It would be a gross understatement for me to tell you that the show I am about introduce you to is without a doubt my favorite show to come out this year. It is a magnificently beautiful and touching series that has rocked me to my very core. I say all of this to preface my words with this simple message. I am going to do my level best not to spoil any of the episodes of this amazing show because it deserves people's full and undivided attention. I want people to experience this show as I did, knowing little about it other than the premise, and the general themes and emotions one may experience when viewing this show. Having established that, I feel compelled to share with you all just a little of my favorite show of 2018, because I would be doing you all a disservice if I did not introduce you to a show that captures the essence of love better than any I have seen in a long time. I hope you will all enjoy this introduction to the world of Kyoto Animation's fantastic 2018 Anime, Violet Evergarden.
STORY:
The story of Violet Evergarden takes place in a fictional version of 1930's era Europe just after the resolution of a great war and follows the story of the titular Violet, a young teenage girl and former child soldier who took part in the war as she reintegrates back into society. For years, she was treated merely as a weapon, a killing machine, whose ultimate purpose was only to slaughter those in her way. Only one man had ever treated her with any care or kindness, a Major in the army and her superior officer, but during one of the final battles of the war, she and the Major were gravely injured. The last thing she was left with before she blacked out were the words her commanding officer left her with, "I love you." When she finally came to, her arms had been amputated and replaced with mechanical prosthetics and there was no word as to what happened to the Major.
While recovering, Violet is placed under the care of one of the Major's friends who allows her to work at his company, a postal services office, that offers a type of aid to people known as the "Auto Memory Doll" service. "Auto Memory Dolls" are essentially ghostwriters who help assist clients in the writing of letters by transcribing their thoughts, feelings, and emotions on paper. By chance, Violet is exposed to this line of work and from that point forward, begins to develop a desire within her to become an "Auto Memory Doll," hoping that by helping people write out and express their feelings in the form of letters, she could in turn eventually learn the meaning of the last words her Major left her with and what her life's purpose should be apart from the war.
Violet to her credit is extremely mechanically gifted, able to type with lightning fast accuracy and precision despite having both her arms replaced. However, as you might expect given her past history as a child soldier and tool for war, her initial letters come off as cold, detached, emotionless, and mechanical. She is at this point a literal doll in more than just job title. The story of Violet Evergarden is this girl's journey of discovery, a story that will not only lead Violet to discover the true essence of love, forgiveness, and acceptance, but will actively touch and shape the lives of all those she interacts with along the way.
AUDIO/VISUALS
Before I even begin to dive into this series' various themes and how they have touched me on a deeply emotional level, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the great care this series takes with its sound and visual designs. The music of Violet Evergarden is composed by Evan Call, and his wonderful score perfectly captures the exact mood each scene wants to communicate to you whether it be hope, sorrow, reflection, or wonder. The score also has a unique attention to detail as it seamlessly incorporates the clicking of a typewriter, or brush strokes on a page, or an ethereal choir of voices all in order to draw the listener deeper into the world of Violet Evergarden. From tracks which evoke the sense of awakening and discovery like, "A Doll's Beginning," to the hauntingly pensive, "Never Coming Back," or the musical journey that is "Theme of Violet Evergarden," Call's songs never fail to capture a sense of beauty and timelessness that words really fail to express.
As for the visuals, Violet Evergarden's art direction is absolutely stunning. Each frame of this series looks like it could have been ripped straight from an art book. The colors are striking and beautiful and when everything is fully animated you really get a sense that this show wants you as the viewer to understand that even in times of darkness or tragedy, you must never forget or lose sight of the fact that life has beauty and value. For as much as life can bring war and pain, it also holds within it beauty and hope.
