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Aug 30, 2025
LIGHT SPOILER WARNING
Many miss the point that Vinland Saga delivers. "I have no enemies" is one of the rarest things a person can say, even in today's world. It's not a lighthearted story, it's not a story that will make you feel good-- It's a story that gets down in the dirt and crawls through muck and bugs to deliver its message.
I have no enemies. Let's talk about that for a moment. This is the main theme of the entire story, and there are no exceptions to this phrase. Enemies are just other people with their own set of problems, their own hates, their
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own loves, their own regrets and their own hopes. By refusing to dimish a person to something as simple as an "enemy" you also refuse to look away from their own very real humanity. War is a main "antagonist" in this story, and war's whole shtick is that you must kill your enemies. In viking society, killing and plunder was a means to gain glory, an achievement that you wanted in order to outrank everyone else and flaunt. It was a point of praise to have slain many. That is until we meet Thors, who is the first person to say "I have no enemies" and tries desperately to impart this lesson unto his son, Thorfinn. After his death, his lesson falls upon deaf ears and Thorfinn's whole life suddenly revolved around ending his enemies. The ones who left him without a father.
This story is ultimately about the value of humanity and life, what one can gain when you no longer see the title of 'enemy' over people's heads and the grief caused when you start seeing their unique worth as a living, breathing person. You go through the journey of learning this with Thorfinn, not really understanding Thor's words to the point to which he intended. By the end of the journey, you can see things much clearer. Going through the same woes and struggles that Thorfinn does, seeing the same death, the same hatred, the same joy.
It's not a comfortable message, and far from an anime meant for light watching. By the end of the manga, I can truly say that it's changed my perspective.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 29, 2024
I'll be real from the start, this anime isn't for everyone. If you're expecting some action-packed, super fast paced, has to be constrained to one specific genre trope, you're going to be miserable watching this. There's an organicness I like that only appear in certain animes I've ever watched, and this one is one of them. Organic as in, 'it feels like someone made a dramatized auto-biography instead of constructing a whole story with their imagination and pen'.
=Spoilers for episode 1=
Objectively speaking, this story lacks in nothing. Subjectively? That's up to you, but I'm going to share my view on it.
Violet Evergarden is an
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orphaned girl who was skilled on the battlefield, and ultimately used as a weapon rather than a human. Only one person cared enough for her to treat her like a human, and more than that, as a child. Her commanding officer, Major Gilbert. She didn't understand the emotions she had, she didn't understand what it really meant to be human at all. So when the war ended, and she was taken into the care of President Hodgins, she knew she felt something but she had no idea what it was called. Throughout the entire series she goes to various places as an Auto Memories Doll. And slowly over the course of the series, she learns one-by-one what her emotions were called.
Her personal journey to discover herself, to discover everything outside of blood and metal, is beautiful. It's deep and real. And it doesn't pull any punches. The effects of war on the regular townspeople, the effects of loss on grieving relatives and friends. The grief of guilt to the survivors. The despair of circumstances beyond your control. Everything is so beautifully told and you can't help but cry.
I have personally rewatched this anime about 24 times now, and inevitably more as this review gets older, and my opinion hasn't changed. And yes, I do still cry at least once every time I watch it. If I could genuinely not recommend anything else to anybody, I would happily choose Violet Evergarden.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 29, 2024
Oh boy, the things I can say about this one. There will be a spoiler free TL;DR at the bottom for the folks like me, but the rest is likely just for the peeps who are as obsessed with it as I am.
Everything about this story is just phenomenal. Objectively speaking, the storyline, the hook, the draw, the message, the characters; it was all just fabulously done.
