Grimms Manga

  The classic tales by the Brothers Grimm have been turned to manga! And not the classic version, but rather unique remakes. The remake includes Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, The Two Brothers, and The Twelve Huntsmen.

Now, each chapter is a separate story. Except the last two, which are two parts of the Two Brothers. I enjoyed reading the manga since I love the stories told by the Brothers Grimm. Of course, I must admit that I only knew 3 of the 5 included. I am unfamiliar with the Two Brothers and The Twelve Huntsmen.

[Note that I will review each individual story rather than characters.]



Those that find themselves familiar with Little Red Riding Hood may know that Little Red gets eaten by the wolf(as does her grandmother) and then cut out by the hunter. A bit violent for a kids story, in my opinion, and I've always heard the version where only the grandmother gets eaten.

Anyway, this story is about Wolflete, a wolf boy who needs to become a true wolf. To do so, he has to kill a virgin. He meets Little Red, but after seeing how lovely she is and hearing about her grandmother, her decides to help his grandmother around the house by doings things like chopping wood(which he does with a bucket on his head so his ears don't show). When Little Red shows up with a hunter, the hunter tries to shoot him but Little Red convinces him otherwise. It then shows the two after some years and reveals that Wolflete has no desire to become a true wolf anymore. Instead he wants to protect Little Red.

Cute or what? Really, this is a nice twist on the classic story. Something I found myself enjoying. Wolflete, in a conversation with what I assume to be talking goats, ending up wondering if he would have to eat them one day(though he talks to them often). It's really a great story since Wolflete is so cute. I mean, when he asks the wolf what a virgin is after being told he had to eat one, he was thrown out and told to just eat a young girl. Lol. :P


This remake caught me off guard. The traditional story of Rapunzel is that she's a girl who is named after the plant her father steal to please her mother while pregnant. In return for the rapunzel, a witch gets her upon birth. Over the years, Rapunzel is raised in a tower with only a window as its entrance. Then she meets a handsome man that she ends up falling in love with. When the witch learns of this, she blinds the man and leaves Rapunzel on her own(or something like that. She ends up wandering around). When Rapunzel once again finds the man she fell in love with, she cries and her tears give him his sight back.

In this remake, Rapunzel is male. His parents were poor, so they stole the rapunzel to get by. Rapunzel's hair was still grown out long, and when he meets a girl who was singing, they end up spending time together and falling in love. Well, the girl ends up feeling ill. Her father discovers Rapunzel is the cause and goes to yell at him. Then the witch shows up. The girl's father yells at the witch who yells at him. In her fury she throw Rapunzel out the window and his hair gets caught in trees. A group of people cut his hair free and end up welcoming them into their village where he starts to grow(guess what?) rapunzel. Then a girl shows up and asks about him. The girl is pregnant with twins, and when she sees Rapunzel she runs to him. It's the girl he met in the tower. (And they lived happily ever after...)

It's a remake that caught me off guard. Let's begin with that. Rapunzel as a guy. Nice way to alter the story since Rapunzel was traditionally female. There really wasn't anything that struck me other than that. Of course, it was funny that the woman yelled at the girl not to run to Rapunzel since she was pregnant(though she ignored her). Other than that...nothing.

In the traditional Hansel and Gretel story, Hansel and Gretel are abandoned by their parents in the forest. They leave a trail of bread crumbs, but the birds eat them. They come upon a gingerbread house and start to eat. And elderly woman welcomes them in and starts to fatten them up in order to eat them. Instead, they push her into the oven. Not as violent as Little Red Riding Hood, but still an example of weird fairy tales...



