Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Is Violet Evergarden Worth Watching?
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5504 Location: Iscandar |
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Even with all its inconsistencies VEG is a solid show that is worth watching. The visuals are gorgeous, and the self-contained vignettes were well crafted. But the core story was amateurishly written.
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Time Bandit
 Posts: 203 Location: Raleigh |
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I enjoyed it well enough...made me tear up more often than it probably should have, but I am kinda emotionally fragile at this time in my life for many reasons.
The visuals were stunning, no doubt. Definitely felt like a movie most of the time. And yeah. PLEASE more Benedict anything! He was the best part of this show, and yeah those heels were smoking hot. I want more of him. |
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Octonian
 Subscriber Posts: 30 |
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Thank you, Steve and Nick D, for this article. Through most of the series' run I was thinking things like "so much about this is amazingly done, it should be resonating, why am I not feeling anything here?" This article not only gave me the comfort of knowing that I wasn't alone in that reaction, but more importantly nailed down the flaws that I wasn't able to articulate.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24141 |
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I adored this show. It made me cry like a baby several times and was lovely to look at. I agree with Nick D.'s point that an individual's personal mileage on sentimentality will determine how much... or little... you'll like this title. I also agree that episode 10 was my favourite... arrow to the heart.
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Yazu13
 Posts: 129 |
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I'm not sure what it is, but I thought this show would be less polarizing. I think though, that since most people are watching it on Netflix, they're being treated to Netflix's completely ass subtitles. Here's what I'm talking about: https://i.redd.it/9mpucm6jnza01.jpg
If I had to watch the Netflix version I might have hated this show too. For as much love I see for this show on the internet, there are people mocking the exact same things fans of the show and myself find so brilliant. I'll have to chock it up to Netflix's subtitle script completely bastardizing this wonderful story. Last edited by Yazu13 on Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Robiii
Posts: 133 |
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This show was probably one of the greatest emotional shows I have ever seen, something that can rival that of Clannad.
I think my fav part is also the fact that the war plot and the auto memories doll was just so nicely intertwined together. Beautiful. |
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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I really think the show writing just came down to whether or not you're willing to ignore the obvious flaws in favor of getting a more dramatic outcome... something which I'm unwilling to do. Essentially the show wasn't for me, but I stuck with it for longer just because the visual were so appealing.
But yeah, Violet just didn't work as a character. She's a child super soldier in a world where no child soldier is shown and everyone has normal human strength/reflex/ect. She also has amazing prosthetic, far above what we posses today, in a world with technology level around the end of the 19th century. All of that wouldn't be that big of a problem, but none of those elements are ever really used in the story. Remember in FMA how Edward automail were both explained in the setting (alchemy allow for different technology), were a key part of the society (plenty of people had automail), were fully integrated in the story (plenty of arc depend on the Edward automail malfunctioning or needing tune up) and gave insight into the character (was Edward ignoring maintenance because he considered his automail temporary or because he was just looking for excuse to go back home/meeting Winnery?). Well imagine if none of these things happened, Edward just had automail cause the writer though it was cool (and could compensate for the main character lack of personality) and then never cared about them anymore. Except it's worse, because every episode had the exact same scene where Violet take off her glove and people would go "Oooooo". Such a shame, they could have easily used Violet getting used to using her new prosthetic to explore her psychological scare, the stuff practically write itself, but nope. The show seemed almost scared of actually having character development happen on screen in a way that relate to the smaller arc. It got so bad that I started thinking that maybe Violet was some sort of unreliable Narrator. Where the real Violet Evergarden (let's call her "Petunia Neverruins") was actually the exact opposite of Violet and the story was just her fantasy that she told herself to cope with her situation. Petunia would have lost limps in the war and had to endure long rehabilitation to get crappy non functional prosthetic, so Violet has near perfect prosthetic that didn't require any getting used to. Petunia had severe PTSD and was constantly emotional, so Violet is unemotional. Petunia was a crappy unremarkable soldier who didn't get along with her superior, so Violet is a mysterious super soldier whose superior adopted/fell in love with. Petunia started trying to be auto memoir doll but struggle with it, so Violet is one of the most popular Doll in the world who even royalty and screenwriter hire. But nah, Violet is just a character who doesn't fit with the world. Last edited by meiam on Tue Apr 10, 2018 2:05 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Draconix814
 Posts: 23 |
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Despite my hype, Violet Evergarden herself just turned out to be a mess of a character that was only barely held together. This is coming from a person who loves both Kyoto Animation and Rei Ayanami clones like Violet, but she really failed to pick up her slack.
