Violet Evergarden

"Everything in the past cannot be erased, but everything you have done for others will never be erased."

This review contain spoiler

Animation is not just moving things, it is giving life to something that, at first, is inanimate. In most anime the animation does not stand out for more than a few lights or flashes since, as I say, animation is not something that serves to move things, it is something that serves to give life to a character. In all this, it is important to know how the things that happen on screen move, it is relevant to see how it can be something that can even transmit feelings.This is a section that needs to be taken into account and that needs to be explored in depth depending on the message that you want to give. In Japan, as in the rest of the world, animation is an important part of the work itself. The animation industry always tries to sell and make a profit, but it is true that with a great job done, you can make great works with it. It is also the case that you need a big budget and a great animation studio. The work we are going to talk about today is one of the great animation studios in Japan, one of the best known and with a big budget in the industry, Kyoto Animation. This animation studio was in charge of works like Clannad, K-On!, A Silent Voice, and of course Violet Evergarden which I will be focus on.

There’s something so familiar about this anime. Like I had experienced it before in a previous life and was relearning something about myself while watching it. A desire to understand empathy is the protagonist’s drive throughout the short 13 episode series. Perhaps it was the emotional stories throughout the series that connected to my empathetic-self. Stories that struck a chord within my heart that forced me to shed more than a few tears. Perhaps it was the job that Violet has as a writer of letters, despite her ignorance to the concept of ‘love’. Perhaps it was the art style of the show that gave it that warm vibrancy I’ve experienced before, void of the crisp technology we know today. Perhaps it was all of that. With such a Victorian-style stage, the background of the Industrial Revolution, and the theme of postman's stationery, from Violet's perspective, we see people and things in every corner of the world, including love, friendship, family affection... countless emotions are intertwined and entangled in Violet's memory.

Violet is an emotionless, expressionless little girl used as a “weapon” in a war between countries in this fictitious world set in the victorian era. She is plagued with the words her Major uttered, “I love you," when she try to rescue him in the amidst of war. Violet had never heard that expression, or other words that described the beauty that could describe the human condition. This word is very important since it will be the objective of the plot itself to see what it means to Violet. The Major introduced her to the other side of life that was filled with words like “beautiful” and things like flowers and jewelry. Her determination to find out what “I love you” means brought her to become a writer for a company that creates letters for clients who don’t have the talent of words themselves. Each client she worked with tell a touching story of human connection, and from those moments Violet gets a little closer to understanding what it means to love and to feel. And more importantly, how to express that in words. Violet is not a robot but she does have robotic tendencies and because of that we see her often struggle to understand how humans actually work. Violet, from the time she was with the Commander until she is currently in the play itself, only has one attitude, which is that of war, she only thinks that all the requests made to her are orders and therefore she executes each request perfectly. The attitude of Violet has been somewhat criticized and, of course, it makes a lot of sense since, when the viewer wants to see a someone charismatic, with personality and with something to develop in the play itself. In this case, that behavior has to be developed as the plot progresses. Throughout her journey to understand human emotion: we get to see how important the truth actually is and the power of words.

It really didn’t kick in for me until episode 6, when Violet took on a different kind of job. One that found her working with a talented transcriber. They were partnered up to transcribe very old manuscripts in order to preserve them. They both had similar upbringings and related to each other on practically every level. What I find so refreshing was that there was no intimacy in the scenes they shared, other than the passion of their interests. An intellectual connection. One that had both of them understanding they were not alone. I felt like I could relate to the young man with all his curiosities about Violet and the places she had travelled. And the crippling nature of feeling like leaving a place of upbringing would therefore be to abandon yourself. It was the first episode I found myself tearing up. I was that young man. Stuck and content in my ways, wanting to do something but having no motivation or reason to do so. At the end of the episode, as it does with every episode, the music swelled and the animation was wispful with exaggeration to throw heavy emphasis on the emotional tone of the moment. The young man vowed to travel the world and allow destiny to intertwine their paths. The heartfelt moments kept coming after that. Each one feeling like a resurfacing of emotional trauma I had in the past and tried to forget. I cried through several more episodes. I felt Violet’s pain as she tried to understand emotions. I felt the pain of the people she spent time with in order to write letters for them. They were all broken in some way. They all lived through something tragic and were trying to find closure. All the while Violet was unknowingly dealing with her own trauma.

