Claudia Hodgins

Violet Evergarden: The Movie is a 2020 anime film from Kyoto Animation. It is the final chapter of the Violet Evergarden story, which began as a light novel series by Kana Akatsuki and became a TV anime in 2018. Taichi Ishidate directed the film, and Reiko Yoshida wrote the script. The road to its release was long and painful. In July 2019, a fire set on purpose at one of Kyoto Animation's buildings killed many staff members and destroyed a lot of work. The film's date moved from January 2020 to April, and then the COVID-19 pandemic pushed it back again. It finally opened in Japan on September 18, 2020. The movie has two stories that are woven together. The first takes place many years after the TV series. A girl named Daisy has just lost her grandmother. While looking through old things, she finds a set of letters that were sent to her grandmother's mother, Anne Magnolia, long ago. Viewers of the TV show will remember Anne and the letters. Daisy becomes curious about the woman who wrote them: Violet Evergarden. She sets out to learn more about who Violet was. The second story follows Violet herself, back in her own time. Violet was once a child soldier who knew nothing but fighting. After the war, she started working as an Auto Memory Doll at the C.H. Postal Company. An Auto Memory Doll is a writer who helps people put their feelings into letters. Through this job, Violet slowly learned about human emotions. She is now famous for her letters. Yet she still cannot let go of Gilbert Bougainvillea, the Major who raised her as a soldier and whose last words to her were "I love you." She believes he was lost in the war, but she keeps writing to him anyway. In the film, Violet takes on a request from Yuris, a young boy who is very sick and knows he does not have much time left. He wants her help writing letters to his family for the future. Working with him makes Violet think again about love, loss, and the words people leave unsaid. At the same time, a surprising clue about her own past appears, and it pulls her toward a choice she has long been afraid to face. The film is quiet, gentle, and very emotional. It is set in a world that looks like Europe in the early 1900s, with steam trains, old cities, and new inventions like the telephone. The art is detailed and beautiful, with soft light and careful backgrounds. The music adds to the feeling. Many viewers say they cried while watching it. It was a success in Japan, earning about 21 million US dollars, and became Kyoto Animation's second highest-grossing film. It won Anime of the Year (Feature Film) at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival and an Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. For fans of the TV series, it is a moving goodbye to Violet.