Grimms Notes The Animation

Within one's Book of Fate is their destiny. Written by the mysterious Story Tellers, these books decide every small detail of one's life. Some Story Tellers, however, choose to interfere with the stories of others rather than write their own. These malevolent beings are known as Chaos Tellers, who seek to ruin stories by overwriting the Books of Fate.

Ex, Reina, Tao, and Shane were born with blank books. Ostracized by society due to this abnormality, they abandon their respective stories in search of better lives. In the vast unknown, they encounter famous fairy tale characters such as Cinderella, Momotarou, and Snow White. All the while, they work to subdue the Chaos Tellers and return peace and order to the stories.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ex Main

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Shane Main

Kubota, Miyu Japanese

Reina Main

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Tao Main

Eguchi, Takuya Japanese

Alice Supporting

Kubota, Miyu Japanese

Snow White Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Cinderella Supporting

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Curly Supporting

Uesaka, Sumire Japanese

Red Riding Hood Supporting

Taneda, Risa Japanese

Emperor Supporting

Echigoya, Kousuke Japanese

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Ozawa, Juukou Producer, Planning

Sugahara, Shizutaka Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Gou, Fumiyuki Sound Director

Reviews

Apr 27, 2019

Demundo

Recommended

Just a warning note, I knew of the game and have played it at the time of its release. However, even though I did enjoy and see great potential in its story line, I still dropped playing the game pretty early on since I saw no chance of an ending to the game's plot. This review will be heavily affected by that experience.

Also, this review will have heavy spoilers for the series and only serves as a view to it instead of a conclusion. If you really want to know what it's like, try the series out anyway.
_________________________________________________

For the first thing, as I mentioned ... above, I saw great potential in Grimms Note story line.
Like you would have seen it many time in the Anime had you run through it once, basically, everyone has a book telling them what will happen in their life that only they themselves can read at birth. But there are times when exceptions do happen and our main protagonists and main antagonists are such exceptions. They have no written fate, allowing them to travel through the thick fog existing somewhere in their worlds and they can become any hero they want to fight the chaos of wherever they set foot to.

Basically, they are the travelers, the adventurers in many of the "Isekai" motif series. This already implies a lot of things the moment it was introduced in the game: you, as the protagonist can be anything, can be a hero anywhere you go to, be anyone you want to which is the one thing almost no other can do. You are nothing, but you can be everything exactly because you are nothing, as long as you choose to do it. It's a rather up lifting way to see the plot. But then, if you look at it differently, it seems as though you can never really be yourself, always borrowing someone else's life to talk as your own, to act as your own. Then is it anything really good? You have no role in life so it's like you can't do anything for other people. You can choose anything you want to be, but it's always limited to what you know of, so it's not exactly like you have control over it either. Such dilemma can lead to a number one story line and this and that....

Yet.
Yet, both the Anime and the original game chose a different approach to it. They want to repeat similar stories that have already succeeded in the past instead of making something new. But well, it's not exactly bad either since for an online game, repetitive is actually helping it to stay afloat to users.
But for an Anime, it really kills off possibilities unlike the game. It was not any thing as atmospheric like in the game. It has a too repetitive and boring start that you can't exactly hope for anything at the end. And it played true since "every" episode was a different folk tale or well known tale somewhere right up to even last episode. Episodic as you might call it. Well, it's an online game adaptation. It should do something that isn't breaking the original game's lore. What's with the cliched protagonists and antagonists.

But wait? Antagonists? Oh, right, the villains who keep bringing Chaos Tellers into a Story Zone to interfere with its story, its fate and ultimately, break them. Hm? Their motive? Well, let's see.... To fight back, to struggle against the cruel Story Teller who bestowed upon them, them all, all characters, blank or filled, a fate that keeps repeating. Red Riding Hood has to be eaten by the wolf, Cinderella bullied and driven like a slave but still might not find happiness in her marriage with the prince, John Silver has to live the life with dreams never coming true, Snow White being fed a poison apple and forgets all the love she was given so she execute the queen in the most cruel way just to become that same queen and be executed the same way by a new Snow White, Snow Queen living all alone in her cold, cold castle of ice and solitude where she is the queen, the oni and the humans can't stop killing each other and any rich will corrupt the most gullible person, Aladdin obtains wealth, power and even women to end up becoming the sultan he fought, Jeane d'Arc fights for France but then abandoned and burned to death and Jabberwock doesn't even have to himself a proper existence. The cruel in all those story is what they fight against. And they fight to defy the Story Teller, they fight to "Rebel Against the God". They fight for the equality to those characters who has the shorter straw. They fight for the have not. So that makes them righteous... I guess.... Despite the damage they might, might have and will cause.

Wait? They are right? Does that mean we should side with them? No of course not. They still cause worlds, or Story Zones to collapse after all. All of the cruelty still doesn't justify an even bigger cruelty: making worlds with people living in it collapse that cease to exist. So, that's why they can not win, that why protagonist, despite all the bad thing happened to them, with only a little kindness shown to themselves, they will fight for the lives of many, even if it means trampling down on lives they might have saved or even actually saved for real.