==Feel free to skip this summary==
The story is about a young boy who was born into a Nord village, where violence and war were praised as the highest form of honor and ability a man could achieve. The
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more men you slaughtered the more glory you received. Pillage the towns along the way to satisfy your own desires, because why not? Enslave the women and rape them because you want to, right? Kill anyone you want, the stronger man would survive anyway. These are the ideals the Nords typically held, and these were the practices they would indulge in. War was glory, and they would attain it no matter what. Young Thorfinn, our protagonist, was born into this world of thinking. However, his dad was an outlier. His father, Thors, heartedly disagreed with violence and the the Nordic practices. He attempted to drill into Thorfinn from a young age that violence was never the answer, that "you have no enemies". But the influences of the world were not lost on Thorfinn.
When time came that a group of elite warriors came to the small village in Iceland, recruiting men for a war, and coercing Thors into coming, Thorfinn was all but dying to follow along. Like every other Nord of his time, he wanted the glory. He wanted to fight. Young Thorfinn had no idea what it was he was getting himself into when he snuck on that ship with the rest of the warriors, following his father to the battlefield.
Unfortunately, life was never that simple. Nor was it ever so kind. One thing led to another, and a man named Askeladd intercepted their ship with the intention to kill Thors. It was targeted, premeditated, and dangerous. Askeladd, knowing his inferiority to Thors prowess, used his son as a hostage and killed Thors as payment for his son's life. And thus, just like that, all of what Thors wished to ingrain into his son vanished like the dying of a flickering candle. Thorfinn was angry, angry and vengeful and full of hate and guilt. He wanted to kill Askeladd more than anything. So, he snuck on board an empty ship Askeladd's group was hauling with them, followed them to land, and proceeded to try and survive while planning to kill Askeladd whenever he got the opportunity. Askeladd did not die, for for a good long while yet, and Thorfinn did not see his revenge come to fruition as a child. Instead, he was plunged into the world of war, killing left and right, innocent or guilty, without mercy.
It wouldn't be until many years later, until season two in fact, that Thorfinn truly learned what his father meant when he said,
"You have no enemies."
==
TL;DR
The message of the whole story is just something you don't really see these days. Where media and people are on total violent highs, where desensitization is at a height, and where so many people focus on the wrong things, you never see something so beautiful as this. It depicts a very real and tragic tale of a boy turned killer, killer turned penitent. And how absolutely nothing is as valuable as the life of an individual. The price for shedding a life is high, and even one more life added to that debt is unbearable.
The characterization itself is also just out of this world. The plot too, everything. It feels like you're watching something written from the point of view of a scribe. Someone who witnessed real life events, and someone who was simply writing down what happened in very flavorful and dramatized way. It didn't feel constructed or meticulated or planned. It felt organic.
NOTE
Not for the faint of heart. It's very rich in its storytelling but it also doesn't pull any punches. Everything hits you like it is, nothing sugar coated and certainly nothing is watered down. And admittedly, this story isn't for everyone. Some aren't that invested in media entertainment and that's fine. Some just don't want something so serious, and that's also fine.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 4, 2023
The starting episode is amazing, perfect example of a great hook and line. However, the story following has a different tune to it: let me explain. (TLDR at the bottom)
The starting episode shows a famous upstarting idol called Ai Hoshino. A mega fan named Gorou Amamiya who is obsessed with Ai. He got into the world of idols when one of his patients died (as he is a doctor). Later on, Ai comes to his office because she is pregnant and he promises to deliver her babies (she was having twins). Long story short, he dies before he gets to deliver the babies. The killer?
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A stalker of Ai, and he gets away without getting caught.
Then Gorou wakes up as the baby of Ai Hoshino, with the new name Aquamarine. His new sister, Ruby, also had a previous life she remembers. As the episode progresses, so do the characters and at the tender age of around 3-5, Ai is murdered right in front of them. The Killer? The mega stalker, but it is heavily implied that it was the father of Aquamarine and Ruby who pulled the strings (the father was absent this entire time).
The next episode changes the tune of the show. No explicit assumption for the show was laid down in the first episode, but it carried a much heavier air than it does in the rest of the show. Aqua is trying to find his father so that he can make him suffer, and Ruby is pretty much moved on and isn't involved with Aqua's plan at all. Anyways, the next episode blows the whole serious air right off. Immediately it feels like a typical school anime with small high school problems with the occasional serious interruption of the only really serious character on the show: Aqua.
