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!
