Manga 98930 Violet Evergarden

Really love the character development and progression. Someone devoid of emotions becomes the most real person with authentic feelings I have ever seen. She can't say it out loud but her writing is the best I ever read. She can be formal, yet she can also be genuine. Someone who was once straightforward and clueless became a famous amanuensis. Just look at her from the first time she typed and now is the biggest juxtaposition I have ever seen.

I promise you that the limited interactions between Violet and Major are one of the best if they were to ever be adapted. Violet has grown so ... much and it actually makes readers feel pride and joy at her positive change. She was so emotionless, needed instruction, and couldn't live alone but after years of interactions, she grew up and matured. She had made such a tremendous impact on those letters she wrote, always polite to both the young and the old addressing them with the proper etiquette and even to the most deplorable of people and trying to relate to them. It even taught me that although technology advance, it came at the sacrifice of cultivating writers like violet as letter becomes obsolete and rare with phones around.

This story teaches us so many lessons. She is still trying to forgive herself of her sins, needing someone there whenever she falters and that someone has adamantly made it clear that he will do so. Instead of blaming herself, she accepted her past, moves on, and strives to help others, never killing again. Her backstory was much more gruesome in the novel. Everyone makes mistakes but that doesn't mean we are held back by them or don't deserve forgiveness as long as we repent. Listening to sincerely in the background.

Although part of the anime plot changed, I wasn't a fan of how the last episode was changed to his brother instead, it did lead to a relatively awesome movie so we'll take it with a grain of salt. They also procured the awesome episode 10 well. There are still 2 full volumes to cover and side stories so there is still much potential to be had.

This review contains no spoiler.

Violet Evergarden is Kana Akatsuki's first novel, and she toiled incessantly creating this beautiful and melancholic novel. By reading her afterwords, one can tells that she really channels her everything into the book, and I can sometimes see the author's own reflections in her writing, which further concretes the proof that she put her soul along with a huge amount of effort into the novel.

The story follows the eponymously named Violet Evergarden; a travelling Auto-Memories doll (an amanuensis. In short, clients call upon her services to transcribe their thoughts and words into letters, books, documents, etc), and her journey ... throughout the country of Leidenschaftlich. As the story progresses, Violet learns more about her clients - their stories and emotions, which also enrich Violet's personality and experience as well, and it doesn't end there.

The structure of the novel is quite unusual, and in a good way. The first chapters are told from different places and settings, and the main story of these chapters revolves around Violet's clients and while Violet is involved, she is not the center focus. But during these opening chapters, through the clients' stories and interactions with Violet as she helps them carrying their tasks and wishes, it reveals little by little about Violet's character and personality in an indirect way. As the story progresses, Violet's involvement gradually grows more significant; the focus is now shifting towards her; aside of Violet's current traits and personality, her backstory and her past are partially unveiled, and when the readers have an overall picture of Violet's past and present, the story shifts a gear, focusing fully on Violet's backstory, unfolding her whole past and it's aftermath. During these chapters, we will finally get a grasp of what kind of person Violet was which explains her unusual 'doll-like' behaviours and her circumstances, her struggles and sufferings. We will also understand her drive to become an Auto-Memories Doll, and most importantly her ardent, almost hopeless yearning towards that one entity along with the key value that she does not yet possess and understand. And in the end, when we piece all of it together, the result is an arduous but beautiful transformation of Violet Evergarden - sorrowful, bittersweet, melancholic, sometimes straight up tragic; but ultimately, a poignant ending.

The writing is well executed for a fantasy setting - the world is described vividly, which helps readers visualize and imagine with ease. The characters' thoughts and emotions are described with precision, and also very emotion-based, told through both first and third person, while effectively goes along with the dialogues that are refined, minimal with no excessive lines, devoid of drama, yet very intense at times, to the point of gouging the reader's heart as much as it gouged the character's. All formed together, creating a reading experience that exudes a very melancholic atmosphere but strangely not heavy. This, along with the carefully laid-out story structure makes reading this novel very engaging until the end. All the main characters are well fleshed out, their development is satisfying to see from beginning to end. The supporting characters all fulfilled their roles as well, each directly or indirectly influence Violet's actions and her emotions; and some of them even though appear in only one chapter but their story and developement is quite enjoyable and memorable.