The rest of the episodes follow this theme. Ruby is trying to create a new idol group named after her mother's, and Aqua is entering the world of acting in order to find his father who is most likely involved in the entertainments. The cuts between Aqua and Ruby feel really off in my opinion, as if they were chopping it up in sporadic ways to try and fit it together. It's not the worst thing ever, but it definitely could've been done better.
TLDR: My main complaints is the weird episode structure for the cuts between Aqua and Ruby. Second, the "mood" change in the show after the first episode. You set expectations up, then the second and proceeding episode tear it down. Not the worst, just weird.
NOTE: The show is generally very good, the specifics is what I am mainly complaining about and is why I put the review as mixed feelings. It may not be for you, or it may. Who's to say, but you wont know until you try it out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 28, 2023
Nah bro nah. I was looking for brain numbing things, and came across this anime and thought, "oh nice, an isekai, overdone concept but usually can be very entertaining." It wasn't. Even for brain numbing stuff it wasn't good. The intent of the anime is so painfully obvious it's laughable. Basically, overweight dude is really good hearted, he inherits his grandpa's house and all his things and moves there because his actual family sucks. After awhile, he discovers hidden room with a magic door, opens it, and vuala a different world.
The whole thing is basically trying to make good things, or cool things, happen to
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the main character. Basically, a "do good get good" type of message. Which, idk abt yall, but that just ain't how life operates. Life is distinctly an unfair place, and if it were fair then we'd all be in deep trouble (because despite how much 'good' we do, if it were a fair life then it would also be 'do bad, get bad' and we all do a lot more bad stuff than good stuff).
TLDR: It's just a really badly made anime, the storyline sucks, and the animation is honestly so weird. They try to glorify the MC in ways that just don't make sense and it's really weird more than anything.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Nov 12, 2022
SPOILER WARNING:
First of all, for the lazy people out there, a TLDR will be at the end...
Okay, so, the anime has a very slow start to it, and I had to force myself to watch it without looking at the synopsis because I'm not that into sports anime. Low and behold, the sports part to it doesn't actually have much action in it, a little funky animation, but tbh overall not that bad.
The story focuses on the main character, Maki (using his nickname cause who has time to remember their long ass names) who just moved back into his home town. He transfers
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into the school the story focuses on and gives off a vibe of a very nonchalant, mind-my-own-business person. He gets confronted by the Soft Ball Tennis Captain in order to be recruited, to which he was denied, but eventually accepted. They made a deal and a bit of the MC's past is revealed.
Turns out that the MC's dad is abusive, his parents split up due to this fact, and although they split up, the dad still visits from time to time to basically steal money from them. The mother works constantly and possibly determines the risk of aggravating her ex-husband too risky, and so she lets him steal money. The moments where the trash husband would "visit" had me going for the first half of the show, since, I'll be real honest here, nothing real interesting was actually happening.
The story progresses and it turns out that pretty much all of the tennis' members' parents are literal trash bags besides a few. Some kids are adopted and one is struggling with his identity. Those parts were a bit ehhhh, but since I'm into the whole depression, sad, angsty side of anime, I was all for it. My personal opinion, and may very much differ for someone else.
Now the part that made me rate this show higher than I would've and lower than I would've, is the last episode. Maki's tennis partner's (ngl, forgot his name) mom just told him that she was going to divorce her husband because she can't stand the failure that is her son. Like I side, most of the characters' parents are actual trash bags. Anyways, after that, when Maki gets back home, he sees that his mother is not. And that worries him. He sees the envelope used for paying his dad on the table, ripped open and empty. This alights rage in him, not just any rage, cold rage. He goes out and purchases a nice long knife from a store before heading out to his dad's apartment. There, he stands in front of the door, and a thought runs through his mind persistently, "We'll never be free while he's still alive." AND THE FREAKING EPISODE AND SERIES ENDS THERE. I HATE CLIFF HANGERS AND THAT JUST BROKE ALL LAWS OF COMMON HUMAN DECENCY.
