Sometimes we watch anime to have a good laugh, but sometimes we watch shows that we know will hit us right in the feels. Violet Evergarden is a show that will have you ugly crying at every episode, regardless of what order you decide to watch it in. Our Violet Evergarden watch order can help you get the most out of this popular anime series, complete with its films and TV specials.

Violet Evergarden is the story of Violet, a young woman who has had most of her personality sapped from her due to her time as a child soldier. As a result, she seems cold and distant to almost everyone around her. As a brutal war finally comes to an end, she gets a job at a post office, writing letters and even plays for people who cannot put their words on paper. As Violet helps heal the people she writes for, she slowly heals the parts of herself that were lost in the war.

Whether you watch Violet Evergarden in release or chronological order, you’ll need plenty of tissues at hand to get you to the end. Here are our recommendations for how to tackle this gorgeously animated anime series.

How to watch Violet Evergarden in chronological order

Aside from a rather lengthy flashback that occurs later in the series – which we’ve noted below – most of the Violet Evergarden anime series takes place in chronological order. However, we would recommend not watching this flashback first if you’re new to the series as it will undermine most of the drama of unraveling Violet’s tragic backstory as the show’s creators intended.

If you’re due a rewatch of Violet Evergarden and want to see how it plays out in chronological order, here is the best way to do it:

• Violet Evergarden Episode 8 Part 2 – Note that this is a flashback to Violet’s time in the war.
• Violet Evergarden Episode 9 Part 1 – This is a continuation of the flashback that began in the previous episode.
• Violet Evergarden Episodes 1-4
• Violet Evergarden OVA: The Day You Understand “I Love You” Will Surely Come
• Violet Evergarden Episodes 5-7
• Violet Evergarden Episode 8 Part 1
• Violet Evergarden Episode 9 Part 2
• Violet Evergarden Episode 10
• Violet Evergarden Reflections – Note that this is a recap of the first ten episodes of the anime. There aren’t any new scenes in this 90-minute-long special.
• Violet Evergarden Episodes 11-13
• Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll
• Violet Evergarden: The Movie

How to watch Violet Evergarden in release order

As with most series, it is best to tackle Violet Evergarden in release order to maintain all the juicy dramatic tension that comes with the slow reveal of Violet’s tragic backstory. It is also a significantly easier order to watch the show in as you don’t have to worry about jumping back and forth in the middle of episodes.

The Violet Evergarden release order is:

• Violet Evergarden Episodes 1-13
• Violet Evergarden OVA: The Day You Understand “I Love You” Will Surely Come
• Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll
• Violet Evergarden: The Movie
• Violet Evergarden Reflections – Note that this is a recap of the first ten episodes of the anime. There aren’t any new scenes in this 90-minute-long special.

Where to watch Violet Evergarden?

All of Violet Evergarden can be streamed as part of your Netflix subscription. The site has the full anime series, plus both films and Recollections, which condenses the first ten episodes of the anime into one 90-minute recap. You can even see the OVA under the title Violet Evergarden Special.

Will there be more Violet Evergarden?

We never like to say never when it comes to bringing back anime for another movie – after all, that’s how we got multiple new Dragon Ball series. However, the light novels that the Violet Evergarden anime series and films were adapted from finished back in 2020. As such, we don’t expect there to be any more content for the animation studio to adapt. At least not anytime soon.

Is Violet in Violet Evergarden human?

There can be some confusion about the nature of the Auto Memory Dolls in Violet Evergarden. Within the show’s history, there were devices called Auto Memory Dolls that registered everything that a person said and typed them onto a typewriter. This same term was later used to describe the people who serve as ghostwriters for others, which is what Violet and the other Dolls in the show are.

As such, everyone in Violet Evergarden is human, including Violet herself.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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