Violet Evergarden: The Movie was a fantastic conclusion to one of my favourite series of all time. This review contains spoilers, yet in short this movie is a must watch for any slice of life or drama fan, and I would strongly recommend it for all, unless the main reason you watch anime is for action scenes - which the movie does still contain some of.

I am going to separate this review into 3 parts:

1. Presentation and story
2. Character conclusions
3. Possible issues

However, while I will be discussing a few issues with this movie, I am still giving it a perfect score of 10/10, which I have only previously given to 4 other anime. I will talk about this a bit later on.

Presentation and Story

The presentation is as impressive as always from Kyoto Animation. Just as beautiful as the rest of the series, in some scenes even more so possibly because of the increased budget that comes with the movie format. The music is stunning as usual, with great use of the ED, Michishirube, at the end of the movie.

Now, onto the story. The arc involving the sick kid in the hospital appears at first to just be another story that could have been included in the original anime series. I may be wrong on this, so light novel readers shoot me down, but it seemed like KyoAni had two story arcs left from the books, that and Violet's reunion with Gilbert, and tried to combine them together. However, this is mostly in the first half of the movie. In the second half, they become better connected, and Violet's choice to pursue Gilbert, abandoning Yuris (the sick kid), allowed for other side characters to have their arcs reach a fitting conclusion.

The story starts at a festival at the port in Leiden, which neatly connects it to the last episode of the anime that ended with the Air Show, also a festival where the characters were at the port. This helped remind viewers where we left off and provided a crucial character moment for Violet.

Character Conclusions

With that, onto the character conclusions. I will separate these into each character, yet will order them in how I feel their arcs were best ended in the movie, so feel free to skip if you're not interested in a particular character. I won't talk about all characters, just the few that changed the most over this Movie's runtime or led to crucial moments.

Violet

I will begin at the festival at the port. This is a great example of violet's struggles; she is able to write the Hymn to the sea with studying the sea life, and it isn't portrayed as that great of a struggle for her. Contrasting this to the last episode of the anime, where she struggled to write a letter for Gilbert, is an example of her separating her letters from herself. While she is slowly learning people's feelings through her job as a Doll, she needs to work through them on her own to actually understand them so that she can also do the same for herself.

Her attachment to her job is again reinforced in her choosing to help the sick Yuris on her day off, despite him acting rudely at first. This perhaps shows that she understood his feelings even through his bratty attitude over the phone.

Now, onto what everyone thought this entire section would be about, her reuniting with Gilbert. The movie does a good job of making us again want to find him, which the last episode of the anime had left unanswered. The reason I'm not going to discuss this in too much depth is because it takes away from the message of the anime, which I will get to later. Despite this, it is an important ending for her character, with what she sought for for so long, and learnt what "I love you" means for, finally being paid off.

Although she immediately leaves the postal company and moves to the island after finishing off her remaining work, the framing story of the movie, Magnolia Daisy trying to find violet, shows that she continued with her work. This is crucial, as while she did find Gilbert, Violet had found something else she loved, her job as a Doll.

This movie was crucial for Dietfried's Character. While the anime had started to have him turn to like violet and feel remorseful, the movie really allowed us to understand him and his struggles. Him allowing Violet to take some of Gilbert's toys off the boat also shows that while the process is slow, he is slowly being able to move beyond it and let go.

His final appearance at the end of the movie, persuading Gilbert to see Violet furthers this, as he is able to forget about his apology what would have put his heart at rest and instead think of someone else. This brings him full circle, from not wishing to join the army and forcing his brother into it, then to using Violet as a tool, now to caring about others.

Gilbert

While he struggled with using Violet as a tool in the flashback scenes in the anime, this movie shows Gilbert confronting these feelings. We also see that he is unable to do so, and instead tries to force her away because he feels he will only bring her pain. This is fairly interesting, as you could see as him returning to where he started, as at the end of the movie he again follows his feelings and does what he wants.

Iris and Benedict

I am going to discuss these two at once, as them helping Yuris at the end when Violet couldn't essentially completed both their characters. While at the end of the anime we see Benedict say he will become the president one day, here we see him again forced to work the odd jobs and drive to clients.

However, Iris has a much better ending. She is constantly saying she will become the best Doll in Leiden, and her being able to help Yuris shows that her real goal is to help people connect. It also sets up her stepping into Violet's place as the lead Doll in Leiden after she moves to the island.

Daisy

Daisy is the character we first see, the woman searching for traces of Violet far into the future. While she doesn't as such have a complete arc besides finding others who loved Violet at the end, she brings forth memories for the audience. This final moment when she says "Violet Evergarden" hits so hard because we see her grandmother, who we do have a connection to. This is set up at the start of the movie with her acting like her grandmother, annoyed at her parents being unable to spend time with her. So in this moment, we also think of her grandmother saying thank you for Violet's work.

Possible Issues

Now onto a few issues I've seen others discuss, and a few I also find as flaws.

When considering the TV anime as set up and this as payoff this movie is fantastic. However, it can also be seen as damaging to the original message, with Violet learning to deal with her loss of Gilbert. This isn't too MAJOR an issue (I apologise for that terrible pun), yet it does detract from the original anime that was in part so fantastic because it showed recovery after loss and war.

This has caused some to call it a cash-grab and unnecessary sequel. The general sentiment in detractors of the movie is that the anime was not in need of this, and I agree. However, while I did walk into watching it concerned about them ruining the ending of the anime, this movie contributed enough of its own to make up for what it did take away from the TV series. This is why I am still giving it a 10/10, as it was still a fantastic viewing experience that I would not want to have missed simply to retain the ending of the TV series.

The side characters also appeared fairly shallow in this movie, particularly compared to the anime. However, I think this was necessary in order to complete their arcs, for example with Erica becoming the Playwright's assistant. The characters I discussed above however, were brought out of the forgettable, and therefore I don't see this as too much of an issue. Despite this, characters as Cattleya are practically ignored which was a little disappointing to see.

Conclusion

Violet Evergarden: The Movie is a must-watch for all fans of the original series, and a 10/10. While it does have some smaller issues, the largest of these is how it treats the original series. This is annoying for fans of the series, yet it doesn't detract from this movie, rather the TV anime, meaning I am leaving it at a perfect score. It is easily counterweighted by the character moments and completing the arcs of characters we previously knew little about.