 If anything, this remake caught me off guard right away. At first I thought: Oh, Hansel must have been working hard, like people expect of someone in a poor family. He is probably the traditional hard-working caring individual with a good personality.
Then he struck a pose and went talking about his complexion and good looks. Well, his stepmother tricks his father into abandoning him and his younger sister Gretel in the forest. He learns of the plan and leaves stones so he can find his way back. They end up lost and come upon the gingerbread house. Only, an old lady does pop out. A young woman comes and yells at them for eating her masterpiece. Turns out she owns the land and is really rich. She ends up furnishing Hansel with many things to help his appearance. Gretel thinks she's a witch and wants to eat him, though(have to connect to the story somehow, right?). So, Gretel tries to get Hansel to leave, but he refuses. So, Gretel is put to work while Hansel lives in luxury. Gretel ends up getting Hansel to go back with her, and the woman gives them money to live. They find their father, who has left their stepmother, and live happily ever after.





The Twelve Huntsmen is a story I find myself unfamiliar with, so I do not know the remake or anything like that. If anything, I can say it was a fantastic love story in this manga version and I really loved it. It's something Shojo obsessers like myself can truly love.

Really, there's nothing I can say about this. My apologies. I would be able to say more if I was familiar with the traditional story.

I believe this was for part 1.

This was for part 2

In terms of The Two Brothers, it is another story I find myself unfamiliar with. I did enjoy it, though. I must say that I found the fight scenes especially confusing, but all fight scenes in manga tend to confuse me(that's why I like watching Shounen anime rather than reading the manga). Also, I was confused at first as to who Anna ends up with(I was like: Does she end up with Walter or that dude whose name starts with V?) That is all I can say on it, though. My apologies. It's upsetting for anyone who is unable to tell which brother is which.


 -Zeki


 

Koi Dano Ai Dano

The sequel for Warau Kanoko-sama. Sadly I can only find where they have raw scans for chapters 10 and 11, so this review is for up to chapter 9.


Plot: [From Mangareader.net]
Aside from being transferred from school to school during her middle school years, Kanoko has entered Takara no Tani High School with Tsubaki. For some reason, she becomes the “Strategist” for Cultural Affairs Department in reference to the Three Kingdoms and ends up joining the Newspaper Club….?!


Now, I really like this sequel. It continues Tsubaki's quest to get Kanoko realize that he likes her. It's quite a quest with Kanoko. I mean, the manga plays him doing things to be close with her so well. For example, her refusing to quit the newspaper club until she figures out while Tsubaki joined while, at the same moment, he is thinking that he has to stay in it longer because Kanoko won't quit. Also, the fact that he bites her neck and she says "I have no time to play vampire games with you." *dies of laughter* I mean, his first attempt at getting her to realize his feelings was an epic fail, and even he states that she was dense.


At some stories that are inserted though they have no relation to the actual story, Kanoko was compared to Tsubaki's cat Ketchup. So I figure it's a nice touch that the creator of the manga had Kanoko drawn as Ketchup-Kanoko(as in, Kanoko in cat version) when Tsubaki pulled her off Okyou-sempai.



Rofl. The dude that likes Hanai wants to be Kanoko because Hanai said that she likes Kanoko the most.
It’s nice that they include students from various other schools that Kanoko attended.


Nogiku Noriko thinks everyone is blackmailed by Kanoko, huh? It just shows how different a page she is on from the girl who thinks Tsubaki and Kanoko are "tangled in the red thread of love" (or something like that...)


And it’s nice that they include students from various other schools that Kanoko attended.



For character reviews, I couldn't find pictures of all the characters. So, if you are able to send me a message with a picture of one, I'd greatly appreciate it so I could update this with all the reviews. (Like Okyou-sempai, the presidents of different clubs, the clubs in general, etc.)

Kanoko

Kanoko previously lived the life of a transfer student. Now she has decided to be a "refreshing girl" in high school. Since she often talks to herself, Tsubaki hears her and says "Impossible for you." I must say I agree, especially after she shouts out "I can hear people's thoughts!"
Kanoko is still her trouble-loving self. If the author had changed that, the story itself would have been a failure. With how dense Kanoko is, it's quite impossible for her to realize Tsubaki's feelings, and she actually says that she would love to see the girl who could make Tsubaki fall in love. Ah, and she always believes he hugs and kisses her in a friendly way and accuses him of acting like a Westerner. [He should just kiss her on the lips...] A Kanoko that isn't dense is not a Kanoko at all...

