As of today, it has been a year since Violet Evergarden The Movie (劇場版 ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン) came out in the cinemas, which I managed to catch on the opening day. The amazing thing is, according to this cinema schedule here, it is still showing here in Japan. Although only at a single cinema in Kyoto. But, a full year and still showing. Wow! (Update 19 October 2021: The movie is still showing at that single cinema in Kyoto.)
Over this past year, I watched it 14 times. I just hope it will return to Yokohama again, so that I have another chance to watch it on the big screen. All the better if it is a Dolby Cinema.
My overall thoughts on Violet Evergarden The Movie.
Events:
Translations of short stories:
The Tailor and the Auto-Memories Doll (unofficial translation of 仕立て屋と自動手記人形) Gilbert Bougainvillea and the Fleeting Dream (unofficial translation of "ギルベルト・ブーゲンビリアと儚い夢")
Violet Evergarden short stories: "Logbook entry" and "Diary entry" (unofficial translation)
The Starry Night and the Lonely Two (unofficial translation of 星降りの夜とさみしいふたり)
Diethard Bougainvillea's If (unofficial translation of ディートフリート・ブーゲンビリアIf) Insights on the movie:
Audio commentary notes:
2 comments:
Hi there! It's good to see your blog with many cool translations of Japanese content about Violet Evergarden, I like it so much. Thank you!
But if I may ask a question, what do you think about the age setting in Violet Evergarden? I do not know much about Japanese culture, but honestly, I found 25 years old guy fall in love with ten years old kid is kind of weird, it reminded me about the pedophile. I don't know why KyoAni didn't make Violet older so it would be much lesser controversial. Do Japanese find it weird too? Or there're some meanings behind it?
Sorry if this question is weird to you, but please answer me so I could enjoy this movie again on Neflix in the next month.
Thank you for the comment.
I think the first thing to clarify is that 25-year-old Gilbert did not fall in love with 10-year-old Violet. He took her in at that age, but their relationship developed over several years. Also, this relationship must be considered in its wartime setting, in an age where things are a lot more chaotic and people have different ways of dealing with their own realities then. Their relationship changed as Violet grew emotionally. I think Violet's age setting was because they needed her to be young enough to portray her emotional growth without the complications of having a 18-year-old female soldier serving in the military obeying every order given by her superior officer.
In the light novel, it is actually given in more details. As Gilbert's feelings for Violet moved from "I am taking care of her" to "I am slowly being drawn to her romantically", Gilbert also realised that Violet was still emotionally immature. There was always the element of "I love you, but I will wait until you are ready to accept this love" in how Gilbert acted.
At the end of the day, maybe it is best not to read too much into it. It is just a fictional story. The key message is not the age gap between the two of them; the age setting is just used to propel the main story, which is one about the emotional growth of Violet as she slowly learns what emotions are through her interactions with others.
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