Forum - View topicREVIEW: The Grimm Variations Anime Series Review
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ab2143
Posts: 762 |
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I was disappointed with Little Red Riding Hood as I thought it was predictable and the stuff with the AR went way over my head. However, reading the review has made me feel more positive towards it. Certainly stronger compared to the other episodes. Glad I wasn't the only one who thought of Hard Candy whilst watching it lol
Yeah, Elves and the Shoemaker just couldn't grab my attention... I found it incredibly dull[/i] |
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AverageAnimeFan
 Posts: 66 |
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I wasn't expecting a lecture on folktale studies but I'm not mad about it. I thought the anthology was pretty bad, Netflix strikes again I guess.
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5525 |
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I feel this show is greater than the sum of its parts. As an overall, package, it's a creatively varied anthology, individually few of them would stand upon their feet.
I think my favourite one, was "The Town Musicians of Bremen", a very solidly made weird western. I also think it did the "women get revenge on men" troupe better than EP2. "Cinderella" might be my second favourite, the twist becomes obvious very early on, but it was well told. Next might be "Hansel and Gretel", I wasn't big on the spoiler[Gretel was just Hansel's imagination twist], and it did feel a bit overlong, but it was still an excellent what if story. "Little Red Riding Hood" might be next, though the snuff porn lost its shock value for me by the end. I did really like the beginning, where it was "Little Red Riding Hood in a VR version of the Moulin Rouge". I think the main issue was length, once they had established Grey as a character, they don't really do anything with him until he goes to the old lady. "Pied Piper of Hamelin" has some interesting theming on the dangers of sexual repression and insulated communities. I just wish it had spent more time developing Maria as a character and less time focusing on the teacher. "The Elves and the Shoemaker"... Yeah, that was just way overlong and really boring. |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2499 Location: United States |
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I really wanted to like this, but the only episodes I really liked were Cinderella and Bremen. The other ones were just kinda trying too hard to be edgy, or their sci-fi was too out there for me to really understand. The English dub is top notch, though.
I'd recommend watching the 1980s Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics anime by Nippon Animation, as those are not only more faithful to the original fairy tales, any darkness they have feels more palpable and grounded. |
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BlueFoot
Posts: 13 |
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One slight correction - there are mysterious redheads across all six episodes, not just the final three. I was expecting this to connect to Charlotte somehow in the end, but instead we just get the mentioned remarks that don't really make sense in the context of either the original stories or the anthology versions. The redhead seems to be the driving force behind alterations to the story at times, a key element of the original story more commonly, and merely an influential side character in some episodes. It's too inconsistent to tie into the framing device in any meaningful way, making it seem like a feature that was dropped partway through development.
Another common thread through the episodes was a lack of any real surprise in the endings. Part of that comes from the story archetypes being known, but even the alterations fail to have much of an impact. Once you get a feel for the setting and characters, the direction of the story is easy to predict. Well, except for the Shoemaker episode, because that one never really went anywhere with the ideas it presented. And for a series that ends on a message about wanting stories without happy endings, at least half of the stories still had happy endings, depending on how you define the term. Still, it was entertaining filler for the most part. The dark and edgy aspects may not be for everyone and everything that isn't dark and edgy plays it safe to the point of blunting any emotional impact. It's a bit too much style over substance for its own good, but, well, CLAMP. It was fine but forgettable and fits in well with other recent productions that fell short of what could have been. |
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ZiharkXVI
Posts: 390 |
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I love the concept, but the execution as many have already stated is flawed. I think I disliked the Hansel/Gretel one most for some reason I can't quite figure out - it was mostly just dull and the ending was so meh I rolled my eyes. Animation was decent, and most were watchable. But I'll never want to see this or think about it again.
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SaneSavantElla
 Posts: 255 Location: Philippines |
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Yes, it feels like they were trying to go somewhere with the presence of redheads. I was half-expecting a reveal that Charlotte somehow inserts herself in the stories. Also, the Grimm brothers themselves make cameos in 3 or so episodes (perhaps they were in all episodes, and I simply didn't catch them), so definitely some magic/time leaping/reincarnation hijinks are at play here. |
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scanlines
 Posts: 69 Location: in time out for bad behavior |
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I really liked this version of "The Elves and the Shoemaker" it's the type of story people would eat up if it was a film produced by A24. It wasn't bad, but I was hoping we'd get more of Cinderella and her doll. Which somewhat reminded me of Sumomo for some reason. Maybe I should rewatch Chobits.
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Asianfoodeater
Posts: 20 |
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Thanks for the insights. I think I will watch this series.
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Glordit
 Posts: 692 |
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I thought the series was good overall, some stories could have been a tiny bit better like Elves and the Shoemaker and Little Red Riding Hood, the latter of which was painfully predictable. Town Musicians reminded me of the "Girls with Guns" trilogy, wish we got more of those types of shows.
The remaining had some nice twists to them, and I enjoyed them more than I thought I would. Pied Piper of Hamelin and Cinderella where my favorites. |
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PumpkinMouse
 Posts: 82 |
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The instant I saw the trailer pop up on my Netflix recommendations I knew that a) I wasn't going to watch it and b) I really wanted Rebecca to review it.
After reading the review, I've decided that even though it seems to be doing some interesting things with its premise, I'm still not interested in watching it, but it's always a delight to read Rebecca's thoughts on anything even tangentially related to fairy tales and folklore (and period-accurate clothing). |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2349 |
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I'm not an expert on this subject, but it's interesting to me that Perrault's version of Cinderella has a substantially nicer ending than the Grimms' much later take. Guess this stuff doesn't proceed in a straight line.
Didn't see the byline, huh?
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2273 |
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For my money, Once Upon a Crime is the much stronger twisted fairytale show on Netflix, and is much more fun to watch. I still have Bremen and Pied Piper to get through, but I have a strong suspicion that Elves and the Shoemaker suffers from some differing cultural context around “cheating”. In Japan, cheating is considered just about the worst thing you can do (to the point that it’s been edited out as a subplot for certain shows to make heroic characters more palatable to Japanese audiences), and I wonder if the conceit of having a protagonist who basically had someone doing all the work for him without giving it a fair shake himself was just hewing too close to that idea to be anything but negativity perceived for that audience. Just a thought.
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AverageAnimeFan
Posts: 66 |
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Interesting that you mention that because I recently saw this video that implies basically the opposite of your statement and at the time it was too hard to believe. I just assume it's fake now. |
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Shay Guy
Posts: 2349 |
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Is this related to how Time Paradox Ghostwriter ended up being pretty much WSJ's biggest bomb of the past decade? |
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