Jon’s Creator Showcase: April Edition Pt. 1 (Anime + Books)

Welcome to May. How's everyone doing? I'm not sure if this has something to do with our global situation, but the month of March saw a remarkable influx of creative otaku and geek content. This showcase received an unprecedented total of 55 submissions from Twitter. As such, I decided to split the showcase it into…

[Highlights] Violet Evergarden 13 (Finale): A Doll’s Will

A decent end to the series. I was glad they got through the awkward battle bit as quickly as they did - Violet Evergarden is a show more about letters and reconciliation than action after all. Dietfried catches Violet's brooch before it flies off somewhere. This was the moment Dietfried redeemed himself for me. Seriously, this dude.…

[Highlights] Violet Evergarden 12: Violet Makes Grown Men Salty

Frankly, I found it hard to take this episode seriously, though this may be the most serious the anime has gotten in terms of developing some overarching external conflict. Here's Cattleya being pretty in her new coat before we get into all the ugly stuff in this episode! She's on the way to help with…

[Highlights] Violet Evergarden 11: Violet Flies Again

I know...the whole point of this episode is totally not Violet descending from the sky, but I found that to be the best part. The actual plot of this episode didn't hit me as hard as the last. I feel like the anime relies a bit too much on exposition for world-building, and I'm still…

[Highlights] Violet Evergarden 10: Molding the Feels

Wow, this week's Violet Evergarden did a lot. I rarely get emotional watching anything, and I honestly wasn't expecting Violet Evergarden to be the show to deliver such feels. It makes me wonder though - why such a different effect compared to the previous episodes? The storyline for this episode is equally as predictable as those in…

[Highlights] Violet Evergarden 09: Fires of War, Fires of the Hearth

This episode ties everything together nicely - it almost feels like the end of the series already! We're taken through the rest of Violet's past as a fire of war, and see her transition into what is, in my opinion, another type of fire. She becomes one who brings warmth and ignites the passion in…

[Highlights] Violet Evergarden 08: Love and Trauma of a Feral Child

Well, this was one significant episode. I must say that I've been harsher on the series than I should for the last half of it, but this episode accomplished a tremendous amount of things that the previous ones didn't for me. Is it right to withhold the truth from a woman to keep her happy?…

[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. I find it interesting that the subtitles Christianized this line by choosing to use the…

[Highlights] Violet Evergarden 06: Stargazing with a Tsundere

Wait, what happened to naval captain Dietfried?! Did he just drop by to say hello angrily last episode? This episode kind of disappointed me. It's totally watchable, but I didn't start Violet Evergarden to get a "watchable" show. If you like tsundere guys (who happen to be very pretty), maybe you'll enjoy it a lot more than…

[Highlights] Violet Evergarden 05: Generic Romance I Didn’t Know I Needed

Prince Damian was very generically charming, and I sure don't mind that. This episode of Violet Evergarden was quite interesting, with Violet more like a side character than in any of the previous episodes. It's quite a sudden shift (there seemed to be a big time gap too), but it showed an aspect of the…