User reviews

The first episode is perfect bait to keep you watching. A new perspective on the original story and characters. It's a representation of what this series should be. All the remaining chapters use almost only the names of the stories and characters. In them, it seems like they did it not to produce a variation, but to push the concept as much as they could from the original. And the places they bring the stories just feel forced.

'Cinderella' is so good. 'Little Red Riding Hood' and 'The Elves and the Shoemaker' had good ideas for the subtext in which they wanted to shift the focus of the story, but they could not implement it very well. In the remaining three, they simply threw story ideas at the audience that they thought would look cool, without giving them any serious thought.

I think they handled a child abuse element very wrongly in the last story, and that bothered me most.

I was waiting for this to come out for a few weeks. It definitely has potential to be good. I liked episode 1, but the next couple ones so far I have seen have fallen short in keeping me interested. Which is disappointing, since I want to love it. I haven't seen the whole series yet, and am at the elves and the shoemaker. I am hoping the next ones are better. What I thought they would be were more like the original Grimm fairytales, but they kind of become odd versions of the tales that sometimes don't seem to make much sense. The Hansel and Gretel, for instance just was not what I was expecting and didn't really make me feel it was even close to being that fairytale. Red riding hood was strange trying to be in the future, but again wasn't really what I was expecting the tales would be. The blood and all that doesn't bother me and was nice they included the "horror" aspects which I was expecting from the Gimm stories. I appreciate they were trying to go with something new, but they did a pretty good job in my opinion with Cinderella. Watching that first episode got me excited for the rest. I just feel like that so far the other ones have been very odd, boring or don't make much sense so far. Hopefully tho, it gets better in the other stories. I think the idea is good for the series, but the way the stories are lack for me.

CLAMP collab? Definitely here for it. The artwork is lovely, the character designs are whimsical, the Pied Piper episode was stretching into Ghibli-esque territory with their visuals, and some of the themes and elements were downright chilling.

First episode sets you up thinking everything will have this subversive twist. The last episode almost does the same thing, but you are more along for the ride on the subversion train rather than blindsided by it.

But none of the other episodes reach a satisfying level of "unexpected," instead, leaving you with a feeling of wondering what it was trying to represent. The source fairy tales themselves already had their moral lessons and with rare exception, it didn't present any "variation" to the tales or moral lessons. Much of it felt like an artist's rendition of an already known work. Not a copy, but how they see it. And while that can be appreciated for what it is, I felt dissatisfied, wishing it was for the reason of wanting more. But I didn't.

I was presented with a six-course meal and while I didn't leave the table hungry, none of the dishes were anything I would necessarily order again.

I love new and creative interpretations of fairy tails, but this just field so weird. I think it's hard to even call them new interpretations as so less of the source material is used within this. The first episode was fine, but the others were just weird and missing a moral/a message of the story. I think it's one of the shows were a lot is metaphoric and up to interpretation, but it's not presented in a fun, clever and interesting way like eg love, death and robots or Star Wars Visions. It's just weird. I'm quite disappointed as I expected more. They should have better adapted something like Kaori Yuki's Ludwig Revolution.

I've got shelves of Reminaginings for fairy tales so going into this series I was open to just about anything.

It's not an exact match but the title is the best way I can describe how this show felt to me. It's like each fairy tale story was prompted to be mixed with a Sci-fi anthology series and the sound track was sourced from classical composers, though not always in a classical style.

And yeah the tones here all over the place while also being similar. It's really best to view each episode as it's own because really the only thing tying them together is the short openings with the Grimm siblings discussing the original fairy tales, and eventually having some small cameo in the story of the episode. So very " Rod Serling" or Alfred Hitchcock.

As others have said with no spoilers Cinderella is closest to the source material with a 'dark twist' so I'd say it best matches Night Gallery

I found a special fondness for Red Riding Hood which had shades of Hannibal and Black Mirror

Hansel and Gretel feels more Twilight Zone still a little twisty but nowhere near as dark as either of the previous tales.

Elves and the Shoemaker totally lost me I'll be honest, I won't even pretend to understand what happened there but then even the Main Character didn't even get it so maybe that was the point XD.

The Town Musicians of Bremen would be right at home as an entry for Love Death & Robots.

The Pied Piper Of Hamlin is rather Tales of the Darkside or maybe one of the more mild Master of Horror episodes.

This is no reinterpretation, as barely any of the source material is used. This is a complete misinterpretation of some wonderful tales filled with morals. This version is stripped of the moral part, perverted and filled with grotesque and gratuitous horror (viewers beware, it's extremely visceral). I love anime but this one is just wrong and disrespectful.

If you don't understand one's culture, literature, or what made the stories fascinating, don't just go and make your own twisted version. Sure, the animation is good, the music fits nicely, but everything else feels wrong, vague and lacking substance.

