Anime meets Grimms Brothers Fairy Tails in Grimms Notes The Animation

Hello everyone and welcome to our place!

Finally the sub of Grimms Notes, The Animation came out! It’s one of those Anime shows that I really wanted to watch the first episode. Grimms Notes, The Animation is an Anime which source is mobile game published by Square-Enix with the same name.

The story is about a group of 4 friends (?) who jump from fairy tale to fairy tale helping everyone who is in there. From the first episode, it seems that we will have the normal fairy tail going into a different route due to some kind of monsters. This way, our group job is to be the savior and make the story go to the normal route again.

As the name implies, these stories will be stories from the famous Grimm brothers’ books. So, we get a Kingdom Hearts kind of vibe! Meaning, a group of people will be from one world to another helping people from fairy tales that we probably know very well. For instance, the first episode was about the Red Riding Hood.

It was a Nice Episode, But I Needed More Information

I have to say that it was a nice episode! I cannot say that they were able to bring my feelings out about the people and what was happening. But, for a game type of Anime, I think it was interesting enough. However, although the first episode shows us the Red Riding Hood story and what’s the problem with the World to make it go nuts, it does not really explain the setting or the type of the World we are in.

Basically, in this world, everyone is given a book when they are born. This book (notes) will tell you everything you will be doing throughout your life. This means, from the first day you will know what is going to be all of your life. Something that makes sense since all characters are part of a fairy tale and each one has their own part to play. I remember seeing something similar to this in Chrono Cross, a PlayStation One game where people had the possibility to know their future on a weekly basis if I’m remembering it right. Truth is, although something I’ve seen before, it’s not really that generic, or overused.

But, coming back in topic. The monsters dwelling in the stories are not supposed to be there, and in this case, they do not appear in the books which make people getting a little desperate and not knowing what they should do. Something that makes sense.

What Does Not Make Sense

However, what it should be explained from the start (and it is not) is, what creatures are these and why are they appearing? What type of world is this? Where do our saviors come from? Questions that in a game plot makes sense to come after the first level or so, but in an Anime should be given right from the bat.

I can’t understand where Ex, Raina, Tao, and Shane come from. Clearly, they are not from the Red Riding Hood world. But, at the same time, they are not from a completely different world, since Ex ends the episode opening his book and asking what should someone do when their book is empty.

So, what are they? Why can they transform into other Grimm Brothers’ tales characters to fight? Moreover, what is happening in the world and why are those creatures appearing?

I mean, it makes sense that the last question is not answered right away… But our main characters do not really touch the subject, do they? It’s just like something that has always been there. However, from what the village talks about, we can see that the monsters are really not that common. Or maybe they are, but since the story characters will forget what happened while being saved then they never remember the last attacks?

See, it’s not like it’s confusing… It’s just information that is not there! Boogiepop episode 1, for example, was confusing but it was about how the information was displayed. Here, it’s confusing because there is not enough information to create an idea of the setting and the environment.

Nevertheless, Grimm Notes the Animation presented a somewhat good first episode and I will invest more time into this. I just have to say that I’m a little sad that the game does not seem to be available here in Portugal 🙁