Only a couple of episodes to go before Violet Evergarden completes its first season, and Violet is off to another mission that seems to appeal more to her army training rather than her writing skills. I didn’t expect to say that, but I actually start finding the writing episodes better.

Plot

The group of people who, for whatever reason, do not want peace to be achieved between the North and South (no, I am not going to look up the names of these countries, they’re basically the same place with different weather) are planning to interrupt the negotiations that will be sealing the peace between them. For some utterly absurd reason, Cattleya and Benedict are included in that mission. Honestly, there is not a single reason in the world why these two should be there. But they are, as is Gilbert’s annoying brother, who is assigned a mission on land while he’s in the navy. Zero logic.

Violet, who happens to be flying above the train that is about to be sabotaged AND carries her victimized colleagues to the peace treaty, uses her eagle vision to see Cattleya’s massive tits from the train window. She decides this is yet another situation she needs to be involved in and lands to meet with them. Gilbert brother sees her and is not impressed. In yet another effort for creative dialogue, he repeats ‘you’re just a tool waiting for orders for the zillionth time (and he’s only had like 5 minutes of screentime in the whole show) when the sabotage actually happens, Violet decides to show Major Creative Dialogue how she is no longer a tool, so he can finally go write himself some proper lines, and refuses to kill the intruders. As she is battling them (after a discussion in a voice that could have never, EVER be heard on top of a moving train), Violet realizes the gaps in her non-killing theory, since not killing your enemies kind of lets them kill you and the ones you love instead. Naturally, she loses, and as she is about to be beheaded, Gilbert’s brother shows up and saves her, even though he passionately wants her to die, as he verbalizes a few minutes later. In a last effort to change his mind, Violet protects him from an incoming bullet, very Edward-Elric-style.

Themes & Trivia

Styling choices: Long hair in the army, fighting in a massive dress, high heels when traveling – something is telling me this anime needs a new stylist, asap.

Political commentary?: ‘The war is not over’, says angry cheek-scar guy, and I am impressed. His comment on the politics of war is very on point for an anime with not very complex content, but it is there. *slow clap*

Comments

Bad episode. An absurd plot, poor dialogue, the most cliche battle scene ever, and even the visuals, that have been the strongest point to Violet Evergarden, are pretty mundane. After watching it, I actually found a fanbase translation of the light-novel (as there isn’t an official one licensed yet) and started reading in an effort to understand if there’s something I’m missing out of this hype. I haven’t figured it out, but I did discover that, in the text, Violet is not human. Yes, she is a robot. A breathing, bleeding, non-hand-reproducing robot. I’m not sure how I feel about the way this is left unexamined in the show, especially with Gilbert’s brother constantly being offended by Violet’s quasi-human nature and behavior.

The less action the better

I was really hoping for the show to get more personal for Violet, but now I’ve kind of changed my mind. I think it’s been doing a lot better telling heart-breaking stories of people slammed in the face with all sorts of misfortune. In fact, I’d rather have Violet being a non-background mysterious figure that roams the land writing letters for people for her own reasons – I keep finding the two narratives of the show to be completely unrelated, and that action scene, boy, was it bad.

What did you think of the Violet Evergarden’s Episode 12? Let us know in the comment section! And don’t forget to check the rest of the Winter 2018 anime reviews on MANGA.TOKYO!

Violet Evergarden

Winter 2018 | Anime Info | Simulcast