Violet Evergarden Movie

The Violet Evergarden Movie is a huge disappointment in term of what it means for violet as a character. The ending to this movie does a complete 180 on violet journey as a character. Violet regresses back to a lesser form of herself by the end of the movie and it's depressing to see. Too see Violet who are the start of her journey felt incomplete without gilbert and said her life had no meaning beside being his "tool". Too someone by the end of the story who understood what love meant through its form of friendship, partners, and family. While also finding a career ... that fulfilled her, friends she could rely on, a father figure through Hodgins. Too see her literally throw away all she gains just so she can be on some island in the middle of nowhere with gilbert. This just felt like a spit in the face of her journey as she reverts back to square one. The movie makes it clear that gilbert all violet needs to be happy but that shouldn't be all that she deserves. Violet journey sadly by the end of movie meant almost nothing as she reverts to someone that feels like gilbert is her master.

---No spoiler zone---

I'll be quick in this section because a lot of what I blame on the movie is based on elements developed later in the story.

So in a word : This movie is a disappointment and even worse, it disavow all of the character development of the series. Don't watch it if you liked the original anime.

But let's be fair, the movie still have some qualities :
- Even if I feel like the quality is overall a bit worse than the series, the art is still astonishing and some of the shots from the movie are real masterpieces (especially on the last part).
- The ... OST still is really enjoyable, and have some tracks that I will listen even after my viewing.
- And finally I love the way that the world depicted in the series, is evolving. It gives me a great sense of immersion and poses the question of the evolution of work in our society (even if it's brushed off quickly).

But let's talk about the elephant in the room in the next section.

---SPOILER---

Story (4/10)

The story is pretty bad.

I'm kinda lying here, the story if you take it independently isn't that horrible, just painfully average. It's just a love story like you've seen a lot (with the typical "I can't be with you" "I don't deserve you" "blabla" type of shit) but the worst part is that the major is so underdeveloped here that it's just uninteresting.

I will add that this doesn't feel natural. The way the events unfolds feels like that part was squished in here because the author found that cool and wanted a traditional ending, but compared to the original it is a HUGE throwback (I will talk about it more in the character part).

I just gave four for the story because of the first part with Yuris, which I felt was quite a nice story, not as impactful as I would want it to be, but still "enjoyable". It's quite the shame that the movie didn't put more time and attention on it, because it would have been a better story that what we got.

In general, the story is too conflicted to be impactful which, for a movie of 2h30 is incomprehensible. I mean, the movie is supposed to be centered around the reapparition of the major, but we don't see him for the 2/3rd of it. And when he's on screen he is barely developed. These many sidestories, even if I like them (more than the main plot I add) are hindrance to the love story because, they block the movie from developing something that is new compared to the series, not just a scenario of "what would happen if the major was alive OMG".

Art (8/10)

Not much more from what I said before, really cool. There is some amazing scenes. And overall the art is still one of the best asset of the movie.

Sound (7/10)

Same here, really cool OST, not a lot much to say. It contributes greatly to the feels in the series, and it hasn't changed here.

Character (1/10)

And there it is. THE problem I have with this movie.

It kills all of the character development of the series. All of the message and originality of the anime, sacrificed for the generic happy ending.

So let's start by talking about Gilbert... His development is a disaster.
In the original anime, Gilbert is described as someone who deeply cares for Violet and serves as her only parental figure. His final message "I love you" isn't really made explicit as the series let the interpretation of theses word to Violet and thereby to the viewer.

Here, the major, is a major (pun unintended) douchebag. He is someone who abandoned everything out of spite and intentionally, to go fuck off on the edge of the world because he felt bad. I summarize, he left a child traumatized and physically injured on a battle field after telling that he loved her and left without even a single thought about her well-being. He didn't even try to contact his family which (we learn) deeply cares about him and wasn't even aware of his mother death. And finally he refuse to see any of his former friends and family, because he feel that he has wrong them and prefer fleeing and ignoring them than try to make up for his mistakes.

