Violet Evergarden is an anime that tries really, really hard. It tries to be deep, it tries to make you cry, and it tries to provide amazing characterisation, whilst failing every regard. It shoots for the stars, yet comes crashing down, burning up into a molten wreck of meaninglessness and sappiness.

The biggest issue lies in just how poorly most of the episodes are written. The anime follows a semi-episodic structure where Violet goes to a new location and is introduced to a couple of brand new characters, drops their sob-story like a sap-infused nuke, reach some sort of conclusion, and then move onto the next episode where the viewer shall yet again be tormented with the typical woes and cries of another new character. This structure wouldn't even be so bad if the stories the anime told weren't just the most archetypal, predictable garbage you see surging out of every drama anime that attempts to be the latest "feels-train" or "tear-jerker". But no, Violet Evergarden insists on being a mere compilation of every "sad" story you've ever heard condensed into 13 24-minute episodes.

Violet Evergarden also tries desperately hard at evoking some sense of nuance in order to claw its way out of bare-boned mediocrity, tugging at straws to fish out some symbolism, motifs, or even perhaps some rich themes. It...certainly tries, with every attempt coming off as either forced or insubstantial e.g. "Look guys there are violets in this scene cause her name is Violet :D" or "War sure is bad, look at this guy who got killed in the war who had a cute farm gf :("

Speaking of which, the character of Violet is something of an enigma. She's written like a textbook anime protagonist, as if the writers read a "How-To Guide" on characterisation and followed it step by step in order to create the "perfect" MC. Instead, I felt as though Violet's growth, while certainly there, was stiff. Apologies for being a bit ambiguous here, but everything about Violet's writing just felt abnormal to me. Her development, while certainly instigated by the events in the plot, just feels like the writers going "Hey, you guys like character development, right? Well our main character sure goes through that!". It feels forced - unnaturally woven in - especially when the anime squeezes in some arbitrary inner struggle about Violet's guilt stemming from her life in the war, since her character needed some conflict, which ended up feeling unbelievably surface-level. Nothing about Violet's character sits well with me, and while the recipe for a good character is there, she ended up feeling half-baked.

Obviously, I have to address the visuals and presentation of the anime. There's no two ways about it; it's gorgeous. Of course it is. At this point, Kyoto Animation has proved themselves to be literally incapable of anything less than breathtaking. The art and animation of the anime truly helps to bring out the sheer emotion of some of its scenes, even though I may not be a fan of how they are written. That being said, I always felt like the music could have been a lot better. I know it sounds like I'm just trying to find whatever reason I can to pick on Violet Evergarden, but honestly, the soundtrack of this anime sounded so generic and beige - so similar to every other drama anime like it. The OST is quite highly regarded, so maybe it's just me, but I thought it could have really benefited from some better music.

Overall, I do respect Violet Evergarden for being so ambitious, but it falls just short and ends up plummeting to the wayside of my memory along with every other equally forgettable "feels-train" anime like it.