The Death of the Dream, the Birth of a Despairing Villain

Grimms Notes Post Title Image

Grimms Notes Episode 5 Review

I’ll start by admitting that this was my favourite episode so far of Grimms Notes. That isn’t saying much given how incredibly flawed the anime has been up until this point, but this episode was actually genuinely enjoyable. The story of Treasure Island is inherently fun and when you throw in some transforming, gender swapping heroes who end up in swim suits and with a bow that looks like a dolphin, there’s all kinds of amusement to be found (sorry, no screen cap of that my internet connection was fritzing and the image was just too fuzzy).

Grimms Notes Episode 5 Reina
Not sure a skeleton hugging Reina is the best substitute but still a fun image.

However, what this episode highlighted more than anything else was that I just can’t back the ‘heroes’. I know we’ve probably got some deep explanation coming at some point (or at least I hope so) but as Silver pointed out how futile he felt his existence was when he knew from the beginning he wouldn’t get the treasure you couldn’t possibly argue. Even Tao didn’t bother and just threw in the ‘that doesn’t make it right’ comment that so many heroes on shaky moral ground end up using.

Grimms Notes Episode 5 Silver

Think about it. In this universe you are given a book at birth that tells you your whole story. It doesn’t matter if that story is good, bad, or otherwise, you will follow it. Doing otherwise can only seem to happen when a Chaos Teller gets involved and then this group of adventurers will come in and ‘reset’ things so that the story follows its ‘natural’ course. If you were on the losing side of a story, wouldn’t that seem a bit pathetic to you? Silver sums it up best when he points out that it was such a ‘waste of a life’. I really hope this anime does eventually address this point because if it doesn’t there’s just no saving this plot at this point.

Grimms Notes Episode 5 Silver lying

Still, if you want some island filled with traps shenanigans, some team spirit, and just some general enthusiasm, this episode has it in spades. It is difficult not to get caught up with the characters as they go about their business. That doesn’t mean it isn’t without its flaws. Reina obviously falling for a tripping every trap around was a gag I could probably have done without that many repeats of. But despite that, it was still really fun.

Grimms Notes Episode 5 Shane
Shane is very enthusiastic.

If anything, this episode gave me a little bit of hope that just maybe we’re heading somewhere reasonable with this and hopefully we have a bit of fun. The post credits scene seemed to indicate that the ‘villains’ are going to be more active in the future so hopefully that leads to some exploration of the ideas surrounding the books of fate.

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GRIMMSNOTES ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
GRIMMSNOTES ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK