The anime studio Kyoto Animation announced on Friday that the first volume of Kana Akatsuki 's Violet Evergarden novel will ship in Japan on December 25. Akiko Takase is illustrating the novel. (Note: the kanji used to indicate the novel's first volume is usually used when a novel has two volumes total.)

The novel won the grand prize in the fifth Kyoto Animation Award program's novel category in 2014. The win marked the first time that any work won a grand prize in any of the contest's three categories (novel, scenario, and manga). Last year two other works received honorable mentions in the novel category: Santa Claus no Tomodachi (Santa Claus' Friend) and Kinō no Koi wa Kyō no Yume (Yesterday's Love is Today's Dream).

Previous honorable mention recipients in the contest's history that have been animated include: Chū-2 Byō Demo Koi ga Shitai! , Free! (originally known as High Speed! ), and Kyōkai no Kanata .