Violet Evergarden (anime)

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It is a pleasure to meet you. If it is your wish, I will travel anywhere to meet your request. I am auto memories doll, Violet Evergarden. —Violet, Episode thirteen "Auto Memoir Doll and `I Love You`"

Violet Evergarden is a Thirteen-Episode Anime series adapted from a series of light novels. The light novels were initially released in 2015. The adaptation was animated by Kyoto Animation, and was released in early 2018. An OVA that takes place between episodes three and four was released in July. Two feature length films accompany the series: the spin-off Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll (2019) and the follow-up Violet Evergarden: The Movie (2020), its release delayed after the arson attack at the studio.

The series follows the titular Violet Evergarden as she seeks to become an auto memory doll after a war. Auto memories dolls write down, on letters, what others cannot put into words. They must be attuned to the emotions of others, and be a fast typer. Unfortunately for Violet, being a Child Soldier has many downsides, one of them is how she has No Social Skills and doesn't know how to feel, resulting in overly formal letters. She's got the second part nailed, but the first part? There's a lot to learn there...

To remedy this, she attends an academy for auto memory dolls. She writes a seminal letter for a fellow pupil, bringing her and her brother close together, kickstarting her journey as a auto memory doll. Violet journeys around, travelling to meet other clients and offering them service. These clients include an ill mother, and an alcoholic playwright recovering from grief. As the series progresses, the focus on impacts of the war and Violet's time in the military grows. But what is thing thing they call "love"?

The series is focused on evoking an emotional response, and is stuffed to the brim with Tear Jerker moments. Ensure you have tissues near you.

Tropes used in Violet Evergarden (anime) include:

• Action Girl: Violet during her time in the military, who often rushes to the front line and takes out enemy soldiers with grace and speed. This continues when she is in episodes twelve and thirteen, taking an active role against the anti-peace faction.
• An Arm and a Leg: Violet loses both arms while defending Major Gilbert before the events of the series, and loses her prosthetic arms in episode thirteen after they were damaged by gunshots.
• Artificial Limbs: Both of Violet's arms are prosthetic as she lost her real ones in the war while trying to get Major Gilbert to safety.
• The Atoner: While Violet is by no means a Big Bad, her relentless killing in wars haunts her, and she refuses to kill anyone in episodes twelve and thirteen, instead opting to write letters to bring people together instead of driving families apart.
  • In Episode 4, Iris is remorseful of her behaviour during her birthday party and to atone for it, she confides in Violet about what happened and asks her to write an apology letter to everyone involved, especially her parents.
• Babies Ever After: In episode ten, we are briefly shown a shot of Anne with her new child after she gets married.
• Body Horror: One of the tools used in the arsenal to deliver War Is Hell messages. Both of Violet's arms are shot off while trying to save Major Gilbert. The Major is shot in an eye, with blood splatters and screams.
• Boyish Short Hair: Iris's short hair contrasts with her coworkers Cattleya, Erica, and Violet.
• Break the Cutie: Here we go:
  • Violet, who loses both parents and was found alone, loses both arms and gets prosthetic ones, learns that Major Gilbert, the person most dear to her has died in a war, then loses her arms again.
  • In episode ten, Anne, who wishes to play with dolls and live a carefree life. Her mother's illness means that it's difficult for her to do so, and she has to worry about her mother's health. She tries her best to spend time with her mother before her death.
• Canon Foreigner: Erica Brown is an anime original character who wasn't in the novels.
  • As is Violet's friend and classmate, Luculia Marlborough.
• The Caregiver: Luculia to her alcoholic brother. Violet helps her write a letter expressing her feelings, and her brother later comes back to Violet to write a letter expressing his gratitude.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Every boy that Violet helps out is handsome.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Every face is unique in some way or another, regardless of whether a character is the protagonist or a background extra who disappears after eight frames.
  • In episode three, the auto memory dolls training school Violet attends has every trainee having a unique face.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The beginning of the series is by no means light-hearted, but they are mild when compared to latter episodes tackling themes of war, grief, and loss, even containing an attempted suicide. The beginning mostly focuses on Violet's internal struggles trying to understand emotions and leaving behind her war stricken self, whereas episodes eight and nine deal with bloody decapitation and people getting shot. Episodes eleven through thirteen bring back themes of military and war, but in the present rather than a flashback.
• Character Development: Violet gets a very large dose of this throughout the series, learning how to feel others' emotions and what love means. She develops from a cold and merciless killing machine to a person who cares about the people around her.
• Character Title: Guess who the main character of the show is! You'll never guess it, not in a million years nor a lifetime!
• Child Soldier: Violet was in the army when she was found as an orphaned child. In episode five, long after the war has ended, she reveals that she's only around fourteen years old.
• Cliff Hanger: Episode twelve and eight. They both end with someone getting shot. In episode eight, it's Major Gilbert; in episode twelve, it's Violet's prosthetic arms. Episode seven also qualifies, where the news of Major Gilbert's death has just been announced to both Violet and the audience.
• Close on Title: Most of the episodes ends with the episode name. Some episodes don't, and are never given an official name.
• Creative Closing Credits: The ending sequence, where the credits are played, have better animation than most shows, depicting Violet under a starry sky, and in a forest. It's filled with original animation, created specifically for the sequence itself. The Ending Theme "Michishirube" also helps.
• Credits Running Sequence: One shot in the credits sequence is of a silhouette of Violet walking in place against a black background, holding up an umbrella, while seasons change around her.
• Cue the Rain: In episode nine, when Violet mourns over Major Gilbert's death.
• Cute Bruiser: While Violet can be considered cute, she is called the Battle Maiden of Leidenschaftlich for a reason.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Leon from episode six, who loses both of his parents at a young age. His dad never returned from an expedition to find manuscripts, and his mum, while searching for his dad, never returns. He is reluctantly taken into the Shahar Astronomical Observatory.
  • Violet, who killed many soldiers in a war, the only thing she knows is following orders from higher ups.
• Despair Event Horizon: In episode nine, after Violet hears about Major Gilbert's death, she attempts suicide.
• Determinator: Violet is determined to travel anywhere, even to an active war zone, to meet her clients. She states that it's the harder part of being an auto memory doll, but she'll still go through with it, with the travel often taking weeks across multiple modes of transport.
• Do-It-Yourself Theme Tune: In the original Japanese track, Minori Chihara, who plays Erica, also sings the Ending Theme "Michishirube".
• Dramatic Slip: In episode four, Iris gets too excited about her first request as an auto memory doll, and slips while walking down stairs. She breaks her arm, meaning that Violet was sent with her to help her write. Bonus points for the slow motion. Extra points for Violet extending an arm trying to help Iris.
• Emotionless Girl: Violet, when she first starts, cannot understand what love or any other emotion is, speaking in a stoic, composed voice. Because of this, she struggles to express others' emotions down on paper, leading to many angry complaints. By the end of episode three she still remains emotionless, but finally learns how to express others' feelings in the letter she writes. Later episodes does show her opening up and publicly crying. The final episode shows her realising what "I love you" means. Her lack of emotions and unchanging facial expressions are lampshaded by Princess Charlotte in Episode 5.
• Ending Theme: "Mitchishirube", a slower song than the Anime Theme Song "Sincerely" used to open the series. It doesn't aim to show off anything, and its translated lyrics aren't reflective of the show's themes. As usual, the images in the sequence are slower with less action to make way for the ending credits.
• Evil Blonde: Violet, before the events of the series. She is by no means evil, but being such a deadly and relentless force, killing everyone that stands in her way, to the point where she gets her very own Sobriquet certainly puts her up there. As the series progresses, Violet refuses to kill, and instead opts to mend and forge new relationships instead, turning into someone with a Hair of Gold.
• Eye Scream: In episode eight, Major Gilbert is shot in the eyes, with lots of visible blood, even some flying out from the socket. His eye socket become holes filled with blood, and the force of the bullet causes him to fall over. Bonus points for the slow motion during the sequence. Cue a Say My Name yell from Violet.
• False Camera Effects: Yet another Kyoto Animation staple. Commonly used effects include Lens Flare and depth of field, despite it being a fully animated production. Post processing effects such as bloom, blur, and desaturation are also common.
• Finger-Forced Smile: Because Violet can't emote at first, she tries to force a smile by pinching and squashing her cheeks with her hands, often with humorous results. Luculia particularly finds this gesture to be amusing yet adorable.
• Flashback: In the early episodes, leading up to the Whole-Episode Flashback in episode eight. In these flashbacks, the audience is shown Violet's experience in the war, but these bits of information are vague and difficult to piece together. The series begins with a flashback of Major Gilbert buying Violet her brooch, and also include scenes in a dark and bloodied room. We later learn that it's Major Gilbert after being shot, with Violet refusing to leave him.
• Floral Theme Naming: Guess who (hint: it starts with 'V').
  • Take a wild guess as to which bouquet of flowers Iris receives from her parents for her birthday!
• Foreshadowing: Near the beginning of episode seven, Claudia and Cattleya have a conversation, where Cattleya asks if Claudia has talked to Violet "about the major". This foreshadows his death, revealed at the end of the episode.
• Friend to All Children: Violet, after a fair bit of character development, becomes friendly to children, exemplified via her positive interactions with Anne Magnolia in episode ten and the fourteen year old Princess Charlotte in episode five.
• Ghibli Hills: In episode four, when Violet and Iris visit Iris's home town of Kazaly, a small mountain village primarily focused on agriculture. Due to its isolation, it is surrounded by greenery and Ghibli Hills. They are drawn with enough detail to make the actual Studio Ghibli proud. They also feature in episode seven.
• Good Is Not Soft: While Violet is considered a good person as Character Development happens, she can still return to her former war self and become an efficient warrior. This is illustrated in the last three episodes, when she airdrops into an active warzone and takes out anti-peace rebels. Then, she sees her co-workers while returning home and travels down to help them navigate through the hijacking of their train in episode twelve. In episode thirteen, despite having damaged prosthetic limbs, she tries to disarm a bomb. Of course, she can return to her nice self in episodes like "Loved Ones Will Always Watch Over You" and "Somewhere, Under a Starry Sky", helping people come together through writing.
• Great Offscreen War: The war sweeping across the continent of Telsis that Violet participated in before recovering, ending before the series starts. Aspects of it are shown in flashbacks, and takes center stage in episode eight. Remnants of the war plays a part in the story in the last three episodes, which focuses on an anti-peace faction which wants to return to the state of war.
• Her Heart Will Go On: In the OVA, titled "Surely, Someday You Will Understand `Love`", the opera singer Irma Felice's lover Hugo was conscripted for the Great Offscreen War, and never returned. She requests that Violet captures the spirit of her love in a letter, which serves as the lyrics to the climax of her opera.
• Heroic BSOD: Violet gets one after realizing that Major Gilbert is dead in episode seven, lasting all the way until episode nine.
• Hidden Depths: Almost every single character; new traits are gradually revealed as episodes progress. Some characters lost their mother, and thus are secluded from society. Others lost loved ones in the recent war, and seeks help overcoming their grief.
  • Violet herself is this. Who expects that the girl writing letters has a dark story in the war, and is actually an efficient killing machine?
• In Medias Res: The series opens with Violet saying that a brooch is the same colour as Major Gilbert's eyes, before cutting to the present day. Context to that scene is later given in episode eight.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Violet's eye colour reflects her lack of emotions and stoic behaviour at the beginning of the series. As she grows, however, its colour becomes more reflective of Innocent Blue Eyes.
• Impossible Task: In the OVA, other auto memory dolls in the CH postal company describe Irma's task — writing a letter which can win over any man's heart and any woman would sympathise with — as this. That's when she (and us) discover that she was actually commissioned to write song lyrics, which is a tall order for a ghost writer.
• Impractically Fancy Outfit: Benedict Blue wears a pair of high heel boots. Why? In the novel, he claims they look cool. Be that as it may however, they aren't ideal for walking around in public for hours at a time delivering letters. He winds up spraining his ankle in a later episode because of these.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Violet, after being given uniform for the CH postal company, immediately starts taking off her clothes in front of other people, who panic and tries to cover their eyes as fast as possible.
• It Works Better with Bullets: In episode nine, Violet shoots soldiers who have shot Major Gilbert. A soldier was hit, but when Violet goes to shoot another, nothing happens when the trigger is pulled and he runs away.
• Lens Flare: Occurs in almost every episode. It's a sign that you're watching a Kyoto Animation production.
• Lightning Bruiser: Violet is an all-rounded soldier who is nimble and can quickly attack her enemies. She has no trouble dodging bullets, and thus is hard to hit. All of this means that you do not want to be near this girl when she's angry. Fortunately, she learns to calm down, stops killing, and mostly focuses on writing letters meant to bring people together.
• Little Miss Badass: Violet can take on and kill soldiers twice her size before entering her teens.
• Living Weapon: Some members of the military call Violet this, due to her efficiency and deadliness, single-handedly turning around a war.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Leon Stephanotis in episode six.
• Long Title: Episodes like "You Won't Be a Tool, But a Person Worthy of That Name" and "May You Be an Exemplary Auto Memoir Doll" have long titles, although other episodes like "Never Coming Back" are of the length expected for a title. Some episodes don't have titles at all.
• Memento MacGuffin: The brooch that Major Gilbert buys Violet.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Every single soldier killed in combat, either by Violet or any other soldier, are men. Females in the series die of natural causes such as illness, while men are conscripted and sent to the battlefield.
  • Partially Averted with Major Gilbert's death, the single most meaningful death in the series. He is by no means an expendable character.
• Mooks: The male soldiers that Violet kills in war flashbacks, as well as the soldiers who hijacked the train in episodes twelve and thirteen.
  • Deconstructed in episode eleven, which focuses on the life of the mook Aiden after being sniped. It focuses on his interactions with his lover, and how they are left behind once Aiden is shot and later dies.
• Ms. Fanservice: Cattleya Baudelaire, who dresses far more provocatively than her co-workers, and is frequently sought out by CH Postal's clients. Is it any surprise that Iris is a little jealous?
• Nice Girl: Violet becomes this after her character development, promising to never kill anyone while fighting.
  • Almost every single mother in the show falls under this trope.
• No Social Skills: Violet is unable to sustain a meaningful conversation near the beginning of the series, and her attempts at writing letters results in unnatural sounding words which generate complaints from customers.
• No Title: Episodes seven is called 「 」. Seriously. It's just a space. Episode eight doesn't even Close on Title, and thus is never given an official name.
• Not So Stoic: Violet after learning about Major Gilbert's death, although at this point, she starts to feel more emotions due to character development.
  • Violet, in episode ten, loses control and starts crying in the CH postal company once she realises that Anne will receiving her mother's letters only after her mother dies.
  • She breaks down in tears again in Episode 11 in front of Aiden Field's family (his childhood sweetheart included) after she delivers his letters to them, and is deeply remorseful that she couldn't save him.
• Oral Fixation Fixation: Violet, due to being unable to feel with her robot arms, often sucks on things like Gilbert's gift brooch to feel. While working, she takes off her gloves using her mouth. She occasionally nuzzles her cheek up against the stuffed puppy that Hodgins gave her in the first episode.
• Parasol of Prettiness: Violet carries one, given to her as a gift by the playwright she helped in episode seven.
• Parental Abandonment: Violet was found without parents and raised by the military.
  • Leon's parents left in search of manuscripts.
  • Anne's father died before the events of episode ten.
• Prim and Proper Bun: While Violet works as an auto memory doll, she organises her hair into buns so it does not get in the way of her work.
• Recurring Character: The other members of the CH Postal company, namely Iris Cannary, Erica Brown, and Cattleya Baudelaire. They don't show up in every episode; they are missing in the standalone ones in which Violet helps other clients, but each plays a role in the overarching plot of the series.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: Violet Evergarden at the beginning of the series, before Character Development kicks in, checks most of the boxes:
  • Teenage girl with pale skin? Check.
  • Stoic demeanour? Check.
  • Lacking in emotions? Check.
  • In explaining her odd behaviour, she is found to have a tragic past? Check.
  • Objective to become a "real girl" by learning human emotions? Check.
  • Ill girl who suffers some sort of major injury? Double check.
  • Possesses a special ability which makes her stand out from the crowd? Check again.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Violet is exceptional in combat, but lacks basic social skills and struggles to live on her own. Major Gilbert taught her some basic skills like reading, but she still has to learn social skills at the start of the series.
• Say My Name: In the Cliffhanger in episode eight, right after Major Gilbert is shot in the eyes.

Violet: Major! MAJOR!

• Scenery Gorn: During Violet's war flashbacks, animated with stunning detail. Colours are darker and desaturated to reflect the dangers of war.
  • Scenery Porn: In the present time, Leiden looks stunning with the bright colours and aforementioned false camera effects used.
• Schizo-Tech: The world at first glance appears like early 20th century (possibly post-World War I), with the main form of communication being letters as telephones haven't been invented, and transportation being as vintage as they get. Typewriters are used instead of computer keyboards, but fully functional prosthetic limbs far beyond our current technological level exist.
• Show Within a Show: Episode seven opens with the stage play The Red Demon, written by Oscar Webster. The episode revolves around Violet helping him write his next play. Also occurs with the opera led by Irma in the OVA.
• Sobriquet: The "Battle Maiden of Leidenschaftlich" is one of those names that you should run away from the moment you hear it. Oh, that "Battle Maiden" is Violet.
• The Song Remains the Same: In the English dub, the ending song "Michishirube", as well as the opening theme "Sincerely", remains in Japanese.
  • Irma's aria at the end of the special episode also remains in Japanese, and is the only vocal song with English subtitles.
• Spock Speak: Violet speaks like this at the start of the series, with military service being all she's ever known in her life. This habit carries out to how she addresses people, and she even writes like that in her letters. Of course, her clients aren't happy with letters written like that, hence why she joins an academy for training auto memory dolls. This does change throughout the series, as she grows and understands human emotions more.

