Violet Evergarden

ALSO worldwide?? Man they really want everyone in the world to like this franchise!

OVA is out.

The OVA has been out for a while, has it been subbed yet? Last I checked it was just the raw.

It's a good time to check again

I need to watch it sometime when I'm mentally prepared for it.

Okay, watching the OVA now. It's clearly somewhere early in the series, as Violet's still writing military dispatches. Couldn't ask for a nicer or more reasonable client, though.

Edit: Wow, yeah, these clients are pretty jerky.

Edit edit: Well, it wasn't a bad episode. It was just an odd decision to adapt this one with a longer-than-usual runtime over any of the others; I wonder if it was original to the anime, and that's why it feels a little bit lackluster compared to some of the others. I think the biggest problems were the callbacks/call-forwards to later events in the series, specifically the letter drop festival at the end when Violet writes to Gilbert and that Irma's motivation is exactly the same as Violet's, which means that the story relies on Irma and Ardo being purposefully obtuse to keep Violet from understanding. All the other episodes' storylines approach Violet's own emotional trauma and lack of understanding obliquely, so she gets a step closer to solving her own problem by helping people solve theirs, but Irma's just feels too close; 'write a letter from a woman left behind to the man she loves who went to war and never came back' is too on-the-nose for so early in the series' timeline, I feel.

As for the call-forwards, they might have worked if they'd been seeded into episodes early in the original series and had been seen in the course of Violet learning herself. But because we've already seen the letter drop, it somehow feels less spontaneous and magical knowing that Violet was already told about it - especially given what that scene means in connection to the Arc Words, "there's no such thing as a letter that doesn't deserve to be sent", and the postal storage basically being super unsubtle about that, when the series is generally pretty great at subtle.

But that's my two cents.

Edited by RedSavant on Aug 6th 2018 at 8:15:42 AM

So I was going back to this series to check something in an episode, and then I saw that there was an "episode 14"… I have no idea how I overlooked that. But if it was an OVA, that makes sense…

Well, my impressions are more or less the same as . Kinda feels like a B-side that didn't quite make it to the album. It's not a bad episode, but it doesn't really add much. Also, I don't know if I just picked the wrong streaming site, but the subtitles were horrendous − some formulations are awkward as hell, and the translation of some lines is just plain wrong (like "You should give up" translated as "I've given up").

Still, whoever sung these opera songs has an incredible voice. Speaking of which, is it an actual language at the beginning, or a conlang?

I'm actually not sure. I can't seem to find the full song on Youtube, only Irma's song in Japanese at the end.

I bring good news!

The movie releases (more or less worldwide at the same time, I think) on Jan 10, 2020, and there will be a special "side story" movie showing here in September, which I will definitely have to go to.

I wonder if the movie will show Violet backstory that wasn't in the anime.

From what I've heard, I kind of hope not. The stuff with the giant axe and so on would detract from the series tonally, I think - it's just too out there.

It's alive… It's alive, it's alive!

The new OVA also came out today in Japan, with a 3 week theatrical run.

Edited by Lyendith on Sep 6th 2019 at 1:39:10 PM

Already confirmed to be released here, cant wait for it

Apparently the movie tickets come with one of three short stories at random; there's also a fourth one that will only be released in the third week, along with a collection of the three (so I'll be going a second time after my first viewing tomorrow, probably).

The story titles are "Ann Magnolia and her Nineteenth Birthday", "Leon Stefanotis and the Evening Star", and "Charlotte Abelfreyja Flugel and the Forest Kingdom". Plus "Isabela York and the Rain of Flowers", Isabela being the focus character of the theatrical OVA.

Yeah, I'll definitely be going a second time. The OVA is really good, and does a good job setting things up for the movie, which seems like it might end with Violet retiring, and will certainly deal with the CH Company closing down, I expect, with the advent of telegrams.

Wait, where did you see it?

RedSavant lives in Japan, AFAIK

Edited by jun_kagami on Sep 8th 2019 at 6:36:58 PM

Yeah, I live in Tokyo. Went to go see it in theaters. I'll definitely be going again because I want that short story about Isabela.

Edit: The story I got was the one about Charlotte, the princess. Seems to be set about a year after her marriage to Damien.

Edited by RedSavant on Sep 8th 2019 at 7:41:30 AM

Can I hate you, just for this time?

Will you forgive me if I translate the Charlotte story?

…I can. It's not like it'll be available in France before a long while anyway…

Also, turns out the story of the OVA was adapted from the Violet Evergarden Gaiden collection; there are some art pieces from that book that show scenes from the OVA.

The short story is pretty long, so it'll be a while before I get it up. I can post a synopsis to tide people over, though.

Okay, so, the Charlotte short story. It's set a year after the wedding, and shortly after Damien and Charlotte became king and queen - at least, I think so. I forget whether they were shown to be king and queen in episode 9. So far it seems to be focused on Charlotte having trouble fitting in in Flugel, and worrying whether she's a good queen and wife.