I won't go further than this, but I will mention that the chronology (which by the way is quite fucked up) make that he was romantically attracted to Violet when she was between 10 to 14 years old. The world depicted is one where this situation may be acceptable, but I'm quite frankly not comfortable with it (but for the sake of the immersion I won't really count that as a major flaw).

Overall, this is a detestable character, and his reasoning ruined all of the feel and the aura built around him. It's a shame because all of that made the generic love story feel like a disaster because, what is depicted here isn't love. I can't see that you would hide yourself from the very same person that you love for a reason so selfish. And this kills the very principle around which Violet developed herself in the series.

The other character aren't that developed. The movie add nothing particular about them other than the professional reconversion of Erica. Oh and finally... WHERE'S MY BEST GIRL TAYLOR ?

Overall (3/10)

As I said, this movie was a disappointment. It literally made me angry (which for a movie is quite the accomplishment) because it's viewing, ruined the original anime for me.

Violet Evergarden in a beautiful love story. It's about how love and words, can change someone. It's a story about loss and grief. About how the people that we care for help us find a meaning in our lives, even if they're not present anymore. All of the stories depicted during the anime told us how our words, as little as they can be, help other go through hardship and let them live their lives to the fullest.

This isn't the case here.

All of the message about, finding the deep meaning of love (which as I said precedently is left vague for the different interpretations) is gone. Now it's just the romantic aspect that's left. All of the story, about coping with loss, about passing through grief to find a purpose, to find what's our reason to live beyond a single individual, it's gone. And the final episode, where Violet finally acknowledge that the major is gone, but realize that even if he isn't there anymore, her memories of him and what he made for her will forever accompany her in her new life... have now lost all of their meanings.

I'm really sorry, but if your entire series is based around the grief and loss of someone, you can't make him reappear without reason and expecting to keep the meaning of the story intact.

I know why people love that ending, because for the character... that's the good ending, and people love that. But in regard to all that has been built up previously, it's an insult to the viewer. And I don't like being insulted.

(That was way too long, I'm sorry)

- where's the character growth? i see a lot of praise for violet's character development. really? it looks like she never really walked out of the major's shadow.

- compared to the start of season 1, she is more independent now, that i will not begrudge her. but there is no improvement from where the end of season 1 left her. i'll go ahead and call it a regression. we've been through those flashbacks & same struggles. we've been through the intense gilbert longing. same old, same old.

- the goddamn age gap.

- seriously. it's so off-putting. i'm guessing the setting takes place after the 18th century. ... and it's steampunk lined with fantasy. out of all the things, i don't think we need to keep the funny perceptions of age.

- the main story is hopelessly outshined by the sick boy's story, even though the sick boy's part took the back seat. the sick boy's story was predictable, but moving. there's nothing new to the main arc, except the backpedal on violet's growth in season 1.

- the art is breathtaking, so that's really good.

- i was mostly bored while watching the movie. or cringing at the sketchy parts of the show. not good.

- so. where is the character growth?

This will only make sense if you have not watched this movie yet.

In case you have read TCTriangle's review already, you will not find much new information here as that review (the spoler free part) is a very good summary of what I was feeling about this movie.
That being said, I did decide to reinforce it and make sure anyone going through reviews here understand it is not an isolated opinion.

I really enjoyed the entire V.E. story, it is very well written (I am only familiar with the animation version of the story) and that made me even more surprised how hard they dropped ... the ball with this one. And by "hard" I mean they have dropped the ball multiple times during the movie. Multiple times they had the option to develop the story in a way that actually respects and compliments Violet's charachter and concludes her journey, but no. Missed the mark, all the time.
Maybe it is not PC to say this, but this drop in storywriting quality might have something to do with the 2019 incident.
Regardless, I already am affraid for Hibike! Euphonium as the next amazing storyline to be destroyed by Kyoto Animation.

I am really trying to understand who the target audience was for this movie. My only conclusion is: viewers who do like the entire storyline, were demanding another "installment", but have no understanding how actual humans and (romantic) feelings develop/work.
For them, this ending of the V.E saga is probably a good one. The overal rating suggests that they are the disproportionate majority.
Good for them. At least they could enjoy it.

