Vaioretto evâgâden gaiden: Eien to jidô shuki ningyô

I haven't seen any of the Violet Evergarden series so I watched this movie with no context. The story was still easy enough for me to pick up though. It starts off with the titular Violet Evergarden taking on a student Ms. York at an etiquette student as they open up to each other. We learn more about their characters and their backstories but for a while the plot doesn't really go in any particular direction. It is not clear who is the protagonist - we can't see who is propelling the action because there isn't really any progress anyway. Around halfway, we finally see a focus on Taylor Bartlett who aims to become a delivery person, bring joy to others and find her long-lost sister again - a plot thread that took far too long to set up. By far the defining feature of this film is the visual animation quality. Everything pops out with well defined colours and details like the light in the sky, the reflections in the water, the architecture of the town and even the mechanical arms of Violet Evergarden.