"Violet Evergarden Gaiden -Eternity and the Auto-Memory Doll" review
The animation “Violet Evergarden” (2018) (hereinafter called “VE”) is a story that a former girl soldier touches the hearts of various people through letter writing and finds many emotions. Through her encounters, she slowly changes from an emotionless doll to an independent girl.
This work is the sequel to the TV series. The story follows the relationship between the heroine, Violet, the girl, Isabella, and the sister, Taylor, who has no blood. It consists of two parts, with the first part depicting Isabella and Violet in girls' school life and the second part depicting grown-up Taylor.
“VE” depicts how Violet live independently after the death of Gilbert, the foster parent of the her. In this work, which is a Gaiden, we have taken up sisters who chose to farewell to live. What I remembered while watching this animation was “Liz and the Blue Bird” (2018) (hereinafter called “Liz”). “Liz” is a story that two girls who have been close for many years choose to leave each other for happiness, and this Gaiden also seems to be a work that inherits a theme similar to “Liz”. While “Liz” depicts conflicts and decisions until separation, this work presents an urgent question of what to live in a situation where you have to live away.
Aside from the beauty of the image, the direction and the scenario was very impressive.
The key to this series is the sense of “distance”.
For example, the time lapse that frequently appears in “VE” makes you feel “distance” by expressing the passage of time. Time lapse was used for episodes 1, 5, 6, 7, 11, and 13, but it was particularly effective in episode 11 “No one wants to die anymore”. In order to deliver a letter entrusted to Aidan, who has been out of breath, Violet delivers the letter to his parents and Aidan's childhood friend Maria. The dead Aidan and their endless “distance” were entrusted to the time lapse of the dawn sky.
In this work, the presence of time lapse is large, and the school life of Violet and Isabella's foam in the first half and Benedict's investigation into where Isabella (Amy) is located are impressed as the flow of time itself.
It is also important to describe the journey in the latter half. From the city of Leiden where Taylor arrived on her own, she was taken to Benedict and headed to Isabella's castle far away.
The psychological “distance” is naturally included here. It will be obvious that Isabella's past conflict with herself is synchronized with the past of Violet handled by “VE”. Amy (=Isabella), who couldn't do anything to do with Taylor, and Violet, who took many lives as a "military aircraft" during the war. They had a past that they had to face together. In the first half of this work, there are scenes where Isabella and Violet are reflected in the mirror, glass, and eyes. The skillful production that expresses the gap between the past myself and the present one was shining.
In this work, the theme is to connect “distance” with letters, such as scattered time lapse, motorcycle trip in the second half, and mirror image of the first half. Even though there are few examples like this, it is clear that this work was highly directed at the story level. Along with the words of violet, “Let people have a desire to deliver. There is no letter that doesn't need to be delivered,” and letters always connect people over distance.
In “VE”, as a episode where Violet who have been struggling with the past find the reason for living in the future, this work will increase the value of the entire series. The development of Isabella (=Amy) 's personal story was revealed, and the development from the last half, where my sister Taylor was the main, was also wonderful. (According to the pamphlet, it was originally planned to have an OVA project of two episodes.) Even when viewed as an independent work, it is a completeness that can be compared with “Liz”, which also fits in the form of Gaiden, and as a sequel, it may have been a wonderful work in terms of reinforcing the unsatisfactory narrative of “VE”.
Although this work boasts a high degree of perfection as a sequel to "VE", it is also excellent as a work that depict after "Liz". As pointed out at the beginning, this work is also a separate story, and can be seen as a work depicting the future of Nozomi and Mizore. I thought the letter had the power to make ‘dis joint’ ‘joint’.
This time, I was able to see the work only at a rough production and story level, but I would like to see more details in the second time. Even at the story level, there are many works that draw a separation, not just anime, and there are many options for comparison. Even within my observation range, I've been picking up in recent years, such as “A place farther than the universe “(2018), “Comic Girls” (2018), “MAQUIA: When the Promised Flower Blooms” (2018) It is a major theme in many works.
As for the impression of the work at the first look, I was only surprised by the high degree of perfection of the work, because it was a Gaiden that did not have the expected value. In particular, Haruka Fujita was the first director, so there are expectations for future directors.
While I can't wait to see KyoAni's work in the future, I can easily imagine that KyoAni is in a very difficult phase, losing much of the production team in the attack. We have also decided to postpone the release of the movie “Violet Evergarden”. I pray for the physical and mental recovery of the victims and their families.
2019/09/08 Sinnosuke Okamura
2019/09/17 Error correction is done(underline).
Powerd by Google Translate. (I changed some expressions.)
