

It has some interesting side characters, but of course justice isn't done to them and instead they are pushed into a basic mould with cliché plots. I usually really like stuff made to ... pull on your heartstrings, and am relatively lenient on fanservice, or fluffy childish stuff, but this just went way too far. I don't want an entire episode dedicated to a man being reminded of his dead daughter by a girl jumping over a river with fancy effects and impassioned music lol (the music is lovely by the way, I hate that it was wasted on something like this). Or a touching arranged marriage between a 14 year old and a grown man. Come on, you could've at least milked some sads out of that, and it'd be much more digestible and believable than the aforementioned river-jumping-to-remind-you-of-your-dead-child fetishism. Even if the anime would just treat the issues it portrays, no matter how cliché, more seriously, it could have been pretty decent! I know it had potential from the episode focusing on Iris. But then again, apparently she wasn't in the original light novels, so :(

Overall I really wouldn't recommend this anime to anyone. The plot reads like a cheap kids film littering supermarket shelves that browbeats very simplistic "emotional" scenes over your head to compensate for the complete lack of any actual selling point. But kids deserve quality too ;)

Violet Evergarden is what happens when you shove money and time down an anime's throat without any actual sense of artistic vision. Though it has no glaring errors - as would be expected from a high production value Netflix release - its parts ultimately fail to work together, critically falling victim to weak direction and a poorly paced story.

Early on, a painfully slow narrative proves itself to be the main deal breaker with this show. The anime takes 13 roundabout episodes to get to a rather simple point. Each scene occupies too much time on the screen, a unique problem which leads to boredom on ... end. It's hard to shake off the feeling that VE takes itself too seriously, appearing vain in its attempts to present itself as a work of art. A little bit of self-awareness would have gone a long way in making this show more suitable as a casual watch.

As a consequence of this poor pacing, the characters also suffer from a lack of development. Sometimes, a little bit of filler is much needed in fleshing out the cast of a show, and although VE has simple characters with well-defined personalities, none of them are attractive enough to draw genuine attachment from the viewer. Violet, in particular, is an extremely frustrating MC to have to follow throughout the story. Her few defining characteristics, including her inability to understand love and her stalkerish obsession with her dead boss, are quickly beaten to lifelessness through repetition and overemphasis. Moreover, although her development as a character is real, I would posit that most viewers will have a difficult time trying to relate on a personal level with a child prodigy robot-girl with no understanding of human relationships. This is an unfortunate flaw when your entire anime revolves around exaggerated emotional depth and tear-baiting.

The art, as is easy to see, is easily the saving grace of this show. It is immediately apparent that a massive amount of time has been invested in the animation. However, even the art sometimes clashes with what the anime is trying to accomplish. Violet's ornamental visuals and clothing, for example, are much better suited to her identity as a heroic warrior than an unknown teenager striving to become a better person in a small town workplace. In general, the extravagant art styles only leave one feeling that something grander is missing when it is not. The animations would be much better suited to another series that can take full advantage of the epic expansiveness of this style. There is also not much substance to be found in the camera angles or the overall visual direction of the artwork. This is not to say that the art is bad, but it does fall short of the coherent artistic vision of true art films such as Ghibli or Kimi no Na wa, even if VE might have the slight technical edge.

The sound design continues to add insult to injury. The audio seems to take away from the experience, rather than supplement. Long-winded piano ballads cut into scenes that would be much better off silent, and derivative cinematic backdrops are inserted where they are not emotionally appropriate. One song which plays over a montage of Violet at work is a shaky replica of a piece from The Sims 4 OST. The OP and ED are old-fashioned and hardly memorable.

What I feel to be the core of the problem is this: Violet Evergarden is a quaint story of a girl in a small town which would be much better told using smaller tools. Everything from the narrative to the designs is blown way out of proportion in a way that doesn't make sense with an aesthetic which clearly takes inspiration from turn-of-the-millenium Holocaust tragedy drama films. The premise and direction are both awkward, and are undeserving and unrequiring of the production efforts pumped into telling this simple and homely story.

Violet Evergarden holds little of substance but eye candy and a few weak attempts at tearjerking. I do not recommend this as a watch unless you are willing to really force yourself into the zone to resonate with some strange characters, or you are just bored out of your mind - although this show may only make that problem worse.