Oh, now that's a great dilemma. Only thing is that it takes too long to see and even with the hints here and there, it's still not very convincing.

So, for the least, the plot was actually good.
But the execution of story line was terrible. Most the stories are crammed into only 1 episode. Every hint of character backgrounds were told out loud and easy to understand despite how deep their problems are. Even the plot twist at the end is just a case of Deus Ex Machina, despite being a real shocker.

Everything else was rather generic. The art and animation was clean enough. Voice acting although still don't quite sound convincing and keep cramming punch lines here and there, still good enough. The music was actually a let down since they use new pieces of music for opening and ending and only use the game main theme, which was exceptionally good, as inserted background music.

Wait a minute!!! The game main theme song? Now that I think about it, Wasureji no Kotonoha really just fits in with the Anime, more than what I feel of how it fits to the game. Oh now that was clever. That actually makes more sense now. As the thought struck me, the whole series became rather clear. It was another stupid ass message but still a multi-layered message of of stupid ass messages.

So, to repeat myself, if you really want to see how it is, try the series out. And if you can, try out the game main theme song too to appreciate the series a little bit more. It's Wasureji no Kotonoha and should be available somewhere since it's the internet.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Demundo (20)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jun 2, 2019

Unconfidence

Mixed Feelings

No spoilers.

This anime was fairly enjoyable. There's really not much to say about it because I found it quite mediocre, but the core concept behind the series is very cool in my opinion. I probably would have given it a 5 if I didn't find the basic concept so neat. They could have done a whole lot with it, but really the show was just sort of, well, there. It wasn't bad, but none of the characters were overly endearing and the plot wasn't very deep. Just a sort of average anime. Not bad at all, none of the ... characters grated on my nerves or anything, but not spectacular in any way.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Unconfidence (50)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Sep 27, 2021

ChknCurry

Not Recommended

This anime would be good if you're like under 10 years old. Art is average compared to other shows out there, same with soundtrack. Nothing overly amazing. I was quite bored by the repetitiveness of the show.

TLDR;
Save yourself the time and skip this anime unless you want to watch it with your 5 year old. You aren't missing much.

<SPOILER WARNING>
Every episode aside from the first one, follows the same format. Every single episode involves our group of protagonists in a different fantasy story universe (Cinderella, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, you name it). In every single one, the episode starts with the telling ... of that short story. Then the episode pans back to the protagonists where they need to look for the Chaos Teller, who is literally causing chaos in that world as their name suggests. In every single episode, they immediately encounter the character somehow connected to the important story events of that universe (i.e. meeting Snow White right away or something). After spending like 15 minutes searching and identifying the Chaos Teller alongside that character they encountered, they all then spend like the next 5 minutes towards the end of the episode fighting the Chaos Teller and then of course, our main protagonists win the battle and everything is "solved" in that world. They then cast a spell and everything goes back to the way the story is supposed to go in that world and they move on to another universe that needs help. There is never a struggle where they have to continue into the next episode to continue the battle with the Chaos Teller. They literally always win. This repeats itself for the entire 12 episode season. The fight sequences are also very boring. Basically, the animators who worked on this show don't know how to draw fight scenes. Thank god this is not a longer show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ChknCurry (7)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dwarves

by TheFlyingOrange

47 Entries · 9 Restacks

Cinderella

by IridescentJaune

17 Entries · 2 Restacks

Little Red Riding Hood

by IridescentJaune

16 Entries · 4 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for March

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for March Week 1: March 3 - 9 Anime Releases Aria The Animation Complete Collection Blu-ray Black Clover Seaso...read more

Mar 2, 2020 1:33 PM by Sakana-san | Discuss (4 comments)

Winter 2019 Simulcast List [Update 2/3]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime acquired for simulcast release during the Winter 2019 season. Anime series licensed for home video rel...read more

Jan 4, 2019 3:52 AM by Snow | Discuss (26 comments)

	Poll: Grimms Notes The Animation Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jan 10, 2019	58 replies	by Shadow-god1 »» Nov 7, 2022 3:36 PM
	any memorable quotes from this anime? KawaseGawa - Nov 14, 2021	3 replies	by KawaseGawa »» Nov 14, 2021 9:05 PM
	Poll: Grimms Notes The Animation Episode 10 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 14, 2019	18 replies	by Janethan23 »» Aug 1, 2021 5:27 PM
	the song name in the last episode? ibraheem234 - Mar 31, 2019	3 replies	by KryzakamiHrybami »» Sep 7, 2020 1:02 PM
	Poll: Grimms Notes The Animation Episode 12 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 28, 2019	20 replies	by Magito »» Aug 23, 2019 10:43 AM

Prominent Singers and Voice Actors Gather at Animelo Summer Live 2019

We've got all the details and lots of photos to share from the world's largest anisong event!

by MAL_editing_team

28,342 views