Vaioretto evâgâden gaiden: Eien to jidô shuki ningyô

I am a big fan of the Violet Evergarden series. However this "movie" seems more like an extended episode and (no spoilers) has a rather abrupt and unexpected finale. The entire presentation is excellent up until the last 5 seconds, then leaves the audience in a "What? That's it?" state of mind.

Up until that point this does not disappoint. Who would believe that anyone could pull this much meaning and emotion from the simple plot of a letter writer and mail carrier. This movie will tug at the heart strings... right up until the "what???" ending.

It makes one wonder if this is intended as the first of a 2-part series. If so, there is no indication of such. It leaves the impression that the production company hit a time or budget constraint and said, "Okay, that's a wrap!".

So if you haven't seen this yet, you can go go into it eyes wide open. It will be a wonderful excursion further into this very unique world, but then

One more impression: I personally felt this movie could have used another 30 to 60 minutes to add some more plot elements and better examine the Violet character herself (she is after all, supposed to be the theme of the show). This series is about her development as a person. Despite their unconvincing attempt at such... that element of the series just doesn't quite succeed. Prior presentations of this story have been significantly better.

So, rating it a step above mediocre, but at 6 stars considerably lower than the 10 stars I would give Violet Evergarden as a complete series. This just didn't quite live up to what fans would hope for and expect.