Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Is Violet Evergarden Worth Watching?
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jenthehen
 Posts: 835 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
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[quote="Kougeru"]
I think "Diethard" was a joke ... 
As for episode 10 ... spoiler[a lot of people - myself included - kind of assumed the mom was writing letters to people simply to make arrangements for her daughter after her death (i.e. to people who may be her guardian, etc. etc.] |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5527 |
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I wasn't intending to be a "jerk" about it. Maybe english isn't your first language but nothing about what I said indicated I meant that in an attack or mean way. It's just a pointless statement. It would be more surprising if a KyoAni show WASN'T gorgeous. Even shows with completely different art style like Maid Dragon are still gorgeous. |
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Ajc228
Posts: 264 |
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A light novel adaptation with a poorly written female character? That’s just absurd. I feel confident in saying all light novel adaptations are trash. Violent Evergarden looks pretty for the most part (Occasional odd CG & compositing aside) but the writing is garbage. It’s a shame that KyoAni wastes its talented staff on this kind of sentimental drivel.
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Kougeru
Posts: 5527 |
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"Diethard" is how Netflix subbed his name. I just figured ANN writers would've used their ears instead of their eyes. Nothing in the article indicates they thought of it was a joke, since they never once used his correct name. Thank you for explaining that bit about episode 10. I never once considered that. I figured all that would've already been arranged. Even still, the amount of time she spent writing should've been give away that it was something more than stuff like that. |
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switchgear1131
Posts: 219 |
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I would be tempted to agree with you, but you know Spice and Wolf exists. |
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TasteyCookie
 Posts: 421 |
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I really will never understand the complaints of the story being poorly written. Unless the subtitles on Netflix were really that bad (some of the screenshots were pretty bad.) The complaints I see for the story seem to be based on what the person wanted the story to be, which is pretty silly. Oh well, guess I share opinions with the industry professionals who worked on the show rather than what seems to be a consensus of users on ANN. Glad at least some people enjoyed it.
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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Overall, I enjoyed Violet Evergarden. Probably their best TV work visually, even given the high level of their TV productions in the last several years. While it isn't my favorite of their works, I'd say it was in my top 5.
While it was not the strongest part of the story, I didn't dislike Violet's backstory, even if more could have been explained. If anyone is familiar with the source, how is her backstory handled in the source compared to the anime? Is this just a case of them not quite being able to polish up the original story or did they miss something in this regard?
Given the general quality of the visual direction of the show, I would have to disagree, not to downplay the input of the individual episode directors. Was there something about the direction that you found dissatisfying or was it the writing you disagreed with? |
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Crext
 Posts: 211 |
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First off I just want to state my opinion that I found this to be an amazing anime, and that I could say more things that I feel highlight positives aspects of the series than I will mention in this segment, but where I want to focus on what other critics say/discuss, thus set the frame from this perspective.
Now, I see some comments discussing that they feel the "bigger story" is somewhat "poorly written". Considering the latest news about there being a continuum (new season, movie or OVAs (unknown atm)) then I wouldn't hold that too much against them as they got more to work with, if this criticism is related to how it ends without some closure that some people perhaps would have wanted. However, in spite of this I'd argue that considering the framework we work within, that each episode (which is its own complete story in most cases) centers around the clients/letter writer's life and challenges, only with some small drops of Violet developing her character on the side of those other stories. I do feel that this fits in with the overall setup and symbolism of the show, and as stories with letters take time unlike today's communication (and with that a more romantic and graceful approach to get to the finish-line), so does Violet's story. This means the overall story isn't poorly written, there's just very little of it and many unknowns. The primarily one perhaps being about what happened to Major Gilbert, and what happened to Violet in the past. The "super (child) soldier part" is perhaps difficult for some of the critics to accept in a drama such as this, and I totally get that this is a unique setup which can feels pretty different from rest of the show (or alternatively glossed over too gently), and it's Violet's unknown past and the known past that gets the brunt of the criticism. However, if you want to put a lens of realism into it then Violet is basically a cyborg/robo-cop during the percent, and they live in a steam punk world where there are advancements clearly different from our own world (robotics past our technology, while electronics hasn't been invented and trains still run on steam). Further on, in our days of Marvel Superheros being perfectly allowed to have similar backgrounds, then I don't see why we can't allow Violet to get away with such a foundation for her character even if it is unrealistic to a mostly otherwise realistic show. It is a premise established in the very first episode, and they don't deviate from it. Sure, you might find it silly, but the premise of many stories are typically silly if you sit down and analyze them with a hardheaded scientific approach. There also seem to be some conclusions a few critics "want the show to have", perhaps conclusions they feel would better fall in line with their own political believes(?). I will admit that I personally feel such a view isn't very healthy in any artistic field, where storytellers must be allowed freedom to tell the story