Anime / Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics

Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics (グリム名作劇場, Gurimu Meisaku Gekijō, Grimm Masterpiece Theater) was an anime series produced by Nippon Animation with Asahi Broadcasting Corporation of Osaka and aired from 1987 to 1989 on TV Asahi affiliated stations. It actually consists of two separate series, the original Gurimu Meisaku Gekijō (October 1987-March 1988) and Shin (New) Gurimu Meisaku Gekijō (October 1988-March 1989). In the United States, the series aired on Nickelodeon beginning in 1989, originally as part of the network's weekend "Special Delivery" block and later daily on Nick Jr.

The anime was based on the stories by The Brothers Grimm and a number of other authors. Each story was told in a half-hour format. Some stories, like "Cinderella" and "Puss in Boots" were aired in two parts; "Snow White" was aired in four parts. Most episodes were somewhat faithful to the original stories, with various changes made to suit the half-hour episode run.

Can be seen as a Spiritual Successor to Andersen Monogatari or to Manga Sekai Mukashi Banashi (aka Tales of Magic). It also came a year after Nippon Animation gave the Japanese literary tradition a similar treatment with Animated Classics of Japanese Literature (Seishun Anime Zenshu) (although that series aired on Nippon Television).

Discotek Media released the complete series uncut in two Blu Ray sets in 2021. This release features both the English dub and the original Japanese language with subtitles. The first season of the English dub is available for purchase on Amazon Prime.

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Tropes

• 13 Is Unlucky: The godson is the thirteenth child of a poor family, and he’s forced to accept the deal Death made with the former’s father after his birth.
• Abusive Parent: After Anton spies what their Wicked Witch mother is doing to the princess in "The Crystal Ball", she attempts to punish all of her sons by turning them into animals, yet Anton escapes before she can curse him as well.
• Accidental Kiss: In "Snow White & Rose Red", the Bear and Snow White are playing with an apple and trying to "balance" it between her nose and his snout. The apple falls and they kinda kiss by accident, with both of them blushing.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Josephine in "Bluebeard" starts acting bossy and hard to please after she marries the titular king—of course, since she's always fantasized about becoming a princess this could simply be how she feels she's supposed to act.
• Act of True Love: The Princess must perform one to release Prince William from "The Iron Stove" after being cursed and trapped within by the Evil Fairy. Later she must perform another to break the enchantment over him after the Fairy abducts him to her lair.
• Action Survivor:
  • The Princess from "The Iron Stove" is both this and an Action Girlfriend, going through lots of risk to save Prince William from the Fairy despite not being an Action Girl.
  • Lisbeth from "The Old Woman in the Woods" too. She's the Sole Survivor of the royal caravan she was traveling with and must fend off the attacks of the Wicked Witch to save her own skin, with help of a talking owl...
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • "The Coat of Many Colors" implies that Aleia has PTSD from her insane father's attempts to force her to marry him.
  • The title character of "Briar Rose" isn't the happy princess seen in other versions of Sleeping Beauty, but depressed and lonely from being confined to the palace all her life by her overprotective father.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: While nothing is said about the specific looks of the soldier from "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes", it is mentioned that he's not young. Peter from the episode featuring the tale is a young man who is a bit of an Unkempt Beauty and even has a nice hat.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • The Wicked Stepmother from The Six Swans has some spells at her disposal that the original did not have, like the capacity of summoning large animals and create huge wind currents. The last one backfires on her, however.
  • The witch from the "Hansel and Gretel" episode. In the original tale, while she was still a vile monster and a serious threat to the titular protagonists' lives, she was also tricked and ultimately dispatched by Hansel and Gretel with little effort. In this adaptation, she has control of much more powerful and dangerous magic spells, including the ability to turn into a twisted winged creature. She also puts up more of a fight against the heroes than her original counterpart did.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • The boy of "Godfather Death". In the original story, he is rather greedy and selfish and wants to save the princess just so he can marry her and become the future king. Here, he performs a Heroic Sacrifice in order to do the right thing and to be a real doctor for the first (and last) time. Notably that this is in the Saban dub, as the Japanese version has him closer to his fairytale counterpart, only to change his ways at the last moment to save the princess. ^note  a child in the Japanese version, an adult in Saban’s dub
  • Maria's/Beauty's sisters actually love their father and their younger sister. Unlike their original counterparts, they don't try to sabotage their sister's relationship with the Beast; while the three were grieving over their father's death from his illness, Maria forgot that she had to return after a certain period of time, and they're scared for her safety when she tells them.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Happens to Rapunzel's mother. In the original fairy tale, she simply pined over the Rampion in the witch's garden, and her husband stole it out of concern for her health. In the episode, however, she essentially berates and emotionally blackmails him into satisfying her cravings, like a child throwing a tantrum. Also, they both actually forget about Rapunzel after the births of their subsequent children.
  • To a smaller degree, Elise's husband in "The Six Swans" was also a victim of this. In the original, the King rebuked the mother-in-law's infanticide accusations, and it wasn't until the third one that the mother-in-law could override his authority and get the protagonist near executed. In the episode, he does desperately ask Elise what happened but doesn't openly defend her from the Wicked Stepmother's claims, which led some viewers to (mistakenly) believe that he also wanted her to die.
• Adaptational Karma: In the original tale, the stepmother from "The Six Swans" simply disappears from the story after Elise runs off into the woods. The episode based on the story, however, has her accidentally set herself on fire and get burned to death after trying to get Elise executed via burning at the stake.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In most versions of "Godfather Death", Death has no remorse for tricking his godson and ending his life. Here, after his godson talks about how glad he is to have sacrificed his life for someone else before dying, the reaper is actually very upset and regretful. Some versions of the story also have the godson himself motivated by greed rather than a desire to save lives.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • The Huntsman in Snow White. Originally, he was unable to kill Snow White and spared her. In this version, he has no qualms about it and intends to kill her, but ended up suffering a Disney Villain Death.
  • The witch in "Rapunzel" as well, albeit more subtly. Here, she apparently locked Rapunzel away from the world immediately after kidnapping her, rather than when she turned twelve. In addition to giving her adopted daughter a Traumatic Haircut and casting her out into a desert after finding out about the prince's visits, she beats her into unconsciousness, and it is implied that she was originally intending to kill her. Shortly before said beating, she says that she wanted to keep the girl all to herself, rather than wanting to protect her from the world. Moreover, she pushes the prince out of the tower with her magic, unlike in the original stories where he jumped out or fell off on his own.
  • The bird in "Hansel and Gretel" is revealed to be a familiar to the witch. At first it appears as the white bird from the original story, but later reveals its true colors as a black imp that lured the children to the witch's house.
  • The Queen in "The Six Swans" gets some of this. Even before she turns her stepsons into swans, she summons a gigantic snake in an effort to kill her new family, and later murders her husband. When she encounters her stepdaughter Elise again, she takes the role of the mother-in-law from the original story by first bullying and threatening Elise to the point of tears... then kidnapping Elise's infant son and leaving him to die and falsely framing his mother for it in an attempt to get her executed.
  • In "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes", the mystery men who dance with the princesses turn out to be monsters in disguise.
  • The Saban dub does this to the titular character in "Godfather Death". In the fairy tale, and in the Japanese version of the episode, he’s a simple force of nature Above Good and Evil. He has a job to do and there is a balance to be kept, and he goes about both in a matter-of-fact way. In Saban’s dub, he’s played as a sneaky and selfish figure who waited til the boy was of age to approach him not because he had to, but because "I said I’d help him, I didn’t say I’d help him today," and it’s at his urging that the doctor steals gold from a soon-to-be-widow.
• Adaptation Expansion: Sometimes, especially for short tales. "Snow White & Rose Red", for example, has the Prince's younger brother meet Rose Red a few times on his own while the main story occurs, showing that he fell in love with her on his own (plus she's a bit of a Smitten Teenage Girl to him, showing that she also likes him a lot) and that he was desperately searching for his missing big brother aka the Prince himself.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: In the original story, the prince heard Rapunzel singing. Here, he hears her playing a lyre. This raises the question of how he knew it was a woman up in the tower. (Funny, in the original, Rapunzel is voiced by a famous singer)
• Adaptation Species Change: "The Old Woman in the Woods" has the heroine be helped by an owl who turns out to be a prince under a curse. In the original story, the cursed prince was a dove.
