Violet Evergarden: a dump of episode reactions

It feels like that I am going against the goals that I have set myself for this year as I keep ignoring every opportunity I get to make an episode reaction. To make up for it, here’s a dump of all episode reactions in compact form for the Violet Evergarden anime series.

Violet Evergarden has received mixed criticisms from the anime community. One side admires the show’s animation quality and the life it breathes into the smooth movements of each frame. Another side begs to differ saying that although as beautiful as it looks, the main character has been pretty bland.

To add into the mess, here’s my take on each episode of Violet Evergarden. Be warned that the path ahead is riddled with spoilers.

Episode 1 – “I Love You and Auto Memoir Dolls”

The first few scenes of the episode already show how much effort the staff had put into this show. It was gorgeous and everything in those frames felt very much alive to me. The music was just wonderful and captured the very essence of each and every scene.

What I liked about this show are the subtle details that the animators have put into each and every scene. An example of this would be when the main character Violet was given a stuffed toy as a gift. Being that her arms were cut off, she bit and felt the texture of this toy using her face and mouth. I don’t know about you, guys, but I am a sucker for these types of things.

Moving on, the story was solid so far and as a first episode for such a hyped show, it was pretty stable. It was so perfect that it was coming off as something… boring, I guess? Nothing was happening in the present timeline being set in the episode.

The plot was more heavy on the backstory – how Violet got into the current state where she is in, what was her relationship to her major, and we had a very definite view of what her demeanor would be like. In comparison to what was happening in the present timeline, there was not much detail.

Episode 2 – “Never Coming Back“

This episode was kind of bland – nothing interesting was happening apart from a few character developments.

In this episode, we got to see who were these “Auto Memoir Dolls” and how writing has been entrusted to these people. These dolls, including Violet, type out letters for their customers in which have no educational background to actually write out those letters for themselves.

Here we got to see how, obviously, Violet still doesn’t have a full grasp on the concept of human emotions as evident by when she failed making a romantic letter for a client. Overall, there was not much meat to grind into within this episode other than, again, just a few details that could or could not mean anything.

Episode 3 – “May You Be an Exemplary Auto Memoir Doll“

Before we dive in to what I thought of this episode, let me just say that the opening animation sequence was kind of a let down. I was expecting something typical of a KyoAni work like the usual formula of good moments + sad moments coupled with the low points of the opening song + hopeful moments = great opening theme.

But alas, what we got was this opening animation sequence which, if I could describe it in a few words: an artist’s portfolio – that was it.

Reeling away from the opening, this episode was better and showed what this series had to offer in terms of the drama. In this episode, Violet enrolls in a school to learn how to be a better Auto Memoir Doll and although she excels in all of the given subjects, she still can’t write a letter filled with human emotion. As a result, she fails the class.

But it was wonderful how one of her classmates offered to ghostwrite for her in order to compose a letter for Violet’s major. Although no letter was made thanks to Violet not really making up her mind on what to say, it did bring up a heartbreaking story.

Violet’s classmate, Luculia, talks about how her parents died in the war and how her brother who previously served in the military blames himself for their deaths. Now, her brother is a cripple and a drunkard with no direction in life. She wants to be able to tell him that she is glad that she’s alive and her brother should be too.

Touched by that story, Violet expresses her intentions to write a letter for Luculia addressed to her brother. She writes a really short and concise letter but one full of emotions for Luculia’s brother expressing what Luculia feels.

Upon that achievement, the school from which Violet was studying allowed her to graduate. There’s so much to talk about that scene that I think it deserves a separate article.

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Those will be the only episode reactions for now. Although I did watch episode four and five, I think I’ll just leave those alone for the sake of other people who are having trouble following with the releases.

So what do you think of Violet Evergarden so far? Share your thoughts in the comments below!