Violet Evergarden

It occurs to me that Claudia's business model doesn't make much sense. As a privately-run post office (already kinda weird) that doesn't do pick-up one would normally expect that he'd specialize in long-distance post or courier services, otherwise many customers would find delivering their letters by hand to be easier. But there's no evidence of either

Another case of fitting the world to the story— Claudia simply as a doll manager and sending the letters through the public postal system would make sense, but wouldn't give them a reason to hire Violet

Also, I'm having difficulty coming up with a plausible scenario that allows Violet's arms to exist but not telephony or telegraphy. Clearly someone knows how to transmit data through electricity

How about if they were purely a mechanical amplification of her remaining muscles? Stretching it a bit, I know.

But this is exactly what we expected wasn't it? High quality production, sub-par story. It's like a Kyo Ani thing.

I'm willing to accept some Schizo Tech as long as the character writing is good, which is the part Kyo Ani has consistently failed on in my view. I'll be watching episodes 1 and 2 tonight and I'm really trying not to get my hopes up, but we'll see.

At least it probably won't get as bad as... uh, actually, I can't really pick just one it can't get as bad as. I retract my optimism.

You know? I'm actually loving this so far. I'm so glad to say so.

I do see some of the inconsistencies people have brought up in here - why wouldn't they confirm what was being written, etc., with Erika's upset customer and the red-haired woman - but for the red-haired woman, at least, she barely gave them the basic outline of what she wanted, and she was trying to show herself off as a fancy and busy woman, so I wouldn't be surprised if she had left shortly after that and told them to 'handle it'. Erika should have reviewed it herself, but she was already feeling incapable and likely wasn't thinking properly about it.

As for the other customer - we do see on camera that Erika tends toward flowery language that does approach the matter, but tends not to be what the requesters are actually saying, or gently misrepresents their perspectives in an attempt to be diplomatic. It probably tends to pass, usually, in the gaps between what the requester wants and ends up saying, between Erika's own interpretations and what she writes, and between what the recipients read and what they want to hear, but it seems like she took too many liberties this time.

I expect that a lot of this show's themes are going to run around words and communication, distance and misinterpretation, and I wouldn't be surprised if the red-haired woman's decision to just go and tell her suitor what she means is used as a sort of callback for later when Violet inevitably finds out about Gilbert.

Other things:

The translation error for the origin of Claudia's name is understandable, but boy is it embarrassing. To clarify, his mother wanted a girl and insisted on the name Claudia while she was in labor, so that's what he was stuck with.

Catolya's design is weirdly elaborate and weirdly glamorous/sexy for the time period. It also looks like she has tattoos of some sort on her legs and arms, which immediately made me wonder if she was also a 'weapon' of some sort as well, or has some other dark past.

Erika is almost certainly going blind, given all the attention to her eyes and glasses and the explanation for the AMDs.

Re: Violet's letter - I actually thought that was hilarious. I loved the implication that she automatically translates everything she hears into blunt military terminology, even though it is pretty sad as an indicator of how supremely fucked up she is.

I'm actually not clear. What makes Violet a weapon? Is it just how she was raised? She is human, right?

Doesn't seem to be, what with not needing food

Yeah, it's hard to tell how much her complete disregard for food and drinks is from her "upbringing" and how much is a sign of something deeper.

Her strength doesn't seem to be that of a frail young girl at least.

Damn do I want to like this show. I really, really do, just because I love animation and this one is gorgeous. Yet I really want to call its third episode terrible. Because to me it was.

Granted, it was not actively train wreck bad. No glaring inconsistencies, no utterly wrongheaded twists. But that's because it's not actively anything. There wasn't a single original idea anywhere in there either. No story we haven't trodden through a thousand times elsewhere. You can do good work with common materials, certainly. Some of our best stories are old stories retold. But there was no spark of creativity in any of it, no flourishes that make the story come to life, nothing to make it your own. Utterly ho-hum.

I honestly don't care one whit about Violet and her struggles to become the most feeling of stenographers out there and it's not because of my failing to connect with her. It's that I see no sign of the show even trying to make me care.

She's such a noncharacter with just informed attributes. That's not an automatic fault with the series either, you can write an interesting work with a more subdued main, but then you have to make the world or the side characters the draw. Yet the side characters are just as flat and stock as Violet is. The world fares a bit better just because of the beauty of it, but even then it's just a generic Europe post war thing. Which, again, you can make interesting, but there's no attempt at fleshing it out any more than there is with the characters.

I'm sorry for the angry tirade here, I really am. This show just drives me up the damn wall and I had to get it out. It's soul crushing to see the animators put so much love and effort into something so damn insipid.

On the other hand, I thought this was the best episode so far. Pushing Violet into a supporting role allowed the show to do a story that wasn't constantly sabotaging itself. I still can't say it was brilliant, but it was an improvement

It's a bit late but the review of the 2nd episode of the series on Random Curiosity had something I found interesting in it, namely that this adaption is following the chronological sequence of events rather than the release order of the source material

I was wondering if this decision could be responsible for some of the perceived flaws in the story?