• Adapted Out:
  • There is no stepsister in this version of Brother and Sister.
  • Likewise there is no jealous Mother-In-Law in "The Six Swans". Her role is instead handed to the wicked queen. ^note (The Witch's much uglier mother IS seen at the start, but she disappears from the story almost immediately) Moreover, Elise had three children in the original story; she only has one here (though nothing says that she and her beloved didn't have more after the episode ended).
  • The second princess from The Iron Stove doesn't exist, and the Fairy is both William's "jailer" and the princess' rival in love.
  • The Wicked Witch from "The Magic Heart" had her daughter and her maidservant help her in her plans. The maidservant isn't featured here, and neither are three giants that wanted to attack the huntsman and protagonist.
  • The third brother is gone in "The Water of Life".
  • The other 9 princesses are left out of "The Worn Out Dancing Shoes" most likely to simplify the animation process.
  • Maria has only sisters and no brothers as compared to Belle/Beauty to most retellings of "Beauty and the Beast".
  • In the original story, Rapunzel gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, after her exile from the tower where the Prince impregnated her. Here, she only has a son (though like with "The Six Swans" above, it's possible that she and the Prince ended up having more children after their reunion).
  • The poisoned comb is not present in the adaptation of Snow White due to time restraints, as the episode tends to focus on the relationship between Snow White and the dwarfs. The lace and the poisoned apple are both present, however.
• Affably Evil:
  • Most notably the Devil in "Bearskin". His first meeting with the soldier has him state that he feels flattered that he is recognized for being Satan, only to correct him saying that he's only a demon working for him.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Despite his outward demeanor and behavior to Josephine, Bluebeard is this in spades.
• Age Lift: While Snow White is still a child in this version rather than the maiden most other adaptations make her, she's aged up from 7 years old to 11.
• Ambiguously Human:
  • The Imp in "The Iron Stove" has Pointy Ears and bat-like wings, making her seem like some sort of demon or fairy. On the other hand, she's never stated not to be human, and she flies without moving her wings, so it's possible that there are other explanations, especially considering she's a magic user, and referred as the Imp Fairy. Maybe they're just illusions, traits she gave herself via shapeshifting, the result of her magic use causing a physical transformation, or something else.
  • The Evil Stepmother from "The Six Swans" may be just a Wicked Witch... but given her unexplained blue face-markings, the strange medusa-like vision that the king has, the heavy implications that she and her mother were using some kind of illusions given how their castle appears out of nowhere, and how she apparently uses tree branches as spell catalysts... "Magic-using Human" seems increasingly unlikely.
• And the Adventure Continues: "The Six Who Went Far in the World" ends with the happy locals asking Hero to be their new king, but he politely declines in order to continue traveling with his friends. The narrator says the team traveled far and wide, always helping people in need.
• Anguished Declaration of Love:
  • How the Princess from "The Iron Stove" manages to debrainwash her Prince, complete with her jumping from a hole in a cave's ceiling to reach for him.
  • When the King from "Brother and Sister" sees Queen Rose's (weakening) spirit, he gives her one of these.
• Ascended Extra: The Bear Prince's brother from "Snow White & Rose Red" is barely mentioned at the end of the original tale, as a sort-of afterthought to give Rose Red a boyfriend after her big sister marries the Prince. Here the younger Prince is properly seen searching for his missing brother and is seen having cute interactions with Rose Red after she takes care of him.
• Astral Projection: In "Brother and Sister", since Rose aka the Sister/Queen is solely imprisoned by the Witch, her soul kinda "leaves" her body magically to feed the baby at the cost of greatly weakening her. The King sets out to find his wife before she withers away.
• Balancing Death's Books: In "Godfather Death", the young man uses what he learned from his godfather (the Death) to save the life of someone who was fated to die. Death lets him get away with it once, but when he tries it again Death takes his life instead.
• Barefoot Poverty: Lisbeth from "The Old Woman in the Woods" is the only person in the royal caravan she works in not to wear shoes, signifying her poverty.
• Beauty Equals Goodness:
  • Played straight for the protagonists in most of the stories, though there are some exceptions. ie, Hans from "The Golden Goose" is a borderline gonk.
  • Most especially demonstrated in "The Man of Iron", as lazy Royal Brat Prince William first appears grotesque in Hans' magic pond, but after he Took a Level in Kindness his handsome features are not only restored, but greatly increased.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Circled around in "The Crystal Ball" as the Princess' youth and beauty is literally sucked out of her by the Wicked Witch every night, but by morning, she is returned to her lovely youthful self.
• Because Destiny Says So: The Prince in "Briar Rose" finds himself traveling a long ways from his home with Briar Rose's song in his head. The impassable thorns split aside and allow him into the palace as he is the one to awaken Briar Rose.
• Big Ball of Violence: In "The Marriage of Mrs. Fox", Mr. Fox is so enraged with his wife's acceptance of her final suitor's proposal that he drags both of them (along with his maid Lily) into a rumble. A smaller one ensues when his shoulder devil makes him realize that he's just wrecked his house and alienated everyone he knows.
• Big Brother Instinct: Played straight, gender reversed, and inverted:
  • Josephine from "Bluebeard" is the youngest and the only girl out of four siblings, so of course her brothers are very protective of her and, in the end, they rescue her from her evil husband.
  • Inverted in "Snow White & Rose Red", where the Bear Prince's younger brother is the protective one and has been searching from him.
  • Princess Elise from "The Six Swans" inverts and genderflips this when she puts herself through lots of suffering to save her six older brothers from their Wicked Stepmother. The boys return the favor by saving her from execution and rescuing her baby son.
  • Rose and Rudolf from "Brother and Sister" try protecting one another from their Wicked Stepmother, with Rose first trying to reason with her and then Rudolf shielding Rose from the whippings.
• The Big Damn Kiss:
  • The one between Briar Rose and her Prince, as seen here.
  • Lisbeth and the Prince from The Old Woman in the Woods also share a kiss after he reveals himself as her friend the Talking Owl.
  • William and the Princess in "The Man of Iron" get a romantic blush and haze with their kiss.
  • Aleia and Alexander glow with their first in "Coat of Many Colors".
  • Peter and Genevieve share a sweeping one at the end of "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes".
  • The Princess and Prince William's kiss at the end of "The Iron Stove" is so strong it breaks the Fairy's curse over his kingdom.
• Big Damn Reunion:
  • After being told that the prince has been slain by his grief-stricken father in "The Water of Life" Princess Anna drops her water after seeing the reflection of the kind man who offered it too her, and has a slow-motion passionate embrace when reunited with her handsome Prince Joseph.
  • Heidi and Sean, after being separated for years after escaping from "The Water Nixie", have a glorious one in a beautiful meadow, when Heidi comes across Sean shepherding sheep.
• Bishie Sparkle:
  • Elise in "The Six Swans" gets this as a highlight after the Prince lays eyes on her for the first time, and he and his men comment on her beauty.
  • Her brothers receive this sparkling treatment after they are transformed from swans back into young men.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • In "Godfather Death", Death's godson finally decides to save the king's daughter despite Death's warning that he would take his life should he try to save someone fated to die again. He smiles, happy that he could be a real doctor just for once before accepting his fate, much to Death's shock and remorse.
  • In comparison to the original story, which had a Happy Ending, "Bluebeard" ends this way. While Josephine makes it out alive, and the murderer Bluebeard is killed, the castle where she was to stay in as a princess is set aflame, and is burned to the ground, with all her treasures burned too. It is implied that this was a sort of Laser-Guided Karma for Josephine treating her servants so cruelly.
    • The English dub is slightly happier, as Josephine gains wisdom, as well as riches of love and trust.
    • In the Japanese and Spanish versions, it's played up more somberly as Josephine quietly prays, most likely for the souls of Bluebeard's previous wives who were killed.
• Blatant Lies: Despite what the (English) theme song tells you, not every story "ends so happily". Although one could be forgiven for not knowing this if familiar only with the Nickelodeon cuts (or having not seen the episodes Nickelodeon didn't show).
