English Title: Violet Evergarden: The Movie
Japanese Title: 劇場版 ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン
Director(s): Ishidate Taichi
Screenwriter(s): Yoshida Reiko
Studio: Kyoto Animation
Released: 2020
Runtime: 2h 20m
Starring: Ishikawa Yui, Koyasu Takehito, Namikawa Daisuke
This is set a few years after the series and addresses the main issue for Violet Evergarden: that she is grieving over the still-missing Gilbert Bougainvillea. Everyone assumes he is dead but Violet still looks forward to news of him.
Although the opening act does remind the audience of the premise without going through a cheap and tiresome recap, the film still assumes that one has seen the series. This review also assumes one has seen the series.
The film begins with Daisy, the granddaughter of Ann who featured in Episode 10 of the series for which Violet was writing letters on behalf of Ann’s terminally ill mother. Ann had just passed away as this is about 50 years after the series. Daisy discovers the letters ghostwritten by Violet and she sets out looking for her history since it is revealed that Violet quit being a doll suddenly whilst still young.
The narrative shifts back to the “present” when Violet takes on a job of a terminally ill boy who wants to write letters to his parents, younger brother and his friend Lucas who he has been reluctant to see. Meanwhile, Claudia Hodgins discovers a clue that Gilbert may still be alive and the plot follows him and Violet as they try to find Gilbert.
As usual, the difficulty with sequels is maintaining the balance of providing the audience with revelations as well as mystery whilst avoiding repetition, and the former obviously reduces the latter.
In this case, opening the film with Daisy makes sense as it frames Violet’s story by telling the audience something about the ending without yet revealing the journey to that ending. At the same time, Violet has a writing job just so that the narrative is not too focused on the main plot line regarding Gilbert.
This setup is not bad. However, how the plot unfolds can be better. The writing job is similar to her other jobs and is thematically related to the thread regarding Gilbert. This is fine in itself but may come across as a little repetitive even if it doesn’t ruin the film.
There are two main weaknesses of the storytelling. One is that Violet and Gilbert’s issue is somewhat underwhelming. It is not bad, it is not nonsensical, but it does lack that wow factor. It need not be in the form of a twist but it needs something more.
The second is that Daisy is set up as a frame and a means of exposition but there is not enough of her or expositions about Ann or Violet. In other words, Daisy is under-utilized, especially if one considers the runtime. More about Violet’s life can certainly be revealed through Daisy to give a more satisfying conclusion.
As expected given what is seen so far, the production is first-class. There are one or two shots in which the water in the ocean looks off but is otherwise visually superb. Some of the rain is just animators showing off.
Overall, it is still a decent film despite the problems. The story would work better as an 8-episode series rather than a film as that format breaks up the narrative and lets each element breathe.
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