Violet Evergarden: The Letters We Receive

We are introduced to Violet in the first episode, learning that she was nothing more but a weapon during the war and her understanding of feelings and words had not yet captured her. Throughout the anime, we learn that she is trying to understand what these letters are and why the many characters in the anime want to express themselves. While we keep watching we see that Violet is not the one that is narrating the story but from the characters that she is introduced to. As they try to understand her while she is trying to understand their own feelings as they meet. The anime is beautiful as we continue in her story that is filled with emotion in each episode and while we sit through it we are either laughing or crying. Violet has a series of flashbacks through the episodes as we explore her past and try to understand the relationship she had with one of the characters, Major Gilbert. We see them grow together and understand that she only expresses emotion when she talks about the Major or thinks of him. While everyone else needs to guess what she is feeling.

Auto Memories Dolls are hired by those that don’t know how to write or those that do not know how to express themselves in written words. These women are verse with knowing one’s feelings by just seeing a person walk into their office. Violet stumbles onto them and wants to be one of them because she wants to understand these feelings, understand the words written in those letters. While the anime is a view on how to be open and a way to slowly move on from a tragedy. We are hook by the first episode and we see the growth of Violet with each passing episode. And along the way, we also grow with her and we feel with her too.

The opening “Sincerely” by True is a softness that is express throughout the anime as it zooms onto Violet’s face and the field she stands on. The series of images we see is that of Violet and her days in the army and that of being a Doll. While it is a calming opening to see it is a sad one too, as we see that her challenges are wide and vast. The ending song “Michishirube” by Minori Chihara was widely different as we see Violet outlined in neon green and slowly changes colors with each step she takes as walks in darkness. Only for the scene to change and is now surrounded by the keys of a typewriter and lights that fall all around her. It was beautiful, the ending did bring some tears as we see through the scenes that the ending song brought us. While the anime was beautifully done, there are many things that came unanswered by secondary characters that make it through the anime. We things going on in the background that we want to know about to understand but the story does not elaborate on them and it solely focuses on Violet and her path and the other characters that move her story forward. While the plot holes in the other characters are known, we can’t help but wonder about them later.