Global streaming giant Netflix has announced on Wednesday that the side-story anime film of Kyoto Animation’s Violet Evergarden franchise will streamed next month.
Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll will be added to the streaming platform on Thursday, April 2.
This trailer for Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll got me crying in thirty seconds, thanks Kyoto Animation. pic.twitter.com/A0Oc3fj2cP
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) March 3, 2020
Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll is a side-story anime film of the highly-popular anime series Kyoto Animation, which is based on a Japanese light novel series, written by Kana Akatsuki and illustrated by Akiko Takase.
The novel has won the grand prize in the fifth Kyoto Animation Award competition in 2014, marking the first time that any submitted work has earned the grand prize on any of its three categories, which are the novel, scenario and manga.
KA Esuma Bunko, which is the light novel imprint of the anime studio, had published two volumes of the novel in December 2015 and December 2016.
The novel’s third volume is scheduled to be released on Friday, March 27.
North American anime licensor Funimation, which distributed the anime film in North America, has described the film:
Violet Evergarden comes to a private women’s academy to tutor Isabella in the ways of being a lady. Heir to the York family, Isabella feels trapped in this new and uncomfortable world. She still grieves for the only person to ever bring her happiness — now lost to her. Violet’s lessons do give her a brief respite from the melancholy but with the absence of joy, how long does it take to truly heal?
Haruka Fujita, the series director of the television anime adaptation, returns to direct the spinoff film, together with Reiko Yoshida handling the series composition and Aiko Takase handling character designs, which is produced by Kyoto Animation.
Yui Ishikawa reprise her role as the titular character of “Violet Evergarden” together with the main cast members from the television anime, where she is joined by Minako Kotobuki (“Tsumugi Kotobuki”, K-ON! series) as “Isabella York” and Aoi Yuki (“Madoka Kaname”, Puella Magi Madoka Magica franchise) as “Taylor Bartlett”.
Minori Chihara performed the anime film’s theme song “Amy”.
The franchise had released Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll in Japanese cinemas last September 6, which was initially set to screen for just two weeks, but extended to at least five weeks due to public demand, which earned an accumulative total of JP¥641,980,500 (about PHP295.6 million).
VIVA International Pictures, the foreign film distribution arm of VIVA Entertainment, is set to release the side-story film on Wednesday, March 11, which will be screened exclusively at SM Cinema branches nationwide.
Industry sources had previously revealed to Anime Pilipinas that the upcoming film sequel, Violet Evergarden: The Movie, has also been acquired by the film distributor.
The upcoming anime film is scheduled to premiere in Japanese cinemas on April 24.
The anime adaptation was aired on Japanese television during the Winter 2018 season, which was streamed by Netflix on a simulcast basis in select countries, including the Philippines.