One of the struggles that Violet faces is that she is not afraid and because of this she often is just blatantly honest. The truth is powerful but it can also be blinding. Violet does not understand the fact that people are more careful with the truth because they are scared. For example in episode 4, Iris lies to her parents about being “the best ‘doll’ in Leiden” because she is scared of what her parents would do if they knew the truth. People are scared, they have their own little problems and they lie to hide them. Violet is right in a sense that the truth has to be spoken. This is her role throughout the show, but she has to learn how to be careful in saying the truth. In this same episode, Violet writes a letter for Iris to her parents telling them the truth, and to Iris’s surprise, her parents still love her. Iris’s parents don’t care if Iris is “the best ‘doll’ in Leiden” or not, the only thing that they care about is Iris, their daughter. The truth can set you free, Iris does not have to hide behind her lies anymore. As a doll, it is important to know one’s words. Most dolls are very poetic in their letters but Violet having a military background her words are quite limited. Sometimes it might feel like there are too many words but sometimes it can feel like there aren’t enough words to describe how you actually feel. Violet might not have the largest lexicon in the show but she does know that words are for communication.

The worst part was when Violet’s world came crashing down after being faced with the possibility that the person she cared for most was gone. The very reason she was doing what she was. The anger she felt, the suicidal thoughts, and the depression close after. It may sound like just another over-exaggerated anime thing, but I assure you, it felt too right. I wish I didn’t know what that feels like, but I do, and I re-experienced it all over again. I’m glad the show didn’t pass over those moments so quickly. I felt they did that climactic character arc justice and allowed time for Violet to discover what it all meant before coming to realization. Violet’s emotionless expressions spoke to my introverted personality. I keep to myself, I don’t like sharing a lot, and I often use logic in my reasoning. Whenever Violet would cry I could feel that as well. Her words of affirmation and constant communication no matter how straightforward, always made me feel like I was watching myself play out these circumstances. In some cases, wishing I had the elegance she had in doing so. Language’s main purpose is to convey our own thoughts to one another, it doesn’t matter how you do it as long as the other person understands what you are trying to say. This is why words are powerful, it is a way for us to say how we really feel. In the 3rd episode, Luculia can’t say how she really feels to her brother who is wallowing in sadness because he blames himself for the death of their parents. Violet writes a letter for Luculia to her brother, she wrote: “Dear Brother, I’m glad you’re here for me”. This one phrase was enough to save Luculia’s brother from the depths of sorrow. Through these words, Luculia was able to convey how much she appreciates her brother.

For this last segment I want to mentions some important lessons from Violet Evergarden:

1. The meaning of love

Throughout the whole series, we follow Violet on her journey to uncover the meaning of what “I love you” means. To many of us, “love” is such a commonly used word and we understand it as a feeling of deep emotional connection to another person, someone whom we would go through hell and back for. To Violet, she was not shown love as a child, she was taken as a child soldier and thus lacked any feelings of compassion being shown to her. Over time, as she began her work and started to write letters on behalf of others, she learned that love can come in so many different, complicated yet beautiful ways. Love is when someone cooks a meal for you; love is when someone decides to look out for you no matter what; love is when someone tells you the difficult truths, knowing that you might suffer but willing to tough it out with you.

2. Accepting and acknowledging grief

In the anime, many of the customers who request Violet’s service have either gone through painful moments in life where they have lost loved ones, or are going to be losing them soon due to illness. Violet herself also has to contend with the loss of someone she loved during the war, and we can see how she slowly learns to accept the grief and pain that accompanies it. Grief is an individual process, and no one person experiences it the same way. Some may take years to fully and finally process the loss they have experienced, and that’s ok. Sometimes the best way to accept the loss of someone is to let yourself feel it in your own time and to surround yourself with others who have gone through the same experience. Be it through tears or finding solace in quiet walks, everyone has their own way through this healing process.

3. Giving others a second chances

As a child soldier, Violet had to kill enemies at the frontline during the war, and we can see how these memories continue to haunt her even after the war has ended. Because of the horrendous experiences, she’s grown to harden her heart and become apathetic to the feelings of others and herself. As such, many of her coworkers at the company felt she was robotic, and were easily dismissing her as a mistake to hire. However, over time, kind colleagues like Cattleya and Iris believed in her and took faith, providing her the chances she needed to prove herself worthy of her job. Under their tutelage and guidance, in addition to school, Violet slowly relearns how to feel, how to accept others into her inner circle, and embrace life again. Ultimately, she finally understands what “I love you means”. This is the power of giving others a second, or even third, chance in life. We all make mistakes and that is inevitable; however, it is up to us whether we would like to give someone the opportunity to correct their wrongs, introspect and become a better person. A second chance in life is a rare and beautiful opportunity that I believe we should always give to others.