Teck's Treehouse: July 2023

Once again, the Violet Evergarden franchise and Garden Museum Hiei will be having a collaboration titled "Violet Evergarden x Garden Museum Hiei: A flower garden with a parasol" from 18 August to 23 November 2023.
(Official announcement on Violet Evergarden website and the museum's website)

The official website for this collaboration is here.

Here is an image from Kyoani's website about this collaboration.

(Source: Violet Evergarden official website)

It shows a new Violet illustration created for this collaboration.

As with 2022, there will be tickets sold with merch. The first round, from 18 August 2023, is a set of 5 cards with illustrations, which can be bought with the ticket at 2,000 yen.

Update 4 August 2023: The illustrations for the set of 5 cards have been announced. (Update 2 September 2023: This set will be available until 15 September 2023, after which a new round of merch will be given with each ticket.)

(Update 4 September 2023: The garden announced today that the next round of merch that will be given with the 2,000 yen entrance fee will be a sketchbook spotting the key visuals from this and last year's collaboration.This sketchbook will be given to those who pay 2,000 yen for the entrance fee, starting from 16 September 2023.)

You can rent a parasol and walk around.

There are 15 parasols available at 4,000 yen (which includes a 1,000 yen deposit that is refunded to the user when the parasol is returned). Rental is by reservation on the website (via PassMarket) only. (Update 25 August 2023: Due to popular demand, the parasols will also be available for rental at the garden without prior reservations, subject to availability.)

The cafe will be selling water bottles with illustrations of either Violet or Gilbert, at 2,000 yen per bottle.

The theater beside the gift shop will feature an introduction of the museum, voiced by Violet's voice actor Ishikawa Yui. This recording will also be played at the car park (every 20 minutes, and the recording is the same as last year's).

Panel displays of scenes from the anime will also be put up at the gallery soRa.

The shop will also be selling merch.

The first round is a folding fan, at 4,000 yen.

Similar to 2022, the key visuals drawn for this year (five of them: Violet, Gilbert, Hodgins, Benedict, and Cattleya) will also be put up as panels around the garden area.

At various locations around the museum, you can find stamps which can be used to produce an overlaid stamp picture for a postcard. The postcard itself costs 500 yen and can be bought at the entrance gates.

In addition, the cable car that leads up to the garden museum will also be selling a special ticket that comes with an A5 clear file. (Update 25 Aug 2023: There will also be announcements, voiced by Ishikawa Yui as Violet, in the cable car introducing the cable car and Mount Hiei.)

Similar to 2022, further announcements about merch and such will be made via Twitter and the official website. I will also update this post as and when new information comes in.

Update 7 August 2023: A new illustration, specially drawn for this collaboration, was unveiled today. It shows Violet in a garden of flowers, based on a similar Impressionist work of art.

Update 9 August 2023: A new merch was announced, a shachihata name seal stamp with last year's key visual. The name on the seal is shown as Hiei (I guess that's because the place is, after all, Garden Museum Hiei). It is not exactly cheap, though, with a price of 6,000 yen and an announcement that it will be a limited production run. It seems that those who buy the seal can customise the name, up to five characters in one of eight fonts. The ink can be one of six colours: vermilion, black, red, blue, green, or purple.

Update 10 August 2023: The design of the cable car wrapping was unveiled on the cable car's social media account. The image is not of good quality, though... I think it was intentional.

Update 12 August 2023: More merch announced today. There will be coins sporting an illustration of Violet, slightly different from last year's design. It will be sold at 800 yen.

A drink stirrer with an illustration of Violet will also be sold at 1,200 yen.

Update 15 August 2023: Two more sets of new merch were announced. The first is a series of preserved flowers in a glass dome. Each cost 5,000 yen and every customer can only buy one. The illustrations used are those from 2022's collaboration.

The next is pouch printed with the key illustration from last year's collaboration. Inside are a set of five cookies printed with illustrations, plus a sticker with one of the five illustrations from last year's collaboration (random sticker illustration). The pouch and cookies will be 2,000 yen each, and each customer can only buy up to three pouches.

(Images taken from Garden Museum Hiei's official website or Twitter account, unless otherwise stated)

Update 29 August 2023: A local bus company, Kojak Bus, will have the event's logo on buses that ply the route between Hieizan Sakamoto Station and the cable car, as well as the shuttle buses from the cable car to the garden itself.

Update 29 August 2023: The garden unveiled the poster for the event today.

(No, I don't think you can actually buy this poster, although they will probably sell some merch based on this soon.)