In case you happen to be a healthy human being, have personal experince with functioning (romantic) relationships and do like (or thinking of starting to watch) the V.E saga, stop with Violet Evergarden Gaiden (where you can see Violet at her "peak" in a subtle, nuanced and elegant way - so DO watch it up to that point) and never watch this movie.
Here you will only see the repeated disresptect of Violet and what she has achieved so far.
Here you will only see that the story goes so far from natural human behaviour that it just feels... wrong.

My personal opinion is that this is not a happy ending for Violet. It is the exact opposite...

It's good in terms of; a well written B-plot (with the kid), beautiful art and animation, great music, well written in terms of the words being very pretty and dialogue flowing extremely well.

But the story...god it sucks.

It just continues upending Violet's character from the last episode of the show by reverting her right back to square one. A dependent robot who only lives for one person. She has no personality of her own by the end of the show, no growth, no nothing. It has no message, no story or deeper meaning to it - it's just wow girls dependency is back.

If they ... just removed the second half and kept it as B-plot then Violet living for herself it would've been perfect. But no, it's intent on destroying what it built up.

Overall though I can't give it a bad rating because the B-plot had me sobbing my eyes out almost every scene of it, as well as the other positives I stated in my first paragraph. But I would not recommend it to anyone unless they're okay with just turning their brain off and pretending Violet hasn't just lost all her development.

As a side note I am glad that they didn't have any explicit romance in this, I've always hated the idea of Violet - the literal child getting with a literal adult man who literally has to raise her. So it is easy to interpret this as a platonic love which I very much do.

Violet Evergarden, both a doll in occupation and in mentality.
I assume you have watched the series before reading this review. There will be minor spoilers for the movie in this review, but nothing MAJOR.

Before we start with the actual review of the movie, we need to talk about the series first. The series was, in nature, the journey of violet evergarden to understand emotions, To understand what the major told her before his death, the words “I love you”. As violet progresses through the episodes and gets to listen to more and more people she develops, and finally understand major’s feelings. And as she ... finds out about his death, she finally understands what was said to her in the first episode, that she is burning inside. Through the second half of the series Violet tries to understand her own feelings towards the major. And in the final episodes, she writes a latter to the deceased major. And it was beautiful and emotional. What did violet learn? Emotions, human nature and most importantly, she moved on and became an independent person and not a death killing doll as she was before, just like how the major wanted.

Then comes the movie. Violet evergarden the movie regresses everything that violet went through as a character and blatantly discards all the messages of the series. Now the not so MAJOR spoiler of the review is that the MAJOR is alive. We know this since almost the beginning of the movie. As soon as violet finds that out she suddenly goes back to her old self and can’t live without him, discards all of her friends and people that helped her become the person that she is by the end of the series in order to pursue the major. This makes thematically no sense. Not to mention the dues ex machina that is the major surviving. The worst part about the movie has to be that the movie tries to bend and retcon the father daughter dynamic that the major and violet had into a romantic relationship. Which is both pedophilic and untrue to the essence of the original series. This decision has to be the worst “fan service” I have ever seen, truly appalling. The only two redeeming parts of the movie is how beautiful it looks, and a side plot in the movie that is very emotional and engaging.

With taking everything into consideration, I advice not to watch the show. As any violet evergarden fan will only get disappointed and dissatisfied from this abomination of a movie.

Sincerely, Elderonn.

disappointed. i really loved the series when i first watched it. witnessing violet's journey through her pain, her heartbreak, hope and realization of emotions were unlike i've ever seen so i fell in love with the anime. so i had high expectations. the art style and the voice overs were perfect so no problem there. but the plot... i dont know how to write a review without it turning into a rant. the ending was just betrayal to the character development violet shown over the span of the series and the movie. and it left me frustrated

--SPOILER--

when violet said im leaving i let out a ... scream of joy! because this was all its about her developing and conquering her freedom. her building a life for herself from scratch and meeting new people along the way and never taking no for an answer but knowing when to let go, learning what love is, empathising for feelings she never had and understanding complex human relationships. it was perfect.

the ending was rushed i think. they reunited them within 20 mins so neither gilbert's story made sence or the way they they 'resolved' the tension. so the rushed route they chose was a pure betrayal to her character it left me frustrated.

to me violet looking back from the ship to the island will be the perfect ending.

ps also i was gonna give it a 3 but violet's hysterical crying at the end pissed me the hell off. as if even the writers knew the ending would suck so they tried to amp it up by tugging at your heartstrings. ugh

I Never thought I would be so disappointed with an anime ending.


