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Robazoid posted...

224. Violet Evergarden
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33352/Violet_Evergarden
Winter 2018 (13 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 8.67/10
Best Character: Charlotte Abelfreyja Drossel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc-XPJE3oeM

Premise: Former child soldier Violet Evergarden gets a job writing letters for people. She must infuse the clients words with feelings, but Violet herself has little understanding of emotions.

The Good: Violet Evergarden can be effectively split into two halves, with some episodes being stand-alone stories about her writing letters for someone. Disconnected from the main plot, I enjoyed most of those. They were manipulative to tug at the heartstrings, but Im a sucker for that kind of stuff. The one where she wrote love letters for a princess was my favorite.

The Bad: The other half of Violet Evergarden dealt with the titular character, and I didnt enjoy those at all. Violet makes no sense in this setting. Shes the only female soldier we see, the only child soldier, and the only person with robotic limbs, yet no one ever treats her as unique. Her characterization is flat, only changing depending on what the episode requires. A big deal is made when she passes the exam that allows her to write letters, but her big breakthrough was transcribing what the client said verbatim. Then in later episodes shes emotionally savvy to help a client. Then she goes back to being emotionless in her own episodes. Theres no consistency.

Overall: Violet worked when supporting other peoples stories, but as a character herself she never made any sense. I also found her undying love for her commanding officer off-putting. I mean, imagine a movie about World War I where a soldier forced a little girl to fight for him. Hed be viewed as an abusive villain, not a love interest. Again, this isnt common in the setting because Violet is literally the only child soldier that we see. Send her to an orphanage, dude. I havent seen the movie or any of the extra episodes, mostly because Im guessing theyll be about Violet rather than her helping people like the good standalone episodes.

3/10? Nah, that's absurd. Rant incoming.

The whole concept is themed around the brutality and emptiness of war and the beauty and power of letters, words, and emotions to break through that. Violet is designed an empty husk, a child who's lived only as a weapon of destruction and her whole character development is working to push through that and to understand love. She's a victim of the world she lives in and the life she was forced to live. She's broken by the trauma of being a child soldier and holds Gilbert in such a high regard in a Stockholm syndrome type of way. She was heavily criticized in the early letters she wrote for not conveying the emotions and intent of the client and it takes a while for her to really evoke the emotions and beauty of others through letters.

And it's always easier to comprehend and understand other's emotions than your own. Especially in real life. Everybody can advise their friends in a difficult situation way easier than you can find that perspective on your own life and past, especially when it's filled with trauma. Violet is a tremendously flawed character and that's the entire point.

I also think you're weirdly fixated on Violet being so unique as a child soldier and a female. I don't really see why that's super necessary world-building here. They delve enough into her past to understand the depth of trauma she experienced, and it's shown many times her living outside social norms (practicing typing in her room instead of going to dinner with everyone, asking a bunch of people what love means, not understanding certain technology / words) that reflects her position. And a ton of side characters comment on her mechanical arms, especially the children. I really don't see how showing that there were other female soldiers in the army also would add anything significant to characterization. Why does it matter to you that other characters need to comment on her uniqueness as a former female child soldier?

And she isn't sent to an orphanage because the other characters from the army (Gilbert, Hodgins, etc.) feel a tremendous amount of guilt for their part in forcing her to take part in war. Hodgins in particular has a strong obligation to see to it personally that she's taken care of and able to move forward in life. Throwing her into an orphanage and letting go of that warped sense of honor and duty would straight up turn him into a villain. Orphanages aren't usually particularly great places to live in war-torn countries.