#REVIEW: Letters and Emotions Transcend Time in Kyoto Animation’s Violet Evergarden the Movie
“#REVIEW: Letters and Emotions Transcend Time in Kyoto Animation’s Violet Evergarden the Movie”
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A note on safety: The following movie review undertook the strictest of safety procedures to watch the anime film in cinemas in Japan, including washing hands with disinfectant before and after, sitting in seats apart from others, going to a cinema outside of the busy metro area, and wearing a mask during the entire runtime of the movie, other than taking a sip of a drink. We strongly urge everyone to follow recommended safety protocol in your country and always wear a mask when in public — not just for your sake, but everyone else’s as well.
Letters can transcend time, helping bring the past into the present, or even help the people of the present convey their feelings to those in the future. The physicality of a letter holds the emotions of the writer in its words until the end of time — no matter who picks the letter up and reads it. In a world where emails and phone calls disappear within a second, a letter holds those feelings, never letting them leave the page.
That’s the message Violet Evergarden the Movie portrays, not only with letters but Violet herself. Ever since she started at CH Postal Company, Violet has impacted the lives of everyone around her, including those who hired her to ghostwrite letters to others. The anime film skips through time like a letter on the wind, showcasing how Violet had changed the world and helped those in the past convey their feelings to those who read the letters in the future.
Just as the work put into this Kyoto Animation film helps to convey the feelings of those who worked on it and honors the studio employees who have left us.
Violet Evergarden the Movie is almost the perfect response to the tragedy that occurred to the beloved studio on July 18, 2019. While I know the film was in the later stages of production as the arson attack occurred (at the time, the movie was scheduled to open on January 10, 2020), I can’t help feel the emotions of the staff who helped finish the film seeping into the work, especially during key scenes and in the themes of the story.
The story follows three main plot points: Violet trying to get over her love of Gilbert Bougainvillea (the main plot point), Violet writing the last letters of a sickly teenager in the hospital, and a person from the future uncovering the story of Violet Evergarden and the legacy she left behind (which actually opens the film).
Special opening day visual from the official website
All these plots are wonderfully intertwined, giving us the perfect amount of each until the final climaxes of all of them at the end, which feeds on each other. With the (half) full theater crying in surround sound, it’s safe to say everyone felt the depth of emotion being shown on the screen. That being said, I felt one emotional thread overshadowed another, which made it hard for my own emotions to stay in the moment, though for story reasons, the climaxes needed to be in the order that they were to have the biggest pay off at the end.
Unlike Violet Evergarden: Spin-Off – Eternity and Auto Memory Doll – (the review can be read here) which opened in Japanese theaters last year, Violet’s growth as a character and her own feelings were at the forefront of Violet Evergarden the Movie. This is truly the continuation of the TV anime series and finalizes the wonderful anime franchise in the most perfect way — showing how an orphaned child soldier became the emotional guiding force to many.
It should come as no surprise that Violet Evergarden the Movie is one of the most wonderfully crafted anime films ever created. While I personally preferred the storyboarding of Violet Evergarden: Spin-Off – Eternity and Auto Memory Doll – from Haruka Fujita, you can tell Violet Evergarden the Movie is a step up in terms of scope and imagination from the spin-off anime film Taichi Ishidate — who returns from the TV anime series as director and storyboarder — brought to the new anime film.
Each frame in the film is perfectly handcrafted and intrinsically detailed. The water animation is downright breathtaking — as one should expect from the studio’s behind Free! Iwatobi Swim Club — and the blend of 3D/CGI and traditional animation rivals that of Ufotable’s work on the Fate/stay night series. There’s an opening scene of a letter fluttering in the wind that was astonishingly gorgeous.
The city of Leiden was the most striking. The film gives the audience a glimpse into the future of the town in certain scenes but also teases a few changes during Violet’s time with the telephone becoming more mainstream and electric lights donning the streets. One scene, in particular, encompasses the entire city and feels like not only a celebration for the town but the return of Kyoto Animation as a whole.
All in all, this is more Violet Evergarden. We already know how beautiful the animation is, how great the music from Evan Call is (especially considering it was recorded over multiple countries!), how striking the backgrounds from the late Mikiko Watanabe are, and that the story of Violet Evergarden is a heartbreaking one that continues to bring out the tears of those watching in both happy and sad ways.
As I wrote above, it is the perfect send-off to the character of Violet Evergarden and the world created by Kana Akatsuki. Violet Evergarden the Movie is the first completed work since the Kyoto Animation arson attack and is the best franchise to cap off the last produced before the attack (the Side Story film) and the first completed since.
Image taken by Daryl Harding
As previously reported, theaters in Japan are running promotions alongside Violet Evergarden the Movie. These include the above popcorn set that came with a special Violet Evergarden clear file and a short side story written by Kana Akatsuki given out to everyone who saw the film.
Image taken by Daryl Harding
Violet Evergarden the Movie opened in Japanese cinemas on September 18. A western release is murmured to be occurring in late 2020/early 2021.
Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.
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