they envisioned, where this is necessary to surprise us and keep us interested. Bad things happen in this show, just like bad things happened in shows like Game of Thrones. The fact that some people get away with it, or even ends up in positions of power because of it, or that the show doesn't seem to want to punish everyone involved in something shady, perceived as evil or a clear injustice from our own stand-point. Those are just elements meant to advance the story and not meant as "morale guides" to how others might want to behave in the real world. If anything such differences makes the story even more interesting as you broaden your horizon and gets in-sight into a different world on different levels other than just the technological aspect. Violet Evergarden was also a critically acclaimed visual novel, but it is also very much a drama, where the comedy, romance and action clearly take the backseat. Dramas don't hit people who can't relate to the events as much, and is overall a smaller genre than say comedy or action, and should as such have a smaller popularity overall because of it, while still being perhaps one of the better shows within the genre. |
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Joshua Zarate
Posts: 2061 |
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I don’t mean to downplay the quality of the visual direction that I will gladly give props to him for achieving. I just mainly think that the sequencing of events from episode to episode could have been done better. It felt like the show didn’t come together as a tightly paced whole in a way that it could have been with how the story was told. I don’t disagree with the writing either, it was just that he was inconsistent with his abilities/talent on Violet Evergarden. Maybe this show wasn’t the right one for him to be series director. He’s not my favorite KyoAni director by far, but I enjoy his work on being episode director/storyboarder on other KyoAni shows. Ultimately, I personally feel like this show would have turned out better than it did if it was directed by Tatsuya Ishihara. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5424 Location: Iscandar |
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I agree with you on this, but I also think that the order in which the episodes were presented is problematic. I don't know how much power a director has, but are they allowed to rearrange the order in which the events are presented or is that decided by the writers?
Would Ishihara have been allowed to make changes to the writing? To me VEG has a weakly written core story, and that was not going to be fixed by Ishihara, Takermoto or Yamada. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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I feel confident in saying you are clearly underestimating Gundam Unicorn, Maria Watches Over Us, Strawberry Panic, Mikagura School Suite, Kokoro Connect, etc.
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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It depends on the production, but yes, generally the director has a lot of control over the sequence of events and which episodes go where. At the very least, they are appointing the people who will direct individual episodes and storyboarding them, if not storyboarding and directing episodes themselves on a regular basis.
I definitely don't think Ishihara would have been a good fit for this series. I love the guy, but I think he's a bit more of a horndog than is good for most KyoAni productions. Takemoto would have been my preference. He is never afraid to adapt things very liberally, as in, not sticking to source material in the least, he is extremely good at handling pacing and emotional development for characters over the course of many episodes, and as far as drama goes, I think he has the absolute best handle on how to not make it feel overwrought and melodramatic. All of these are things that I found problematic in VE as it was. I was glad that Ishidate directed it though, if for no other reason than that he deserved the promotion, and it's a good stepping stone for him to grow through. |
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grooven
Posts: 1424 Location: Canada |
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I highly enjoyed this anime and watched it week to week here in Canada. I think it's too bad that people's misgivings of Violet's background soured them on the majority of the story. I did have some issues, but it did not put me off the show and the emotional journey.
I never really took note on what the reviewers did on Claudia. I didn't really care for him from the start and as people mentioned Benedict Blue was the real winner of that whole side cast group. Wish he got more screen time too. Violet's age really confused me. I don't know why they bothered to put that in. The child solider bit threw me off and that she was so perfect in her skills. I would've liked some more insight on all that. The whole war vs emotional drama was fine for me. Though the end conflict did feel a bit tagged on near the end even if there was a build up to it with foreshadowing, but it didn't detract from the overall story. War was an ongoing narrative the entire time. Speaking of, I think the atmosphere of war was portrayed really well. I think the fluid animation and emotion struggles really did that for me. I loved a few episodes I think all of them except for the one with her co-worker in episode 3 I believe. The rest were great for me and as an avid fan of drama I liked it a lot.
spoiler[I did not think it was obvious at all. I had assumed it was related to her will and maybe had a story. Never did I imagine that they were letters for all those years. I guess because of the length of days it would take I assumed it was because of the mother's frail health and she had lots to leave behind.] |
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FlyGuySempai
Posts: 243 |
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this show was beautiful. I believe it to be the 2nd best anime of the Winter season. In my opinion it not only rivaled the end of Clannad after story in emotional moments but surpassed them as i thought Clannad to be pretty sappy and cliche as hell to say the least. I blame Gigguk though for setting the bar in giving this series a bad name with his witless opinions on some anime that dont suite his tastes, ever since his criticism of this series dropped months back people have just mindlessly gravitated towards his opinion and rolled with it. Anyway, i dont care what he or anyone else says, I give this series a 8.6/10
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Ajc228
Posts: 264 |
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I’ve seen all those shows and beyond the visual presentation, I was not impressed. So I stand by my original statement. |
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