Violet Evergarden Director was Terrified of “Going overboard” for an Anime Adaptation Because of its Main Focus
The Kyoto Animation Studio or KyoAni is most notably known for its high production values, with its animation and stories creating everlasting impacts on their viewers. One key example would be none other than one of their most notable work with Violet Evergarden. Having won Best Animation at the IGN Summer Movie Awards, Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and Anime Trending Awards, KyoAni managed to stand out from the rest with Violet Evergarden.
However, this wasn’t all as Violet Evergarden: The Movie would get nominated for 7 awards and would win 5 of the awards, even winning the “Anime of the Year” at the Tokyo Anime Awards festival. And it wouldn’t have been possible without its director Taichi Ishidate, orchestrating the project.
What is Violet Evergarden about?
The Anime Violet Evergarden follows the plot of the young protagonist, Violet Evergarden as she navigates her way to learn Empathy. A veteran of war, despite just being 14 years old, the plot could be one of the most emotionally resonant war animes, which a majority of anime fans had the privilege of watching.
Violet takes up a job as a Ghost Writer after her time in the war, where she gets into contact with other characters in the series. The anime takes a couple takes a couple of episodes to completely get going, but once it starts, fans are in for an emotional tear-jerker of a rollercoaster.
From an unassumingly emotionally stunted girl to maturing and understanding the depths of her actions in the war, viewers watching the series feel a sense of growing with Violet. The show ages like fine wine as by episodes 8 and 9, the viewers finally get to understand the despair and anguish that the protagonist holds behind her painfully apathetic face.
Episode 10 and onwards would show just how Violet Evergarden matured through the anime. “Violet Evergarden The Movie” would be the cherry on top, especially with how the team at KyoAni managed to capture the pure essence of human connection and emotion shown in the anime as Violet and Gilbert Bougainvillea embraced each other.
Director Taichi Ishidate describes his hesitation whilst making the Violet Evergarden Anime
The cast of characters like Oscar Webster, Benedict Blue, Charlotte Abelfreyja Drossel, and Gilbert Bougainvillea are some of the few characters that a lot of them were able to relate to. The depth of the characters in the anime differed slightly from that in the light novel which primarily focused on the protagonist, Violet Evergarden. The brilliance of the character depth in the anime can be credited to Taichi Ishidate.
During an interview that was published in Shin-Q Vol.2 2017, Taichi Ishidate explained the thought process of making the anime adaptation stand out from the rest.
When asked about what Ishidate stressed when adapting it into anime, he stated, “(translated by megax) I felt figuring out her portrayal was key. Claiming that this title only focuses on her would be going overboard – it’s more akin to an omnibus of episodic tales, though in the end she’s always at their epicenter. The way you present characters in novels and film is different of course, so I worried that placing her in a new medium would alter the feel of her character from the original…”
There were a few minor changes that Taichi Ishidate made while adapting the light novel into anime, but nothing as major as changing the core value of the story. The 44-year-old director is also known for his impeccable works in A Silent Voice, Kyôkai no Kanata: kako-hen, Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here – Future, etc.
You can stream Violet Evergarden & Violet Evergarden: The Movie on Netflix.
