The first episode of Violet Evergarden - and, with it, the entirety of the series - opens with a flashback. A young girl clad in a soldier's uniform, her blonde hair unkempt, has stopped in the middle of a street market. Her eyes are pools of starlight. She is Violet, the protagonist. She has spotted an emerald brooch, and its green colour matches the eyes of her companion, Major Gilbert Bougainvillea - or so she tells him.
If this introduction seems flowery and ornate, or the choice of names has you raise an eyebrow, you are not wrong. Violet Evergarden very quickly establishes itself as picturesque and sentimental, with its characters making declarations, falling into despair, and generally acting in the Romanticist tradition. As with any respectable Japanese anime, the larger plot is pre-occupied with war: the events are taking place in its direct aftermath, while the flashbacks date to the battle days.
Stylistically and thematically, Violet Evergarden very much reminds one of Hagane no renkinjutsushi (2009), both in the setting and the challenges faced by the protagonist. At the same time, it is a very pretty anime: the landscapes, the views of the city, food, plants - all brings to mind the most famous Studio Ghibli productions, with the caveat that saturation levels have been cranked up to eleven.
The introductory episode poses many questions, some of them internal to the narrative (is the Major alive?), some, external (how developed is technology in this quasi-European world of not quite 1918?). Violet, the heroine, shares some of the confusion the viewer might feel. Let's see what happens next.
If this introduction seems flowery and ornate, or the choice of names has you raise an eyebrow, you are not wrong. Violet Evergarden very quickly establishes itself as picturesque and sentimental, with its characters making declarations, falling into despair, and generally acting in the Romanticist tradition. As with any respectable Japanese anime, the larger plot is pre-occupied with war: the events are taking place in its direct aftermath, while the flashbacks date to the battle days.
Stylistically and thematically, Violet Evergarden very much reminds one of Hagane no renkinjutsushi (2009), both in the setting and the challenges faced by the protagonist. At the same time, it is a very pretty anime: the landscapes, the views of the city, food, plants - all brings to mind the most famous Studio Ghibli productions, with the caveat that saturation levels have been cranked up to eleven.
The introductory episode poses many questions, some of them internal to the narrative (is the Major alive?), some, external (how developed is technology in this quasi-European world of not quite 1918?). Violet, the heroine, shares some of the confusion the viewer might feel. Let's see what happens next.