English Dub Review: Violet Evergarden: The Movie

Overview:

Several years have passed since the end of The Great War. As the radio tower in Leidenschaftlich continues to be built, telephones will soon become more relevant, leading to a decline in demand for “Auto Memory Dolls.” Even so, Violet Evergarden continues to rise in fame after her constant success with writing letters. However, sometimes the one thing you long for is the one thing that does not appear.

Our Take:

Welcome back Kyoto Animation! This and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S are their first projects after the fire in 2018. It’s so great to have them back making amazing anime. The animation in this film is truly spectacular and I am so glad they were able to rebuild and move on from such an awful tragedy.

Violet Evergarden: The Movie is such a fantastic movie and ends the journey of Violet so well. I had no idea this was the ending of the series as a whole until I was doing my research for the film. It’s sad that it’s the end but it sticks the landing so well that I’m okay with it. If there is anything you should know about me from any of my reviews it’s that I think the ending of something is very important.

There were so many poignant and beautiful moments in this movie that I don’t think I have time to list them all. Plus, I don’t want to because everyone should experience this beautiful movie and series. I will say that the movie opens with a reference to one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful episodes of the series in my opinion. This movie runs the gamut of emotions and I was pretty much crying the entire time which probably isn’t surprising.

There were a lot of sad moments but a lot of happy ones as well. If there is one thing Violet Evergarden has done well it’s portraying what it means to be human. We hurt, laugh, cry, and make mistakes but one thing we do that’s great is love. If I had to pick a theme of this movie and the series as a whole it would be “love”.

Throughout the series, Violet is trying to find out what “I love you” means after her guardian Major Gilbert says that to her after passing away in battle. Violet was rather disconnected from human emotions after being a child soldier of sorts so it’s really amazing to see her growth throughout the series.

A lot of the beautiful and human moments would fall flat though without some amazing voice acting. All the previous voice actors reprise their roles and some new characters of course bring new voices. Erika Harlacher returns as Violet and to say she does a great job would be a huge understatement. Being the main character, Violet of course gets many emotional moments and Erika pulls them off amazingly.

Claudian Hodgins is played by Kyle McCarley and this might have been his best performance. He had a lot of really good moments and I was really impressed. I really like Kyle and this just raised that opinion for me. There are two new characters that don’t get a ton of screentime but were impactful regardless. Yuris is a sick child enlisting Violet’s services and they are portrayed by Anne Yatco. Anne does a great job of getting across just the kind of predicament Yuris finds themselves in and how hard it can be.

Daisy Magnolia is the granddaughter of a character from the series and she is portrayed by Brittany Cox. Daisy definitely has a lot of growing up to do but you can understand why she acts the way she does. We don’t often understand the things our parents and grandparents do for us until we are much older and experienced similar things ourselves.

Kyoto Animation has always made beautiful animation but I think they really outdid themselves with Violet Evergarden. The show, specials, and now the movie have been some of the most pleasing things to watch I have ever seen. If you are a fan of great human stories and amazing animation you have no excuse to not watch everything there is of Violet Evergarden. It might seem like a big commitment but I promise when you are done you will wish there was more.