The Power of “Violet Evergarden” to Touch the Heart (Director Ishidate Taichi)

I wrote this article in Japanese and translated it into English using ChatGPT. I also used ChatGPT to create the English article title. I did my best to correct any translation mistakes, but please let me know if you find any errors. By the way, I did not use ChatGPT when writing the Japanese article. The entire article was written from scratch by me, Saikawa Goto.

Introduction

Movies and books covered in this article

What I want to convey in this article

I don’t even remember at what scene I started crying, and I cried all the way until the end.

Three takeaways from this article

Self-introduction article

The quotes used in this article are based on notes taken at the movie theater from movies in Japanese and are not direct quotes from the foreign language original movies, even if they exist.

An Amazing Movie that Made Me with No Prior Knowledge of it Cry My Eyes Out

Before watching this movie, I knew almost nothing about “Violet Evergarden.” The only information I had was that it was a work by Kyoto Animation. I didn’t even know there was a TV anime or an original source material. Of course, I knew nothing about the story’s setting.

There are hardly any people who would approach this movie in that state. In that sense, I think my impression could be considered a valuable record.

Anyway, I just kept crying.

I Cried Almost the Whole Time While Watching the Movie

One thing that surprised me while watching the movie was that “I found myself crying.”

Usually, emotional scenes that make us cry leave a lasting impression. But it was different while watching this movie. It was more like “Oh, I’m crying” kind of realization. I don’t remember when I started crying or which scenes made me tear up at all.

And then, after I realized that I was crying, I continued to cry until the end of the movie. There were even scenes that almost made me sob uncontrollably, and I felt that this was the kind of movie that shouldn’t be watched in a movie theater.

I have never been so grateful for the existence of masks as I was when watching this movie. This is because when I left the theater, the parts of my face that were covered by the mask were a mess of tears.

Surprise at the “Innocent Story”

I was surprised not only that I cried so much, but also that I cried while watching an “innocent story.”

I don’t know about the TV anime version (I still haven’t watched it as of writing this article), but in “Violet Evergarden the Movie,” I felt that there was no “malice” in the story. Of course, the tragic situation of “war” is depicted, and there is “malice by someone without a name” in it, but I don’t think any character with a name in the story had a malicious intent.

And basically, I don’t really like “stories without malice.”

I believe that every person has some kind of “malice” in their essential part. So, if I can’t see any “malice,” it feels like I can’t see that person’s essential part. Whether it’s fiction or reality, I’m interested in whether I can catch a glimpse of the “evil part” that the person feels they shouldn’t show to others.

I was not supposed to normally be into “Violet Evergarden” because I am that type of person. I feel that including the people around her, more than anyone else, the protagonist herself is a person who is not associated with “malice” and they are the type of people who I cannot be originally interested in.

But in reality, it was completely different. The “pure hearts” of the people who support the world of the story really struck me, and I was done in by their straightforwardness. I think a switch was flipped that I had never even imagined such a thing existed in me before, and this must have caused the tears to flow out rapidly.

I still don’t really like “stories without malice”. However, when confronted with the pure and sincere “innocence” of “Violet Evergarden”, I realized that even the hearts of a person who can only react to “malice” can be moved.

I Don’t Want to Verbalize What I Feel

If you read my blog “Lushiluna,” you’ll understand that I usually want to express what I think and feel from books and movies in words. By obligating myself to “write” what I feel, I can take the time to reflect on “what exactly I was thinking and feeling,” and by verbalizing it, I can be made aware of my senses again.

However, precisely because I have continued to write in that way, I have also felt the limits of verbal expression. That is the point that “there is no word that perfectly matches my thoughts and emotions 100%.”

“Words” are always just approximations. When we express our thoughts and feelings, we’re just replacing them with the closest “words.” Inevitably, I cannot help but feeling sense of discomfort, as if you are wearing shoes that do not fit.

I usually write while thinking, “It is better to record my thoughts and feelings, even if only as an approximation, while understanding such limitations of verbalizing them.

However, this time, I felt a little different. Because it will inevitably be out of sync with my own thinking and feeling if I verbalize it, and as for “Violet Evergarden,” I felt that I did not want to leave the contents of my head in such an inadequate form.

I rarely feel such way usually. Normally, I write without being conscious of the fact that “language is an imperfect way of recording.”

This time, however, I felt that if I tried to write my thoughts and feelings, I would find myself feeling “That’s not true.” I felt that no matter what words I tried to use to describe them, I would not be able to tolerate the discrepancy.

If it existed, I couldn’t help but feel I’d want a machine that could perfectly capture the state of my brain right after watching a movie, like a photograph. I would like to have a machine that can store “this kind of feeling” that cannot be expressed in words as it is, and that can reproduce “this kind of feeling” at any time by connecting the machine to the brain.

That feeling of not knowing why I am crying, but definitely having some part of my replaced, is something I would like to preserve as something more accurate without language.

Content Introduction

The story begins with an introduction that implies the existence of a person named “Violet Evergarden” in the past.

Daisy is a granddaughter who has lost her grandmother. She scolds her mother, saying, “Grandma was pitiful because you were always working.” Although she feels gratitude towards her mother deep down, she can’t express it well in words.

Daisy’s mother tells her that her grandmother received a letter every year on her birthday. It turns out that her great-grandmother had passed away at a young age, but had requested that letters be delivered for 50 years after her death. In the past, there was a profession of “Automatic Handwriting Dolls” who wrote letters on behalf of others, and her great-grandmother asked one such person to do it for her.

Daisy, who was rereading letters her grandmother had received, found a cut-out newspaper article from the past in the same box. It featured “Violet Evergarden,” who was mentioned as the one who wrote the letters on behalf of her great-grandmother.

Here, time rewinds to the past.

Violet, highly praised as an Automatic Handwriting Doll, had also entrusted with the honorable task of “ghostwriting letters for ‘Thanksgiving to the Sea’.”

However, despite being highly accomplished, Violet carries a wish that she knows will never come true. Despite understanding that it can never be granted, she spends every night writing letters.

This wish is related to Violet’s painful past. She was once a “weapon.”

As an orphan, Violet was picked up by a colonel named Dietfried to be used as a “weapon” on the battlefield. However, his younger brother Gilbert protected her. While growing up, Violet held dear feelings of affection for Gilbert. Nonetheless, the shadows cast by war were dark. Although they fought together on the battlefield, Gilbert disappeared and was never heard from again and Violet herself also suffered great harm.

After the war, Claudia, who was involved with Violet as a Lieutenant Colonel during the war, founded the “CH Postal Company”, and Violet spent her days there as the top Automatic Handwriting Doll, diligently focusing only on her work…

Conclusion

It was an amazing work anyway. I’m thinking of going to the movie theater again if I have the chance, and I might even buy the DVD.