When I was watching Violet Evergarden the Movie, there was this scene which threw me off. I don't want to spoil the movie for those who have yet to catch it (but before you watch the movie, watch the anime series first). So I shall keep things about the movie as broad and generic as possible.
There was a scene in which Violet was on a ship, and she lost her balance when a sudden wave hit the ship causing the ship to rock. This felt inconsistent to me. Violet is supposed to be a "weapon", someone who is very good in close combat. In an earlier scene, it was shown that Violet has not lost her combat skills. So losing her balance just did not seem right to me. It was a minor detail, and did provide something for the story (not much, though, and inconsequential). But this inconsistency between her almost-superhuman physical skills and her losing balance just tugged at me.
Another point that I noticed was the radio tower. At the time of the sea festival, when Erica came up to tell Violet and company about her upcoming play in a month, the tower was built to about half its height. At the end of the movie, during the fireworks, the group was seen standing in front of the place where the play was being held. It is possible that the play has just started to be shown, and they were giving support to Erica. But the tower had been completed, with the fireworks likely to be the celebration of its completion. Which means that the tower was completed in the span of around ONE month. It is like the Eiffel Tower going from half-complete to completed in one month. That would be an engineering feat since the tower was being built throughout the anime series. And we know it is the same play that Erica talked about at the start of the movie because the name of the play was on the pamphlet she handed out as well as in the final part of the movie in front of the theater. Of course, this can be consistent if Erica's first play was still being acted out in theaters several years after it was first revealed, and the group decided to go see the play (again) after several years. But that didn't seem to be what the scene was saying.
Also, Hodgins is supposed to have left the army as a lieutenant colonel. So when the kids at Ekarte Island tried to surprise him with a praying mantis, it doesn't seem likely that an army lieutenant colonel would be surprised by insects and such...
There is also the part about no men left on Ekarte Island except old men and young boys, because every men who could be drafted had been sent to war and never returned. But there was a toddler on Ekarte Island... and given that Gilbert had been on the island only a year ago, he couldn't be the father too. This is a really really small inconsistency... but still... haha 😅
It is very hard to stay consistent to the setting and character design when writing stories. It is the difference between Frank Herbert's Dune books and those by his son. Small inconsistencies like this one won't hurt a great story. But it does make me even more appreciative of those writers who put that extra effort into making sure their stories are consistent. I only hope that when I do write something, I can stay consistent myself.
Note: This is not a criticism of the movie. I really really love the movie very much. I am just writing this as a note to remind myself about the need for story consistency because there are people who notice such details.
Updated on December 15, 2020.
2 comments:
Violet lose her balance because she hold the stuff of Gilbert. Thats why you see a zoom to the toys shes holding soon after that. Her both hands wasnt moving a single bit. Firmly holding her Majors stuff. Normally you move your arms out of reflex to regain balance. It wants to show where the focus was and how important these things are to Violet.
A scene in the series when she is fighting the rebels on the top of the train is similar to this. In order not to kill her focus was on preventing the enemies from falling off the moving train while fighting. Thats why she lost that round. The focus and priority set on this is completely changed from the war child Violet. We all know that normally five or six opponents are nothing to her.
So for me its not an inconsistency.
Maybe I have been onboard ships for too long, so much so that keeping balance during such rocking and rolling is second nature.
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