Hello fellow anime lovers, for everyone who loves to watch drama anime. Violet Evergarden is a must watch. I will write my review/recap of this anime.

Spoilers are present ahead. Read at your own risk.

The initial episode starts with an injured girl waiting for her master to arrive to fetch her. She believes she’s a dog of him. Lt. Col. Hodgins, a friend of her master, pick her from the hospital. She thinks she is going to her master but, unfortunately, Hodgins brought her into a rich family who wants to adopt her. He claims that it is an order from her master. Yet she refuses to stay there and ask him to just throw her away somewhere. Hodgins bring her instead to his postal company and let Violet work there. Violet gets introduced to Auto Memory Doll Service during this time. It’s a service to write letters for people who have been having difficulty to express their feelings. As she remembers, the last order of his master is:

“Live and be free from the bottom of my heart, I love you”.

She can’t comprehend the last three words. So Violet thought she needs to become an Auto Memory Doll to understand them.

The protagonist, Violet Evergarden

Her journey tackles the life of different people in every episode. Violet helps them to overcome their worries and move on forward. Overload of emotions will burst out from you on every heartfelt story. Unless you’re a cold one, you will surely love this show.

Episode 3 illustrates the guilt of the death of a soldier’s parents.

In this episode, Violet wrote a simple yet moving letter of gratitude from Luculia to her brother.

To my brother “I am very happy you came back alive” – Luculia

It’s too simple but it’s so moving and meaningful. The episode shows you Luculia’s frustration to talk to her brother. She has difficulty on expressing her feelings but what pains her is her brother is in deep agony. She knows she’s the only person that could help him free from that pain of guilt but she can’t even say the words she wanted to say. Violet letter moves his heart and gives him hope in life. For a person like Luculia who have been missing her family, just simply seeing a single one of them by her side still alive makes her extremely happy.

Episode 4 illustrates daughter’s gratitude to her parents.

Violet wrote an apology letter to everyone especially to Iris’ parents after Iris ruined her birthday party.

The letter is just an apology letter to her parents but it still meaningful especially the last part. Every parent knows the time comes when their children are not “children” anymore. Iris letter express the love of a loving daughter to her parents. Her most heartfelt message: “I am sorry for always making you worry. But, please watch over me a little bit longer”. For a parent gradually seeing their child grows, suffers, and struggle in their life is so frustrating. They know that sooner or later their child will separate from them and live with their own family. Reading this message will definitely move your heart as a parent.

Episode 5 depicts the love of royalty, their restraint circumstance.

At this part, Violet wrote series of letters for the princess of Drossel – exchanges of replies between them.

At first, the exchanges are made by the Doll for optimal use of words since it’s a national concern. But in order to have genuine conversation, spoken words should be by the person involved, not through their representatives. Violet convinced both parties to exchange letters without using their optimal Dolls. For royalties like them, hearing compliments from people are just platitude of counterfeit words. They think those words tend to be suspicious and insincere. They assume all are just forced because they’re royals. Marriage isn’t a joke, both the prince and the princess knows that. They want their relationship to be real and not because they are bind to do so.

Episode 6 showed the inspiration to move on and disregard your past.

Episode 7 is one of my favorite episode of the series. This act tells the story of a father missing his only remaining family, his daughter. It has the most alluring scene of the show. It’s so enthralling to see the beauty of Violet’s mid-air pose as she tries to cross the pond by landing on the floating leaves.

Violet’s majestic leap in episode 7



Episodes 8 to 9 are special since it is about the story of the most beautiful character of the series.

She is an unnamed girl who grows in the battlefield, with corrupted knowledge, only trained to kill. Killing is the only thing she learned. A navy captain captured her and been brought as a weapon for his brother, a soldier. It is a sort of automatic weapon that protects its master at its own will. The captain believes she is nothing but a tool. The brother adapts her with open arms. He felt pity for the child. He’s the first one who treats her as a human, teaches her to read, write, talk and gives her a name. Violet, a wildflower that symbolizes survival and honesty, she accepts everything her master gives. Her innocence is too much. She doesn’t realize that her master loves her very much. She assumes everything given to her is part of his duty as a soldier. As she said his order is her everything.

The unnamed maiden in the battlefield



Yes, the picture above is her. The two episodes are about Violet’s past and her only love. I’m pretty invested in her character and development. Seeing her crying in these episodes tears me apart.

Episode 10 is the most heartfelt in my opinion. Violet was hired for 1-week of writing letters by a sick mother. She prohibits her only daughter to enter the room where they work. The episode shows you that love is still around even after death. It is an eternal love of a parent to her child. While, Episode 11 is about a dying soldier’s last message to her love ones. It is also worth mentioning about the bonus glimpse of fluid action sequence in this episode. KyoAni always amaze me of their fluid animation.

The remaining episodes will conclude Violet conviction and outlook in her life. The significance of her character development is so gratifying. For viewers like me who’ve invested their fondness to her, watching Violet having her occasional smiles feels like in seventh heaven.

The show starts subtly then gradually captivates audiences with their meaningful dialogues. Followed by much alluring animation visual effects, it will trap you within the magical world of Violet Evergarden. The musical score adds magic to the scenes. It makes the whole package beautiful. The episode’s character stories are not uncommon. However, the screenplay has been excellently paced throughout the show. It shows that great production can prove its worth regardless of how they’re originally written.

Violet is an interesting main character. My first impression of her is she seemed pure and innocent. Her wooden personality conceals the number of hardships she has been through at an early age. She is so beautifully designed. She seemed like the delicate pretty girl you want to protect until you realize she doesn’t need your protection. More likely, you’ll be the one who needs her protection.

One of the best values of a great show is its consistency to sustain the excellence of its genre. There are times were a non-action oriented anime has better action scenes than the action-oriented shows, which you may find a filthy betrayal for the part of the viewers. Violet Evergarden appears to be a main drama anime throughout the show; notwithstanding, the few action scenes here aren’t poorly executed. Kyoto Animation, a long-standing elite in the animation industry, has already held its reputation on serving high-quality product to their viewers. Every time the characters have held their emotion, their patented artistic eyes quiver like water on its pupil engrossed me with so much awe. Even if some of their anime plots are almost uninteresting or mediocre, their fascinating character designs can easily attract the viewers on any show they’ve made. There are times where I convinced myself to watch a certain show they’ve made since the characters are likable anyway, even though the plot is too uninteresting. However, this isn’t one of them. Violet Evergarden is a Kyoto Animation’s drama masterpiece. Kana Akatsuki, the author of its light novel, creates an excellent literature that brings heartwarming feelings into her fellow readers.