Update 5 September 2023: The garden announced another merch today. A stampbook with the key visual for this year's collaboration will be on sale from 16 September 2023 at 3,000 yen.

Each person can buy up to three stampbooks.

Update 6 September 2023: A series of drink stirrers with the illustrations for this year will go on sale at the garden from 16 September 2023. Each stirrer costs 1,200 yen.

Each person can buy up to three of them.

Update 7 September 2023: More coins, sporting the illustrations from this year's collaboration, will go on sale at 800 yen per coin from 16 September 2023.

Update 9 September 2023: A candy can spotting the key illustration for this collaboration was announced today. It will be sold at the garden from 16 September 2023 onward at 1,600 yen per can.

The cover of the can is actually a magnet.

Update 10 September 2023: A set of smartphone stands spotting the illustrations for this year's collaboration will be sold at the garden from 16 September 2023 onward. Each stand will cost 800 yen, and each customer can buy up to three.

Update 11 September 2023: I think the garden is going to keep announcing new merch until 16 September, because today, they announced a series of cloth posters (5 designs) that will be available from that day.

Each cloth poster will cost 1,600 yen and each customer can buy up to three of them.

Update 12 September 2023: More fake flowers were announced today, at the same price of 5,000 yen each. This time, they will be using the illustrations from this year's collaboration.

Each customer can only buy one. They will be available from 16 September 2023.

Update 13 September 2023: The garden announced another set of new merch: six clear files spotting the illustrations for this year's collaboration.

Each clear file costs 600 yen and each customer can buy up to three of them. It seems that the garden is more or less going to make the same merch as last year but using the new illustrations.

Update 14 September 2023: I think I can start copying and pasting. The garden announced "new" merch today, a pouch printed with the key illustration from this year's collaboration. Inside are a set of five cookies printed with illustrations, plus a sticker with one of the five illustrations from this year's collaboration (random sticker illustration).

The pouch and cookies will be 2,000 yen each, and each customer can only buy up to three pouches. This "new" pouch will be available from 16 September 2023.

Update 15 September 2023: Yes, this year, the garden will be selling pens with Violet's illustration too. Price is 2,800 yen and each customer can buy up to three pens.

Pens with the illustrations of the other four characters will be available at a later date. At this rate, all that remains is for them to announce the folding screen, tote bag, and metallic card souvenirs like last year's.

Update 22 September 2023: From 23 September 2023, pens with the illustrations of the other four characters will be available, at the same price of 2,800 yen per pen and customers limited to buying three.

The pens are all the same, with four colours (black, blue, green, red) and a mechanical pencil. Only the design is different. (Personally, I don't really like the colour combinations for the designs of these pens.)

Update 27 September 2023: From 29 September 2023, the garden will be selling a frame for the coins. Each frame costs 2,000 yen and customers can buy up to three.

Of course, the coins are being sold separately. 😊

Update 8 October 2023: Starting from 21 October 2023, visitors can get a metallic card (either gold or silver) with an illustration of Violet if they pay 2,000 yen for the entrance fee, or a set of both cards if they pay 2,800 yen. This is similar to last year's collaboration, except the illustration is from this year's collab.

Each card will also come with a small clear holder in colour.

Update 17 November 2023: Between 18 to 23 November 2023, visitors who bought the entrance ticket with the metal cards above, and completed the overlaid stamp postcard (which means you have the buy the postcard) can send the postcard from the garden itself by bringing the postcard to the garden's information centre. Postage will be borne by the garden.

Update 17 November 2023: The garden announced today that, while the standing displays will be removed once the collaboration event ends on 23 November 2023, the merchandise will continue to be sold at the garden while they have stock. Also, the garden will only be opened until 3 December 2023 before closing for the rest of the year.

Update 5 December 2023: The garden announced that the merch sold during the event will be available for order online from 8 December 2023 until 15 January 2024. The site for placing orders will be announced on its X account at a later date.

Update 7 December 2023: The website for purchases/orders has been announced. It is kotolab-store.net. The website will accept orders from 10:00 on 8 December 2023 until 23:59 on 15 January 2024.

I just hope they will sell the merch on an online store like last year, so that we don't end up with the situation we saw last year. (Last year's collaboration was Violet Evergarden x Garden Museum Hiei: A tale of flowers and letters.) (Update 5 December 2023: Yes, it was announced that the merch will be available for order on an online store.)

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)

Diethard Bougainvillea's If (unofficial translation of ディートフリート・ブーゲンビリアIf)