The first title of the day is Violet Evergarden, based on the light novel series of the same name. It follows the story of Violet Evergarden, who has served in the military until becoming hospitalized, she has been called inhuman, nothing more than a weapon, by everyone.
The episode begins with the titular character traveling down a street with who we later find out is her major, Gilbert Bougainvillea. She stops to look at a emerald brooch that she says remind her of his eyes, she asks what this feeling is. This is a riveting scene, it gives the feeling that something is about to happen and helps to captivate Violet's emotions.
Time then jumps forward and we see Violet in her hospital bed, writing a letter that she intends to send to Gilbert but never gets the chance to. Claudia Hodgins, a former lieutenant colonel that served alongside her, comes to pick her up as she is to be discharged today. Another riveting bit occurs for a few second, but the meaning is not clear and it gave me the impression that this would be a horror series, which it is not. It's not long before Violet questions Claudia about the major's whereabouts to which, after some dodging, he gives in and tells her that Gilbert sent him to pick her up and that she needs to come with him. It's clear what actually happened to the major, but no one can bring them self to say it.
Claudia takes Violet to the Evergarden household, which is apparently Gilbert's relatives instead of her own, but whatever. He tells her to stay her with them, he says that Gilbert wanted her to lead a happy and peaceful life with them, but she is quick is refuse and doesn't accept this, instead she wants to continue her service in the war, but that isn't possible since the war has already ended. She then says to throw her away, she has no place in the world anymore so she should just be dismembered. A lot of what she says is about how she isn't anything more than a tool of war, a slow but gradual feeling of sympathy grows in me with each remark.
And with that, he tell her that she isn't useless and tells her to come work for him. Now that he has been relieved of duty, he started a postal service for civilians, since a service like that hasn't existed before and as such a lot of people don't even know how to write and so instead they write letters for them. After working there for a day, a customer comes in that requests a letter to be written to his childhood friend, with the words "I love you" at the end. This inspires her to serve as a person who writes letters for customers, called Auto Memory Doll, to find out what those words mean, since that is the last words she ever heard uttered by Gilbert.
The anime has stunning visuals which works with the plot, which comes off as a movie. This is one of the few times, if not the only time, where I could buy that the story originated in a light novel. The tone of the show is established from the very start, and it maintains that atmosphere for the majority of it's duration. The story is very well thought out, a person who has seen battle since a very early age trying to find their place in society, it's not the type of plot that you find often in anime, nor do you find a title with adult characters as opposed to teenagers and because of that. It is further original to set one in a postal office, which is pretty interesting. I enjoyed the first episode very much, it has a ton of potential and it taps into it right away, I look forward to see where they take it. Thank you very much for reading, look forward to my look at Death March, Märchen Mädchen and Koi wa Ameagari no You ni. Please have yourself a wonderful day.