I have a lot I want to say about Violet Evergarden, but this is a First Glance post, so I am going to try to limit myself to my impressions from the first episode.
Violet Evergarden is about a child soldier struggling with PTSD and limb loss in the aftermath of a Great War analogue. It is not immediately obvious why Violet experiences the exact set of circumstances Violet experiences, since child soldiers seem rare from the few glimpses of battle we're given in her flashbacks, but her struggle is poignantly illustrated in studio Kyoto Animation's most stunning television work to date. With a feeble grasp of human emotion and close to zero socialization, upon her release from the hospital she is thrown into a world foreign to her: a world at peace. She has to learn how to live and work in this bizarre new land devoid of orders and bloodshed.
Visually, the series is a stand-out. The soundtrack is noticeably good, especially as the episode lingers on atmospheric shots. And, unlike the vast majority of anime—which is marked by exaggerated reactions and comical expressions, even in "serious" stories—Violet Evergarden treats us to a fantasy world in which humans interact with each other in a more realistic way. Subtle body language is employed, as is natural clumsiness. Not everything is stated aloud. Conversation sometimes falters—and not in a bad writing, "is that really how that scene ends?" kinda way. It's almost like an entirely different medium from the rest of the shows I've written about on this blog.
Lastly... despite her cool anachronistic prosthetics, Violet Evergarden is disabled. The treatment of this, and also the treatment of other characters' treatment of this, is good. She also carries a heavy load of trauma—and she's not alone. Her new boss, unfortunately the closest thing she seems to have to a therapist, is clearly also struggling. The entire nation, likely, is feeling the psychological price of its military victory. It would be disingenuous to say, "I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops," because I've seen the whole show. Instead I'll just say this:
Recommend: YES.
Rewatch Disclaimer: I watched Violet Evergarden earlier this year as it was coming out.
I got this show all wrong, especially at the beginning.
I thought it would be trashy at its core: a stunning girl who needs to be taught how to be human, by a man and basically this terribly gender dynamic imbalanced born hot yesterday kind of otaku light novel fare.
Instead, over the next 4-5 episodes I thought it was Aria lol.
Still wrong, but I guess it’s okay for me to be wrong about this show in this case.
I can see how you could have those fears from the first episode. For me the tenderness with which the environment is drawn led me to hope that it would be more than that, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Early on I decided this show was FMP x Kiki’s Delivery Service and nothing it did ever really disabused me of that notion 😛