The bulk of the film consists of content from six of the original series’ thirteen episodes. Rather than a condensing of her tale, this movie serves more like a greatest hits collection. Violet Evergarden: Recollections’ biggest saving grace is that the above description is not accurate. Being described as a condensed recap in its description, I couldn’t fathom how such an approach would bring any form of justice to the emotional voyage the original series took viewers on.

When I first learned what this movie was, I was deeply concerned with how it would deliver Violet’s tale. Violet Evergarden: Recollections delivers some of the most impactful moments of that journey in one concise hour-and-a-half viewing. Taken in by a fellow vet, Violet now must adjust to a new life as she searches for the meaning of Major Gilbert’s last words to her. When Violet came to, she was in a hospital, the war was over, and the Major was nowhere to be found. In the war’s closing days, however, both of them were wounded in a battle. Viewed as simply a tool by most, the only person who ever showed her kindness was her direct superior, Major Gilbert. Violet Evergarden was an orphan taken in by the state and raised to be a weapon.

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