I'll be real from the start, this anime isn't for everyone. If you're expecting some action-packed, super fast paced, has to be constrained to one specific genre trope, you're going to be miserable watching this. There's an organicness I like that only appear in certain animes I've ever watched, and this one is one of them. Organic as in, 'it feels like someone made a dramatized auto-biography instead of constructing a whole story with their imagination and pen'.
=Spoilers for episode 1=
Objectively speaking, this story lacks in nothing. Subjectively? That's up to you, but I'm going to share my view on it.
Violet Evergarden is an orphaned girl who was skilled on the battlefield, and ultimately used as a weapon rather than a human. Only one person cared enough for her to treat her like a human, and more than that, as a child. Her commanding officer, Major Gilbert. She didn't understand the emotions she had, she didn't understand what it really meant to be human at all. So when the war ended, and she was taken into the care of President Hodgins, she knew she felt something but she had no idea what it was called. Throughout the entire series she goes to various places as an Auto Memories Doll. And slowly over the course of the series, she learns one-by-one what her emotions were called.
Her personal journey to discover herself, to discover everything outside of blood and metal, is beautiful. It's deep and real. And it doesn't pull any punches. The effects of war on the regular townspeople, the effects of loss on grieving relatives and friends. The grief of guilt to the survivors. The despair of circumstances beyond your control. Everything is so beautifully told and you can't help but cry.
I have personally rewatched this anime about 24 times now, and inevitably more as this review gets older, and my opinion hasn't changed. And yes, I do still cry at least once every time I watch it. If I could genuinely not recommend anything else to anybody, I would happily choose Violet Evergarden.