'Violet Evergarden: Eternity' Previews Cast, Soundtrack and Story

In the wake of the tragic fire at Kyoto Animation last month, fans of the studio have rejoiced at the news that one of its best loved shows - Violet Evergarden - is receiving a new film release this year. 

The trailer for Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memories Doll (also known as Violet Evergarden Gaiden: Eien to Jidō Shuki NingyōI) dropped on Tuesday, revealing the film’s cast and soundtrack, "Amy" by Minori Chihara.

The story largely centres around two new cast members. One is Isabella York, a young noble woman attending an incredibly strict school that refines girls for high society. She despairs about her future but, before she can fully succumb to it, she is introduced to her new manners teacher - Violet (hilarity is bound to ensue...). 

The second new addition is Taylor Bartlett, a young girl who, very much in contrast to Isabella, has no family at all. She comes to visit Violet while the latter is visiting Isabella and, from the preview at least, seems to build just as close a bond with our titular character as Isabella does.

It’s difficult to guess at much of the story from the few scenes we can see, but it does seem clear that both Isabella and Taylor will go through very complementary, if slightly different, journeys. Violet Evergarden has been quite clever in how it explored the topic of ‘expression’ in its first series, so it’s going to be really exciting to see not only how both women grow and mature, but what role Violet plays and how she too develops in response.

The film has already been premiered at the AnimagiC convention in Mannheim, Germany, earlier this month, and is set to be released in Japan from 6 - 19 September. There’s no formal release date for us here in the West but, given the Japanese release date, I would expect a Christmas or early 2020 release (hopefully with the dub too). It will also be interesting to see how the movie is released when it finally arrives; will it appear in cinemas, or maybe head straight to Netflix to join the rest of the anime series? Time will tell, and you can never know what Netflix may try, but it’s an exciting development for fans of the show and Kyoto Animation.

As an aside, this movie is also potentially the first of two film releases; Kyoto Animation are said to be working on a previously announced Violet Evergarden film project, set for release in January 2020 (you can see the preview for that below). However, given the recent tragic circumstances surrounding the studio, it’s unclear how the development of this second movie will proceed. Until then, let’s be really excited for this upcoming film, and we’ll keep you posted on news as we get it.