Violet Evergarden Anime Review

"We should Learn Empathy from the very core of Human Emotions! And Violet Evergarden is one of those series that serves as a medium to it."

- Saptarshi Bhowmick

And like I said before I am one of those strangers who really liked it when the shows make me cry most; it evokes certain emotions in me that I might have never felt before. Violet Evergarden is among those few series that recapitulated all the epitomes of civilized empathy. let's summarize shortly the plot of the series~

• Plot - The story revolves around Auto Memory Dolls: people initially employed by a scientist named Dr. Orland to assist his blind wife Mollie in writing her novels, and later hired by other people who needed their services. In the present time, the term refers to the industry of writing for others. The story follows Violet Evergarden's journey of reintegrating back into society after the war is over and her search for her life's purpose now that she is no longer a soldier in order to understand the last words her major, Gilbert, had told her: "I love you."

My Enlightenment of the Idea

Violet Evergaden has consistently brought "feels", as they say, and some selected episodes of Evergarden, in particular, have a real roller coaster of emotions. The main point is that it's pretty easy to relate to even with its surreal elements. Though Violet Evergarden is not that relatable, at least not for me since it talks about experiences that I never had and, if I am lucky, I will never have it. It's a series about war, specifically, about the consequence of it. And though it ostentatiously is about war orphan who later serves as a soldier with extra-ordinary abilities in combat. But it also combines the victorian dressing essence with a fancy touch to it in the latter part of the show. Its conducting of the storyline in some points is so accurate that it only shows real fights in brief flashbacks and for this reason, it is one of the most grounded, brutal and emotionally resonant war stories I had the pleasure of watching!

Still, I don't have an appropriate reference to say whether Violet's experiences during and after the war are accurate with reality or not. But I have read a critical review of the show where a war veteran who writes his views about other war shows including this one and there he said that this show gives the vibes of the accurate reality of war and aftermath.

So, I can say that it seems quite realistic, which is usually what matters most when it comes to art. Even though Violet's life is so different from mine, I can believe and sympathize with her suffering and understand where it comes from. I believe the biggest cause of this happening is the structure of the series. Like the excellent Plastic Memories, Violet Evergarden is an episodic series with a protagonist in a job; and in this case, a writer who helps people to write important letters, which leads her to meet a variety of characters and gives her opportunities to help her with her problems.

Story Analysis

Essentially, it's a series of short stories, not always connected, with great emotional charge, that comes together through the main character's story. It's a formula that allows the series to deliver small amounts of emotion with larger proportions while building an emotionally powerful conclusion that only works when we spend a lot of time getting to know the characters. But this practice has different purposes in Violet Evergarden.

• First, seeing all these sad stories in person is what drives Violet's own story forward. As a soldier as a child, Violet only knew the battlefield, she never learned to really understand her feelings or those of others. This scenario can be called an exaggerated one but, Violet has many of the same problems that many soldiers have when they return from the war. Soldiers are trained to follow orders at any cost, have no sympathy for the enemy and be able to kill. All of this leaves a mark on a person. And when the war is over they lose their sense of purpose and direction that those orders gave for their lives and there is no one to teach them how to be civil again.
• The reason Violet Evergarden became an Auto Memories Doll in the first place, it was to understand what her Commander, Gilbert meant when he said, "I love you". But, employment brings out your emotional disability in other areas, with his first letters being so objective and formal that they ended up meaning the opposite of what the client really wanted. But, accepting jobs, which are increasingly emotionally complex, he manages to empathize, and eventually empathize, with his clients' feelings. So, from the tenth episode, the previously emotionless killing machine has to actively fight her tears due to the fate of Ann and his mother. And that episode is not only for Violet but for all of the audiences that cried their hearts out and lastly knows the true weight of surpassed emotions in human hearts that needed to burst out!

However, in addition to teaching Violet to understand other people better, the stories help us better understand Violet herself. Since, in most cases, these stories are more relatable to us as an audience. 

1. Most of us wanted to help a loved one who has punished himself for his mistakes, like Lucilia.
2. Or fell in love, but, I wasn't sure if the other person's feelings, like Princess Charlotte.
3. Or there was a loved one who died, like Oscar Webster.

All these stories are subsided with the retaliation of the audience's feelings. And if we can relate to those experiences while watching how Violet does the same, we can begin to really understand how she feels by mirroring us. It's very clever writing trick is to make the audience sympathize with someone, that at first glance, seems to be extremely cold, distant and emotionally stunted.

