Rbastid

Violet Evergarden, a story about a young girl who controls the mail, and thus controls information.

Story - 4/10

The story for Violet Evergarden was big in spirit, but tiny in execution. We follow a young girl all around the land, from her time fighting in the Great War to her current role as a typist and interpreter of feelings. Despite her extensive travels everything still feels small, as most of the time she shows up to a person’s house and then just spends the next fifteen minutes talking while sitting at a table.

The real reason for Violet’s work is her desire to find out what the feeling of love is. See Violet, from what we’re told, was an orphan girl who was essentially imprisoned by a military official named Dietfried, until the time he gifted her to his brother Gilbert, under the idea that she’d be a useful weapon to use in the war. Gilbert was a different type of man though, and even though he did allow Violet to fight, he could see she was more of a lost young girl than a killing machine. Eventually Gilbert revealed his love for Violet, but he did so right before his death, which left the already confused child searching for answers about what he meant.

After being taken in by a friend of Gilbert’s, she starts working at his service that helps people who either don’t know how to type, or don’t know how to fully express themselves, write letters. At first she isn’t very good at her work, as her inability to decipher emotions gives her an overly rational view of the world, which leads to her letters not being ver subtle or polite. Her one saving grace is her ability to type at an extraordinary pace, which she is able to do because she was given mechanical arms after losing her own during the battle that took Gilbert’s life. 

Eventually, by learning from those she’s tasked with helping, she’s able to start to become much more human than doll. Each client helps Violet learn about loss, regret, shame, joy and unconditional love, which all shape her new found emotions. Although it is still hard for her, she’s soon able to write her own letter to Major Gilbert, remarkably thanks to the words and encouragement from her former captor Dietfried.

The ending is telegraphed to set up a second season or companion film, and it feels a bit cheesy, but then again, despite its sometimes confusing action plots, the show is supposed to be a story about learning to feel happiness.

It’s not that Violet Evergarden has a bad story, it just had an underutilized main story which was carried along by episodic plots that all played out the same way. I didn’t necessarily want action, as those episodes that focused on it actually felt as if they took away from the series, but there just still needed to be something more, be it better character interactions, varied subplots or a deeper back story, to make the show better than a single viewing series.

Animation - 8/10

The art in the show is beautifully done in all areas. Due to Violet’s travels, and her wartime past, the show is able to give us many locations which all spring to life thanks to the animation department. The art direction is also very well done, mixing a stylized version of victorian and post World War I European imagery. 

The also spend a good deal of time detailing the ladies of the CH Postal company, because underneath every show needs to be a bit of fan service now a days. On the other hand the men are rather dull and cookie cutter. In all instances, those with originality and those without, the characters were drawn just as nicely as the other elements of the series. One character that did stand out from the crowd was one of the Dolls named Iris, as her character model was a bit different from what we’re use to, and she was also colored in a somewhat unique way that made her much more interesting looking than the others.

Sound - 6/10

The opening song is a really nice tune and works well with this show, as even though there is a “war” element to it, it really is a melancholy slice of life type of show. I especially enjoyed the first few bars of the song, which had a very good riff to it. On the other hand the outro had standard anime style music, but really one of the most truly awful and unpleasant sounding vocal tracks I can ever remember hearing. It honestly sounds like they manipulated the pitch to be as off as possible, and I find it hard to see how anyone could say it was enjoyable. Background songs were your typical orchestral pieces that fit in with the look of the show while not overpowering the scenes.

All the voice over artists were great in this series, and while I often dislike the somewhat annoying style given to girls like Violet, basically the soft spoken simpleton, I think Erika Harlacher did a good job giving her range as she grew from robotic killing machine to heartbroken young girl.

Characters - 4/10

While Violet grows as a character, to a point, she really doesn’t have much going for her throughout most of the show. We’ve seen so many versions of the young stone cold female with a singular analytical mindset, who eventually learns to love. What does set Violet apart is that her changes, while happening because of a man’s words, can be fully attributed to her own desire to learn and love, as opposed to the magical moment where a man softens her heart, as is the common way of doing thing. 

While they touch on Violet’s past a little bit, there is still so much left out about what happened to her before she was essentially kidnapped by Dietfried Bougainvilea. We know she was an orphan, and that she most likely has some trauma in her past, but how she obtained her skills at such a young age is a mystery. I know some of this was touched on in the manga, I’m not sure if it was left out of the series due to the graphic nature or because they will go deeper into her backstory during subsequent seasons and movies.

One thing I was a bit disappointed in was how they go a little too on the nose with her, such as giving her robotic arms and constantly referring to her as a “doll,” while having her emotions and interpersonal skills also be robotic and doll-like. 

Very few of the characters get more than a passing back story, and even then it plays very little into the overall story. The two most important characters are the Bougainvilea brothers, Deitfried, who is a ruthless military captain, and his younger brother Gilbert, who despite also being in the army, is a caring man who in other circumstances seems as if he’d be the furthest thing from a soldier.

The employees of the CH Postal Company are the standard set of those we see in most anime. There’s the pervy male , the buxom queen of the room, the nerdy girl and the catty brat who has it in for the new girl. Even the most prominent of the bunch, Claudia Hoggins, wasn’t much more than Violet’s baby sitter for a few episodes.

The one off characters weren’t too exciting, but they played their part, acting as the main driver’s of Violet’s emotional growth.

The lack of a strong supporting cast wouldn’t have been so bad had the main character not had a background that was, intentionally, none existent. The little we know about Violet does make us care about her, but having a full picture of her life, instead of general implication, would have done wonders for the storytelling.

Overall - 6/10

This was a show that reminded me of Kino’s Journey, as in it was an interesting premise and, for the most part, had a relaxing tone to it, but in the end just felt like it was completely pointless. Each episode is enjoyable, but watching a young girl learning to become a glorified secretary isn’t necessarily MacArthur Fellowship material. The underlying plot of Violet’s growth was also a bit lackluster, as we aren’t given that starting reference point, as for all we know she was a child who had a nice family and a loving home but then lost it all at the start of the war, or she might have just been an orphan from day one, but without having that information we aren’t getting the full story to truly judge her changes. On top of that the fact she’s a skilled killing machine at such a young age is just ignored, she’s known far and wide for her ability, but how she gained those talents is a complete mystery to the viewer, which feels like such a copout. I was also a bit let down by the last episode or two as they seemed to decide they in fact wanted to make a violent war series instead of a soothing melodrama. 

Normally with slower paced shows I’d say the fewer episodes the better, but I think this series certainly needs more. I don’t think they need to pick up the pace, as the episodes were still enjoyable and never felt like a chore to watch, but we certainly could use much more information. I feel like if someone had shown me the thirteen episodes in this season that I would have thought that was just the first half of the series, and not the entire thing, minus movies of course. 

Positive Reasons for Score:

 * It’s a very pleasant story that is mostly enjoyable to watch.

 * Violet is a character you want to learn about, she’s likable and easy to root for.

Negative Reasons for Score:

 * Violet’s character and backstory are either cliche or nonexistent.  

 * At times they seem confused if they want to be a melodrama or a war film.

 * In the end it felt abrupt and incomplete.

Ways to make the show better:

 * Don’t make all the episodes play out essentially the same way.

 * Build Violet and tap into the huge potential she has for a great story.

 * Either build her backstory or leave it out, don’t make everything insinuation.

 * Work her co-workers and friends in to the story more.