Have you ever wondered how the story would have turned out if Cinderella would have been a manipulative demon-spawn that actually gaslighted her two big sisters into becoming hated by the entire family? No? Yeah, me neither…but someone did. The Grimm Variations is an anime that takes several of the Grimm stories and re-envisions them adding somewhat of an eerie or particular spin. The story of Cinderella, for instance, takes manipulation to the extreme. Little Red Riding Hood plays on the trope of the wolf in sheep’s clothing and the one that the hunter becomes the pray. I assume that the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker is an analogy of the influence of the stupor of alcohol in the creative process. Maybe? I mean it does explore frustration and lack of motivation and talent, which changes when liquor is introduced – from bitterness and resentment to the manuscript just popping up.
The series uses very good animation techniques, but I will say that by the second episode the ‘reversal’ trope that plays on the opposite of expectation becomes a tad stale. The overall theme is about fakeness and facades, forgeries and people not being who they appear to be, which in itself is interesting, but unfortunately doesn’t add much more than that.
A much stronger selling point that this series offers is the soundtrack. By taking classical music and motifs and adapting them in a jazzy or swingy nuance, the episodes hit a bit better. Adapting for instance Mozart’s Symphony no. 40, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and even Chopin’s Funeral March in a jazz key just made me want to put the OST on repeat while writing this article for instance.
The technique of envisioning or re-envisioning famous stories in an animated series has been used previously with great success. Gankutsuou is a great example of a series that animates the story of The Count of Monte Cristo. Another fantastic example of more bite-sized episodes and self-concluding stories would be Aoi Bungaku (Blue Literature Series) which has my recommendation. Ultimately however, I feel it’s a pity for Grimm Variations – it shows that the animators put effort into their work, but the stories feel somewhat stale and unexciting; with better stories and nuances the series could have been so much better.