Go ahead that I really liked this animated series of Kyoto Animation and I'm sure I extend more than necessary. The series is based on a series of winning light novels of more than one category in awards that the studios themselves awarded in 2014.
There are few studios like "KyoAni" that rival the quality of their works and personal stamp. Surely I have already said in some other review. And I like this anime, that Netflix distributes, even if it's a series with ingredients of perhaps very common genres, which in my case would not have to like me too much like drama, romance, war action and even something of science fiction or, rather, something similar to steampunk; where a period scenario is shown, close to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century with a refined touch of classical Europe as opposed to the use of prosthetic hands of adamantium (yes, the same metal of the claws of Lobezno-Wolverine - in the X-Men).
All this to ... write letters on a typewriter.
The mixture works. It departs from the common genres of anime, not being set in Japan; nor the modern present. But it is endowed with great realism in what could perfectly be a region with clear Western influences and customs. With cultural coherence; without mixing disparate cultures. Taking the theme of artistic design to a level above series like "Sora no woto".
This scenario is at least intriguing. To want to know more.
And I really liked the anime because, apart from the main female character that gives its name to the series, the typewriter takes center stage. For some reason, I was always fascinated by devices with keys or buttons. Typewriters, being "old" enough to have used them when learning to type with them, are one of the few things in the past that produce a certain nostalgia for me.
And that protagonism is in the history, in details and accessories that accompany the protagonist, and in the fantastic orchestral music composed by Evan Call that integrates the characteristic clicks of the keys in the soundtrack; that accompanies the series from the beginning. And that gives it a cinematographic air that also evokes certain cinema of the past as the introductory sequence of "Forrest Gump". I guess I will not be the only one to notice that similarity in the first episode. Not so much musically, but because of the staging.
Romance is treated in a way that, although it dominates the whole story, does not get to feel corny or cloying. It is a beautiful story, and sometimes sad, that conveys many different emotions. It has a plot that leads to the final moment in episode 13. (With an alternative arc that is scheduled to be released in the form of OVA No. 14, in July 2018)
But, if something is worthwhile in this anime is to meet Violet Evergarden. Is it a girl or a machine? You really do not know how to distinguish in the first episodes. Little by little, at a rate of 25 minutes per episode, telling us his story between a flashback to remind us of a recent war that still has open fronts and scars to alleviate, we are shown how much human there is with each new episode; sometimes autoconclusivo. With characters that dazzle and make the world of the series "Violet Evergarden" bigger and bigger.
