Violet Evergarden

This show had been on my watchlist for a while. I don’t know how I first became aware of it or what drew me to it. I do think part of it was misunderstanding the premise and thinking this was a steampunk anime with our MC being some sort of automaton who slowly becomes more human. That last part is maybe half-right still, as Violet Evergarden (what a cool name) is a girl who after the war transitions from fighting machine to connecting people by writing letters for people as an Auto Memory Doll.

The term Auto Memory Doll refers to someone who writes letters for others, but the more important part here is that doll is a term constantly used with regards to Violet. Not with regards to a shorthand to her profession, though it is also used in that sense, but also the lack of expression in her face. At only 14 years old, she’s lived her life as an orphan and a soldier, believing herself to only be a tool. Now living in a world transitioning to peace and not by the side of the major she served, she finds new purpose driven by trying to understand the last words he said to her: “I love you”. That’s right, this is another romance anime after all. But honestly it’s really about the human experience, grief and love both coming together in a beautifully animated format. Letters written to people who are never coming, between those reconciling after a rift has formed, and to the future all come across in such a poetic way here. Maybe I’m being a little overdramatic, but each episode was really fantastic as it explored individual stories.

Violet herself grows as she meets these people and hears their stories. She begins to understand what she is feeling. She becomes more expressive, and is more thoughtful in her actions and behavior to those around her. She has so much progression, and her inner turmoil is explored, especially in the back half of the show. Things start coming together in a more overarching plot, tying things up pretty nicely by the finale.

There is a OVA set in between episodes 4 and 5, I recommend you watch it at that point as well rather than after the show. There are also two movies, the first of which, Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll is effectively two more extended episodes of the show paired together as they tell a unified story. Since the show has a very ending feeling sequence, even if not coming to a conclusion on its own, the movie maybe feels a little odd, but it’s certainly not a deterrent. The second movie serves as a satisfying conclusion to the story, with its format being a continuous film rather than episodes put together. Overall if you want a story that follows people dealing with realities of a post-war world and other difficulties, this is a great choice.