  • One episode that Nickelodeon did show that still didn't have a happy ending was The Spirit in the Bottle. Even better, the Downer Ending is one actually added to this adaptation—the original fairy tale did end happily.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead:
  • Cinderella’s stepfamily all have three different hair colors. Phoebe is a dark blonde (blonde), Grizelda has brunette hair (brunette), and Cinderella’s stepmother has deep red hair (redhead). This is also played straight when Cinderella is compared to the stepsisters, as Cinderella is a strawberry blonde leaning towards orange (redhead).
  • The three princesses from The "Worn-Out Dancing Shoes". Genevieve, the eldest, is the blonde, while her sisters have light brown (brunette) and reddish brown (redhead) hairs respectively.
• Bloodless Carnage: In "Rapunzel", the Prince's fall into the thorn bushes doesn't visibly injure him at all, and his blindness is only signified by him not opening his eyes. Hell, he doesn't even suffer any damage to his clothes!
• Blush Sticker: Elise has these as a little girl, but loses them when she grows into a teenager.
• Bowdlerise: Played with, for some of the episodes.
  • Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters do not end up blind and mutilated, nor does her magic tree have any connection to Cinderella's dead mother. Of course, in a subversion, the stepmother has the poor tree destroyed.
  • "Brother and Sister" also bordered on this. The witch merely kidnaps Rose aka Sister/Queen rather than killing her (though her spirit does say that her body is weakening, implying that the sort-of Astral Projection she pulls to breastfeed her son is taking a huge toll on her), and the subplot with the stepsister is omitted entirely.
  • In the original "The Six Swans", Elise didn't manage to fully finish the last of the shirts destined to release her brothers from the swan spell, so one of the youngest prince's arms remains a swan arm. This doesn't happen in the series.
  • The Nickelodeon dub also went a bit further, shortening scenes where characters are beaten, making deaths cleaner, and removing instances of breastfeeding. Infamously, "The Coat of Many Colors" had to be redubbed to omit references to incest (instead, the princess flees the destruction of her kingdom). Strangely enough, the original dub is the only version available online.
    • There were also some episodes skipped altogether by Nickelodeon (although they were dubbed), among them the very dark and sinister "Bluebeard".
    • The dubbed version of "Briar Rose" cuts two moments that feature falling drops of blood from pricked fingers – first Briar Rose's, later the Prince's – and changes the witch's spell so that instead of cursing the princess to die when she pricks her finger, she curses her to sleep forever.
    • The OP sequence itself wasn't immune to this, as scenes of demons dancing around a cauldron in the forest were cut. It was done so seamlessly that the average viewer watching on Nickelodeon wouldn't have even suspected. (Actually, that Saban kept the original OP animation at all is remarkable considering they typically replaced it in their anime dubs with montages of scenes from the series.) Also cut (though presumably not for potentially offensive content) in the English version is the episode introduction featuring the series mascot (the cute little pixie from the OP animation), replaced by a generic title telop over the introduction of the episode.
  • As a protection for those sensitive to epilepsy, a very short segment from "The Godfather Of Death" involving flashing lights of white and black, playing after Death swinging his scythe to cut to the next scene, was replaced with a normal gray screen on some TV airings, including the German and Ziv-based European dubs.
  • One of the Spanish dubs (and the Portuguese dub, which seemed to be based on it) occasionally rewrote dialogue to downplay certain dark elements. For example, in "The Coat of Many Colors", the king was rewritten to be the princess's uncle instead of her father, with the dead queen, the princess, resembles now being her aunt. This also implies the king isn't a blood relative.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the end of "The Magic Heart", Frederick answers the narrator's question and winks at the audience.
• Break the Haughty:
  • This leads to Character Development in the cases of both the main character of "King Grizzle Beard" and "The Man of Iron", respectively a spoiled and shallow princess and a Royal Brat. They are forced to leave their castle and kingdom and learn about hard work, hunger and humility. Elena as part of her humiliation marries a commoner who turns out to be a King Incognito whom she had previously scorned and restores her status when she comes to realize the value of what she lost. William travels to a distant land and offers his services to its King as gardener; later, he defends his new homeland without asking for anything in exchange and marries the princess of the kingdom that falls in love with him.
  • Lisbeth from "The Magic Heart" helped her evil mother the Witch to trick the huntsman Frederick. When Frederick turned the tables on them, she got turned into a donkey... The witch lived the rest of her life as a donkey while Frederick took pity on Lisbeth, defended her from her cruel caretaker and decided to undo the spell on her, and they got married. It's similar to what happened in the original, only the witch died before Frederick's return.
• Brainwashed:
  • Prince in this case, after being freed from the titular "Iron Stove" the Fairy enchants Prince William, placing him in a trance making him think he's in love with her, and luring him away from the Princess as she tearfully calls after him.
  • The Princesses in the "Worn Out Dancing Shoes" are all enchanted by their mysterious Princes, until Peter is able to break the spell on them and they see them as the Monsters that were trying to enslave them.
• Burn the Witch!: It almost happens to Elise from "The Six Swans" when the stepmother frames her for infanticide and cannibalism. In fact, she's tied up to a cross and right about to be burned alive when her brothers pull a Big Damn Heroes and bring her son back, to repay her for breaking their curse and reveal the wicked queen's plans.
• But Now I Must Go: In a very happy version of the trope, Elise's brothers in "The Six Swans" leave her and her son in the capable hands of her husband and then take off, since they need to start rebuilding the kingdom that the Wicked Stepmother stole from them.
• Butt-Monkey: Ignaz (the servant in "Cinderella") is regularly yelled at by the King and suffers a fair amount of slapstick while trying to carry out his orders. The Queen is far kinder, but she makes it clear she wouldn't have a second thought about leaving him to rot in prison, if he were to declare one of Cinderella's horrible stepsisters as the bride-to-be.
  Ignaz: What did I do to deserve this?
• The Caligula: In "The Coat of Many Colors", Aleia's father loses his mind and tries to force his daughter to marry him.
• Cain and Abel: Princes Franz and Joseph in "The Water of Life", respectively. Joseph genuinely wants to save his father, while Franz is more interested on gaining his favor to ensure he inherits the kingdom and has no qualms about framing his younger brother to do so.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • Klaus, Snow White's childhood friend, is a character exclusive of the series. The same can be said of the Noble Wolves and of Snow White's nanny Doris.
  • "Mother Holle" features a talking white rabbit that is an Expy of the Alice in Wonderland character.
• Composite Character:
  • This series' version of "The Six Swans" gives the evil mother-in-law's role in the story to the Wicked Stepmother.
  • In "The Iron Stove", there's no second princess claiming that the prince is hers. Instead, the Evil Fairy is the Princess' love rival.
• Create Your Own Hero: The greedy king and princess in "The Six Who Went Far in the World" would've saved themselves a lot of trouble had they just honored their agreement with Hero when he returned from the war. After they're finally deposed, he rubs this in their face by letting them know he was the masked knight they had shunned.
• Daddy's Girl: Cruelly subverted in "The Coat of Many Colors": Aleia and her widowed father were very close, but then he lost his mind after an illness and tried to get closer than they should be...
• Daddy's Little Villain: Lisbeth from "The Magic Heart" is a very pretty girl who helps her Wicked Witch mother to mistreat a huntsman. She does, however, pull a Heel–Face Turn later after Frederick saves her from the farmer.
• Damsel in Distress:
  • In "Brother and Sister", Queen Rose is abducted by her stepmother and taken to a foreboding mountain. When the King finds out, he and some of his guards climb the mountain and find her in a cave, alive but very weakened.
  • The young princess from "The Crystal Ball", prisoner of an evil witch who drains her lifeforce every night.
  • Princess Anna in "The Water of Life" is held prisoner by a demon in the moonlight palace.
• Dance of Romance:
  • Of course it happens in Cinderella (and especially when Cindy and the Prince dance in the courtyard, after she's revealed to be the girl he fell in love with in the ball), but it's also parodied when the old King tries to rope his Queen into dancing with him.
  • "The Coat of Many Colors" features three balls; the Fallen Princess Aleia manages to sneak in them and dance with Prince Alexander while wearing either of the three gowns she managed to save from the fire that destroyed her home.