I knew it was coming the instant the movie started but I HAD TO STAY HOPEFUL! Sadly the main plot point of this show destroys violets character. It reverts her back to her old “tool” self. While I did enjoy they side stories, well they’re just… side stories.
The music is beautiful as always and so is the animation. Both parties did amazing jobs in their respective fields.
Ultimately, this movie feels like a cop out to give Violet a “happy ending” even though she is happy throughout the series in a multitude of ... ways and even if she wasn’t happy they could’ve done it in a better way, like a coming to terms with her past.
I don’t want to make this a long review but WARNING! This movie nullifies the entire first season and OVA’s.

I would have rated this film higher if I have not read the original source material because everything in this adaptaion is stunning—from the music, production, and character design. What's appalling is the direction of the film, the characters' arc, and the whole plot.

The whole adaptation was a huge dissapointment from the LN but the main series, at the very least, is tolerable. I took my time watching the film because I knew that the changes in the plot would not suit me well. When I finally gave it a chance, it left a bad taste to the mouth because 1.) the emotional scenes were ... shoved to your mouth and 2.) they already butchered Violet's character arc in the series but they fcked up even anime!Violet's journey and growth in this movie.

Even in this last film, I was looking forward about the cute dynamics between the peeps from the CH postal but they didn't deliver. Their interactions felt force and unnatural, it was a great disservice to the original source because the CH postal in the LN is definitely one of the best found family I encountered as of late.

Both Violet and Gilbert didn't have a good character development and even the smallest amount of character development they gave Violet from the series was lost because of this film.

I bet though, that if you love stunning animation, emotional music, and tear jerking scenes shoved on your throat, you'd probably give this an 8 or even 10.

At the end of the film, all I could think about was pedo Gilbert inflicting more emotional baggage for young Violet as the latter has already chosen to stay at Ecart and take care of poor old Gilbert.

(The original source that actually took its time developing Gilbert and Violet's own characters and relationship will not make you feel this way so I guess, if we quite share this view, you might want to try reading the LN. Also, not to be mean, characters like Iris and Erica doesn't add anything to the story at all. These two characters replaced MORE amazing characters from the LN and I'm still pissed off about it.)

Hands down superb animation, great voice acting.

Which begs the question, what's not to like?

The pedophilic nature of the main couple is too problematic to ignore. I mistakenly assumed that the love between them was of familial nature, and was horrified to discover (via light novel and later episodes of the TV series) that this was not the case. Violet was roughly 13 when she was at war with the major, and is under 18 during the movie. So, no problem at all that a man more than 10 years older than her is her romantic interest. Just. NO.

All the character development of Violet from the ... TV series just evaporated. They even show her being socially awkward and not understanding "normal people" again. I thought she went through all that already. And isn't Violet supposed to accept the major's death at the end of the series and come to terms with her grief? Well, she's all hung up on him in the movie.

I actually loved the soundtrack for the most part, but the heinously sung insert song was simply appalling. What a voice! Grating nails on chalkboard much?

And allowing your family and friends to grieve your death when you are actually alive is such an ass move. His resurrection also didn't sit well with me. Showing the characters' emotional growth and dealing with grief and loss? No. What about the headshot wound and getting an arm cut off and massive blood loss? No problem. That ain't gonna kill no one.

The side episode with the little boy was touching, if a rehash of a TV episode. The main plotline was cliched and predictable and disturbing. Violet's interactions with both the elder brother and her boss are infinitely superior to hers with the major and sometimes pretty cute, ugh! I guess I just can't get over the fact that he was romantically interested in her when she was not ever 14 years old. (vomits)

I wasn't a big fan of the TV series either, but the movie is just worse. Do not recommend to anyone who cannot accept pedophilia. Well, no one should accept pedophilia.

So, where to start ?

This movie is a spit at the face to anyone who watched the anime.

So, in the serie, Violet tried to accept the major's death and to understand his last words. At the End of the serie, she didn't find him and that in the first movie it had nothing to do with this little shit of Gilbert was telling us "he's dead, she's moving forward, she's discovering the world".

That was cool. It was a love story, a story of loss, of love. It was the story of someone growing up. It was about love and the definition of the ... term, it was "What is love ?" the anime.

And this movie is doing three things.

First, goodbye loss story, now the major is back and you have to deal with it. The purpose of the anime ? Nah.

Second, goodbye the original and well written love story, now this is a random love story "I hurted you" "that's not your fault ! I pardon you" "No I can't pardon myself" blablabla bullshit. You watched the serie and it was cool because of the message, to accept, to understand love, to go through life in order to understand feelings, now just watch this creamy bullshit love story and stfu.

Third, the chronology is fucked up. I quote from the movie : she left the company at 18 years old. The war ended 8 years before the start of the movie. So she was minor, first, and that means that when the Major told her "I love you", she was 9 or 10 years old. And it could have been great if this shitty love story was just a father-daughter love story, but NO. You won't make me believe everything is right in this. So maybe I'm insane and it was just a father and daughter like relationship, but the fact that all the codes used in this movie are codes from love story (like some in Paris with the guy that run toward the girl and says "I've always loved you"), it make all the movie really weird.

And yeah, shout out to Yuris the cancerous kid, his story gave us some good moments in this shitty movie.

The movie has great animation and is truly beautiful, the sidestory of the little boy really gets to you with how touching and heavy it is, but i personally did not enjoy the final outcome of the major history. It was a lackluster conclusion to Violet's character and in my opinion it set back her growth and maturation.

Unfortunately it's tough to make this review/critic without going on spoils. But let's just say that this movie tries to re-write one of it's main plots and it feels really lazy and unnecessary. To the point of feeling like i spent my time attaching me to the original ... anime story, for nothing.

Whether you enjoy it or not isn't what I'd like to say here:

I just found it really boring just like the anime.
The visuals are absolutely amazing just like the series, but as a whole, it falls short in grabbing your attention just like in the anime.
I won't disregard the story in either the anime or the movie to which this review falls on, but it's just so slow and so boring. It's a feels show I understand that, but flexing beautiful frames long past it's due date isn't great for roping in a watcher.

I think modern anime has destroyed my anime attention span I will ... admit, but God damn was it a chore trying to at least enjoy the series let alone a movie without falling asleep.

It doesn't deserve the placement it does on MAL so I'm dropping a 1
Sorry if you disagree, these are my thoughts.

So i first watched the violet evergarden series and kind of loved it with how good it's animation, music and storyline was. So my expectations for this movie were very high but i ended up disappointed. When you make a canon movie about an anime, it is supposed to show a new and a different arc, with interesting plotline but violet evergarden does almost nothing new in the movie. Same violet writes a letter for a dying person and repeats like the same plot for 10th time. The character development of violet was pretty less even though other characters had a significant development ... during the time skip.
The whole story felt so repetitive that i had to skip some parts cause they felt so boring that i even was about to sleep while watching it. Kyotoani did a great job with the animation and music again but the story lacked so bad that it didn't feel worth at all.

Then comes is the so called plot twist in the end which made me so infuriated. Did the writers forget what this story implied or were they just lazy to think up something new? All this story stood for was getting over you lost ones and moving on by looking the bright future in front but no, lets add something that is just opposite of what we felt and learnt from the series. It just ain't the right way. It might have people emotional cause no one thought about the series, they just watched it without thinking about anything. She was supposed to learn what 'love' means without her love and not by 'making his love appear outta nowhere' and making the plot of the series pointless.
Very very big disappointment.