Coming out of Norm 

I am not among those people who sketch outlaw about finding the quality of the anime at first glance. They say if you watch the first few episodes of an anime, you will understand its worth. Violet Evergarden is proof that, sometimes, this rule is unnecessary because you will only learn the true worth of this specific series if you only have completed it. I know there are several negative screams about this show, "Overrated", "Boring" and I genuinely think that they didn't have the complete idea of the story premises. 
It is hard to connect with an emotionless Violet and, as we see the story from her perspective, this makes it difficult to connect with the other members of CH Postal Services. But when we got to the third episode and saw how Violet's experiences as a soldier allows her to understand both Spencer's guilt for failing to protect her parents and Lucilia's sadness at seeing her brother suffer and transmitting feelings from one to the other everything starts to come together and make sense. It is that episode that allows us to overcome "just understanding the plot intellectually" and really connect with her emotionally. And each subsequent episode is built on that understanding. Episode three throws the audience to pursue the path of completing the series.

Critical Analysis

1. Through the testimony of others through rejection and finding love, we started to understand the weight of the feelings of Violet and Major Gilbert. Watching Violet connect with fellow orphan Leon and discover his story we got some emotional context about how difficult his life must have been, growing up without a family.
2. And seeing her help Oscar Webster overcome the loss of his daughter, which ends up with Violet discovering Major Gilbert's hypothetical death at the end of that episode, w begin to understand the real extent of his own loss. When she realizes that she has lost the person who was the center of her world and can no longer hold on in the illusion that he may be alive, her world falls apart. Here we can see the sublime effect of Role Reversal b Fortune!
3. All though they are not connected, the understanding, which was built by all previous episodes, is what makes episodes eight and nine, which explore Violet's past and her grief, work. The connections we made with her, makes us have a starting point to understand his purest feelings and experience that are at the center of his character development. The Major is not only the person that Violet loves, but he also isn't just the first person who treats her like a human instead of a weapon, he is the reason for her existence. Every order he gives becomes her life purpose and everything she does, every life she takes, serves her purpose to protect him and make him happy.
4. So, with the Major now dead, what in truth to say is that Violet did all that, killed all those people, for nothing. And her new empathy gained makes her fully understand what each of those deaths means. Each of them is a letter that will never reach its destination. A story that will never end happily. A person, somewhere, who was left in mourning forever. 

If the anime simply showed us all of this in the beginning, neither we, not Violet would be able to process everything. It is the final judgment of why this screenplay and plot structure is highly effective.

Excellence to the Best

Here I will draw out two points to display my views upon the beauty and perfectness of the series.

• The first one is at the end of episode five where Violet meets Bougainvillea and by the surprise of Violet, he asked about the consequences of writing letters by the hand which was once used to kill a human. How is it possible that the same hands which took the lives of humans can write letters to penetrate the feelings of them. this conclusive question is the task that is given to Violet for the retribution of her past sins.

"Writing letters with the very hands that look the lives of so many"

For those sins, she has to suffer. The mere hint was given by Hodgins in the first episode -

"You don't realize that your body is on fire and burning up because of the things you did."

But Violet didn't realize that then. But in episode nine there is the excellence lies when Violet learns the true meaning of those words.

• With this reference, we can properly understand the seriousness of the situation when Violet is about to destroy her room and everything inside her why does she think she doesn't deserve to be happy and tries to strangle herself with her own hands, before falling to the ground, sobbing.

Maybe we don't know everything that goes through her head or everything that she went through, but, we know enough that the enormous suffering that she is feeling can be transmitted through the screen, helped by beautiful animation and wonderfully orchestrated music, and hit us right where it hurts. It's not as moving as the almost perfect episode ten and it still has a few more episodes to go, but, that scene was what made me feel that the journey watching Violet Evergarden was worth it. It is evident at that moment why every second of this series counts as highly worthy as possible.

Conclusion

It builds a strong and brutal image of what war does to people, both those who are killed and those who left behind. Everything encapsulated in the face of an emotionally devasted girl who screams in silence.

If you're a writer, watching Violet Evergarden is a must or at least reading, since it provides a powerful lesson on the mechanisms and technics needed to make your audience connects with characters who have had different experiences that may seem a little strange. If you are not a writer I still think it is an obligation to watch, because it gives you a rare and valuable, even if exaggerated, view of the difficulties that society and the people who defend it face to face with war.

I just did this review to present my tribute to this show. Violet Evergarden is one of the few shows that are close to my heart and it is my honor to represent it as a bard of Literary and Empathy.