While there are a lot of things to praise about this novel, there is also a thing or two that fall short. Since this novel is heavily character-based, it should be point out that while Violet's backstory is fully explained, her origins remained a mystery. There were attempts to cover it up but personally I think it is clumsily executed. But given the context and circumstance of Violet, it is not a big problem and can be turned a blind eye. There is also one side character whose purpose is to help uncovering Violet's past but comparing to the rest of the cast, this character falls short in terms of depth and their ending came in all of the sudden but poorly explained.

Overall Violet Evergarden is a magical fantasy novel; a very emotional story of self discovery through insurmountable pain and sorrow. While the depiction isn't something everybody can relate to because of the immense melancholy along with bizzare characters and circumstances, I'm sure everybody can feel, sympathize, endear and embrace the characters throughout their journey.

Warning: This review may or may not contain spoilers but I will try to conceal any spoilers as much as I can.

1. Characters:

As characters aside from Violet herself changed each chapter, I would like to describe them as major characters that helped Violet in her adventure throughout her lifetime. The reason I have such thought are due to them being the main focus of the story in each chapter instead of Violet and they are being developed more than her. Violet, in the other hand, mostly serve as a person who helped connect between those who love and those who are being loved. As all ... of those characters have different personality, I would not really go into details for each of them.

As for Violet, who is the main character in the light novel, I could only described her as a girl who are naive about the world that are new to her and especially about her quest. So it is no question to the reason she was a little bit emotionless (or a person who could not understand her emotions properly even though she could feel them). While her life journey from the past to her present as a 'doll' is more or less like a female version of Tarzan with the addition of her as a military personnel. At first I assume that she was not being developed properly but after having a long thought, I could see that she was being developed indirectly with the help of the major characters. While I have doubt whether Violet was a doll or a human (I do believe she was the latter), I still could not help myself from feeling surprised during the revelation in chapter two.

Meanwhile Major Gilbert (Gil), as far as I could think of, is a male main character who had tried to help Violet throughout her early years. Due to his military profession, he had a hard time to help her to become 'someone' while he tried to free her or to teach her about life. This was being executed properly in my opinion as the situation during Gil's time was not the good time to teach her anything other than military teachings. As a main character there was no doubt that he was the one who Violet love and Violet was the one that he love. I could not describe more about him due to one or more reason that I may mention later on.

Story:

I would have to say that while the concept used in Violet Evergarden's story is not something new and had been used, I could not disagree that the novel did succeed in making me feel mesmerized with the story. By concept I am referring to Violet's encounter with different people in every chapter, which had already been used by light novel such as Shinigami no Ballad or anime such as Shigofumi. Since they are more or less the same, I did not have any problem with how they are being executed; the pace of the story, the revelation, the development etc.

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With all the praise and positive remarks on my analysis above, someone might feel surprised and questioned as to why I gave an overall five (5) out of ten (10) score for the light novel. The problem in my opinion lies on the revelation on chapter six or seven that affected the overall ending of the story. As you can see when it comes to romance, I have a strict (or more accurately fussy) demand(s).

I was taken aback when I found out that miracle happened in the said chapter. This had affected my interest to read the novel which led me to just skim through the rest of the chapters until the end. I do understand that readers would like to see such miracle happen in the story, and I do understand the author or the publisher would not take a risk to do something different. But every time I encounter such miracle I could see that I failed to differentiate between Violet Evergarden and story like The Beauty and The Beast for example. Even though happily-ever-after ending filled other readers need and satisfaction, I was hoping for a bittersweet ending instead. That way it will make Violet Evergarden more memorable and different from the rest of the stories ever presented.

So I was disappointed with such cliche plot and ending which had made me dislike Violet Evergarden LN. Honestly I would like to give an overall score of four (4) or lower but due to the fact I like the first five chapters, I'm willing to give my score as stated earlier. But by any means it will not go above five (5). my apology goes to Violet Evergarden light novel, its author and fans.