What Tsubaki wants for the culture festival.

Tsubaki gets jealous easily. It's not shown much in Warau Kanoko-sama, but it really is shown here. When Kanoko says that Hanai's brother texted her, he gets so jealous! And in chapter four when Yamada says that Kanoko has gotten cuter, he seems really angry and is probably thinking "Must...Kill...Yamada...!"
Ah, and I remember when one of the club members(I can never remember his name, but he's in the first picture in this review with Kanoko and Tsubaki) threatened to tell Kanoko that Tsubaki liked her, he said it would be a favor and that if he told Kanoko she would likely still not understand.
This manga, just like Warau Kanoko-sama, would be a lot less without Tsubaki. His jealousy and acting as a way for Kanoko to move around freely for spying are fantastic tools in the manga.

Kanoko and Hanai

Hanai is referred to as Kanoko's middle school friend that got accepted into a school that you get accepted into just by writing your name. It says its acceptance rate is 120% That tells you Hanai's problems. She takes cram school when school first starts. Haha.

I hate these two...they are annoying...

The cast of our fantastic manga!

The flags are mentioned in the manga. Tsubaki gets whatever he wants, but it's troublesome for Kanoko.

The chapter about Kanoko's birthday

Really bad way to make a good impression...

Kanoko and Tsubaki sporting their new High School uniforms!

-Zeki

Warau Kanoko-sama

I started this manga in the bookstore but never saw anything past chapter 4. Mangareader.net never had anything past chapter 4. So, I decided to do a review. Then I found chapter 5 on Mangafox!


Plot[From Mangafox]
Although she doesn't get along with people very well Kanoko considers herself a perfect "observer". Her hobby is observing the students in her third year junior high class and keeping a journal of the classroom drama. But what will happen when Kanoko becomes involved with some of her classmates?

I like the story itself. It's fun and actual unique. It repeats the same "I am the class's one and only observer" thing, but it's okay. I just skim through that. Since there's not much of a continued story, there's no recap every chapter. Just an introduction for each character. Each chapter is its own story, except the last two which continue off one another.

Kanoko

Kanoko is an honest character who enjoys observing human nature. At first I was curious as to how she keeps up with people from each school if she writes it all in one notebook, but in a later chapter I learned that she has notebooks for each school. However, because of her choice of solitude, she's unbelievably dense when someone tells her he likes her. A.K.A she says "Of course I'm the only one! If there's another girl who switches schools as much as me, I'd like to meet her!"

Tsubaki

Tsubaki is cool. He always laughs at Kanoko and helps her out. Quite frankly, after he showed up the second time I started to piece him together with Kanoko in my mind. And then...well, see Kanoko's review for the result. T.T

I just learned their is a sequel to this manga called Koi Dano Ai Dano. I plan on checking it out to see if my hopes of Tsubaki+Kanoko are achieved!!!

Hanai

Hanai is a nice girl. She's really stupid, though. Of course, what is a manga without a stupid character? My only question is: Is the person she likes instead of Tsubaki actually Natsukusa???

Natsukusa

Natsukusa likes Hanai. I am cheering for him! As usual, I came up with my shippings rather quickly. In this case, I am for Hanai(Momoko)+Natsukusa!

I think he's a good character and is actually nice to have.

That is all for this. I will start reading Koi Dano Ai Dano if I can find it online so as to give you a review of the sequel! (Of course...I have purely selfish reasons for reading it. *stares at Tsubaki and Kanoko*)

And please accept my apologies for not giving more detailed reviews of Natsukusa and Hanai! It's almost 1:00 a.m. where I am, and that's my weekend bedtime! By!

-Zeki