This film is a sequel to the Gaiden film, and thus takes place several years after the main series. The focus here is on the relationship between Violet and her major, Gilbert Bougainvillea. Many seem to be upset that the end of Violet’s story goes back to focusing on Gilbert and call it a step back in her character arc. And I can see where they’re coming from as a core part of the main series was Violet growing to be an independent person that no longer simply followed orders but acted on her own desires and beliefs. Still, overall I’d have to say I liked that this is the direction that they took with things.
Violet being desperately obsessed with Gilbert at the start of the story wasn’t really all that romantic. It was simply a result of her being empty and having nothing else to care about, and thus directing her entire being towards the one person that she did have. However, over the course of the anime series she grew to be a complete person living a fulfilling life of her own. Thus, that she’s still so incredibly in love with Gilbert has a completely different significance as compared to her feeling at the beginning of the anime. It’s not like her character development got reversed or weakened in any way, but rather that her love exceeded even that. I found that really romantic, and really heavy. And thus the emotional beats hit really hard and the climax was incredibly impactful and memorable. I do feel the epilogue was a bit weak though and would prefer something that was more straightforward. And no, the short after credit scene was not enough. Still, overall I was satisfied with the ending.
I did think there were issues in the film in terms of focus. There’s elements of it jumping back and forth a bit between Violet’s story and a girl in the future looking into her story which I felt was somewhat pointless and contributed nothing in terms of plot or themes. There was also a side tangent involving Violet writing letters for a sick boy that had some plot significance and also played into the overarching themes, but I feel that the same effects could have been achieved easily while staying focused on Violet and Gilbert. The main anime was also pretty scattered and meandering in terms of focus at times, but it was much more bearable with short episodes. With a film that’s almost two and a half hours long it feels like much more of an issue.
The art and animation are still excellent as with the rest of the series. Though to be honest, I feel there wasn’t really anything in this one that felt new and interesting visually. There was a repeated visual motif of letters flying around in the wind which I feel was meant to have some deeper significance beyond the obvious, but I didn’t really get it. The soundtrack was great, and made good use of the ED from the original anime. The ED was the standard white text on black, and the song was solid enough.
A fantastic, though somewhat messy, ending to Violet’s story.
8/10
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