Ever since seeing bits and trailers of this anime, I have been really eager to see it as soon as possible. After knowing the recent news about Netflix grabbing the series though, I was honestly bummed out. I tempted to watch illegally, but knowing the craftsmanship that was created in VE’s presentation, I did not want to watch it and held my itching desire until the whole anime finally released on Netflix’s U.S. streaming service. I had other great Winter 2018 anime to occupy myself like Mitsuboshi Colors and How to Keep a Mummy, so the wait did not feel too long as a result. With Netflix releasing KyoAni’s finest work, I finally watched it a few days later. What do I feel about it so far?
Violet Evergarden is VERY good! I watched this with an open mind, after hearing about the adaptation being bad because it was apparently lengthened with so much filler. I wanted to understand why KyoAni chose to go that direction. Watching the first episode, I thought the first episode kicked off the anime phenomenally. The beautiful presentation, directing, and the pacing that slowly established Violet’s backstory and goals almost put me in tears.
Although I thought those aspects were amazing, I openly thought that the anime had good storytelling. Just good storytelling in the first three episodes. Not amazing and it was a bit too simplistic for my tastes, but it was serviceable to barely match up the other great aspects of the anime. These were my initial impressions was not until Episode 4 came where I started to understand Violet’s character when she attempts to help Iris’s birthday party. The chemistry and development in that one episode brought a humbly goofy side to Violet that made me like her character more.
The anime soon expanded Violet’s role outside of her post office. The transitions to Violet’s outside adventures was jarring, as I thought there was not enough time given to characters like Iris and Luculia for me to accept a story change. I gave it a chance, and what I was left with for Episodes 5 to 7 were the most powerful stories I have watched in all 2018 anime I watched this year. Charlotte and Leon’s story allowed me to see the subtle and emotional changes with Violet’s character. And when I watched Episode 7 with Violet solving Oscar’s problem of writer’s block, I cried legitimate tears. It was then I fell in love with Violet.
It was then that I also realized Violet IS a painfully relatable character to me. As someone that loves to write in-depth opinions, I found myself paralleling my personal experiences of typing my opinions on the internet with Violet’s letter struggles. Her struggles of wanting to express something exact in an emotional manner, but failing to realize those things due to her methods being robotic and naive, I could relate to that so greatly. The more she failed, the more I could empathize with Violet. If it were not for the episodic storytelling that led to Episode 7, the ending to Episode 7 would have not made such a huge impact on me. By spending time exploring Violet’s character in many different little ways through its episodic storytelling, it allowed me as a viewer to be rewarded with character development that paid off with so much emotion in my part.
So far, I am in LOVE with Violet Evergarden! The argument of ‘filler episodes’ in the anime adaptation are null in my perspective. I look forward to watching the last six episodes of Violet Evergarden soon. Waiting for this anime to come on Netflix and finally binging it was worth the wait. Seriously worth the wait.