As a regular anime watcher, I found The Grim Variations to be a refreshing and enjoyable watch. Despite some criticism, I believe that sometimes, simple anime can be just as entertaining and engaging as those with more complex storylines. While some may argue that the show could have taken a different approach, it's important to remember that there are limitations when adapting famous fairytales while still trying to be original and engaging. Instead of setting high expectations, it's best to watch and appreciate the show for what it is. Don't let reviews or others' opinions influence your own enjoyment. Give it a chance and form your own thoughts and feelings about it.

This is not a 'dark twist on the fairytale' this is poorly written drivel on par with the writing of a middle schooler who thinks they are being edgy. On even a moment of reflection not a single charecter decision or action makes an inch of sense. It is just pure nonsense. And due to the fact that these stories are written in a way thay is meant to be 'realistic' aka the fantasy is taken to a minimum, it makes no sense.

I'm not saying it can't be done. Like for Vinderella I like the idea of a girl wisely playing a game of chess to manipulate the story to come out on top.

But that isn't the story we get. Plus the stories done have an interesting take on the moral so they aren't really a twist on the fairytale. Cinderella is about endurance in the face of hardship. Red Riding hood is about not trusting strangers. Imagine a Cinderella story that takes it too far, harming others to get ahead. Or Red Riding Hood luring bad people with her trusting nature.

In the end this is just... badly written.

After viewing the first season, I'm hooked on this Netflix anime series! This series offers captivating reinterpretations of six Grimm Brothers' fairy tales, each presented in distinct genres. But wait a minute. The Grimms didn't write "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." Anyway, in the beginning of each episode, the brothers and Charlotte, their younger sister, appear.

In my estimation, the most exceptional segments of the series feature a western science fiction adaptation of "The Bremen Town Musicians," in which the animal protagonists are human females. I agree with the anime fans who have seen the series. CLAMP, the creators of "Card Captor Sakura" and "X/1999," originated the concept art for the series, and I love it.

I really enjoy this series because I love fairy tales, though I'm 38 years old, and also because CLAMP's one of my favorite manga artists. So, that's all I have to say about this anime.

I found this series to be very refreshing. Many fairy tale shows and movies today either adhere closely to Disney's versions or the Grimm dark tales, word for word. So, I enjoyed not only the stunning visuals but also the fact that I wasn't watching the same old fairy tale I've seen and heard a million times. Even if the stories are a bit confusing at times, I feel like I understand them by the end, and I gain something from each one. This series also doesn't just rely on horror or being as messed up as possible. It is more mature, for sure, but I know not every ending is going to be super dark. There are happy, sad, and even horrific endings, and each one is written beautifully. So, I don't feel like it needs to be gory to hold my interest. If you want a new, mature, or interesting take on old fairy tales, you should watch this, because I'm sure at least one of these endings will move you and leave you pondering the world each story takes place in, and how the story continues.

I actually started this series for background sounds. But the first episode hooked me in. It was simple of a Cinderella story but with a twist. The second episode was everything! Finally a show with all the gore and craziness of a MA show needed. The 3rd episode is what I wished Promise Neverland could of been. The Elves and the shoemaker episode was very interesting. Fun mystery type of episode. The town musical episode wasn't that great but it was nice to watch. The Pied Piper was a great story with a silver lining ending.

Each had their own message and stories. Some can say it's a 'Black Mirror' but in anime sort of way.

I hope there are more episodes to come out from this!

I am not someone who has ever written a review before but I am watching this rn and was curious to peoples reactions, so I decided to check this page out and I just really felt like saying sum so...

I am really liking this series so far and I am on ep5 rn (as I am typing this tbh) and maybe it's not something groundbreakingly astounding it's still nice and a fun concept/show. I enjoy that they dont just take the story and copy it but that they rather take core elements of the specific Grimm stories and put them in a different context.

I really dont want to spoiler, but small warning maybe like idk I just need to explain myself...I definetly see how ep1 had the most original approach with just changing the story and power structures around.

For episode 2 I also see the whole hunter and the one supposed to be hunted but where the victim manages to outsmart in the end concept which was present in the most known variation aswell

for ep3 definetly liking how the story goes, just think that the impact in the end is more there when you try to think of everything and put yourself in that situation, not the animation / storyline itself like it was kinda anti climactic tbh but i also feel like they tried to go like super artistic (?) with this episodes like it was really calm and like super technological stuff with a Middle Ages (?) visual so I think that definitely impacted the end and overall story but ja

For ep4 I feel like that same artistic kind of approach was taken as in episode 3 where everything was like rather muted and everything put super specific and sophisticated with a small 80s kind of touch (I'm genz so if I have the year wrong please don't hate me) but I genuinely don't understand what was going on but on its own it's was still a cute watch

Episode 5 is really going nice so far with the connection being that the main cast is basically 4 different types of people but working together to survive in the bitter world which I really like because making the citylife from the original into a western style movie is really funny but lowkey accurate like we just trying to survive out here

We shall see how it ends and what the next episode will be... again it wasn't groundbreaking our anything but it's still a cute watch ^^

Also I wasn't allowed to use apostrophes for some reason.