Violet Evergarden episode 1

Ok so I’m starting to watch anime again and heard decent things about this at the time I was watching darling in the franxx. I also wanted to try actually writing thoughts as each episode went instead of after the entire series is done. We shall see how successful or effective I find it. This will also be likely disjointed as I’m literally going to be probably word vomiting my thoughts as they come while I watch the episode. Maybe hopefully I string it together eventually. Either way, we begin.

So it starts out with I guess our titular character in the hospital and then is visited by a Lt. Colonel. So clearly she’s from the military. We also then find out she’s asking where the Major she served under is or if he’s alive. They’re being deliberately vague about it which hints at an obvious later plot point or conflict. Immediate assumption, he’s probably dead and they don’t want to tell her. Why wouldn’t they want to tell her though? Because it would devastate her because he means a lot to her? Is she involved in his death? Did she kill him and doesn’t remember?

There’s a cute little moment where she’s given a stuffed puppy dog and when asked why she says because she was called the major’s dog. Several times in the episode she’s referred to as a weapon. Clearly her purpose in life is as a tool for someone else. But at this current moment she feels useless. No one telling her where the major is so she has no one to tell her or order her what to do. So that’s another obvious plot point to expand on and is an easy place to progress the plot. Make this about a girl finding a sense of purpose at a time when she feels she has lost hers. This is evident when she’s brought to the letter company and is given a “purpose there” to work. To which she then proceeds to do all the sorting without break. Then deliver mail at night that should have been mailed the next day. This shows she values having a purpose and will do everything to fele she is fulfilling what she feel is her purpose or orders, albeit possibly to an extreme fault. She probably values feeling needed and will work hard to feel she is being needed. Especially at a time when she’s only ever known to be a solider but some point in this episode she’s told “the war is over”.

In a similar vein to my observation about feeling lost with no purpose is also when she’s brought to the evergarden estate and told to think of the lady she meets “as mother” to which she replies she had no parents so there’s no need for a replacement and also that she will not be a replacement for her son. There’s a clear current issue there. One that I can easily also see as a development plot. Of one who has no family grows to find a place she has belong as a family. Possibly even also she viewed the Major as family but currently has none because he’s nowhere to be found.

She’s asked what her final order from the major was. It was “to run away and live freely”. You can sense and see she has no idea what that means. What is it to be free to a person who has only known to be told what to do, and never thinking about what they want to do. To her what she wants to do is what someone is telling her to do it seems. The war is over there are no orders for her to fight. Only to live. But she doesn’t know how. Because no one is telling her or ordering her.

Now someone comes asking her to write a letter for him. But it seems the letter he wants to write is one that resonates with her. What he is trying to say to his childhood friend is what our protagonist feels towards the Major it seems. It also turns out she’s not the one writing it’s someone else. And it amazes her that someone is able to discern someone else’s intentions. It intrigues her. How the lady was able to discern the man wanted to say “I love you”. The words we find out the Major said to violet. But she says she doesn’t understand that.

That’s a loaded statement that can go and mean several things. Is it because she’s emotionless and doesn’t understand how someone can love or what love means? Is it she knows what it means but doesn’t understand why the Major said that to her?

This episode did a pretty good job of laying down some foundations for the plot. Introduced some ideas that would be worthwhile to build and branch and grow from. It’s clear this series will be about development and change and learning. We’ll just have to see how much it does so. I’m expecting great things because I’ve heard great things. And this episode did a good job of starting it off.