Teck's Treehouse: Notes from Violet Evergarden the Movie's production staff audio commentary

I finally opened my special edition Blu-ray of Violet Evergarden the Movie.

And realised that it comes with THREE audio commentaries. Not the usual one... a total of three, with one by the production staff, one by the voice actors, and one by the music staff. That's a total of 7 hours of audio commentary that I need to sit through (eventually). First, though, I thought I would listen to the one by the production staff.

This is a short summary of the things I noted down while listening to the audio commentary.

The production staff commentary featured seven persons: Director Ishidate, Ogawa (staging/presentation aka 演出), Kuroda (animation supervisor), Yamamoto (3D direction), Shinohara (background art), Funamoto (compositing), and Yoneda (colour supervisor). Due to the number of people, the commentary was broken into three parts, with Director Ishidate present for the entire session: part one featuring Ogawa and Kuroda, part two with Yamamoto and Shinohara, and part three with Funamoto and Yoneda.

In the first part, they talked about this movie being the first time Kyoto Animation worked on something that has an ultra-wide aspect ratio instead of the usual 16:9 ratio. A lot of thought was put into the pauses and silence, and Ishidate felt that he has more or less gotten the right amount of pauses/silence without dragging out the film too much. Another challenge he faced was with the timing for introducing Gilbert. This is because the film's main focus is Violet. He wanted to bring in Gilbert at a time which gave enough of a teaser for the rest of the film, but without letting his presence draw the spotlight away from Violet.

Ishidate also talked about the song 未来のひとへ (Mirai no hito e) which was played during the credit roll. This song was actually written for the vocal album of the TV series, but he found the song, especially a particular line, very fitting for this film. "目には見えないもの、見ようとする心" (which translates to "Things that cannot be seen with the eyes, and the heart that tries to see them") Even as things change in Violet's world, some things which cannot be seen continue to remain the same, and she continues to try to see those things and put them into letters for her clients.

Small tidbit shared by Ishidate during this part. He mentioned that he cried during the final pre-screening of the movie. He also mentioned that he was confident of pulling off this movie. With his background as an animator, he was like, "We will just draw it." Nothing is impossible.

During the second part, Shinohara mentioned that the focus of the background art was to provide first impressions using brightness and contrast. Yamamoto said that the 3D team did their best to blend the use of 3D and CGI with the hand-drawn art styles. As far as possible, if the viewer cannot discern that a scene was created in 3D instead of hand-drawn, that would mean they have succeeded. Violet's typewriter was also given a bit of wear and tear over the entire series to show Violet's own growth.

In the third part, Yoneda talked about how colours were chosen to blend with the background, so that the cells and the background are harmonised. She also mentioned the deliberate use of darkness, since electricity was still not very widespread in Violet's time. Also, they did not have a standard colour palette. Instead, colours were selected for every scene. This movie really tested her and she had to use every bit of knowledge and experience to pull it off, plus try out new things. Funamoto also talked about his similar experiences in the movie's production.

It was also in the third part that Ishidate mentioned that, in the TV series, Violet had to learn to live without Gilbert. She was the one bringing happiness and closure to other people. So he wanted this movie to bring happiness to Violet. And at the end of the movie, before the credit roll, there was a shot of Violet's back as she walked, and then the camera moved beyond. This was to say that we have been chasing after Violet, but it is time to move beyond. (I guess this is KyoAni's way of saying they are moving beyond Violet Evergarden as a series.) This scene was also produced because the animators, during the initial planning stage, drew up animations of how people wearing heels would walk. One for females, one for males. These animation drafts were meant to help future production staff when they worked on animating those who wear heels (like Violet and Benedict), but Ishidate decided to use it for the end of the movie to show the staff that he recognised their work.

I think there was a part of the audio commentary when Ishidate was weeping, but I can't be sure. He probably recalled his time working with the victims of the fire. Shinohara also made a brief mention of Watanabe Mikiko, the background art director. The staff's interaction with each other showed how close they are, and just thinking about this breaks my heart.

Okay, this is the short summary for the production staff audio commentary. I will need to find time to listen to the other two (voice actors and music staff) plus go through the audio commentaries for the TV series and Gaiden movie...

Note: They also talked about things like professionalism and attitude towards work, which I have mostly left out from this summary.

My overall thoughts on Violet Evergarden The Movie.

Events:

First cast greeting event for Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie: Cast greeting event to thank fans

Production staff event at screening of Violet Evergarden the Movie

Letter of appreciation from Violet Evergarden's author Akatsuki Kana

Post on Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Translations of short stories:

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)