[Highlights] Violet Evergarden 07: Umbrellas Help You Fly

To be frank, this episode bored me for the first 15 minutes or so. I couldn’t really get into the playwright’s story, but I thought the flying-over-water scene was absurd and was intrigued by Violet’s moral reflections near the end.

A play by Webster

• I find it interesting that the subtitles Christianized this line by choosing to use the word “cross” rather than the more accurate translation, “sin”. I guess Violet Evergarden’s setting does feel similar enough to Victorian England.
• This line becomes the motif of the episode. I find this play more symbolically significant than last episode’s ancient script, which is nice.

The return of the repressed!

• Violet reminds this guy of his daughter. I thought she reminded him of a lover from long ago at first, maybe because of how many age-gap shows there are recently. Nah, Violet Evergarden plays it safe.
• This line is a bit of a turn-off for me – I just can’t stand feelsy stories that aren’t all that innovative. Or rather, feelsy stories that try to hit you with the feels cheesily before you have the opportunity to care about the characters they have to do with. I guess you can’t really have such an opportunity, due to the episodic structure of this anime.

Violet making carbonara

• Lol…Violet can’t crack eggs. I enjoyed this bit of animation – how she tries twice and fails in the exact same way.
• Why is Webster so useless… Actually, why does he even need a ghostwriter? He’s basically dictating everything to her line-by-line anyways. Maybe he hired someone to give him a good push because he lacks the motivation.

• As the replica of Webster’s daughter, Violet dutifully empathizes with the play’s protagonist. The anime is really breaking her development down into distinct steps. Hmm…has she truly not empathized before this? Maybe just not without the awareness. Good that she’s learning something…this is key to her epiphany later in this episode anyways.

• Look at that gap in the teeth and look at the sort of things she says. I really think KyoAni is making characters look way more mature than they should be in this anime. Violet looks 20 and this character looks more like 14.
• “Otousan~” No thanks, the “oniisan” in ep. 2 was cheesy enough for me. The only “otousan” I like hearing so far is from Tsumugi. I’m starting to wonder if my aversion to cliche drama is too strong. Maybe I should write a reflective post about it someday.

Violet and brooch

• Violet still bites things. I’m a bit slow, but I just realized that it’s because she can’t feel with her hands! Why her mouth though, and not any other part of her body? She could rub it against her cheek or something. There’s something primal about using the mouth.

Violet displays good common sense

• This line did make me laugh. Way to crush people’s dreams, Violet.

Is this Sakamoto-kun!!! Sorry, not sorry

Cool, cooler, coolest! I’m so sorry, I’ll stop…

• The animation is utterly gorgeous. I questioned this whole scene, but at the same time, I really love how surreal it all feels. The context didn’t touch me, but the animation sure did.
• Violet is asked to do the impossible of crossing the lake by stepping on leaves. The idea of miracles in this episode is kind of interesting. From the plot of the play Webster’s working on and from his request of Violet, there’s the sense that a miracle is needed in order for salvation to occur. At the same time, miracles can’t exist in real life (Olive in the play has to lose her connections to the fairies’ world and Violet is revealed to have fallen into the water after three steps). You need to get inspiration from somewhere, but it’s ultimately up to you to make changes – that sort of thing?

“…and for the first time, you’ll notice all your burn marks”

• Still my favourite quote in the series. Violet reflects on this after 6 episodes, and this is where things started getting relevant to me.

• Violet’s take on this quote is quite unexpected to me. I guess I interpreted “sparking a flame” more positively than Claudia was intending to mean. Violet realizes the consequences of her actions in the battlefield and is consumed by the guilt of a killer. She is being burned up by her own flame.
• I still think there are empowering implications to Claudia’s words though. If one day Violet is to realize her scars, it also means acknowledging her wounds and recovering from them. A “burn mark” is a symbol of disaster that stays with you, but it’s also a sign of recovery, as it is no longer an open wound. But then maybe I’m reading too deeply into things.

Real women run in heels (not me…)

• Denial is the first stage of grief. Violet has long been in denial, and continues to do so more aggressively after hearing the truth about Gilbert from Claudia more officially.
• Actually, now I’m starting to wonder if Gilbert is really dead. “Body not found” always suggests alternatives in anime…

• Cool, this episode has no title.

That was episode 7 of Violet Evergarden. Things are finally escalating, even if it’s only the very end of the episode! I hope the next episode does this build-up justice.