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Grimms Notes Episode 12 Review

There were almost no expectations riding on this episode. Given after eleven episodes Grimms Notes still hadn’t really properly explained its own premise or really justified the motivations of the group I guess we’re supposed to care about there seemed little point in hoping that this final episode would do much to bring things together. If anything, Grimms Notes managed to miss even those low expectations.

Perhaps the worst thing this final episode does is give the villain about two seconds to explain their motivation and then have the heroes dismiss it without further consideration or discussion of the implications. It really demonstrates that this anime never intended to actually care about its own premise or the underlying reasons. The group of heroes are saving story zones because FEELINGS and that is GOOD and anyone destroying story zones must be BAD. Don’t ask any questions beyond that because the story is utterly uninterested in them.

Curly and Loki - Grimms Notes Episode 12

Outside of the overall plot of this anime being completely toothless, this final episode does well enough with a fight against the Jabberwock and then Loki (Curly somehow vanishes and is never seen again so why she bothered to even make an appearance is something that might be questioned). However, the heroes get royally taken down by Loki.

Grimms Notes Episode 12 - Tao transformed into John Silver

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At which point Ex here’s a voice and uses the weird power we kind of got told he had to connect with heroes he hasn’t met, but we’ve never seen outside of the episode when we’re told he’s special, and he connects with Ludwig Grimm.

Now I’m stumped. Given the title and references to fairy tales and folk lore (though a large number of the story zones have not been based on Grimms tales at all), I kind of would expect a twist that maybe Ex could connect with Jacob or Wilhelm Grimm but Ludwig? Unless there’s some grander plot where Ludwig is apparently seeking to steal control of the story-zones from his famous folklorist brothers that just makes no sense. And if there is some grander plot, why on earth didn’t we get to watch that?

Grimms Notes Episode 12 - Ex transformed into Ludwig Grimm — Good question Ex transformed into Ludwig.

And true, maybe the source does explain all this nonsense but as is my usual stance, if I have to seek the answer outside of the anime, the anime isn’t very good.

So I’m left confused, and mostly indifferent to the mess that ultimately was Grimms Notes. Now, it isn’t unwatchable. Not even slightly (and I apologise for the quality of the screen caps but that is definitely an internet/streaming issue on my end and not the anime). The thing is though, that in the vast sea of anime, there are significantly better anime out there to spend your time on. So unless you are in the mood for nothingness peppered with story references, maybe don’t bother. That said, I’ll get around to a full review of this one later.