What makes Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden special

Recently, I wrote about Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden. Recently, Episode 5 of The Day I Became a God (神様になった日) aired with a similar concept. In Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden, a dying mother wrote letters to her young daughter (7 years old), with a letter to be delivered each year on her daughter's birthday for 50 years. In Episode 5 of The Day I Became a God, a dying mother recorded a video message for her daughter, one message to be shown each year until she turns 18 (she was 8 years old at the time her mother died).

Here is the excerpt from Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden.

Here is the excerpt from Episode 5 of The Day I Became a God.

The basic concept is the same: a message from the dying mother every year on the daughter's birthday, for many years after the mother is dead. This concept itself is touching enough.

But what makes Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden special is the story of the writing of those letters. Clara is the dying mother, and Ann is the daughter. Ann knew her mother was dying, but she could not understand why her mother was spending so much time writing letters. Time which she could be spending with Ann instead. Time that Ann wanted to spend with her mother, because Ann knew there was little time left. Ann even asked Clara if there was someone even more important to Clara than Ann, because if not, why is she so bent on writing those letters instead of spending time with Ann. It is this part of the story that adds so much more depth to the concept of "a message on every birthday". This inner conflict in the dying mother Clara, who wanted to spend time with her daughter Ann, yet could not do so because she needed to spend time writing those letters to that same daughter. Ann was jealous of herself, yet she did not know it at that time.

The other beauty of the letters from Clara to Ann: Clara wrote each letter imaging how Ann would be like at each year in the future. Clara, who would never get to see Ann grow up with her own eyes, had to imagine what she would see if she got to live. 😭

Anyway, here's the first 10 minutes of Violet Evergarden the Movie, made available by KyoAni, which references Episode 10.

Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden is in a class of its own.