TLDR: The anime didn't really know what it wanted to be. The sports sequences weren't all that interesting and the drama was way too dramatized (but I liked it since it was dark). The MC was also a little too perfect, with a few flaws, and I'll admit a pretty depressing backstory (in terms of slice of life). The series was pretty slow, but the little moments made it better. Overall, not bad, but it ends with a cliff hanger, which just makes it a little worse.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 12, 2022
Blue Period is very refreshing to watch. As an artist myself, I can well relate to the artistic journey of Yaguchi. It's very different watching your own "journey" through art through someone else's eyes.
Yaguchi starts off as a very conceited, confident, well-behaved honors student. Works like a machine and has no personal touch in anything. Focused solely on meeting "quotas" and others' expectations. A very closed-minded character. He's a very bad match for the art field, since, if you have any experience with it, it usually takes a very open-minded approach to become good. His struggles and hardships as well as victories are all carried
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out well throughout the entire series.
The only reason I did not vote this a 10/10 is because, although I do love making art, I do not find this sort of genre my go-to. It lacks the action I like, but I doubt anyone reading this is even here for that. If I liked this type of genre, I would indeed vote it a 10/10.
Although, since it is an ART anime in traditional art colleges, it does have some models posing in nude. It doesn't show anything explicit, but the painting sorta does. The painting is only on-screen for like, at most, 5-10 seconds at a time, if even that. There is also a pretty long scene where two guys go nude and draw themselves, although in this scene there isn't anything explicit shown. These would be in the last three episodes, and it is not sexualized at all. This is also another reason why I didn't vote this 10/10, since honestly I'm not crazy abt these types of things, but for the sake of storyline I kept watching.
It's not an intensely deep anime, but it is a realistic one. A refreshing one.
Also, can I just say, Yaguchi's freakin character design is just **chef kiss** amazing. Seriously, it's just great.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 3, 2022
This was an amazing series. It starts off with a pretty down character, someone who is a bum and with deep depression. As the story progresses, they develop in ways that really exceeded my expectations.
Characters died left and right, but not one of them seemed worthless (okay except for the pervert guy, he can rot in hell). The meaning of sacrifice and living are so outstandingly done and completed that I was left in awe and, ngl, tears.
I highly recommend this to anyone who's looking to read something with a dark undertone but overall very deep and emotional plot. Many times we
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see why it is never okay to give up and why it is of the utmost importance to value life, especially your own.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 10, 2021
Tokyo Ghoul is amazing in my opinion. The mood the art style sets, the interactions between characters, and the overall plot are outstanding.
Kaneki is a sweet and caring character. Even though later on he somewhat looses this aspect of his character, he still maintains his baseline humanity. The story really is portrayed well. If you watched the anime first and are deciding whether or not reading it would be a waste of time, I can assure you it's not. The anime sucked. The manga is amazing. I like seeing all the character development and epic battle scenes and especially the times when a protagonist goes
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insane for a bit.
I honestly have no words but outstanding.
Chef kiss.
Read it
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Nov 8, 2021
I cried the entire time.
I liked the conclusion.
T'was great.
I don't know what all these other chumps are saying about 5 rating or really any other rating below 10. This was a true masterpiece.
I watched it via recording so the my experience was a little worse than if I had just bought it myself. The movie was still outstanding, don't get me wrong, I just can't wait to rewatch it on Netflix without the sound of chips crunching in the background.
Honestly, Violet Evergarden is such a great series that it blows all the other animes out of the water. From the art to the storyline,
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it hits home. The emotions they convey are so closely relatable, at least to me, that I can't help but cry. Don't watch this if you don't want a red face and tear stains. Do if you want quality stuff tho.
Would recommend 100%
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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