VIOLET EVERGARDEN

RELEASED 26 APRIL 2018 | 15 | Blu-ray

Directors Haruka Fujita,

Taichi Isidate

Cast Yui Ishikawa, Daisuke Namikawa, Takehito Koyasu

Violet Evergarden is an alternate world story, but emotional drama takes priority over worldbuilding. Violet, a young woman, has silver prosthetic hands and speaks like an android. But she’s human, a former child soldier who’s never connected with her emotions. Now the war’s over, she finds a job composing letters for a range of clients. Travelling widely, she comes to understand other people’s feelings better than her own.

Drawn with dazzling beauty, the series’ fictional countries resemble the likes of Italy and Russia, in a vague, precomputer era. It’s not explained how such a world developed Violet’s prostheses, and her background makes little sense – a killer child becoming such a supremed composed adult? Yet the stories are affecting; many are compassionate tales of people working through tragedy, which now have real-world resonance. Studio Kyoto Animation was hit by an arson attack in 2019 that killed many staff, yet carries on.

Extras This Collector’s Edition includes an extended finale, the OVA 14th episode, and four compilation films, plus previews, TV spots and clean titles. It comes with five postcards, two books of replica stamps and a 156-page artbook. Andrew Osmond