Before delving into the details of Violet Evergarden, I must mention how gorgeous this series looks. It is filled with breathtaking landscapes, staged in the style of Romanticism through shading and color choices. It boasts a beautiful soundtrack harmoniously tailored to each scene. The series excels in visually depicting the emotions, thoughts, and character developments through camera angles, character positioning, facial expressions, and character actions. Each of these elements is outstanding on its own, but when combined, they create an artistic composition that I have rarely seen.

This external framework consistently supports the internal narrative, which is strong enough to stand on its own. At its core is Violet, who, like any human, feels things but struggles to identify or express them. She cannot associate words with emotions, describe feelings, or show them. Hence, she initially attempts to imitate people in her quest to understand the meaning of emotions. Each step is crucial: first, she learns about parental and familial love and how it is expressed; then, romantic love and how it evolves; then, what loneliness means; and finally, grief and hope. While initially describing feelings based on people's behaviors and being unable to understand them otherwise, it is ultimately art that reaches her heart. By identifying with the main character of a drama, she manages to understand and express her own feelings – something I have experienced exactly as depicted, making it very relatable. Initially, she struggles to cope with these emotions; suddenly, everything bursts out, particularly the negative emotions, before she manages to find a constructive way to deal with them and, in turn, with herself. This allows her to live and act independently by following her own voice and ceasing to blindly follow orders. Her entire emotional journey is one of the most beautiful and relatable I have ever seen in any medium because it so strongly mirrors my personal experience. What I particularly appreciate is that it is not solely her journey: she learns from other people, but they also learn from her. Violet's innocent and awkward demeanor helps characters perceive her as a mirror of their own souls, learning about themselves through her. Realizing the positive impact she has on the people around her is what leads her to forgive herself for her role in the war and to stop seeing herself as a killing machine.

Furthermore, there are very tangible motifs that support both the internal and external narrative. One of these is the letter, which is the most important medium for Violet to understand emotions. Initially, she imitates emotions for others through letters, then escapes her own depression due to a letter, and finally realizes that she freed others from the same depression through her letters, understanding the positive influence she has. Another motif is the puppet, which unfortunately doesn't fully come through in the German translation with the word AKORA. However, the basic idea is that due to her emotional numbness, she is perceived as a puppet and then takes up a profession where she is literally called a "Doll." The puppet motif not only illustrates her emotional distance from herself but also her inability to live alone, which changes throughout the narrative and culminates in people no longer perceiving her as a puppet and positively redefining the term of her profession.

I have rarely seen or read something as beautiful as Violet Evergarden. The internal and external forms seamlessly blend together, the journey of the main protagonist is vividly and emotionally explained, and all the supporting characters are not just tools for the plot but carry their own emotional baggage. Their tragic stories have profoundly moved me every time, primarily because they always stem from fundamental human desires for community, love, security, and peace. It was a fantastic start to the year, and I hope it continues in a similar vein.