“A letter always seemed to me like immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend.” ― Emily Dickinson
You must be thinking, what the hell is wrong with this guy? Whats with all the "letter" quotes?
That's right!!! This anime actually gives you a perfect definition of letters, you must have heard of people in other reviews mentioning War, love story, Auto memoirs doll etc., Or at least got the feeling it would be one judging from 1st 2 episodes, but I would warn you guys this isn’t what you think it is, in fact, there isn’t a straight story at all.
This is rather a story or rather a slice of life(SOL) of a girl (named Violet Evergarden) who is a weapon in war, trying to adjust in society post-war by writing the letters for people and understanding the feelings of the sender and receiver.
So why does she want to write the letters? That’s because she wants to know the meaning of “I love you”……….You must be thinking….wtf???? Yeah, that’s true, this must have been the dumbest reason for anyone to learn writing letters (even the lieutenant Hodgins says that in the series), but you will understand that in the long run it kinda makes sense :P
So then there is no story and lots of negative reasons stated above (most importantly who would want to know about “letters”?), then…… why is there a damn 8 in the rating????
Well, even though there are lots of negative factors, at the end of the day it is able to deliver what we need in an anime, i.e the enjoyment, the emotional connection with the scene and mainly the importance of letters, i.e from a ‘small sentence’ to uniting couples with ‘long letters’, the letter has the power to move people's heart, that's the power of letters, which is really depicted well here.
Alright cutting everything short, It is a collection of short stories with Violet in each episode is interacting with different people and changing their lives and also herself knowing what it is to be a human, what it feels like to lose a human and even you might get motivated from Violet as she tries hard learning to understand what human feelings are.
The main beauty of this anime is the ART, the animation, and camera view. All characters are so beautiful that everyone looks like a doll. You wouldn't even know for half of the series whether Violet is actually a doll or a human.
The setting is historic, most probably during world war I (The robotic arms of Violet seem too much advanced for that time or even present). The background, the colors, the time lapse, the sky, the flowers, the stars and even wine, every detail is so beautiful and so colorful that it gives you realistic appeal and makes you feel as if you were at that place.
The SOUNDTRACKS are another awesome tool for making this anime nostalgic. The classic orchestral music and emotional soundtracks are really awesome which resonate perfectly and sync with the situation bringing out the emotions out of you.
The opening song is also used differently and is introduced in 3rd episode (seems this style is called progressive) is a great song and matches perfectly with the situation. While the ending is also good which is introduced in the 2nd episode.
OVERALL:
Well coming to the final opinion, which matters the most!!! This show definitely has lot of flaws from dodging bullets like Flash(Superhero), executing a person with sword while having a gun at hand, to writing public love letters and many dramatic scenes which I wouldn’t want to spoil you, which are made to make you emotional but when you think later logically, it might seem kinda dumb but still at the time of watching it makes you forget the flaws and makes you immerse in those lies, that's the beauty of this anime, making you connect with characters without much development just like Mushishi or kino no tabi. Therefore stating all various reasons,even though the anime Violet Evergarden is not suited for the likes of many, but still, it is definitely worth watching, at least once :P
For some, it would be "that most hyped series" or for others it might be "that hyped series which lived to its reputation", well, either way, it is going to be remembered lol.
And my advice for you is, at least watch 5 episodes before you drop ( If you feel like dropping) and Don’t binge watch it, because either your heart will melt or it might harden into a stone basing on your response.
I have put out all the negative things about anime for you so that you might not be surprised and drop it out in middle. Did it give negative thoughts to fans?? I don't think so, because they will like it even if there are many flaws besides this.
well, that's the end of the review, you could stop here or read below for FAQs and more detailed Analyses of the series and character development, of course, it is spoiler-free. :D
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Dub or sub? : Personally, I feel that sub is a lot better because, at the actual point of creating an emotional moment, in the dub, the words are uttered as if they were read from Google translate. While the sub has better words which suit the dialogue. But in rest of the situations, the dub is also good.