• Dark Is Not Evil: 12 of the 13 witch sisters in "Briar Rose" wear dark shades of blue, purple, and gray, and live in a haunted house. They also have a habit of transforming themselves into many large frightening creatures and animals to scare off others. However, they were gracious when they were invited to the feast celebrating the birth of Briar Rose, and in turn offered Briar Rose many gifts of goodness. When the 13th witch sister cursed Briar Rose with eternal sleep ^note  in the English dub; in the Japanese version, as in the original tale, she curses her to die when she pricks her finger on a spindle, the 12th witch sister, who had not given Briar Rose an offer, modified the curse to make her sleep until a prince came and rescued her.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • Johan makes one with the literal Devil in "Bearskin", in which he wagers his soul, if he agrees to wear only a bearskin and forgo his hygiene, nor pray to the Lord for years without dying, then he will be rewarded with riches beyond. Due to his kindness, others agree to pray for him, and in the end the Devil delivers and Johan, now a handsome lord marries the beautiful Christina.
  • The father gives his life to Death, under the agreement that he will be Godfather to his youngest son. In doing so, however, Death also kills the rest of his Godson's family, and forces him into a contract that Death will decide which of his Godson's patients shall live or die.
  • The Miller agrees to give The Water Nixie his first born in return for riches to keep his family alive. When he does not come through on his end, and on his death-bed has his son Sean promise never to go to the Nixie's pond. When Sean wanders too close by mistake, the Nixie abducts him, and his wife, Heidi, goes on a quest to rescue him.
  • Gretchen makes a deal with the titular imp, promising "Rumplestilskin" her first born child, if he will finish spinning the straw into gold, so that she may marry the handsome King.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • In this version of Snow White, a boar knocks the huntsman off a cliff to his death.
  • The mad king in "The Coat of Many Colors", the show's version of "Allerleirauh", is heavily implied to die in a fire he set by accident. In the original, it was never mentioned what happened to him ^note (Perrault's own version of the tale has the King surviving, recovering his sanity, marrying a widow and apologizing to his daughter.)
  • The father in "Beauty and the Beast" is implied to start the story terminally ill, and dies before the end. (Possible subversion in that this adaptation is actually very close to a version the Grimms collected, "The Summer And Winter Garden".)
  • In "The Six Swans", the king is murdered by his second wife after his children disappear.
• Decomposite Character: In their version of "Snow White", the Evil Queen and the Witch are separate characters, and the Huntsman's role of helping Snow White escape into the forest instead being given to Klaus, with the Huntsman himself undergoing Adaptational Villainy as a result of this.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Not that hyper desperately, but Peter from "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes" rose to the challenge because he had been wounded in a recent war and didn't want to stay put while he healed.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Due to their stubborn pride, none of "The Four Skillful Brothers" marries the princess, but she still being grateful for rescuing her, convinces her father to grant them half of the kingdom for they and their Father to govern.
• Disneyfication: Averted for the most part, and sometimes even Inverted (a few episodes, such as "Hansel and Gretel" and "The Iron Stove", are actually darker than their sources). A few straight examples exist in Cinderella (where the stepsisters don't cut off their feet) and Bearskin (where the two older sisters don't kill themselves).
• Disney Villain Death:
  • The Fairy in "The Iron Stove" suffers this after getting stunned by the princess's amulet.
  • The huntsman in "Snow White" gets knocked off a cliff by a boar.
• Distressed Dude:
  • Prince William in "The Iron Stove" is first under the Fairy's curse, and later gets abducted by her when the Princess releases him.
  • Also the prince in "The Old Woman in the Woods", whose kingdom has been cursed and his subjects turned into trees and he himself into an Owl by the witch. He must team up with the Action Survivor Lisbeth to defeat the witch and when he is released at the end, he and Lisbeth marry.
• Double In-Law Marriage: "Snow White & Rose Red" ends with the titular sisters marrying the princes, who are brothers themselves.
• Downer Beginning:
  • "The Coat of Many Colors" begins with poor Aleia running away from her mad father and then barely escaping with her life from her burning castle, while her father burns to death there.
  • "Brother and Sister" starts with Rudolf and Rose being whipped by their Wicked Stepmother.
  • "Bluebeard" has the titular character killing his second-to-last wife on-screen.
• Downer Ending: The episodes that had these typically were not shown on Nickelodeon, although they were not skipped by the English dubbers.
  • In "The Marriage of Mrs. Fox", Mr. Fox (driven by his jealousy personified like a demon) feigns death to test his wife's fidelity. When she chooses a new handsome husband, he arises and drives them all out of home - ending alone, angry and unhappy.
  • The original ending of "The Spirit in the Bottle" has the boy go back to school to become a doctor and use his magical cloth just to heal wounds. Here, he becomes greed and lazy so his cloth falls into a fire and he loses his wealth. Desperate to recover his riches, he goes back to the woods looking for the demon in the bottle to replace his cloth... only this time the demon tricks the boy into taking his place in the bottle.
• Dragged Off to Hell:
  • After summoning the demon Beelzebub, Nicholas and the other two deserters are spirited away to Hell, where they must solve three riddles to escape their servitude to the demons.
  • The Imp Fairy attempts this with Prince William to pull him into the flames that leads to her dark kingdom.
  • Death drags the doctor after disobeying him once after curing the king, once the doctor disobeys Death for the second time, the doctor disappears.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After the doctor’s attempt on setting himself free from Death after saving the king in "The Godfather of Death", he is seen depressed and anxious as he drinks wine.
• Drunk on Milk: In The Town Musicians Of Bremen, the donkey acts giddy and walks on his hind legs after eating strange flowers. The narration even says that people make some kinds of wine from certain flowers.
• Dub Name Change: Some characters are renamed in the English dub. For example, Kasha in "Jorinde and Joringel" was renamed Clarissa in English. In the French dub of the same episode, Jorinde and Joringel are Jeannette and Jeannot (no relation to the 1840s British song of the same title).
• Due to the Dead: In "Beauty and the Beast", Maria remembers her promise to Beast when she and her sisters are praying in front of their recently dead father's tomb, wearing black dresses and veils to signify their mourning.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The young princess went through so much to get where she is, starting when her father remarried to a witch. First, she and her brothers were nearly assasinated by a giant snake she sent. She and her brothers were sent into hiding by their father, but their efforts were in vain when the wicked queen found them anyway. She witnessed her brothers be turned into swans, who then tasked her with knitting the sweaters that would turn them human again, all while never laughing or speaking. This took seven years in the making. Although it helped that she married a nice prince and bore his children, it was nearly negated when her stepmother returned into her life. Because of this, the stepmother stole the child, framed the princess for the crime and nearly had her executed as a witch. But when her brothers arrive and use the sweaters to turn human, things start looking up. She's cleared of her crime, reunited with her missing baby, the stepmother is burned alive, and the princess and live her life to the fullest with her husband and son.
• Easily Forgiven: In "The Magic Heart", Frederick lets off Lisbeth rather easily even though she went along with her mother's plans to steal his magic cloak and the bird's heart from him, and is even willing to marry her. It's likely because he sees that she's really a good person at heart and is genuinely remorseful for what she did.
• Elective Mute: Elise in "The Six Swans" is silent for much of the story, because her brothers will be trapped as swans forever if she says even a single word while working on the shirts to break the curse. She even lampshades it when the curse is undone:
  Big Prince: "Little sister, today it has been six years ever since our promise. You saved us all!"
  Elise: "Then, I can talk. Now I can talk again!"
• Elegant Classical Musician:
  • Rapunzel has the protagonist as a skilled musician, and her signature instrument is the lyre. The Prince actually hears her playing and falls in love with her music, then meets up with her. She keeps her lyre after she and the Prince are separated by the Witch, and the now-blinded Prince finds her after he hears her play the same song that she played when they met.
