A nameless girl who was a victim of war is picked up and brought up in the army to be treated like another expendable soldier in war due to her superior fighting skills. For that reason, she takes everything seriously, has a hard time expressing herself and only does anything when commanded to. The War was now over but she was separated from the only person precious to her Major Gilbert who gave her the name "Violet Evergarden", her lost arms replaced with adamantine prosthetics. Unaware of Gilbert's demise, she was now left in the care of his best friend former Colonel Claudia Hodgins who gives her a place to work at his new postal company.

One day, a man asks for a letter to be written at the company's department of "Auto Memoir Dolls". It was a name that originated from a machine robotics specialist Professor Orland created for his wife who, was a novelist that had lost her sight. It recorded spoken words onto paper and for a period of time his creation had become widespread in assisting others. As time went by it became a way of referring to girls who had a similar role offering their service of ghostwriting, mostly capturing the thoughts of someone with a typewriter in the form of a letter. When Violet hears the last words "I love you" that Gilbert left her with, she decides to work in the department hoping she will eventually discover what those words mean.

A coming of age story based on a two volume light novel by Kana Akatsuki. It's set during the 19th century time of war where the city of "Leiden" seems to be modelled after a European place of the same name in Holland mixed with some buildings from Japan such as the Museum of Kyoto as the C.H. Postal building. KyoAni even went the extra length of inventing their own script (there's even a Reddit thread that spent time deciphering it). The show is well animated and looks beautiful as you might expect from KyoAni's recent works. Artwork is a lot more detailed with all the lighting and textures compared to say Miss Kobayashi. There's nothing that doesn't look pretty which is a stark constrast to the brief gruesome flashbacks of conflict so it's mostly eye candy and, it's well directed too because you can see the detail in body language during scenes. Character designs will probably remind you a lot of KyoAni's older works too although the red blush on their noses is kind of odd. As far as fan service for the male viewer is concerned I think it'd be in the form of the "onee-san [elderly sister]" character Cattleya with her voluptous character design and cleavage in what's supposed to be a formal workplace but other than that, there's none.

Right from the get go you'll probably find yourself sympathising for Violet with the flashbacks of what she's been through. Despite the serious start there are still the odd funny moments to lighten the mood due to her early overly frank and child-like personality most of the time. Like when she uses her hands to stretch her cheeks out to put on a smile! Out of interest, her voice actress Yui Ishikawa just happens to be Mikasa from Attack on Titan too.

Apart from the odd naming concept of "doll services" (well, I guess they are kind of dolled-up) and weird lines like "I can arrange a replacement doll if I'm not to your liking", it features some good short stories that represent different forms of love. While the scenarios are nothing new they are directed really well so a few of them can be really moving. Unfortunately, that voice Minori Chihara sings the ending theme with (she also plays Erica) really doesn't suit the mood... I guess the main charm of the show is seeing how much words can mean even seemingly hurtful ones. Also watching Violet become more human, discovering new emotions and rebuilding her life as she becomes the ghostwriter for other people's love stories. In a way, she kind of reminds me of Fiora from Xenoblade Chronicles who has a similar fate.

However for the most part, the show feels like just a chain of short stories because Violet's role feels very minor. Mostly as a spectator apart from the odd episode. I also think they made her a bit too overly emotionless... So much so that I was thinking, "So this an Anime about a robot girl trying to be human?" at the beginning. It didn't help when they referred to her as an "emotionless weapon" and gave her superhuman abilities either. I mean yes, she's had a tragic past but she should have some basic emotion but instead really acts like a robot processing data most of the time or "doll" as some describe her as. If they didn't overdo it I think the show would have been better so that it really felt like a human recovering from her past.

The 13 episode series wraps up well on its own. There is an OVA that came with the last volume of the blu-ray release and is kind of a filler episode that takes place between episodes 4 and 5. Violet gets a request from an opera singer who wants some inspiration by getting her to write a letter playing the role of someone waiting for her lover to return from war. However, it must be one that would capture the war-torn hearts of all men and women which proves to be quite a challenge for Violet alone. It's not too bad. If you didn't have enough of the short stories from the series then you might like it although I don't think it can top the direction from other stories in the series.

So, watch this series for the short stories and art. You might want to have tissues ready.