Analysis of Story:
One thing is good in this anime, It keeps you guessing what this anime might be turn out to be ? just when you are thinking of being fed-up or you made up your mind what this anime is gonna be? , that's when the story changes because, at present, you might observe that the genre of this anime is listed as SOL but it wasn’t the case when this series was airing, everyone used to talk how the series might turn out to be(Forums). In detail, first 2 episodes are like a slight introduction to the current state Violet is, with focus given more to the surrounding places, the anime setting, the camera views etc, for example, The starting scene is just like the scene from Assassin's creed where the eagle flies and the camera shifts with respect to it while here a paper or perhaps the letter flies in its place.
Then slowly from episode 3, the slice of life starts and by the end of episode 7 just when you are thinking this series is full of it, writing letters blah blah, the flashback or Violet’s past kicks into play, and you get to see it for about for 2 episodes making you think, well we might get to watch a war anime perhaps, but it stops there and again the SOL begins, So by the time you reach episode 11 it makes sense that this anime is all about letters and its significance but its not really about violet's past, well that’s where you are wrong again, just watch the series and know what it is :)
Difference between Light novel and anime?
Personally, I didn’t read the novel but from the opinion of others, few other characters were introduced, Violet is more humane and less aggressive here and most of the unrealistic parts were removed like Violet with a battle axe. But the only fault is the 12th episode which gave a negative response from Novel fans by mentioning novel version was better and had more realistic feeling for that part.
Difference of experience between new and old watchers of this series:
For anyone new to Violet Evergarden, as I mentioned earlier you can observe that the genre is SOL, drama. you can have that premeditated feeling of watching a SOL. There is both negative and positive effect of it, the positive part is that you know that you are going to watch a SOL so you are mentally prepared not expecting much of a story but the negative part is that you wouldn’t have that suspense what this series may turn out to be?
Coming to Characters:
We all know that Slice of life means character development or vice versa but this isn’t the case here, as violet meets new people in every episode, so there isn’t much possibility for character development. That being said, I'll talk about few prominent characters which need to be noticed:
Violet: People might either hate her due to her PTSD traits, inexpressive nature, and a bad example of Saber ( Fate series) 'OR' love her as innocent, fragile and she strives to be a better person and also fans of Saber might like her. This show is basically about Violet so you need to watch the show and understand about her, leaving here coming to another major character,
Major Gilbert: There are huge amount of novel fans who might love him, but his character is just developed for about 2 episodes in anime and you can observe his and Violet’s relationship to be similar to like that of father and daughter, He is the main cause of Violet’s change of behaviour or character due to the fatherly love is shown by him. Many people(novel readers) say that he loved her like a partner but I didn’t feel the same. His role is very less, then there is his friend:
Lieutenant-Colonel Hodgins: I felt him to another good guy, he is more developed then Gilbert lol, he also plays a major role in supporting Violet, by getting her a job, taking care of her and even give the right amount of comfort to her as per Gilbert’s request but he doesn’t feel burdened.
The only controversial person who seemed out of character every-time in new episode is Gilbert’s brother Dietfried. In one episode he seems harsh on Violet (Ep 5), in other episode he thinks her to have changed (Ep 8) and again in 12th episode it is shown that he still doesn’t believe in Violet still but takes her advice or saves her and many more weird multiple unstable traits are exhibited by him,
other than that rest all characters are developed for an episode or two and left, For example, characters like Benedict ( postman), Luculia, Iris, Erica (Dolls)etc are used just for the sake of story’s progress in latter small and significant parts which might make many people angry for not developing them or using them properly, since we are mainly focused on Violet’s point of view I think its better to ignore the rest.
I hope you like this kind of writing style in which I seem like interacting with you and I hope this review motivated you to watch it ✌
I hope I didn't bore you with all the praises, I did want to criticize and write a review like a critic, but every time I re-watched the series, I kept falling in love with it and most probably you are gonna too :)
