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Year: 2018
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Slice of Life
Episodes: 123
Rating: 4 out of 5
Have you ever written a letter to someone? I know it is pretty much dead and buried now, as many just send a text or an email. How about the old-school way of writing a letter? Writing down and expressing your feelings in a letter to a person. One where they read and either show tears of happiness or sadness. Have you ever written a letter to yourself? One that is encouraging and then after a year read it and either laughed or cried?
What would happen in a world where other people write your letters for you. They listen to what you want to say and express it in a way that displays your emotions and feelings. It can be hard writing one’s words, and sometimes you need a little help. Violet Evergarden is an anime where a girl is used as a war weapon but becomes a writer for others after the war ends.
Overview
When the Great War finally ended and after four long and terrible years of conflict, the continent of Telesis was split into two factions, but as time went on, the continent began to flourish once again. During the war, Violet Evergarden was caught in the bloodshed. She was a young girl who was saved by soldiers and trained to be an emotionless killing machine. She was considered property and given to Major Gilbert. Gilbert saw her as a person and not a mindless killing person. In the war’s final months, Gilbert is fatally wounded, while Violet loses both arms. As Major Gilbert lies dying, he leaves Violet with three words, “I love you.” Yet, Violent had no meaning in the words.
Violet sets out on a new life working at CH Postal Services with her wounds recovered and given new prototype mechanical arms. Violet sees and decides to become an “Auto Memory Doll,” someone who transcribes the thoughts and feelings of a person on paper. Violet begins working as an Auto Memory Doll and, on her mission, wants to discover the true meaning behind the last words the Major spoke to her.
Review:
Violet Evergarden is a beautiful anime about love, loss, war, and trying to find one’s place in the world after a war. I am really not into love and sadness type anime, but this one hit you right in the feels. The story revolves around Violet and how she wants to become an Auto Memory Doll or someone who types a person’s feelings by letter. The anime shows Violet’s journey to being an Auto Memory Doll and her developing the feelings it takes to be a great one.
The anime showed that Violet had a freakin hard life. She was trained to be an emotionless, killing machine soldier. She only took orders and executed them with perfection. It wasn’t until she was “given” to Major Gilbert as a gift for his promotion that her life changed. The Major treated her as a human, taught her how to speak, read, and write, and named her Violet, wishing she could grow up to be as beautiful as the flower. During the war, the Major was killed, and she lost both her arms. When the war ended, she had her arms replaced with advanced metallic prosthetics and decided to become an Auto Memory Doll to learn the meaning of the Major’s words “I love you” before she became unconscious or died.
It is “hard” to watch because Violet is obsessed with the Major and the meaning behind his words. For a person to be so isolated from the world when they were younger and not know the meaning of “I love you” is sad. Violet’s journey leads her on a quest to find out what it really means by writing other people’s letters. When Violet first became an Auto Memory Doll, she had the typing skills of a person who could type words faster than anyone, but she lacked the feelings and emotions that should be expressed. Homegirl even had to go to a school to officially become an Auto Memory Doll.
The anime shows different people that Violet helps throughout her time as an Auto Memory Doll and her growth as a person to think independently. One of the best episodes is with the little girl. That one brought out the feelings. The girl saw Violet as one of her dolls and didn’t know why her mother called upon her. Her mother was sick, and it was discovered that her mother wanted a letter written to her daughter for the next 50 years as she wouldn’t be around. Another episode was towards the end when Violent protected the people she cared about and showed the Major’s asshole brother that she doesn’t take orders anymore and is someone who can stand on her own. She showed true woman power!
Yet, this anime does have violent scenes that deal with a war. As the episodes progressed, you saw that two countries or empires were trying to obtain peace, but in the background, some places wanted the war to continue. You really got a chance to see Violet’s past and how she was treated. Homegirl was a machine when fighting and had no feelings in her eyes. I like how the anime showed that someone truly loved and cared for Violet during the war. The Major even gave her a pendant that was the color of her eyes. I felt like Violet was extremely obsessed with finding the Major and believed in her heart that he was alive. The anime implied that he was dead and gone.
The animation of this series was crisp, and I have to applaud Netflix for making it appealing to the eye. Some scenes really stood out, like the war scene. When Violet stood in the dark with fiery background, she showed an emotionless expression, and he eyes glowed as if nothing was there. It was both terrifying and sad. Like most anime series, the characters each have their own color with different looks and hair to make them stand out. I also like that the show had that Victorian feel to it, with Violet walking around in her beautiful blue dress. The anime really made her dress seem beautiful.
Violet is an excellent character to explore. She is the only one I want to talk about. At first, she is a little boring because she seems to have zero emotions and qualities. As the anime progresses, you become extremely invested in her life. You see her hardships and why she is obsessed with the Major. That is called love; you feel for her because she knows it and has experienced it.
Violet Evergarden is a lovely anime that should be watched if you want to have those feelings. It’s a young girl’s story trying to find the meaning of “I love you.” She goes on a quest to be an Auto Memory Doll to find that answer. I highly recommend watching this anime and telling the person you love, “I love you.”