As for episode 3, I enjoyed it and agree with that it was the strongest of the series so far. The visuals are still the strongest part of the series though.

edited 25th Jan '18 5:04:20 AM by SebastianGray

Yeah, it was a good episode… but while I wouldn't call it "insipid" like did, it definitely lacks some emotional meat. So far there hasn't really been a "woah!" moment, something that would make the story truly memorable. The relationship between Violet and Luculia was probably the most interesting thing in the series so far, but nothing that'll make me cry or anything. Also, I felt like Violet graduating after writing a single short letter was slightly bullshit, but I can look past.

Now outside of the visuals, I must say that find the music extremely pleasant. It's constantly there, yet discreet at the same time. But even that can only take the story so far. I'm not sure taking a non chronological approach like in the novels would help much either.

Can't relate to any complaints about this show. It's amazing and this was my favorite episode yet.

My favorite thing about this episode, is that Violet didn't end up writing a long, verbose letter, she basically did what she always does - broke out all the unneeded parts, and just left the crucial information. Just this time she managed to empathize and discern what the information that should be conveyed is, and that made all the difference. It's like the opposite of what most Dolls do, but it works.

Oh, and I liked that the instructor was actually a pretty nice woman.

Excerpts from the various dubs, because yes, the dubs are already out:

…The French one is tonally off. Violet speaks in a weirdly familiar way, and everyone calls her with the polite "vous" instead of the casual "tu"… It makes no sense.

I like the Italian one though.

Maybe it's to mimic Violet's complete lack of social tact and bluntness, while everyone else is trying to treat her politely? I don't know a lot about French grammar.

Hmm, I don't think any of the dubs really capture Violet voice very well.

Well, her skipping vowels and stuff makes her sound too lax instead of stiff… but maybe it's just that scene.

Episode 4, this time centered on Iris (the short-haired coworker). There's another thing Violet needs to learn: to shut up once in a while. Though her lack of tact ended up being for the better this time. Sort of.

…You know, I realize that expecting big emotional scenes isn't really the right way to enjoy this show. It's a show centered on the small things. A "slow-burner", as someone called it. Like a tea you sip quietly on a veranda or something.

Up the shut hell. :D

I heard THIS episode is anime-original too. Lord, Kyo Ani! What are you doing!? You only have one-cour'a diss shait!!

edited 1st Feb '18 4:39:17 PM by kyun

So, they call her in under false pretenses, act dismissive over her way of life, try to have her married of even though she doesn't want to, and even insist on inviting the one guy she didn't want to see... and she's the one who ends up apologizing?! What kind of bullshit is this? She should have left and never looked back. This episode tries to peddle this bullshit as some kind of heartwarming story, but I'm not buying it.

Also, we get to see how Violet can be unintentionally totally insufferable. Like, shut up for a moment. I know she isn't doing it out of ill will, but still....

Episode 5: …That was a weird and slightly disturbing episode. I guess they were going for Deliberate Values Dissonance but still… yay for ephebophilia? .−. Nice to see Violet smile a little at the end though. And then the past comes back…

Also, no one is gonna make me believe that Violet is 14. I gave her at least 17.

I was almost expecting her to go with another man.

Ah, this was by far my favorite episode yet. The story was good, the guest stars were good, and Violet developed a lot as a character.

They must trust her a lot now that they gave her such an important mission.

Wait, Violet is 14... huh.

It's possible that Violet is older than that - they may have pegged her as 14 during her treatment and rehab, but she was a war orphan and she looked basically feral when she was younger. She very likely didn't get the nutrition she would need to grow up properly.

This was a really great episode, honestly. Age difference aside (it's a big thing to put aside, admittedly, but given the circumstances and Charlotte's determination - she researched and proposed a mutually beneficial peace treaty for him!), the letter exchange was hugely sappy and just plain adorable. Violet's really made a ton of progress.

And yeah... seems like things have been going a little too well for everyone.

Episode 4 was great too. I'm almost afraid here - KyoAni has burned me too many times before. But I'm hoping. God, I'm hoping.

edited 8th Feb '18 8:43:28 AM by RedSavant

Ep 5 was the first one that made me cry actually. I did find the marriage arrangement to a minor off-putting, but I figured that is the standards for this world, or at least this kingdom. Things do seem very obvious in the writing in order to just teach Violet a lesson, but if it develops her character, which this did, it's okay.

A positive aspect of this is that Violet took the broader picture into account this time around. In the previous couple of episodes she managed to write fine letters, but mostly by just applying what she understood of how things "worked", like a computer or a student regurgitating his science lesson for an exam. Here she looked for a solution that would actually be emotionally satisfying for both parties.