Violet Evergarden - Reviews

An anime that will surely give you many emotions

I will do a slightly different review than usual by commenting on the various episodes of this anime and then releasing some general comments on other aspects, there will be spoilers.

Story: This anime has a somewhat particular narrative style, given that the episodes are generally self-contained and explores the growth of the protagonist as the narrative progresses with secondary characters who usually act as narrators when they find themselves in contact with the protagonist.

Ep 1: The introduction is fantastic, the story begins in media res, the character of Violet is introduced, a girl who lost the use of her arms during the war and who desperately tries to see the major who was next to her during the war once again, so Violet, after meeting "Hodgins", a friend of the major, begins working at C. Hodgins' postal company as an automatic writing doll

Ep 2: Another interesting episode, here we understand Violet's true behavior and how she is incapable of understanding human emotions despite her goal of understanding the words that the Major said to him before separating from her, namely the words: "ti I love", although Violet is unsuitable to be a doll who writes automatically in this episode she will be supported by her colleague "Erica" who feels like her and it is nice how the interactions between the 2 lead to unexpected consequences

Ep 3: This episode was very good, we finally see Violet starting to understand how to become a doll that writes automatically, she will be sent to a doll school to prepare for her future job but despite her efforts she will encounter many difficulties in doing so given this task her inability to understand emotions, but luckily she will be supported by her classmate "Luculia" and thanks to her she will finally understand how to write her first letter in which she will be able to express the feelings that her classmate wants to tell her brother

Ep 4: Here we will explore a secondary character, Violet's colleague who doesn't respect her very much, named "Iris", although a little slowly we see the relationship between Iris and Violet grow despite the first difficulties due to the family and the lack of Iris of Violet's touch which led to misunderstandings but which will then be resolved when they both clarify their true emotions, we also discover in the finale where the name Violet originates from.

Ep 5: A bit boring and at times banal episode, although quite important because it allows Violet to achieve success after writing letters for a princess who has to maintain a public correspondence with her betrothed, this episode did not convince me , above all due to the banality of the letters that the princess and the prince exchanged, even if at the end there is a cliffhanger that makes us understand something about Violet's past

Ep 6: the worst episode of the entire season, or found this episode useless to say the least and with wasted potential, here Violet meets a transcriber named "Leon" who has a similar past to hers and with whom she will bond a lot . The cliffhanger of the last episode is ignored and not explained, furthermore this episode wastes a good opportunity to delve into Violet's thoughts on her parents who she never knew and which instead always focuses on the story of the major who this time could have easily been avoid... disappointment in a nutshell.

Ep 7: Here we go back to the good stuff, after helping write the screenplay for a playwright with writer's block who had lost his daughter, we finally see Violet's growth at the end as she begins to reflect on her past and the things she has lived only to discover at the end that the Major Gilbert of whom she was so fond had died.

Ep 8: Destroyed by the discovery of the Major's loss, we finally see Violet's past and the story that led her to lose her arms and separate from the Major before being found by Hodgins, I must say that I liked this episode but not I appreciated the choice of some osts which ruined some moments such as Violet's choice of the brooch

Ep 9: Sensational episode, after having finished seeing Violet's flashback we return to the present with Violet who has to deal with mourning the loss of the Major and then in the end, thanks to a letter written by her colleagues, she "accepts the death" of the Major and she understands that she is now a doll who writes automatically. Here the direction was truly surprising especially in the ending when we see all the references to the people that Violet helped with her letters over the course of the various episodes and above all in showing Violet's pain for the loss of Gilbert

Ep 10: the saddest episode of the entire season, there are no words to describe this episode and it's nice to see Violet's growth as she finally starts to show more and more of her human emotions

Ep 11: another very sad episode, in which Violet will have to help a dying soldier deliver her last words to his parents and her friend / girlfriend who were waiting for her return. Seeing Violet this time also open up to the soldier's parents when she tried to always maintain a composed behavior in front of her clients was very touching, that scene was really beautiful.