  • Briar Rose from "Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty" is a beautiful girl who also plays the lyre.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first minute of "Brother and Sister" establishes the stepmother's cruelty. She works our titular characters like slaves, mercilessly whips the brother for "stealing" an apple despite that he was starving, sneers at the sister's pleas to take the punishment by saying "You're both as worthless as your father", and when she brings up that their father was a good and kind man, tells her "Kindness is for the weak" and whips the both of them. If there are any doubts the stepmother is a horrible person, it ends here.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The soldier character in "The Six Who Went Far" is always referred to as Hero. Also, in "King Grizzle Beard", Elena calls her husband, who is a musician, "Musician" (before she learns that he is in fact King Grizzle Beard).
• Evil-Detecting Baby: Elise's baby son in "The Six Swans" starts crying whenever the wicked queen approaches him. Considering she would later throw him into the forest and make it look like his mother ate him, one can hardly blame him.
• Evil Sounds Deep: The witch from "Hansel and Gretel" post One-Winged Angel.
• Expy: The grouchy dwarf Thursday in "Snow White" is obviously inspired by Disney's Grumpy.
• Eyelid Pull Taunt: "Snow White & Rose Red" has Rose do this to the gnome after he berates her sister for cutting off part of his beard to help him.
• The Fair Folk:
  • The imp fairy from "The Iron Stove" is quite "fair", but very dangerous to come with...
  • The gnome from "Snow White & Rose Red" is very ill-mannered and worst, he had no qualms into endanger a couple of girls.
  • The 13th Witch from "Briar Rose" justified the reason that she was not invited quite well.
  • The Nixie from "The Water Nixie" agreed to help the farmer to escape his difficulties, but the cost was the first living being born in his house (however, it ended being his son), and one wonders why a magical being wants so bad a living being...
• Faking the Dead: The knight in "The Water of Life" tasked with killing Joseph just can't go through with it because the young prince is so nice and kind. Upon learning what really happened during the quest, he lies to the King and Franz about killing Joseph so that the young prince can live safely in obscurity.
• Fallen Princess:
  • Poor, poor Aleia from "The Coat of Many Colors".
  • Subverted with Elena from "King Grizzle Beard", since her fall from grace is a Batman Gambit from her father and one of her suitors (the titular "King Grizzle Beard", who already had a crush on her) to teach her to be less of a Royal Brat.
  • A male version in "The Man of Iron": Prince William is stolen away from his kingdom, and becomes a gardener, but in the end finds life much simpler, and becomes the Prince of his new kingdom.
  • Elise and her brothers in "The Six Swans" start the story as the children of a King. When the Wicked Stepmother kills their father and takes over their kingdom, the six princes are transformed into swans and Elise must disguise herself as a Country Mouse (though she at least managed to find a pretty decent castle) to protect herself and try undoing the curse undisturbed. This lasts until a local Prince meets an older Elise and falls for her.
• Family-Unfriendly Death:
  • The Wicked Queen from "The Six Swans" is burned to death after she accidentally sets herself on fire while using her wind powers.
  • The Queen of "Snow White" dies from being attacked by a pack of wolves.
• Fartillery: In the original cut of "Jorinde and Joringel", when Joringel picks up the cat (really the witch in disguise) by his tail, the cat farts right into his face. The English dub (or at least the Nickelodeon edit thereof) cut the cheese-cutting.
• Forced Transformation:
  • The wicked queen from "The Six Swans" turns her royal husband's six sons into swans with cursed white capes. Their sister must make six other capes to break the curse, which the swans manage to put on when they come to rescue her and bring her kidnapped son back.
  • The prince in "Snow White & Rose Red" caught the wicked gnome stealing the castle's treasures and got turned into a bear for his trouble. He didn't recover his human form until he managed to kill the gnome.
  • Rudolf in "Brother and Sister" was turned into a deer when he drank water from a pond that was enchanted by his and Rose's evil stepmother.
  • Prince William's subjects in "The Iron Stove" were turned into rats by the Evil Fairy. After the Fairy is given a Disney Villain Death, they're released.
  • "The Old Woman in the Woods" turned a prince and his subjects into animals, with the Prince himself stuck in an owl's form, and those that trespass in the witch's neck of the forest are turned into trees. The only one who escapes this is the maid Lisbeth, and the Owl Prince first protects her and then recruits her to kill the witch.
  • In "The Magic Heart", a huntsman finds a cabbage garden of two different types. One kind of cabbage turns those who eat them into donkeys, the other kind returns the donkeys to their human forms. He used these cabbages to get revenge on an old witch and her daughter Lisbeth for treating him like crap, though later he uses another to return Lisbeth to her human form.
  • In "Jorinde and Joringel", a Wicked Witch who hates happy couples in love turns the titular Jorinde into a bird. Her boyfriend Joringel has to rescue her. Turns out the witch had turned many other maidens into birds as well.
• Forgiveness: In "The Magic Heart", Frederick gets his revenge on Lisbeth and her witch mother by tricking them into eating the magic cabbage that turns people into donkeys. But when he sells them to a farmer, he proves rather merciful towards Lisbeth (who was against tricking him) and makes the farmer promise not to work her and feed her well. Days later, Frederick learns that the farmer went back on his word shortly after the donkey witch died from excess work. Although he could turn a blind eye, Frederick can't find it in himself to let her suffer, and instead buys her back. He gives her the white cabbage that restores her humanity, and Lisbeth lauds that his ability to show mercy and compassion are more magical than anything else.
• Foreshadowing: The English dub of "Bluebeard" has the titular character state that after marriage proposals, he likes to “execute plans”. Eventually, Josephine finds Bluebeard’s room of corpses, once wives who married Bluebeard.
• Frame-Up:
  • In "The Six Swans", the wicked kidnaps Princess Elise's son and falsely makes it look like she ate him.
  • In "The Water of Life", Franz switches the titular water from his younger brother Joseph's canteen, so when Joseph tries to give it to his father, Franz makes it seem like he was trying to kill the king.
• Giggling Villain: The Fairy from "The Iron Stove".
• Girl in the Tower:
  • "Briar Rose" features the titular princess being locked away in a luxurious tower of her palace to protect her from the curse.
  • Rapunzel spends the first sixteen years of her life trapped in a tower with no doors or stairs, and only one window at the very top.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Snow White from, well, Snow White is a very feminine-looking girl who is the Team Mom for the dwarves, but is first seen happily getting up trees with Klaus to get her beloved apples and being scolded by her nanny for doing such "un-ladylike" things.
• Glamor Failure: Invoked in "Hansel and Gretel". The white bird is actually the witch's imp familiar, the sugar-coated facade of the Witch's house melts away into a more traditional haunted house after a strawberry from said house turns into a toad.
• Going Commando: If one looks closely when the Queen jumps near the end of "The Six Swans", they can see that she isn't wearing anything under her skirt.
• Gonk: The Princess in "The Brave Little Tailor" and the boy from "The Golden Goose".
• Good Is Dumb: Hans in "The Golden Goose" is kindness exemplified, but unfortunately, it isn't the most intelligent man.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: In "Briar Rose", the invitations the witches receive to the christening party are written in romanized Japanese (and to boot, in medieval-style font).
• Greed:
  • Some examples, especially the King and his daughter in "The Six Who Went Far in the World", two jerks that start a war just to obtain more gold and pay a soldier with only three coins. This starts a Revenge plot with the King losing all at the end.
  • Frederick, in "The Spirit in the Bottle", starts as a kind-hearted, well-meaning young man, who agrees to help his father with his woodcutting to help pay for his schooling to become a doctor. After receiving the magic silk from the Spirit however, he goes on a bender that turns him from a good son, to a drunken, gluttonous fool. Even beforehand, while a good-souled boy, he believes that money can solve all his and his father's problems.
  • In “Godfather Death”, part of the reason why the godson wants to become a doctor, is because he wants to get himself rich after a lifetime of poverty. As he becomes rich with the help of Death, he becomes more interested with money rather than actually caring for his patients. Even his attempt of saving the king by cheating Death is motivated by greed. It’s only when the princess is on the brink of death, the godson decides to cheat Death once again at cost of his own life out of genuine concern of her well-being.
• Grimmification: Many episodes use this while still keeping the show appropriate for children:
  • In "Hansel and Gretel", both the white bird and the witch turn into demons (and the witch's house is presented as much scarier than in the story).
  • "The Iron Stove" is also darker than its source by including a conflict between the princess and the imp fairy over the prince.
