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I truly fell in love with Kyoto Animation when Beyond the Boundary first came out. It was back before I monitored what anime would be coming out during what seasons and which ones I wanted to watch. However, ever since it’s been hard for me to find a KyoAni show that really caught my heart the same way Beyond the Boundary did. I’ll be honest when I say the only other KyoAni shows I have finished watching completely were Free! and Full Metal Panic!, strangely both of them have exclamation marks in their titles. I have started a few others, though they’ve been put on ... hold in favor of newer things, and with so many anime my lack of time and motivation prevents me from even finishing those.

I became aware of Violet Evergarden back when it was first announced, and at first the summary didn’t really intrigue me, but I eventually noticed the studio in charge was Kyoto Animation so it was added to my ever growing list anyways. As I previously stated I don’t have much time or motivation to watch anime constantly so halfway into the 2018 Winter season I finally started picking up some of the things I’d planned to watch. I saw that Violet Evergarden was airing, but I wasn’t really feeling it until after I’d caught up to a few others. I’d watched the promos so I knew I was in for some gorgeous animation at least, but I’ll be honest when I say I still had absolutely no idea what the story was even supposed to be about.

So I started watching the first episode. I couldn’t say it wowed me, for probably 3 episodes I didn’t think it deserved more than a 7/10. The only reason I’d say I thought it deserved that much was because it was KyoAni’s style that I love so much. I agreed with the reviews where people said Violet wasn’t a very good protagonist and wasn’t relatable at all. Beyond the Boundary wasn’t legendary material either, but at least I empathized with the leading characters which is why I loved it so much. Violet was quite literally an unbelievably empty shell. It was around episode 4 or 5 that I realized it wasn’t really about Violet’s understanding of emotions, or lack thereof, it was about the people around her who looked at the world differently after she came into their lives. Violet changed those people, and through that she began to understand what it was to feel sorrow, joy, and most importantly love. I realized it wasn’t Violet I needed to empathize with, but the supporting cast.

It doesn’t really become Violet’s story until episode 8. I’ll try to avoid spoilering too much so bare with me. Up until that point the anime focuses on building around Violet’s growth as a human being, but we are only vaguely aware of why she is the way she is and why she cares so much about the Major. Episode 8 is her backstory with the Major, or at least her backstory in more detail. It’s nothing spectacularly moving, and it was things I definitely saw coming, but it’s something needed for Violet’s development and is an explanation of why the Major means so much to her. Like I said, nothing spectacularly moving, and still for some reason I was crying as I watched. Just as Violet was coming to understand her past trauma, I was coming to realize that this anime was the KyoAni piece I’d been searching for after Beyond the Boundary. It’s nothing extraordinary, but it was what I needed.

The plot, of course, is nothing new; emotionless character learns to feel emotions has been done before. Finding the meaning of love is also, nothing new. The story for the first half of the season revolves around throwaway supporting characters that are just loveable and developed enough that we hope to see them again, all done so that we don’t toss away the anime because it’s protagonist is nothing an average person can relate to. Not an ideal formula to follow, but it gets the job done. After all, how often are anime protagonists that relatable? I’m looking at you generic, yet overpowered, male protagonist from every harem series ever. The saving grace to Violet’s cut and dry persona, is that she does have emotions, she hurts and she feels joy and so much more, but because of how she was raised she never knew how to express those things. She’s not an empty shell, just confused and full of empathy for those around her, and Violet is “burning” inside and out from her experiences and actions in the war.

There was also one underlying theme throughout the whole series that caught my attention for how truly clever it was. In an anime about understanding emotions through the messages sent to loved ones, there was a reference to the language of flowers, or floriography. Most people will think of red roses being given to a romantic interest, but flowers throughout history and in different cultures have always held different meanings. The Spider Lily in Japan, for instance, means death, which is why it’s imagery is used often in darker, horror anime. From what I can tell through my basic knowledge of flowers, is that a few of the characters even have flower names, including Violet Evergarden obviously. In fact her name and the flower she is named after is a direct reference to her character. Violets are known to mean, “modesty” and “faithfulness,” both words that I would use to describe Violet Evergarden the character. I won’t delve further into the meanings, but it’s interesting research that I’m sure a few would enjoy.

I’m going to lump the art and music together here in one paragraph, considering I don’t think much needs to be said about the art. It is Kyoto Animation, after all. However, I will say Violet Evergarden has some of the more stunning visuals out of some of their other titles that I’ve seen. And again, referencing back to the floriography, the backgrounds and many scenes are showered with flowers to push the Victorian era feel that is clearly the anime’s setting. The soundtrack is moving, and definitely pairs well with the amazing KyoAni visuals and style. Minori Chihara’s vocals captivated me in the OP of Beyond the Boundary and again manages to tug at my heartstrings in Violet Evergarden’s ED. As for Violet Evergarden’s OP, even without reading the translation the emotional singing and instrumentals almost make me want to cry. Quite honestly it gives me “My heart will go on” Titanic vibes, which really is quite fitting when I think about it. Many of the songs in this series have an underlying sorrowful sound to it, likely alluding to Violet’s struggle to understand emotions and come to terms with her past. If you can’t enjoy the story itself you’re bound to enjoy the pairing of the soundtrack and visuals.

