Brief - Violet Evergarden follows Violet Evergarden as she deals with adjusting to civilian life after having been embroiled in a harrowing war for the past 4 years. Now that she's out of the service, she finds it difficult to adapt to her new life and the rigors unique to it. Quickly she becomes an Auto Memory Doll (transcriber, essentially) and sets out to find the meaning of "love" through her work and experiences with others.
From here, the show takes us through Violet's experiences as a Doll and how people she meets through her job impact her and vice versa. That's roughly half the show, anyway. The other half deals with Violet's past in the war and how she came to want to know the meaning of love. I'm a semi-firm believer that few premises are (inherently) bad, and that what's more important is how the premise unfolds. Violet Evergarden isn't an exception to this, I found the premise interesting at first and wanted to see where it went, but before long I found myself not being at all invested in either story the show wanted to tell (Violet learning what "love" means and what her past in the military consisted of).
Story - In Violet Evergarden, you'll find overarching themes but not much in the way of an overarching plot. I'll justify that by saying that the storytelling feels much more like "and then" rather than "therefore". About half of the episodes are their own contained stories concerning Violet's clients, their troubles, and what they want her to write for them. That's fine in and of itself, but a problem arises when, after the second or third vignette, you realize that all of these stories will play out almost exactly the same.
The sequence of events is typically as such: Violet gets a request to visit some far-off land to transcribe someone's thoughts into a letter -> The client is currently facing some dramatic personal crisis -> They tell Violet to stay out of their business -> Violet, usually through not understanding social norms, in some way helps them to face/overcome their issues -> Violet gains some skill points towards empathy -> She leaves, having enlightened the client. Also, gobs of tears are usually shed by someone at some point.
Episodic television isn't the issue here. Columbo always gets his man, and that's compelling. The issue here is that all of these vignettes lack any sort of emotional nuance and bite. It's always SO obvious what the show wants you to feel. You could maybe make that argument for any sort of storytelling medium, but VE's tactic for eliciting emotion is less akin to strategic precision and more like a sledgehammer to the chest. This show could also learn something from the old adage "show, don't tell".
In every episode, some character will melodramatically spell out their trauma to Violet (and the audience) set to the backdrop of swelling orchestral music and impossibly bright and beautiful natural scapes. While I wouldn’t call it misery porn, there is certainly a lot of (literally) shiny people ugly crying. In media, misery displayed without depth or meaning usually leads to a feeling of (attempted) emotional manipulation on the audience’s part. Again, you could accuse most stories of this, but the way in which VE handles it is especially groansome.
VE is one of the few shows I would call “unpretentious” and not mean it as a compliment. It’s essentially baby’s first exploration of empathy and the human condition. It’s just so plain, obvious, and self-important in its intentions that it’s hard to become seriously invested. Have you ever felt bad for someone else and been even slightly introspective at least once in your life? If so, then chances are you’ll easily pick up what VE’s putting down. While some might say the moment when one of Violet’s clients breaks down crying, the music swells, and they become bathed in golden light is the part where it “all comes together”, I’d instead argue that it’s where the show becomes less than the sum of its parts. To so frequently rely on these overly-saccharine and melodramatic cry-fests shows a lack of original thought on the writer’s part. Needless to say, 9 times out of 10, the show failed to make me really get in my feels.
The other half of the story, concerning Violet’s past in the military, can often times cause an extremely jarring tonal shift. The fighting is portrayed as pretty grounded (for anime standards anyway) until 12 year-old Violet comes Naruto running through a wall of flames to effortlessly take out an entire squadron of men. Maybe it’s just me, but it always took me out of the moment when stuff like that happened. It’s never once explained how she got her hands on the Super Soldier Serum.
Beyond that, the war just isn’t compelling. It, like the themes, lacks in nuance. The bad guys are literally just called “The Anti-Peace Rebels”. Yeah, okay, Nazis aren’t exactly nuanced either, but in a work a fiction it might behoove you to give different factions actually coherent motives beyond just being mad butthurt over some lost battles.
Characters – I personally liked Violet better when her name was Rei Ayanami, she had an actually interesting backstory, and she wasn’t the main character. Perhaps I’m selling her short, but the main thread of “discovering emotions” is still the primary concern. My main issue with Violet is that she just isn’t all that compelling of a protagonist. Her “discovering emotions” and finding out what life’s all about just wasn’t very well done. She’ll smile naturally in one episode and then forget how to in the next. She’ll cry in one episode and then show no emotional development in the next. After she finds out her commanding officer is dead, she reacts in a very human way; she cries and pleads with others to reassure her. After that, however, she’s still prone to acting like a robot whenever others unload their trauma on her. Her humanity wavers depending on whatever the writers felt like having her do at any given moment. Most of the show is just other characters bouncing emotions off of her, which wasn’t very interesting for me.
Ah. I’ve just realized that most of the other characters aren’t worth describing. Partly because that’d be boring, but mostly because there’s nothing to them. They’re mostly all just perfectly nice.
Art – This show is gorgeous. The art is vibrant, detailed and pleasing to look at. The animation is fluid. It’s movie-level at almost all times. If I did have to point out something I didn’t enjoy, however, it’d be that some scenes are unnaturally bright. Not as in that the lighting is unrealistic for certain environments, more so that it genuinely hurt to look at due to how bright it was at some points.
Music – Not especially memorable, but pleasant.
Miscellaneous –
* Gilbert’s brother’s character made almost no sense to me. “Use this child as a weapon of war, brother. Okay Violet, now that you’re a weapon of war, I hate you. Despite being a military veteran, I’m going to blame you solely for my brother’s death. Obviously it was ALL your fault.”
* Injuries in this show are so borked. Violet didn’t bleed to death after having both of her arms severed and not receiving medical attention for an entire night, but some soldier gets shot in the back ONCE and it’s lights out before sunset?
* Violet nearly runs on water at one point. Again, HOW did she gain these abilities?
* Should’ve mentioned this in the character section, but Violet is the most Mary Sue of Mary Sues.
In conclusion, maybe I just wanted VE to be something it wasn’t. Despite that, what it IS still isn’t great. The emotional subtlety of a thrown brick, the Pinocchio arc done with basically no originality, the lame ass war dramatics and the supporting cast’s lifelessness are most of what contribute to this show being just “fine” for me. I’ve certainly seen worse shows, but I’ve also watched a lot better. Despite my ambivalence to it, it’s one of the most popular and hyped anime ever so what the fuck do I know? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Scores:
Art (9/10)
Music (6/10)
Characters (4/10)
Story (5/10)
Objective (6/10)
Subjective (5/10)
Perhaps good to watch if you’re not as emotionally jaded as a lot of people (myself included) and it’s undoubtedly beautiful. Just know that the beauty only runs skin-deep.