  • In "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes", the mystery men who are dancing with Genevieve and her sisters turn out to be monsters, and attack the princesses when Peter reveals their secret.
  • The Crystal Ball. For all that is pure and decent in the world, The Crystal Ball.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Considering what the show is based on, it should come as no surprise that this is a common trait for protagonists and love interests. i.e., there's the Princess from "The Iron Stove", Princess Briar Rose, Rapunzel and her son, Cinderella, the Beast's original human form, Fallen Princess Aleia and her boss/prospect lover Prince Alexander from "The Coat of Many Colors", the poor Princess from "The Crystal Ball"...
• Harp of Femininity: Rapunzel and Briar Rose play these. Well, technically these are lyres, but the effect remains.
• The Hedge of Thorns:
  • The princess in "The Iron Stove" has to get through one of these in order to save Prince William. It turns out to be an illusion, but braving it still took a lot of courage on her part.
  • The Prince from Rapunzel falls into one when thrown out of the tower by the Witch, and has to crawl out of it despite having his eyes injured.
  • The witch's spell in "Briar Rose" is so strong, it covers the entire castle in these and those who tried to get through it wound up becoming ensnared in its vines, succumbing to the spell themselves. When the Prince fated to wake her up gets close, however, the vines and thorns immediately split and let him go inside the castle, and when he wakes up Briar Rose they completely retire.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Death's godson willingly gives up his life to save the king's young daughter.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In "The Six Swans", the wicked queen, having been exposed for what she really is, attacks with a wind spell. But in doing so, she reignites the pyre where Elise would've been burned to death, and sets herself aflame.
• Hot Consort: Many examples:
  • Some aren't nobles by birth, but become royalty by via marrying a royal.
    • Gretchen becomes Queen in Rumplestiltskin after marrying the King.
    • Rose becomes Queen after marrying the king in "Brother and Sister".
    • Cinderella, Rapunzel and the maid Lisbeth from "The Old Woman in the Woods" become Princesses Consort to their respective Princes.
    • Peter marries into royalty in "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes".
    • The wicked queen becomes Queen Consort in "The Six Swans".
    • Snow-White becomes Princess Consort while her little sister Rose-Red marries the Crown Prince's younger brother.
    • Anton becomes a prince after marrying the Princess at the end of "The Crystal Ball".
  • Some are already Royalty, but become the King Consort or Queen Consort, or Prince/Princess Consort of another land.
    • Elena becomes Queen Consort after marrying "King Grizzle Beard".
    • The Prince in "Briar Rose" becomes the Prince Consort of her kingdom.
    • Either Joseph or Anna will be the consort of either kingdom they return to in "The Water of Life".
    • The Princess, after rescuing Prince William and his kingdom from the Evil Imp Fairy in "The Iron Stove", becomes his Princess Consort.
  • Likewise, some of them are unknown to be royalty after some circumstances and become consorts of another kingdom.
    • William becomes Prince Consort by the end of "The Man of Iron".
    • Aleia, a Fallen Princess, becomes Princess Consort of Alexander's kingdom in "The Coat of Many Colors".
    • Elise is Princess Consort to her Crown Prince husband's kingdom and later discovered to be a Fallen Princess after saving her brothers in "The Six Swans".
• Hot Witch: Three of them - the one in "The Iron Stove" (who more closely resembles a succubus than a typical witch and is referred to as an Evil Imp Fairy), the one in "The Six Swans" (whose beauty briefly manages to charm the heroine's father), and the one in "The Water Nixie" (who wears a pink see-through dress). All three witches are the villains of their respective episodes.
• I Gave My Word: Elise in "The Six Swans" remains to her vow towards her brothers to remain silent for six years in order to break their spell. Even when her stepmother, the Queen, convinces the kingdom that she is an evil witch who ate her own child, Elise refuses to speak her innocence despite her husband's pleas, even when the Queen is arranging her death by burning.
  Elise: (thinking while being tied to the pyre) Oh, my brothers, I'll remain true to you. Even if it means my death!
• I Want Grandkids: Upon learning of his plan to use the ball to find a suitable wife for their son, the Queen from "Cinderella" immediately accuses her husband of this. The King doesn't see the problem with wanting to bounce adorable grandchildren on his knee and says that he knows she wants that just as badly as he does. Mere moments after Cinderella and the Prince are set to be married, the King excitedly tells the Queen that it's time to decide the number of grandkids and what their names will be.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: You gotta feel a little bad for Beelzebub from The Naughty Spirit. Despite being a feared devil, he's actually really bad at his job, his fellow devils bully him and his boss holds him in pure contempt with his current marks being his last shot to get anywhere. Not only does that go wrong, heaven itself rather cheats to give the hero Nicholas the answers to his riddles, and it's quite debatable if his companions have learned anything. And they were the ones who called Beelzebub on them to begin with!
• Informed Flaw: In-Universe, Elena cannot see anything past the fact of King Grizzle Beard's, well Grizzled Beard, even though the man is very kind, incredibly rich, noble and rather handsome.
• Instant Sedation: Two soldiers, by order of the King and Princess, administer a sleeping potion to Speedy in "The Six Who Went Far" to sabotage his chances of winning the race against the Princess. Fortunately Hunter, an expert marksman, is able to wake him up by firing a warning shot.
• Interactive Narrator: In the first part of the episode "Puss in Boots", the narrator lists everything that the miller's three sons received from him after he died. When the narrator says that the youngest son Max was left with the family cat, Max lets out a big "WHAT?", and the narrator talks to Max about what his father's will has specified.
• Interspecies Romance: Toyed around with the Bear Prince and Snow-White in "Snow-White and Rose Red", as aside of the Accidental Kiss mentioned above, Snow-White is implied to have developed a crush on the Bear before learning that he was a handsome human prince under a spell. It's rendered moot when he recovers his human shape, logically.
• Karmic Jackpot: Double subverted for Prince Joseph. It appears that all his efforts resulted in his evil brother Franz taking all the credit and framing him for attempting to kill their father. Worse, he's facing being assassinated for his supposed treachery, but the knight assigned to do the deed just can't go through with it because Joseph had always been so kind to him. Upon learning the whole story, the knight fakes Joseph's death to protect him. Eventually, Princess Anna arrives at the kingdom and inadvertently reveals Franz's deceit by talking about how Joseph saved her life. Anna is reunited with Joseph soon afterwards.
• Karmic Twist Ending: Frederick in "The Spirit in the Bottle" is asked by his father John on his deathbed to burn his magic cloth that granted him material wealth, but he refuses. Yet it catches on fire by accident, and as Frederick runs to the forest to find the spirit, he himself is entrapped within the bottle.
• Kill and Replace: The witch in "The Crystal Ball" did this to Anton's mother in the original Japanese. In the English dub, she seems to be his mother.
• Killed Offscreen: The Evil Queen from "Snow White" is attacked by the friendly wolves of the forest, and seems to be holding her own... until wolves swarm in by the hundred. Cue the Smash Cut, with the narrator discreetly confirming that she didn't survive.
• Kiss of the Vampire: Subverted in the episode "The Crystal Ball", although it is a wicked witch, not a vampire, who routinely bites the neck of an innocent princess, in one of the most cruel and sadistic scenes ever imaginable. The princess also turns into a corpse afterwards, and somehow regenerates... only for the Witch to bite her neck and life energy away the following night... However, this doesn't happen in the English dub, as the witch switches ages with the Princess, which is closer to the original story.
• Kneel Before Frodo: At the end of "Snow White & Rose Red", the sisters kneel before the Bear Prince when he reveals himself, but the Prince kneels in front of the girls to thank them for their help. And then he proposes to Snow White, with his brother proposing to Rose Red.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Provided in many tales both as punishment (for bad guys) or reward (for good guys).
• Let the Past Burn: This type of ending was used at least more than once. The Bluebeard episode ended this way, and Hansel and Gretel had the witch's house get struck by lightning and burn down, and the kids reunited with their father the next day.
• Lonely Doll Girl: The titular "Briar Rose" was kept away from the world in a tower of her castle, with only her dolls as company aside of her loving but overprotective parents. Her mother the Queen lampshades it as she tells her husband the King that they can't keep Briar Rose away from the world and playing with dolls forever.