Violet: I believe what you said was a disingenuous answer.

• Stern Teacher: The teacher of the auto memory doll training course that Violet and Luculia attends. She is described as strict, but ultimately fair, and graduation from the course is considered an honour and great achievement.
• Tears of Joy:
  • In episode ten, cried by Anne when she starts receiving letters from her mother.
  • In the OVA, cried by Irma once Violet writes a love letter that perfectly fits her request.
• Ten-Minute Retirement: Violet runs away to the place where she lost Major Gilbert to the war in episode seven after getting a Heroic BSOD, before overcoming grief in episode nine.
• Thematic Theme Tune: The opening "Sincerely", whose translated lyrics deals with themes of learning new words (needed for writing), saying goodbye and emotions (which Violet slowly does throughout the series).
• Time Skip: In episode ten, where we are shown Anne growing up, and receiving the letters her mother wrote her.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Violet, in the last two episodes, refuses to kill any members of the anti-peace rebel faction, regretting her past as a war-driven killing machine, and wishing to turn into a person which creates new relationships instead of tearing up existing ones. This does create minor problems for her, as the Mooks keep coming back to fight her. Dietfried calls her out on this, saying that she's of no use if she refuses to kill.
• Took a Level In Kindness: Almost everyone from the war, but Violet is a notable example, going from a killing machine to being a nice and supportive person who writes letters.
• Trying Not to Cry: Violet (and probably the audience) tries to hold back tears in episode ten, while writing letters for Anne's mother, knowing that Anne will only receive them after her mother has died. She breaks down in the comfort of her co-workers in the CH Postal Company.
• Undying Loyalty: As Major Gilbert is the only person to have shown Violet kindness, she is loyal to him, his orders being the only thing she knows. She even asks the Major for orders at times, and feels lost without orders.
• Unstoppable Mailman: While Violet writes the mail instead of delivering them, nothing will stop her from reaching her clients, not long distances nor a literal civil war.
• Vague Age: Violet isn't sure what her exact age is, only giving a rough estimate of fourteen in episode five with Princess Charlotte. This is made confusing by the Dashed Plotline the series takes, only showing Violet's significant clients, and we don't know exactly how much time has passed since the last episode.
• Voiceover Letter: In episode ten, the letters Anne receives from her mother are read in her mother's voice.
• Waif Fu: The pre-teen Violet Evergarden taking on grown man twice her size with grace and elegance in the Great Offscreen War.
• War Is Hell: The war sequences in flashbacks, often focusing on violence and death. Many bloody decapitation scenes are visible, along with screaming and suffering. Overall, the series state that war is pointless, brutal, and only tears apart existing relationships. In episode eleven, this is focused on as an anti-peace faction shoots one of Violet's clients.
  • In fact, the entire overarching narrative deals with themes of war. The flashbacks in episodes eight and nine, as well as the story in episode eleven gets up close and personal, depicting how a single person can be affected by war. Episodes twelve and thirteen partially deals with consequences on civilians of war.
  • While the war does allow Violet to meet Major Gilbert, it is also the thing that takes him away.
  • In the OVA, Irma's lover Hugo was conscripted into the war and never came back.
  • Some parents of Violet's clients are dead because of the war.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Violet describes Major Gilbert's eyes as beautiful, wishing to buy a brooch of his eye colour instead of hers.
• What Is This Thing You Call Love?: The entire reason why Violet joins the CH Postal Company and becomes an auto memory doll is to learn about what love is. She finally learns in the last episode.
• Whole-Episode Flashback: Episode eight focuses on Violet's time in the military, with only a couple of minutes set in the present day. The flashback lasts to episode nine.
• Write Back to the Future: Unusually, the example does not involve time travel. In episode ten, Anne's dying mother writes letters to her which will be delivered on her birthday for the next fifty years. The episode never reveals who the letters were addressed to before Anne receives them, maximising the emotional power of the episode.