Violet Evergarden is something every drama aspires to be, anime or otherwise. The story is intriguing from the first scene to the last, and the focus does not stagnate on just a few characters, nor does it attempt to be a matter of quantity over quality. Characters seen more than once are thouroughly fleshed out and unique, and characters unseen outside of a single episode still feel like real people with a genuine purpose. The tone of the show is brutally realistic and blunt. Even in the most beautiful of worlds, not everything is always going to be happy any perfect. Wars will rage, people will die, and not everything will go the way we want it to. The only thing anyone can do is learn to live with it, and make the best of our unpredictably short lives on this bitch of a planet. It's what makes us human, and a girl's journey towards learning this message is the focus of Violet Evergarden.
The art, in my opinion, is one of Kyoto Animation's best works. The landscapes are simply gorgeous, the cities fit perfectly into the fantastical theme the writers attempt (and succeed) to establish, and the style/animation of the characters themselves is painstakingly detailed. Things like fabric and hair swaying in the wind obviously have had monumental amounts of effort put into giving the viewers the best quality possible, barring any budget and time constraints, which clearly have not detrimented any detail of the show.
Music is something that prevents many otherwise fantastic anime from getting perfect scores. Many studios are simply content with "good enough", or just don't even put any effort towards finding music that truly emphasizes the emotion meant to be portrayed in a given scene in the first place. The creators behind Violet Evergarden obviously put in good effort towards making sure the music they put into their product would truly compliment and emphasize every scene. The opening and ending theme are fitting of the anime overall and are beautiful all on their own.
Relying on characters to directly pull the weight of a story is something many creators will do in a world where the most profit now generally lies within quick-to-produce content that has no soul. Violet Evergarden manages to create both an immersive world full of depth, as well as unique characters that display a wide variety of emotions with their own meaningful goals and desires. Many of these characters have had struggles in their lives, which compliment the struggle our main character, Violet Evergarden, faces within the show. The balance between focusing on the main character, writing meaningful side characters, and creating an immersive, breathing world is something everyone involved in the making of Violet Evergarden perfected with this anime.
Overall, I consider myself very picky about the quality of media I watch, be it anime or otherwise. I personally can not find any issues with Violet Evergarden that would detract any amount of enjoyment and appreciation I have for this modern masterpiece. I've only ever cried ONCE from an anime, though I've gotten teary eyed from a couple more. Violet Evergarden managed to make me cry a handful of times on GOOD days, and made me teary eyed more times than I could count. This is such a touching and heartfelt piece of absolute art that everyone should watch. I look forward to any and all specials, movies, or other content planned for the future of this series, and I can see myself rewatching this many times in the future with just as much, if not more enjoyment and emotion than I did watching this for the first time.
