This week for Anime Sunday I’m covering another series from this winter’s line up. It’s my Violet Evergarden Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot Synopsis: Violet is a soldier in the Leidenschaftlich Army who served under Major Gilbert Bougainvillea, who she was utterly devoted to. However, Violet is injured after a mission which resulted in the loss of her arms, requiring them to be replaced with prosthesis. Colonel Hodgins, an old acquaintance of Gilbert, arrives to pick up Violet. He explains to Violet that the war they were fighting has ended and peace has come, though he is unwilling to tell Violet what happened to Gilbert….

Plot: This isn’t a happy series, despite that I’m still deeply interested in watching this series despite how depressing the setting seems to be. I will note that this an adaptation of a completed Light Novel series, so the adaptation should cover the entire story, although I don’t know anything about it myself. I enjoyed this first episode, and I’m curious to see what occurs in later episodes.

Characters: Violet is a very broken young woman, and yet I still found her endearing, if a bit distant.  The rest of the cast is good too, although we don’t have much of their background story yet. Hell we don’t even have much of anyone’s background. Hopefully this is fleshed out sufficiently in subsequent episodes.

Art: This is a Kyoto Animation production, so the quality is quite good. That being said I still find it lacks the fluidity of ufotable’s work, but I wouldn’t use that particular animation studio as my gold standard if it wasn’t as good as it is.

Music: The score is very fitting, with little to no uplifting tones used in this first episode, it fits the somber mood of the episode incredibly well.

Overall: Definitely worth a watch, although I expect this series to be a real tearjerker given the mood of this first episode.

For those who like: Drama, Military Fiction, Broken Main Characters, Excellent Artwork, Fantastic Score.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.