Ep 12: Here we enter the season finale, it must be said that the action is not really suitable for this anime, the comparisons between Violet and "Dietfried" were nice but I didn't like the whole plot to stop the treaty of Peace I found very subdued compared to the rest, especially the battle on the train was not exciting at all.

Ep 13: And we arrive at the finale of this season, the battle of the train ends for the best and we find the characters of C. Hodgins' postal company celebrating the success of the peace treaty, while Violet meets Gilbert's mother with whom she shares the pain of Gilbert's loss and seems to finally be accepted by her brother Dietfried who tells her to live her life also for her brother. In the end we finally find out that Violet has understood the meaning of the words "I love you" after writing a letter to herself thanking Gilbert and as she is about to venture into another assignment Violet seems surprised to meet a person we are not allowed to know who he is, probably a way of saying that she will continue to be a doll that writes automatically, really nice as an ending.

Ok these were the episodes of this season despite it not being a perfect adaptation of the light novel, for example it is not explained well why Dietfried hates Violet so much (always referring to the final scene of ep 5) or cuts some characters like Lux Sibyl and Edward Jones, but yes I can say it's beautiful to look at.

Characters: This anime is mainly focused on Violet who during the season shows a surprising evolution and growth until she reaches the goal of understanding the words "I love you", unfortunately the secondary characters do not receive much space and there are some subplots that not closed in this adaptation like the promised meeting between Violet and Leon which instead takes place in the light novel.

Animation: The high point of the series, Kyotoanimation did a phenomenal job in animating this anime, every frame, every movement, every character can truly be considered pure visual art, I wish all anime had a level of quality like this so as high as in this series, the character designs, backgrounds, shadows, etc... everything was perfect in this anime, however the only flaw I would like to point out are the action scenes which are not really animated at their best ( e.g. 'ep 8 or the battle on the train in ep 12) a shame even if action is not the strong point of this anime.

Sound: Ok, here perhaps is the lowest point of the series, the op and the editing were nothing special and the osts instead there were some good ones and others quite standard, unfortunately however the series does not always manage to make the most of the sound sector it has is better...

Direction: the direction in this anime is truly something sublime in most of the episodes, each episode gave you different emotions and you were transported by the story you were watching with a knot in your stomach for certain events that happened and how they were represented.

Verdict: This anime is beautiful, it's not perfect and has a narrative style that can lead to some good episodes and some boring ones, I guess it depends on how the viewer experiences it because it's not an anime for everyone, but on the emotions you feel. it seems to me that seeing certain scenes and seeing Violet's entire evolution are things that in my opinion should be seen, so I recommend this anime to everyone, especially to those who want to experience strong emotions while watching a show.

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

This is the "Try not to cry" challenge but in Anime form. Yes, some people out there may not have cried while watching this Anime, and while they claim that their hearts aren't made of stone, I think we all know that that's a simple lie.

Not crying even once while watching this anime can only mean two things:

• You aren't paying enough attention and are playing the anime on the side.
• You're a walking, stone-cold :moyai: emoji.

I can't even begin to count the amount of times I've shed a tear, or outright cried my eyes out. It's also pretty therapeutic having something finally make you cry after years of not crying.

Now, sadly, Anime like these cannot be commonplace. The more we have of Anime like these, the less effective they will be at making us cry. However, regardless of how many Anime like this are out there, and regardless of how many similar Anime someone may have watched before watching this one, I think everyone can agree that here the sound design and direction was absolutely brilliant, and delivered some of the most excellently designed scenes of sorrow Anime has ever seen. This is not a mere tear-jerk Anime. This is an artistically developed masterpiece that only portrays what every Anime should be like -

Beautiful

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Now, I am a little bit biased, because it has been a long time since I've watched anything that's THIS tear-wringing. I think at the beginning of my Anime journey I did watch a lot of sad anime that made me cry a bunch, but that has been 7+ years ago. Basically, Anime like these are best watched infrequently, because there's only so many tears a person can shed before starting to feel numb... or before starting to run out of tears.

