Violet Evergarden (2018) Detailed Anime Review

Director: Taichi Ishidate
Studio: Kyoto Animation
Genre: Drama, Through Life
Year Built: 2018
Episodes: 13
Anime Rating: 10 / 7.5

Violet, the main character in our series, which lasted about four hours, is a little girl who they call a “war tool” from an early age and was raised to survive war conditions. Major Gilbert, who raised and owned it, dies in the final battle. Before he dies, he tells his best friend, Lieutenant Colonel Hodgins, to protect Violet and leave her to the Evergarden family. Upon this, the Evergarden family wants to adopt Violet, but Violet opposes this and begins the “automatic memory puppet” job at Lieutenant Colonel Hodgins’s post office firm. Around these events, Violet’s development and a search begin.

Also See: Violet Evergarden Season 2

Most of the story; is based on the character development of Violet, not on the emergence and effects of the consequences of events. The series, which progresses in a spiral structure, shows itself as an empty drama anime in the first episodes, while in the next episodes, it moves in a loop by answering the past questions and returning to its old position, which proves that it is not an empty anime. It was a successful tactic for Violet to show her military side in the following episodes and make the audience impatient for this in the first episodes. Throughout the thirteen episodes, they have done a very nice job by giving the side events, the main story and Violet’s character development in mixed order, keeping the humour at the minimum but maximum benefit.

Of course, there were some things that I did not like. I don’t think the series contributed much to the anime world in terms of the drama genre because a masterpiece like “Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso” should not be read about “Violet Evergarden”. Also, if we touch on the series, it is possible to find many contradictions in Violet’s personality and behaviour. The series sometimes seemed to go towards an artificial intelligence trying to recognize people rather than a callous warrior looking for the meaning of love. Moreover, it seemed a little ridiculous to me that someone like Violet, who was touted as impassioned, entered people’s lives and played the over-lit version of Pollyanna.

What I can say about the opening and closing music that joined us in the third part of the adventure of thirteen episodes is limited. If I had it, I would let the person singing the opening music sing the closing music. If we look at the music in the episodes, I can say that they made me think the name of the series was “Violin Evergarden” during the first two episodes because there was a violin voice that never stopped during the episode. Fortunately, they solved this problem in the following chapter and even blended violin and piano so beautifully in some scenes that a stage could only be so impressive thanks to music. His drawings were generally colourful and pleasant. Especially, the pointed jaws of the female characters made them a little more serious and beautiful.

I had a hard time rating the anime. It was difficult to get 6 points at first, but then I decided to give this score, considering that the events were connected beautifully and they left no question marks in my mind. I recommend this series, which is generally beautiful, for those who do not have a better job to do :)