• Loophole Abuse: The King in "The Six Who Went Far in the World" is forced to agree to give the team a bag of treasure, but he stresses it's just one bag. Hero exploits this by having an extremely large bag prepared. When the King says anyone who tries to move more than one bag's worth will be punished, Muscles goes to work and takes the entire treasury in the large bag.
• Male Frontal Nudity: In "Brother and Sister", when Rudolf recovers his human form, he is naked and his full body is shown. They probably got away with it without censorship because, when released, he's a young teen rather than an adult man.
• Mama Bear: The Queen from "Cinderella" knows that either of the stepsisters would make her son absolutely miserable. When it's time to see if the shoe fits either of them, the Queen tells the servant overseeing all this that she wouldn't hesitate to throw him in the dungeon should her son get stuck with one of those shrews.
• Man on Fire: At the end of "The Six Swans", the wicked queen accidentally sets herself on fire when she summons a mighty wind.
• Master of Illusion: The fairy in "The Iron Stove" is suggested to be this. She makes Prince William see himself as an ancient, ugly old crone, and the Princess must find her way through the Imp Fairy's illusions to her castle.
• Mind Manipulation: In the English dub, Lisbeth from "The Magic Heart" was kept under a mind control spell by the witch who kidnapped her as a baby. Her attraction to Frederick weakens the witch's hold on her, and after the witch dies, the spell is broken.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: "The Man of Iron" features a variant; when Prince William fails to keep his promise to Iron Hans to keep the magic pond clear, Hans shows William that his reflection depicts him as some kind of hideous cat-fish monster. After William takes a level in kindness, William finds his reflection has gone back to normal.
• Motherly Side Plait: Subverted by Lisbeth in "The Old Woman in the Woods", who styles her red hair like this despite not being a mother.
• Motor Mouth:
  • The narrator in the English dub sometimes talks very quickly, though it's not immediately noticeable.
  • Plenty of characters in the English dub have moments of this. Then again, this wasn't exactly uncommon in English anime dubs of the time. The Japanese language can say a lot with relatively few words, so attempting to get the information out in the same amount of time would often result in rapid-fire dialogue. The Latin-American Spanish dub manages to mostly avert it.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • The King in "The Water of Life" after learning that falling for Franz's treachery presumably got Joseph killed.
  • Leonora in "The Frog Prince" has this reaction after she throws the titular frog against her bedroom wall and apparently kills him.
• Named by the Adaptation: Some of the episodes give the characters names they didn't have in the original stories (though this depends on which language you're watching the show in). Examples include: Elise (the Princess of "The Six Swans" ^note (apparently inspired by the "Elisa" name that she was given in Andersen's version)), Josephine (Bluebeard's last wife), Franz and Joseph (the princes of "The Water of Life"), Phoebe and Griselda (Cinderella's stepsisters), Leonora (the princess in "The Frog Prince"; this is an addition of the English dub as she had no name in the Japanese version), Rudolf and Rose (the siblings from "Brother and Sister"), Lily (the cat maid in "The Marriage of Mrs. Fox"), Elena (the princess from "King Grizzle Beard"), Peter and Genevieve, Louise and Julia (the soldier and princesses from "The Worn Out Dancing Shoes"), Alexander (the prince from "The Coat of Many Colors"), among others who are unnamed in the original stories.
• Never Say "Die": The English dub does this on occasion, typically whenever reference is made to someone dying a violent death (not if someone dies a natural death, such as Maria's father in "Beauty and the Beast"). For example, in "The Six Who Went Far", it's mentioned that those who lose the race against the Princess "never come home", and we even see an executioner raising his sword to behead one such loser, but the words "kill" or "execute" or any variation thereof are never used.
• Never Trust a Title: Despite the series being named "Grimm's" therefore bringing up images of Germany, fairytales from French and Italian folk lore appear throughout the run of the program.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The narrator for the Japanese trailer of part 2 of "Puss In Boots" said that the miller’s son would have his lies exposed. It never happened in part 2.
• Nice to the Waiter: Prince Alexander from "The Coat of Many Colors" is very kind and nice to the apparent Scullery Maid Aleia from the very beginning.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Their version of Bluebeard is resemblant to Henry VIII.
• Noble Wolf: The wolves of "Snow White" are quite friendly to Snow White and the dwarves. That does not stop the wolves from attacking the Evil Queen after she poisoned Snow White.
• The Not-Love Interest: Klaus from "Snow White" is very close to Snow White and aids her as much as he can, but he never shows any signs of being romantically attracted to her and they're pretty much Like Brother and Sister. She marries Klaus' friend the Prince, and Klaus is nothing but happy for them.
• Odd Friendship: The eponymous dog and Wolf from "Old Sultan" are this. They used to be bitter enemies in their prime, but they've become quite friendly after getting older. Wolf's home is the first place that Sultan goes to when he runs away from the farm.
• Off with His Head!: In "How the Six Went Far In the World", those who were forced to compete in a running race against the evil princess (and lost) were beheaded as punishment.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted, as alongside the classic dual title Snow Whites in "Snow White" and "Snow White & Rose Red", both the daughter in "The Magic Heart" and the maid in "Old Woman in the Woods" are named Lisbeth, Hans is both the name of the hero of "The Golden Goose" and the titular "Man of Iron", Peter is both the Name of the Soldier in "The Worn Out Dancing Shoes" and one of the "Four Skillful Brothers", William is the Prince in both "The Iron Stove" and "The Man of Iron", and Franz is the name of both the Jerkass older brothers in "The Water of Life" and "The Golden Goose" and one of the "Four Skillful Brothers" and Frederick is both the Huntsman in "The Magic Heart" and the Woodcutters son in "The Spirit in the Bottle". Somewhat so with Rose Red, Briar Rose and Queen Rose from "Brother and Sister", however the Queen isn't named in the English dub, and merely referred to as Sister.
• Only Sane Woman: In "Brother and Sister", Rose is quite savvier than her brother Rudolf and restrains her thirst, warning him not to drink from the stream. When he cannot resist any longer, disobeys her and is transformed into a deer, she hugs and comforts him.
• Papa Wolf: In "The Six Swans", the King springs into action in defense of Elise and his sons when the Queen materializes a giant serpent in their bed chamber.
• Parental Incest: "The Coat of Many Colors" has a mentally unstable king try to marry his daughter because she is the only woman who is beautiful as his wife was.
• Parents as People: In "Briar Rose", the Royal Couple love their daughter to death but, in an attempt to protect her from the curse she's fated to fall victim to, have kept her pretty much locked away for her first 15 years.
• Persona Non Grata: The fate of the king and the princess in "How the Six Went Far In the World". For their constant treachery, the soldier and his five companions banish them from their own kingdom forever and leave it to the former subjects to install a new king.
• Pimped-Out Dress: There are several, given the nature of its stories, most based on 18th century styles.
  • Josephine in "Bluebeard" is offered lots of dresses, including a white one with several layers of ruffling on the skirt, and a pink on with several ribbons and ruffles.
  • The dress made for "Cinderella" is pale pink with plenty of frills and ruffles, and a yellow flounced petticoat. Even the Queen Mother wears an orange dress with golden trimming, white ruffles and petticoat, and giant poofy sleeves. The stepmother and stepsisters have their own fancy dresses as well.
  • Leonora in "The Frog Prince" wears a pink and white dress, complete with poofy sleeves and fur-trimmed neckline.
  • Princess Anna in "The Water of Life" wears a yellow dress with a pink petticoat of several layers of frills, and a fur-trimmed neckline.
  • The princesses in "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes" wear several dresses, with Genevieve wearing a Fairytale Wedding Dress at the end.
  • "The Old Woman in the Woods" has Lisbeth find many precious dresses with the help of the Owl and a magic key he gives her.
  • The dresses that Princess Aleia wears to the balls thrown by Prince Alexander in "The Coat of Many Colors" are made of Golden Sunlight, Silver Moon Beams and Stardust.
  • The wedding dress that Gretchen wears in "Rumplestilskin" is made of the golden threads the titular imp had spun.
