Part 1: Anger and Confusion I love the Violet Evergarden anime. It is the only entry on my anime list that I have given a perfect score and I have seen it a total of four times in nine months. That sounds like a lot and it is a lot but it just happens to be a show that means a lot to me. Im confused because this mess of a novel somehow managed to get adapted into a masterpiece of a show and Im angry because the anime adaptation set such a massive bar that I expected the novel to be an instant 100/100 as well but it isnt. Its not amazing. Hell in so many instances Id hesitate to call it good and the only reason I dont outright call it bad is because it would hurt my Violet Evergarden fanboy soul. Part 2: Strange Pacing and a Rough Character Arc A large majority of the chapters in Volume 1 focus on Violets clients and pays zero to no attention to Violet and her own arc. Then suddenly chapter 6 comes around THREE TIMES the length of the previous chapters average and dumps Violets entire backstory on us. How she became a soldier how Gilbert took her in how he raised her died and told her I love you sending her on her iconic mission of trying to learn what that means. So Violets story truly starts in the second volume in which chapter 8 is what got adapted into the shows first episode. Speaking of the show it handles Violets arc masterfully. She is very early on established as emotionally inept and dependent on a person who most people believe to be dead. Throughout several episodes she learns how to interpret other peoples hidden emotions and put them on paper even in ways they themselves couldnt. Contrast this to the novel. She visits five clients in volume 1 and performs her duties as if she were a professional. We never got to see her grow to the point where she was in volume 1 she just seems like a very deep person one that comes off as a bit cold and distant but nevertheless one that already overcame the most trialing struggles in her life. Now what exactly is Violets arc? She started out as a violent lethal child that killed several of Dietfrieds men after they attempted to rape her. She was a skilled soldier and when the major died he told her to live and be free. The anime tackles this by Violet being haunted by her military past and almost suffering a breakdown when Dietfriend wants her to kill again. What does she do in the novel? She puntkicks nuns out of windows and throws a man off a moving train. In other words she remains a soldier that has practically zero qualms with doing what would most likely violently kill the people involved aka she barely changed. Part 3: A Worse Major a Worse Love Story Major Gilbert in the anime is a deeply flawed individual who gets a redemption arc in the movie. I dont think his redemption arc was handled as well as it couldve been but thats a topic for a different review. How is he different in the novel? For one hes worse. In the anime recruiting Violet was a direct order from his superior officers. In the novel he sees Violet on the training grounds and decides himself he needs her in the army. He then literally has to convince the officers to let her in and they are pretty hostile to the idea. So instead of a regretful commander he is a man who actively puts in the effort to recruit a child soldier. As for his relationship with Violet it is important to first note that in chapter 6 it is said that he sees her like a daughter but that only makes the romance worse father/daughter dynamic lovers is in my opinion an extremely uncomfortable trope. Not to mention that after he abandons her he has no time to fall in love with her. The next time they meet she is 13/14 and he kisses her. They had no time to develop their love story it just happened. So if there was any doubt that the anime Gilbert was a pedophile there is none here. But by far the worst aspect of him is how his redemption arc is handled. In the final chapter after hes come to terms with all the horrible things he did namely forcing nine years old Violet into war he goes to her to say sorry. Violets response to his apology is this: Please stay by my side I do not mind however you treat me. I simply want to be with you. That is all. Nothing else is necessary. Major I She doesnt accept his apology because she doesnt recognize that he ever did anything wrong. Instead of becoming an independent woman who chooses to stay with Gilbert she instead says You did nothing wrong I dont mind anything that you do to me I need you. What a bleak ending for a teenage girl. The fact that the novel continuously refers to Gilbert as Violets Lord certainly doesnt help. Part 4: What the Hell Is Up With Edward Jones and Lux Sibyl? These are two extremely weird characters that I am fully glad werent adapted into the anime. First of all Edward Jones. He is introduced as a war criminal in police custody. And by a war criminal the novel really does imply some Josef Mengeletype shit. Were talking maiming torture ritualistic sacrifice of his own men and building towers of civilian corpses. Once he hires Violet he spends a lot of time comparing himself to her really giving her a Were not so different you and I moment. This is untrue. It doesnt need to be said that Violet is nowhere near as bad as Jones is but the novel really pushes that Jones is someone who has just as much of a heart as Violet does as if he wasnt established to be a purely evil character. Later he escapes custody and tells Cattleya Say hi to Violet for me. His inclusion accomplished nothing and by the end of his arc he is a brutal war criminal at large. His inclusion raised more questions than anything and was an entirely negative mark on the novels score. Next up Lux Sibyl. She is worshiped as a demigod by some nuns on a secluded island though she is actually just a normal teenage girl that the nuns plan to murder in a ritual notice how this is totally jarring with the theme of Violet Evergarden as a whole. She feels trapped on that island which Violet helps her realize and then helps her flee the island. Lux is then treated as Violets first friend though their friendship wasnt explored in the slightest Violet was friends with her just as much as she was with Cattleya. I have not read Violet Evergarden Gaiden as of writing this review but I assume that Amy Bartlett serves the role of Violets first friend much better than Lux did. Part 5: There Is Actually Some Good Stuff Here Violet Evergarden is an anime that means a lot to me so I dont want to end my review of its source material on a negative note. Some of the episodic chapters of this novel are put simply stellar. The playwright chapter isnt the strongest opener but chapter two is about a daughter about to lose her mom the one adapted by episode 10 and it truly shows that Kana Akatsuki is a skilled author. It explores themes of existentialism and nihilism and a young child attempting to grasp why all these awful things are happening to her her father abandoning her and her mother dying. Chapter 3 the one adapted by episode 11 about soldier Aidan Field is actually better than the adaptation. Not only does it show how war sends young men to needlessly die but it is also a critique of imperialism as Aidan was sent to a foreign country to die for oil. The chapter stresses how Aidan and many like him simply dont have any reason to hate the men they were taught to perceive as enemies. Chapter 9 is probably my favorite and it is a genuine disappointment that it wasnt adapted. It is about a man with a demented mother about to get married. Its what is supposed to be the happiest day of his life and his mother doesnt even remember who he is. The wedding goes through and his mother does seem to remember who he is ever so briefly. Violet isnt there to write a letter she stayed in their village because she was stranded there with Benedict but she stays to learn more about a parents love and its really beautiful. Part 6: A Very Unenthusiastic Conclusion Unfortunately all that praise of the episodic chapters cant retcon the fact that the character development of the titular protagonist is minimal and the novels message about being reliant on an abusive love interest is genuinely dangerous. The chapters mentioned in the previous part do however prove that Kana Akatsuki is a talented writer this wouldnt get adapted into such an amazing show if that wasnt the case but that makes the novels low quality sting that much more. Goodbye Violet Evergarden. You were the most disappointing thing Ive read so far.