Don't forget to HYDRATE, if you intend to cry for prolonged amounts of time!

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I tried to be as precise with my rating as possible, because I feel like this Anime truly is special, at least to me. 9.1/10 is my final rating, and no matter what anyone says, I am not going to change this rating.

This Anime makes me thankful for being born privileged enough to be able to partake in hobbies like these. I am thankful that I am who I am, with the interests that I have, or otherwise I would have never experienced anything as beautiful as this. Sometimes, free entertainment feels too good to be true, and this is one example where it feels this way. 

Reading some of the negative reviews, as expected, are simply weird troll-esque pieces of text, which take things too literally or unnecessarily too negatively. This Anime has it all, development, depth, unique original story, symbolisms, foreshadowing, and it's all executed at a level above your typical Japanese writer.

Not to mention that the Anime adaptation does a really good job at capturing/translating the writer's intentions!

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This Anime, artistically, as well as logically, is an Anime that does not deserve ANY hate, merely good, articularte, as well as constructive critique, and that's what the Anime is mostly getting! But as always, there are some odd ducklings hating on it regardless of the fact that this is an Anime that's very clearly far above average, both conceptually and in terms of the execution.

I am glad to have been able to appreciate this work of art.

Well, I finally finished Violet Tearjerker and it was a bit of a mixed bag. It was also the first time I was thinking that the animation is a bit too good and I fail to understand why so much effort was put into it. Seriously, the entire show is like a sakuga segment when it doesn't need to be. It is also a bit too melodramatic for its own good. There are no lighthearted moments, everything is either a buildup to or an aftermath of a tragedy and it seems like it has been utterly engineered in every single aspect to be a tearjerker with a special emphasis on the dialogue and music.

Technically, all the aspects of this show are pretty much flawless, be it voice acting, animation, background art or music but the story and characters are just not up to the mark. The story feels inconsistent and the characters one-dimensional. No one except our main character seems to undergo any sort of meaningful development which still isn't handled properly. The interactions don't feel organic or natural except when in tearjerker mode with one-off characters, and even then nothing feels resolved or gives off a sense of closure. Another review described this as a 'melodrama of the week' and I'm inclined to agree that it is quite an apt description of the show.

I think this anime needed interactions between characters to flow naturally and the heavy tone to be balanced out with some lighthearted moments (by that I don't mean a shounen approach to it with bizarre tonal shifts and annoying, screeching characters being portrayed as comedy) with a more focused and better paced story on how Violet adapts to her civilian life, preferably helping along in some sort of development in the side characters as well, to make for a much better package.

On a side note, the revelation of the ages of female characters were pretty jarring for me and really grossed me out, especially in the public love letters between royalty episode. As another example, Violet was supposed to be 14 during the course of the show... I will never understand this side of anime... Another  nitpick: why was the one doll always displaying so much cleavage even when on an official engagement? Shouldn't she have donned a more formal attire? Eh...

In conclusion, a melodramatic, potentially tearjerking bit of a feast for the eyes animationwise with tonnes of missed potential even if it is almost perfect in technical aspects. I'd advise not to binge, watch in chunks or one episode at a time.

Okay...well how to start. At first I wasn't very impressed when I started watching it, but I didn't give up on it and I am glad. This anime was...WOW. I really loved how Violet, who at first was only a weapon, was persistent and was trying so hard to understand human's feelings. She became an Auto Memory Doll and she learned how to understand feelings and finally, she also became feeling it by herself. Also...there were a lot of touching and moving scenes and I have to say...I cried a lot while watching it. Now I am about to watch both of the movies, so wish me luck bcs I don't want to lost my sanity in crying XDD.

This anime is perfection. Always the first anime I recommend to people getting into anime. It had a beautifully written plot and story that made me cry. This series captured my heart from the first episode. 

I wish they would sell the English version of the light novel because I'd purchase it too.