Violet Evergarden likely isn’t the ground-breaking masterpiece that my tear-filled eyes thought it was, but it is moving and meaningful. Stunning KyoAni visuals, and beautiful soundtrack, colorful supporting characters, a plot that might as well have given me and cured me of depression, and a protagonist who despite her lack of common knowledge is determined to find the answers she seeks. I can honestly say, after finishing this anime, it has surpassed my previous favorite from KyoAni. It wasn’t just good, it was “beautiful.”

I've never written a review before, but I felt like I needed to say some words about Mayoiga, or in English "The Lost Village." I suppose I'll get right into it then.

I initially decided to watch Mayoiga because it was advertised on the site as a horror anime, and after watching the first episode I was curious if it might be similar to Another, one of my favorite horror animes because of the large cast of characters and the strange mystery of Nanaki Village that reminded me of Yomiyama North. I was sorely mistaken, but I stayed nonetheless, with hopes that the story might redeem ... itself. I suppose it could be considered family-friendly horror, if there is such a thing. The story had a lot of potential, and some would say if the anime had been longer the writers would have had more room to expand on that potential. I both agree and disagree for the fact that, much of what happened story-wise was unnecessary in my opinion. If the writers dropped out the unnecessary bits and instead expanded on the points that people actually cared about, you could still have a satisfying anime in only 12 episodes. From the beginning there's a mystery to the story, which is what is part of the charm at first. However, as developments are made, some new out of place mystery pops up. This happens over and over again to the point the mystery is just exhausting. As someone who writes and enjoys mystery, there are better ways to keep the audience hooked. The sense of urgency and panic seemed to escalate far too quickly, showing just how poorly written the story was. The writers almost make it obvious they were grasping at straws by making the characters do exactly the same.

It wasn't anything I would write home to my parents about, in fact certain scenes the animation was downright cringe worthy. For the most part though it was just average. It didn't really look much different from the average modern animation style. I wasn't really expecting much from it as far as art and animation goes, although it's always disappointing in a way when things don't exceed expectations. One scene in particular toward the end of the anime really makes it look cheap, because of the obvious use of poorly done CG. It's possible the CG had been used prior to that point, but I don't recall noticing it. The points where the art really could have been made much more eye-catching, well

Almost none of the soundtrack left enough of an impression on me to really even remember what it sounded like. In my opinion music is a major part of setting the mood, and I while I feel the music did follow the mood, it didn't set it if you get what I'm saying. In anything horror-esque the background music or lack thereof is what really turns my blood cold, sends chills down my spine, and gets me jumpy, any good soundtrack horror or not should invoke some kind of emotion. The soundtrack for Mayoiga didn't really do that for me. As far as the OP and ED go, well I suppose the OP should have been my first hint this wasn't really going to be a horror anime. Now, I'm writing this having never seen the English translations or listened to the full tracks for both songs. I'm not entirely sure I can express what my impression was from the OP without actually spoiling the true premise of the anime that you don't learn until later in the story, so I'll say is it just sounded out of place from the start. The ED is not really any different from a lot of other EDs from various genres of anime, slow paced and melancholy, nothing to brag about. Really the OP is the only thing that stands out as far as the soundtrack of this anime, only because it sets a different mood from the majority of the anime.

Mayoiga sets up a vary large cast in the first few minutes of the first episode, introducing us to everyone and making them all seem at least a little important because of the seemingly diverse archetypes, and well they all have names so that makes them important too right? Ah, yet again hopeful me was wrong. Without giving spoilers I will say over half of the cast doesn't even matter, they are a bucket of poorly written fillers so that it's not just a story about a handful of equally as mediocre characters. The main character is barely tolerable in most moments, but then again I can say the same for most of the characters. A good deal of the characters are written to be so outrageous and extreme it makes me want to claw out my own eyes. We're led to believe everyone has a heart wrenching backstory that led them to leave their pasts behind, yet we don't even get to find out what half of those pasts are. I wish I could say that only occurred for the part of the cast that was basically irrelevant, but a few of the characters that had quite a bit of screen time or seemed the most developed that I was wondering about the entire series never got a backstory. I feel though, had the characters that actually mattered to the story been written better, I wouldn't have felt the need to bore you with talk about fillers.

I had high hopes for Mayoiga right up until the very end, but each episode left me either feeling disappointed or unsatisfied right up to the very end. From trying to come off as a horror when it's not really a horror, to the mediocre at best characters, I'm amazed to say I still enjoyed it to some extent. And, I believe the reason for that is Mayoiga had so much potential, that had it been met it would have been an excellent story. It took me several months for finally finish the anime because of the poor writing, but I still found myself wanting to finish just to find out what would happen in the end. I also can't say I wasn't happy with the ending, just not satisfied with the amount of information I was left with. I won't try to sway you from watching Mayoiga, because it's not the worst of animes, and if you're like me the potential alone makes it worth the shot.