Nicholas Dupree, I agree with your points 100%. |
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jenthehen
 Posts: 835 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
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I really enjoyed Violet Evergarden way more than I expected, but I, too, really hated the nonsense war backstory. I honestly think if she had just been older (somewhere between 18-25 - which is how old she looks anyway) and were a regular war veteran with PTSD and survivor's guilt, it would have worked way better. But no, we had to go with mysterious tragic backstory + underage girl main character
If they wanted to go the child soldier route, they really needed to have more child soldiers (to explain the callous reactions of most of the military to her) and/or some explanation as to why she is special. I mean, how was she trained? Why is she so good at killing and why is it so important she fight in the war? Why do they have to treat her poorly? The prosthetics should have also been more common in the world they created - otherwise, why would some "unimportant dog/tool of the military" who is an orphan need these super advanced arms/hands? If it was clearly a standard medical procedure and other characters along the way maybe had similar prosthetics, then it would have been easier to swallow. |
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Joshua Zarate
Posts: 2062 |
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Violet Evergarden had flaws, but the positives outweighed the negatives and I enjoyed it. It’s not for everyone, definitely, but it’s worth recommending for those willing to give a show of this nature a chance. It will not end up within my most favorite Kyoto Animation productions, but I don’t regret watching it. Also, what one may think would have been better if the show had done one specific thing instead of what did happen in the end doesn’t guarantee that it will be executed in a way that works well for what the show is trying to achieve and it may actually turn out worse than what we got. Just saying. The director for Violet Evergarden is not exactly who I would call the best person for the job and with recent news that more of this franchise is on the way, I wonder if someone else will direct the new project in place of him.
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Jedi Master Kirito
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"Netflix has finally released Kyoto Animation's visually ambitious Violet Evergarden to audiences around the world."
Then what the hell have I been watching for thee past thirteen weeks? |
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Terrible90sDub
 Posts: 168 |
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I ended up giving up on it fairly early on as it seemed to be trying too hard to come across as tragic without adding the necessary substance. It was certainly nice to look at, though. Maybe I'll check out some of the episodes considered the better ones later.
I was also kind of distracted by how I keep on thinking Violet really seems to be going for a look that will help get her picked for the Saber class. You know, just in case a random grail war happens to pop out of nowhere.
I agree, that would've been a much better story. I want to clarify something re PTSD though-- Some people with PTSD can be emotional, and that portrayal would fit the story well, but others, particularly those with severe forms or specific sub-types of PTSD, do have a difficult time displaying emotions. Sadly, from what I saw, I don't think that was what Violet Evergarden was going for either, so much yet another generic personality-lacking lead girl, especially since there was nothing in her inner dialog about, for example, how she may be feeling emotions yet expressing them would make her feel vulnerable. Which I guess goes to show there are a lot of directions they could've taken here, and yet... |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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My guess is that you aren't "around the world" but are rather just in one place. One of the places that streamed it weekly. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5578 |
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As for how I feel about this show, I think the hype/overadvertising was it's biggest weakness. That and Netflix's treatment of US customers. It was a really nice show, and easily my favorite of the season (the season was extremely weak and I dropped more shows than I ever do..I rarely drop shows at all). But it's larger story was left unfinished, very obviously. Specific episodes like episode 7 and 10 were fantastic. I was ready to throw it away at episode 3 but episode 4 was where things got pretty solid, IMO. 10 easily the best.
"The subtext is that she's accepting her own existence as an Auto Memory Doll, and that she has the right to live on and help people in her new job." I disagree with this assessment. To me she was QUESTIONING herself, rather than accepting it. And the following scene where she talks to Claudia seemed to confirm that.
"Episode 10 is without question my favorite. It's about a little girl and her dying mother, and I thought I knew where it was going, but it throws you a curveball toward the end that left me nonstop bawling for the last five minutes." What was the curveball? I thought the entire episode was really predictable, as much as I loved it. It was VERY obvious where it was going. The only thing I didn't guess was exactly how many years of letters. Last edited by Kougeru on Tue Apr 10, 2018 2:54 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Angel M Cazares
Posts: 5504 Location: Iscandar |
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But you don't have to be a jerk about it. |
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