THEMES & PERSONAL FEELINGS:
Oh boy, the time has finally time for me to gush about what I feel are this series' greatest strengths. I would have liked to have covered the characters other than Violet in greater depth, but that would involve spoiling the plots of too many amazing episodes so I will let some of you discover them for yourselves. What I really want to focus in on is how well woven the theme of love is into the very fabric of this show. Not only does the series focus on Violet's journey to discover what love is and the implications of what that word means, but in almost every episode, Violet learns some new facet of love that completely changes her understanding of the concept. In one episode, she learns from the actions of a friend that love is in many ways simple, meaning that it does not come with any strings or conditions, it just wants to be there supporting and bearing with all things without ever needing a reason why. In another, Violet and the viewers see that love, especially the declaration of love takes courage because you are allowing yourself to be completely vulnerable in front of another person and it is extremely painful if one's declaration of love is not received in the way one hopes. Through her travels and business trips, Violet later comes to understand that love is only love if it is sincere in nature. There is no room for pretense or ceremony in true love and only within the safety of honest love can one's anxieties and worries truly be eased. Even deeper than that, Violet Evergarden communicates that love is sometimes irrational, you cannot make sense of it and once real lasting love has been established, love goes beyond all logical thought or explanation.
These are all powerful aspects of love that are crafted expertly into the stories of Violet Evergarden, but the show does not fail to address some of the harder truths about love. There are stories about how when love is lost, it leaves scars and pains that never truly go away in this life. One can learn from them and seek healing for those metaphorical wounds, but the burn marks of losing love and suffering loss will still remain. Despite how much pain loving and losing can entail, Violet Evergarden does not fail to address what I personally believe to be the most powerful aspect of love and that is that true love transcends time and space, is unconditional, self-sacrificing, and nothing, not even death can separate one from it.
There is one particular episode of this series that I will not spoil here, but may write about in the future, that I believe communicates the transcendent sacrificial nature of love better than almost any other show or movie I have ever seen and it absolutely wrecked me. I hesitate to call any show or movie perfect because I believe no form of media can ever truly be perfect, but this particular episode is as close to perfection as I have ever seen. I cried so hard after this particular episode that even hours removed from watching the episode people in public were asking me if I was okay because my cheeks were red and my eyes were still filling with tears. I am not saying that if anyone gets through this series without crying or getting emotional that there is something necessarily wrong with you, but you might want to check yourself and ask yourself what the concept of love really means to you.
The other powerful theme present throughout Violet Evergarden is the idea of forgiveness and acceptance of the past. Once Violet grows to start understanding love, she later finds that she is struggling to deal with the reality of the things she did when she was just a 'tool of war.' She slowly realizes the amount of hurt, pain and loss she had a hand in causing and it absolutely tears her up inside. In her eyes, she has committed evil by robbing people of their loved ones and only slowly does she eventually come to terms with what she did. Again, I will not spoil the specifics of Violet's story and how things turn out for Violet, but what I can say for sure is that this show does an excellent job of capturing how hard it really is for on to forgive, whether it be oneself or another you feel has wronged you. Forgiveness is extremely costly as it requires the one who bears all the hurt to make a conscious choice to not hold the wrongs done against the perpetrator. Forgiving yourself is often even harder because it does not matter if no one else holds your actions against you, until you can accept that you are more than your past sins, you will never allow yourself to really begin healing. Forgiveness is a subject that Violet Evergarden handles extremely well and with the seriousness it deserves.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I cannot guarantee that if any of you reading this will give Violet Evergarden a chance or even if you do, whether or not you will get anything close to the level of joy and satisfaction I got when watching it. All I can do is assure you that the writing, story-telling, and themes are on point and explain to you why the themes of this show resonate so powerfully with me.
I am a Christian who believes that I though I may try to live a moral upstanding life where I show people grace and respect, I am at my core a selfish and self-seeking sinner who honestly feels at times that I am unlovable because of the things I have done. I have lied to people in the past and hurt others with my words and actions and the memory of those actions often fill me with a deep sense of shame and regret. Despite all of this, I firmly believe that even at my most unlovable and at my most unforgivable, God looked upon my helpless state and showed me love and forgiveness that I did not deserve. I believe that God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, die and pay for all of my failings past, present, and future and that His death and resurrection bought me love, forgiveness, and assurance. It is because of my core belief and faith as a Christian that whenever I saw love and forgiveness conveyed through this series, I could picture each scene as a small glimpse of an aspect of God's love. Even when I feel unlovable, God's love remains: holding me close, assuring me I am forgiven and transcending all logic.
No matter what, my hope for all of you who read this far is that you will take the time to look into or watch Violet Evergarden which currently is airing on Netflix at the time I am writing this post. It is an amazing show from a visual, musical, and story-telling perspective that has solid characters and character growth as well as excellent themes that can potentially resonate with people on a richly profound level.