another show recomendation

I think I am doing better, i.e. doing what I should and not what I shouldn’t

Anyway, I had my friend over this week, and we sat and watched one of my favorite animas. Violet Evergarden. So that’s what I’m going to talk about his week. Again I will try to do this one spoiler-free. This was one of the first animes I ever watched and now, looking back, I realize how visually beautiful it is. The scenes look like paintings. This is one that does none of the cliché anime tropes in design. Like when someone becomes angry or confused the look of the character becomes very cartoony. (I personally don’t really mind that look. It can help get the feel a crossed in a simple way. But this one never does that, which is good too. It would not fit for this story.)

The story is beautiful too but rather complex. It focuses a lot on love. And not just romantic love, there is that as well as rejected love, familial love, love for those lost, and even self-love. It deals strongly with emotions. Your main character was a child soldier who has never know anything but following orders and the brutality of war. Now that the war is over, she has to integrate into normal society. She has emotions, but at first does not show them or understand them. You follow her journey from “war tool” to a normal girl. In an extreme way, it shows what solders go through when they come back from war and have to become normal civilians again. Now the show is extreme because the character had never known anything but war and killing. Solders in war may well have to shut their emotions off. To survive mentally and physically you can’t let yourself feel too much. Empathy for the enemy could get you killed. But when you reenter society, you are expected to think and feel like everyone else, to feel what they feel and to understand those feelings. For solders it may be harder to turn that all back on, and what happens when you do? You will have to come to turns with all you did while you were a solder. Now I am not a solder and to be honest have never talked to any about this. All I have is what I have observed, gotten second hand, or imagined. But I think if we think about it all this way, it makes sense. PTSD and such things are being recognized and talked about more I think. When we look at things from this angle is it any wonder it’s so hard on solders when they come home and why so many end up homeless or commit suicide. Most movies and stories focus on the thrill of fighting and the glory of it. Very rarely do we focus on what soldiers have to go through when they get home, and what emotions they have to deal with. It’s one of those things that if you have not been through it, can you really understand it? I did watch something about a former solder watch Violet Evergarden, and it sounds like they got most of it pretty accurate.

So on one hand this can be watch and thought of how a solder reintegrates into society. But it covers so many emotions and things, and the solder end is just one angle. You experience many emotions along with the main character. Another facet of the story is how we say one thing and mean another, of how we use social niceties rather than being honest, for better or worse. Also how the written word can help us when the spoken fails or we feel we can’t say what we want.

I watched the ova/bonus episode last night (we did not get to that one the other day) and that one always gets me. It deals with the topic of those who have loved ones, who went missing in action, and how the war is over, but they have not come home. It’s easy from the outside to say well clearly they are dead. But how would you react. You have no proof. There’s no body. No one to tell you they saw them die. There’s no evidence except they have not come back yet. Hope is heard to kill, for better or worse. One character says that they know their loved one is not coming back, but they just can’t give up yet. And this is still something people deal with today. We might be better able to keep track of our solders today, but there are still those who go missing. It’s hard to say goodbye who you have nothing left to say goodbye to.

So, to say the least, this show is a rollercoaster ride of emotions, but one I highly recommend watching. I call it a gut puncher. The first episode introduce a lot to you, then it may feel like it slows down for the next several, but its slowly building the ground work and setting it all up to stable you in the gut. I know this may make it seem like you should not watch it, but this is the best way I can describe it. I am not a person who likes sad stories, but I highly recommend this show. Also it does not end sadly, not in my opinion.

This show is not heavy on the action. There is some action, and I think it is rated PG 13, so I would not recommend for too young of viewers. But it is more about emotions than action. Personally I like it better for that reason because it has a heaver and more lasting feel then shows that entertain with action. (Some show can be really good like that, but personally I think too many rely on action for entertainment rather than telling a good story.)

Lastly, there are two movies that should be coming out. One is out I think, but I have not found it in English or even with English subtitles. Last year the studio that made this show had a fire that was a tragedy in and of itself. (I heard it was arson and that several people died in.) I don’t know if that’s why we are getting two movies instead of a season two. I don’t even know if there will be a season two or not.

There is also a light novel that this is all based off of that I have read. This is one of the few cases where I like the movie/tv show better than the book. The book had some wired-ish parts and the show I think does better at capturing the emotions. Also, the end of the book felt to hyped and cliché. My opinion. But the book does give more background and info.

Well, that’s all I have to say I think. If you want a good story that’s deep with plenty to think about, I highly recommend Violet Evergarden. Really I just highly recommend this show. Oh and I think it’s on Netflix.

God Bless.