Hey everyone. Before we get started, I just wanted to give out a big thanks to Joshua Ott for sponsoring this review with his Patreon donation. (At the $60 a month tier, you are allowed to pick one 13ish episode series to be reviewed–which is released in addition to the one article a week I normally put out here on BiggestinJapan.com.) His choice for me this time around was Violet Evergaden so let’s dive right in.
Stunningly animated and wonderfully scored, Violet Evergarden is an all too human tale about the intertwining nature of life and love, death and loss.
[This article contains spoilers up to and including the ending of Violet Evergarden.]
Set in a world similar to Europe at the end of the first World War, Violet Evergarden is the story of the titular Violet, an emotionless child soldier who must now find a place for herself in a new, peaceful world. The problem is that she has no idea how to do this. Throughout most of the war, she was “owned” by Gilbert who, while often using her deadly skills in battle, taught her to read and write as well. He also gave her a name for the first time: “Violet.”
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However, in the final battle of the war, the two were injured and separated–with Violet losing both of her arms due to said wounds. After awakening and learning to use her new prosthetic automail arms, she is ordered to accompany Hodgins, Gilbert’s friend from the war, and to await Gilbert’s further orders.
Unsure what to do and wondering why she has been seemingly abandoned by Gilbert, Violet begins working at Hodgins’ post office. There she meets a group of “Auto Memory Dolls”–professional ghostwriters that specialize in writing letters for everyone from illiterate peasants to posh royalty.
Upon learning that the Auto Memory Dolls often write love letters for people, she is inspired to join their ranks. Perhaps by becoming one, she can learn the meaning behind the last words that Gilbert said to her: “I love you.”
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As is rather obvious from the summary above, the core theme of Violet Evergarden is that of love. Most of the episodes focus on a different client of Violet’s and, through their personal stories, she learns about a some type of love–or an aspect of it. This can be anything from “romantic love” or “love for a sibling” to “the courage needed to confess your love” or “wanting to be loved for who you are on the inside.”
Slowly but surely, she comes to understand bits and pieces of what it means to love by putting herself in these people’s shoes and writing letters that convey their emotions in ways even they thought to be impossible.
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But as she grows and learns about love, she also learns about loss–and the connection between the two emotions. In a post-war era like that of Violet Evergarden, everyone has lost someone they care about in the war; it is a shared wound that permeates society.
At first, Violet is oblivious to this truth but as she learns empathy through her work, she realizes that every person she killed in the war was likely loved by someone–that she is responsible for again and again destroying the very thing she has now dedicated her life to understanding. In a very real way, she is a monster.
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It is at this moment that she stumbles upon the truth about Gilbert: he died moments after confessing his love to her. Not only is she reeling from the ramifications of what she did during the war, but now, on the edge of learning what love really is, she realizes that she has already lost it. The person she cared more about than anyone else is gone forever.
While the old Violet, the child soldier would have likely regressed to her default bank state as a protection measure, the current violet has begun exploring her emotions–and is thus far more vulnerable to them. Unlike the rest of us, she has had no experience with something as powerful as extreme despair and has no defense against it. She is emotionally shattered by the knowledge, pure and simple. And worst of all she can’t even fully understand why.
It’s no surprise that she turns to suicide, yet Gilbert also commanded her to live in the same breath he told her that he loved her. Perhaps it is that order–or perhaps that she has learned the importance of life and the damage that a loss of life causes–that doesn’t let her finish the attempt.
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Wandering lost, she stumbles upon a hard truth: the things she has done cannot be undone. However, while she killed many people with her own hands, she has also brought people together with those same hands as well. You can’t accept one and ignore the other.
Her letters have had a positive effect on the world. The power of the written word–the power to convey feelings–is real. Over the series, we see it help people get back on the right track in life, accept tragic truths so that healing can begin, and, of course, help two people find love.
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When it comes down to it, Violet is trapped between the past and the future. At the start, she wants to be with Gilbert as she always has been. As she learns more about love, she wants to be with him and feel the same emotions he did. Yet, both of these goals are impossible. He is gone from her life, never to return.
But she is not the only one trapped in the past. The final trio of episodes deal with an enemy general who refuses to accept that the war is over–that it could end in anything but complete victory for his side. The dead would accept nothing less by his way of thinking. However, the war is over. All he can do at this point is cause more needless bloodshed–though he is unable to see it for what it truly is. He, unlike Violet, is unable to change.
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Over her months at the post office, Violet has come to see the world differently. Once a cold-blooded killer, she no longer wishes to take anyone’s life–no matter who that may be. She has moved from clinging to the past to trying to atone for it. The general is her dark reflection–without the post office and the other Auto Memory Dolls, she could very well be waging her own endless war in a vain attempt to avenge Gilbert.
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In the end, Violet is able to both grieve and forgive herself–for both the lives she took and her inability to save Gilbert. She is able to live for the future and the good she can do in the world. She has come to terms with the truth: while she didn’t know how to express it–didn’t even know what the feeling was–she did love him, and always will.
Violet Evergarden can be viewed on Netflix.
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