Violet Evergarden Special

Violet Evergarden Special

Introduction

Since Boruto episode 65 has been delayed by a week, I had to come up with something else to write about today. Luckily, the Violet Evergarden special was finally fan subbed.

Unfortunately, the subtitles were so bad that I basically had to translate them into proper English. If this special episode is ever officially released outside of Japan, which I doubt it will any time soon if ever, I’ll have to give it a rewatch with real subtitles.

This special, also known as episode 14, came bundled with the Blu-ray set of the series. Although it’s called episode 14, the contents of the episode actually come somewhere in the middle of the series, not at the end (after a small amount of searching I couldn’t find out exactly where this episode falls).

Summary

The episode starts out with Violet watching an opera, something which seems out of character for her considering she isn’t with anyone else from the postal service. However, we then learn that the reason she’s there is because her latest client is the star of the show.

The letter Violet is tasked with writing is vague at first. The only information she’s given is that the letter is to a man who has yet to come back from the war, and that it should be moving to both men and women alike.

While the Violet of episode 13 could probably accomplish this task because she has gained more experience by then, it proves too difficult a task for her at this time since she still doesn’t truly understand love. Up to this point, all of her letters have been dictated to her.

We later learn that this letter isn’t actually a letter that’s going to be sent to anyone in particular, but rather, it’s going to be used as a song in an upcoming opera. Despite reminding her client that she writes letters, not songs, Violet is determined to see this job through to the end.

After getting some help from her coworkers, Violet decides that the best course of action is to follow her client in order to get a better understanding of her heart. Once she learns that Violet also lost someone dear to her in the war, the client opens up to her more.

In the end, the letter/song Violet writes is about longing to see someone again who will never return, something she herself has increasingly had to grapple with throughout the series. I’d go into more detail, but the fan subtitles for the song were so bad that it really didn’t make sense.

While this episode didn’t seem as emotional as some of those in the original series, it still made me feel a little something. However, I’m not sure if that was really due to anything that happened in the episode, or if I’ve been conditioned to feel things when certain songs play in this series.

Violet Evergarden from the anime Violet Evergarden
Violet Evergarden

Conclusion

In the end I decided to give this episode a 9/10 even though it felt more like an 8. My reasoning for this is that I really feel like the quality of the fan subtitles detracted from the episode and so I think with proper subtitles it would be better.

Also, since this is just a single episode, and it’s expected that viewers have already seen the first 13 episodes, it’s difficult to judge this special in isolation. Although I recognize this bias, I still stand by my rating when the taking the rest of the series into consideration.

If I had never seen Violet Evergarden before this episode, my view of it would be drastically different, but I think it would be unfair to judge it in that way.

Finally, while I do suggest that people watch this special, I would recommend waiting until there are proper subtitles for it. Also, watch the first season of the series first because context is important.

My review of the movie Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll is available now.

Leave a Comment