Introduction
Sequels are a topic of much contention in anime, perhaps more than most other entertainment media. You would think that everybody likes to see more of their favorite shows, but oftentimes that favoritism springs from exclusivity and uniqueness that is lessened with each new entry into a franchise.
Following this trend, there is a relationship between critical success of a series and the difficulty incurred by trying to add to it. Certain shows were simply never meant to continue past their original runtime.
Violet Evergarden enjoyed a fantastical level of polish and attention alongside one of the largest anime budgets to date, offered by an unnamed big publisher in hopes of finally producing something accepted by more discerning anime fans. By almost all accounts, it was a wild success with casual and hardcore viewers alike, and brought some much-needed variety to the otherwise shounen-dominated anime mainstream.
The problem here lies with the publishers, who care only for their bottom line and live by a strict philosophy of "quantity over quality." My distaste for such groups aside, this mantra did no favors for one of the best anime shows of 2018. Violet Evergarden had no need for a continuation, and yet, here one is.
Synopsis
After the events of the original series, we follow a young girl, Daisy, on her journey to follow the footsteps of famous ghostwriter Violet Evergarden. She hopes to uncover a means of communicating her feelings to her parents in an alternative way besides telling them face-to-face or with the help of modern technology.
Interspersed with her story are flashbacks of Violet's own life. These cover a variety of topics but mainly focus on her continued search for purpose and closure after Major Gilbert's death. The flashbacks are mostly new scenes but a fair amount, comprising maybe 5% of the movie's runtime, are reruns of moments from the original series.
We also get a look at the future of the world and its many characters. While not central to the plot, Violet's companions at the postal service and former military comrades receive significant dialogue onscreen. Several new characters are introduced as well, mostly revolving around a subplot concerning a hospitalized child that is a client of Violet's.
Strengths
When not compared to the looming shadow of its predecessor, there is nothing this movie does particularly wrong. There is enough personality across all characters to reasonably drive the plot. The art is pleasing to the eyes. The music complements the world wonderfully.
There is at least one serious moment, one funny moment, and one emotional moment that I can recall immediately after watching it. However, nothing other than the relatively minor background elements of music and set design are standout strengths.
Admittedly, I did enjoy the movie's B-plots concerning Daisy and the hospitalized boy. They serve as a good introduction and callback to Violet's devoted and caring nature towards her clients. Both also received a satisfying conclusion that upheld the context of the story; no complaints here.
Weaknesses
O-kay, let's get into it. First and foremost, the most obvious comparison to the original is that the animation has undergone a significant downgrade. It still passes for all intents and purposes, but lacks those moments of breathtaking attention to detail that populated every single episode in the former. I feel that movies typically place a greater emphasis, if anything, on animation quality than television series.
Second, and most egregious to me personally, was the extreme shallowing of personalities. Violet's post office coworkers were always one-note background characters, but they appeared quite a bit more frequently in this movie and their preexisting insipidity was glaringly obvious.
Additionally, there was a major discrepancy in character between the original and movie. Dietfried and Hodgins have switched roles. The former served as a villain and detractor to Violet's growth, while the latter was her patient mentor and friend through hardship. Now the same could be said for them, only reversed... Hodgins obstructs Violet's growth with his overprotectiveness, and Dietfriend has suddenly come full circle and accepted Violet after trying to stop her at every turn when we last saw him?
Concerning characters, the worst offense by far is Violet herself. The main plot of the original series revolved around Violet's transformation from emotionless outcast to a kind and understanding friend to all. Now that evolution has finished, and we are left with... what, exactly? This new Violet retains her fanatical love for Gilbert and obsession with her work, but without the dynamic emotional metamorphosis that she underwent in the show. Now she feels, to the immense regret of the viewer, like just another member of the one-note postal service cast.
Finally, the movie's original story leaves much to be desired.
Conclusion
This is a textbook example of how not to make a sequel, even ignoring the fact that the series was inarguably complete and garnered no need to create one. All the beautiful art, character growth, and intertwining stories that made the first Violet Evergarden so special have been all but retconned to make way for pointless cameos of the most unlikeable side characters.
The characters that do return in starring roles like Dietfriend, Hodgins, and Gilbert all have entirely different personalities than we know and seem like aliens inhabiting a familiar body to the viewer. Violet herself is arguably the same, but her personality was always driven by the emotional storytelling and suffers in the absence of such.
This movie should have stuck to its original plotlines, because those were actually quite good. The combination of good-but-not-great animation, storytelling, and characters would have achieved at least a 70 from me. This movie's fatal mistake is tying itself to an already complete franchise defined by a seemingly unmatchable level of polish.
All in all, this unnecessary sequel is nothing more than a soulless cash grab designed to leech off one of anime's biggest critical successes in years. I hesitate to cast blame at the movie's creative team, because based on the ending to the television series, I doubt any writers or animators left anything on the table after the final episode aired. However, as much as I appreciate their hard work, I'm afraid it was wasted on this.
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