I will admit that there have been times where I’m unable to express how I truly feel. I’m sure everyone has those moments, though; they know that they feel a certain way, yet they can’t put those feelings into words. However, I will try today; I will try as hard as I can to put my feelings for this particular anime into words. After all, I’ve waited so long to watch this anime, from the moment it was announced to the day (after) it was released on Netflix (because I wanted to watch it legally). Even so.... despite the facts being that this anime was animated by Kyoto Animation and the light novel it was based off of was the first to win the grand prize in any of their contests, was the wait worth it? Was this anime able to meet the expectations of me and everyone else who eagerly awaited it?

From the looks of it, yes. At the very least, I can speak for myself when I say that Violet Evergarden was worth the wait.

Violet Evergarden follows a girl named.... well, Violet Evergarden, who was raised to be a “weapon” for the military in a war. Gilbert Bougainvillea, a major in the military, did not treat her as a weapon, however; he treated her with kindness and treasured her....right up until he told her he loved her right before the war ended. Having lost her arms in the war, Violet is left with only those words that her beloved major told her and no understanding of what they mean. In order to understand, she ends up getting a job as an Auto Memories Doll, who write letters for people who are unable to do so or have trouble expressing their feelings. From there, Violet’s encounters with her clients not only change their lives for the better, but they also help her grow and understand emotions better.

See, that last sentence alone capitalizes the second best thing about this anime (and I’ll get to the first best thing later), and that is the character development. All of the characters get a great amount of development, from the main characters to the supporting characters and even those who only appear in one episode. Even the characters I initially found annoying for one reason or the other, I ended up sympathizing with them; if an anime can do something like that, it’s doing a good job. In the center, however, is the titular character, Violet Evergarden, who gets the best character development of all. As fascinating as it is to see how she affects the lives of those around her, it’s simply quite amazing to see how it all affects her, as well.

The character development helps the overall story, as well. There were moments where I was admittedly not too invested in what was going on, but those moments were few and far between; for a large majority, there was quite an amount of emotional investment. Take episode 10, for example; given the situation that was going on in that episode, I will just say that by the end, I was in tears. (It’s kind of funny, actually; Violet is starting to understand emotions throughout the course of this anime, and I was starting to get emotional as I watched!) With all of that said, some people may say that each of the stories told in this anime aren’t really connected to each other, but I can confidently say that whoever would say that doesn’t know what they’re talking about. All of them are connected in that we see how Violet grows through all of these experiences; thus, even if these stories aren’t connected, they are.

“Sincerely” by TRUE and “Michishirube” by Minori Chihara, which respectively serve as the opening and ending themes, are truly music to my ears; both are beautifully composed and wonderfully sung, and I could listen to them many times! (In fact, I already have, in the opening theme’s case.) On another music-related note, “Violet Snow” by Aira Yuuki is very beautiful, too; I can remember it being played when one of the first PVs of this anime came out, and it was pleasing to hear it again in the last episode. While I can’t really say much about the Japanese voice acting because I watched the English dub, I can say that the English voice acting was superb, with every voice actor, especially Erika Harlacher as Violet, doing much more than just fitting the roles they were given. The best part about this anime, however, is the animation, and I really mean it when I say this; it is breathtakingly gorgeous, even by Kyoto Animation’s usual standards. The backgrounds, the character designs, the colors, the animation.... It was clear to see that on an artistic scale, this was KyoAni at their finest.

Overall, Violet Evergarden was truly a great anime. Looking for an emotional rollercoaster with gorgeous animation? Watch this one! It’ll probably leave you experiencing pretty powerful emotions.