Violet Evergarden Episode 9 Review: Violet Evergarden

Continuing from where the previous episode of Violet Evergarden left off, we get a bit of insight on Violet and Gilbert’s backstory and get to see Violet making some serious life decisions, like a proper 14-year-old adult.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 「ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン」

Plot

In a yet another glimpse of the past, Violet is carrying an injured Gilbert to safety, and loses both her hands while she’s at it. As she’s pulling him around using her teeth, Gilbert screams at her and asks her to get real, save herself, and get the hell out. In a moment of pure genius (then again, you can’t really judge the words of a dying man, can you?) Gilbert decides to confess his love to this oblivious army-brainwashed kid that is in front of him and is desperately trying to save the life of the only decent person she’s ever known. As she’s screaming her lungs out in confusion about the etymology of the word ‘love’ (she is, after all, going to be spending a large amount of time trying to figure that out in the near future), the building where they’re hiding collapses, and from what we can see, the general is covered in rubble while she is successfully pushed out of the way and saved.

Fast forward to the future and Violet is digging the ruins of the place she last saw Gilbert; not very productively. Hodgins finds her and drags her back to the post office, and there she spends extensive amounts of time in her room, dreaming dreams of blood and a disapproving Major Gilbert. After a failed suicide attempt, a bit of room-trashing and a very concerned letter from her colleagues, Violet gets out of her room and decides that being an Auto Memory Doll can indeed erase all the sins she has committed while in the army and gets back to earth. No sign of Gilbert yet, but I know he’s out there.

Themes & Trivia

Suicide fail: No Violet, no. You absolutely CANNOT strangle yourself using your bare hands. It is physical impossible. All you’re gonna end up with are a few dead brain cells, and that is if you try like really, really hard. Sorry!

Art nouveau reference: See these theatre posters on the wall near the end of the episode? They are drawn in an art nouveau style; a flat ornamental illustration method popular during the late 19th century, mostly as an opposition to the academic drawing methods of the time. While its most significant representative would be Alphonse Mucha, the most famous painter influenced by the style is of course Gustav Klimt.

Comments

How do I feel, what do I say. I like Violet’s story, I like the lovers’ struggle, the painful realization of death, or those almost ‘classic’ things the story has to offer being a, you know, love story. But the better these get the more insignificant and redundant everything else feels: why do I care if Violet is working as a doll typing person? I don’t. I want to know the love story, the love, the drama. I wish the show was just an OVA of that.

Oh well…

I mean, I’m still kind of hoping Gilbert is alive. He probably is. Who knows.

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