  • Maria from "Beauty and the Beast" wore cute yet simple pink dresses through the story, so the wedding dress that the Prince/former Beast gives her offers quite the contrast.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Snow White from "Snow White" has a Canon Foreigner best friend named Klaus in her story, and they're shown as this from the very beginning.
  • Their relationship like that probably came to an end when she married the Prince. While they no doubt remained close friends, the Prince will obviously remain even closer to her as her husband.
  • Actually, the story uses those tropes in interesting ways. It starts with Snow White and Klaus and Platonic Life-Partners. When Snow White goes missing, Klaus and the Prince become Heterosexual Life-Partners for a short time (it's implied that they were friends before the story began). In the end, Snow White and the Prince become romantic partners.
• Plucky Girl: Several.
  • The Princess from "The Iron Stove" is quite stubborn when she has a goal to fulfill, especially if it involves her beloved Prince William.
  • Elise from "The Six Swans" never ever falters in her decision to save her beloved brothers, even when it brings her enormous difficulties. The most she does is cry in complete silence when she's about to die, and yet she still thinks of her brothers and son rather than of herself
  • Rose-Red from "Snow White & Rose Red" counts too, never losing her energy and her smiles.
• Poor Communication Kills: What causes the conflict in "Old Sultan" between the eponymous dog and Wolf. To get Sultan back in his family's good graces, Wolf fakes abducting the baby so that the old dog can look like a hero for rescuing him. Things go south afterwards because of Wolf wanted a reward. Sultan spoke vaguely about giving him something he'd want, but he meant a sheepskin rug, whereas Wolf thought he could help himself to an actual sheep. Catching him in the sheep pen, an enraged Sultan chased him away and denounced him for his supposed treachery, while Wolf condemned this harsh treatment and issued a challenge for a duel. The fear of getting shot inevitably frays their nerves, but luckily, Sultan showed up unarmed, while all Wolf brought was a stick (which he tried to use as a rifle when panicked). They share a good laugh over this silliness and mend their friendship.
• The Power of Love: Quite literally, the Princess' love for Prince William in "The Iron Stove" is what ends up doing in the evil Fairy.
• Princesses Prefer Pink: Most of the princesses and other leading ladies have at least some pink in their outfits. It's easier to list the exceptions: Snow-White from "Snow White & Rose Red" (in her case it's because Rose Red is already wearing pink), and the Princess from "The Iron Stove", who all wear green, Lisbeth from "The Magic Heart" who wears blue, and Aleia from "The Coat of Many Colours", who has purple, yellow, blue, white, and red dresses, but not pink.
• Promotion to Parent:
  • In "Bluebeard", two of Josephine's three brothers look notoriously older than her and the youngest, plus their parents aren't mentioned. This means they probably raised her and their youngest bro.
  • In "Brother and Sister", the siblings had been looking out for one another ever since the beginning, but after they escape and Rudolf gets turned into a deer, Rose begins taking care of him more openly.
• Proud Beauty:
  • The haughty Princess Elena in "King Grizzle Beard" knows full well her beauty is unmatched.
  • Likewise the Queen in Snow White yearns for nothing more than to be the fairest of them all for as long as possible.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: The Imp Fairy from "The Iron Stove" has traits of this, as she's one Hell of a Clingy Jealous Girl and some of her retorts against the Princess remind of a Spoiled Brat throwing a fit after not getting what she wants. The Latin-American dub of the series empathizes this by giving the Fairy a VA who makes her sound quite child-like.
• Public Execution:
  • In "The Six Who Went Far", men from the village are forced to compete against the Princess in a race and are publicly beheaded if they lose (although the English dub specifically avoids mentioning the word "killed" or "executed", even though the shot of the executioner raising his sword was not cut).
  • Elise in "The Six Swans" is nearly burned to death, along with the chrysanthemum shirts she had sewn to break her brothers' spells, after the Queen convinces most of the kingdom that she had eaten her child. Her brothers rescue her just before the flames reach her and regain their human forms.
• Red Is Heroic:
  • Elise in "The Six Swans" has reddish-brown hair and goes to great lengths to save her brothers.
  • Lisbeth of "The Old Woman in the Woods" is a red-haired maid who must protect herself and her Mysterious Protector the Owl from the Wicked Witch.
  • Rose-Red is a reddish-haired Genki Girl who helps her sister and mother happily and takes no shit from the dwarf.
• Red Right Hand: The witch's daughter in "The Six Swans" has blue marks on her cheeks.
• Reduced to Dust: In the version of Beauty and the Beast, Maria gets so sad while staying with the Beast that her emotions turn things such as dinner and flowers, into dust.
• Rescue Romance:
  • In "Snow White & Rose Red", the girls find a well-cared for horse without its rider. Rose-Red finds said rider (a rather handsome young man) passed out, tends to him as he wakes up, patches up his leg and, when they say goodbye, she is clearly crushing on him. He turns out to be the younger brother of the Bear Prince, and they marry at the end.
  • Once the titular "The Iron Stove" recovers his human form as Prince William, he's taken away by the Imp Fairy and the Princess must rescue him.
  • In "The Old Woman in the Woods", Lisbeth and the cursed Prince team up to rescue one another from the Witch. He first gives her a magic key that allows her to get supplies to survive alone in the woods, and later she repays the favor by going into the Witch's mansion and following his instructions to defeat her.
  • Prince Joseph wins the heart of Princess Anna after rescuing her from a demon on his quest to obtain the titular "Water of Life".
  • Subverted in "Brother and Sister": Rose needs to be rescued by the King after they have fallen in love and have been married long enough to have a kid.
  • Peter the young soldier in "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes" rescues the three princesses from the demons who have them hypnotized into dancing until they die, and marries the eldest, Genevieve.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Briar Rose is an amateur composer in her spare time.
• A Saint Named Mary: Beauty is given the name "Maria". She's a gentle and sweet woman who learns to care for the Beast and contrasts with her more spoiled sisters.
• Sanity Slippage: It's mentioned in the backstory of "The Coat of Many Colors" that the king gradually lost his mind, with the implication that some kind of infectious disease (possibly meningitis) was responsible.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Lisbeth and the owl prince in "The Old Woman in the Woods". The latter is a sedate, knowledgeable guy, while the former is a dorky Genki Girl.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Due to the afforementioned Gonkiness of the Princess in "The Brave Little Tailor", the Tailor and his loyal guard have to find a way to get our of his marriage to her.
• Secret Relationship: Rapunzel and her Prince, natch. They're mentioned to have gotten married in secret by the narrator.
• Secret Test of Character:
  • The gnome in "The Golden Goose" makes a practice of this. He takes the form of an old beggar and asks passersby if they would be willing to share some food. Franz angrily refuses to share the lavish meal his mother made for him, ultimately injuring his arm while chopping wood. By contrast, Hans doesn't hesitate to share a far more meager meal with the guy. The seeming beggar both uses magic to enhance the food for Hans's benefit and tells him that he'll find something very special if he chops down a particular tree. After the When She Smiles example plays out, the gnome departs with the goose to go to a new town and find another kindhearted person deserving of help.
  • "The Water of Life" has a demon who tests the worthiness of travellers seeking the titular water by disguising himself as a sleeping hermit. On one hand, Franz fails his test terribly, as he rudely wakes up the hermit and threatens him. On the other hand, Joseph passes his test when he's kind to the hermit regardless if he can help or not.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Very much apparent in the episode "The Iron Stove". The princess wears a long green dress with long sleeves and, while it did show some cleavage, it wasn't very much. The Fairy, on the other hand, wears a very short blue dress with virtually nonexistent sleeves, and visible cleavage.
• Sex Equals Love: Heavily implied in "Rapunzel". Considering she and her Prince slept in the same bed (albeit fully clothed), and he's described as visiting in the evening and leaving in the morning, more mature viewers probably have some idea of what they're up to. Then Rapunzel gives birth to the Prince's son after she gets banished, and the two of them are joyfully accepted by the Prince on being reunited with him, removing any and all lingering doubt.
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Mostly averted since the victims of forced transformations in the stories tend to be dressed when they return to human forms, but played straight with Rudolf from "Brother and Sister". Probably because Rudolf is a pre-teen when he's released, while the others tend to be older teens or adults.
• She Cleans Up Nicely:
  • "Snow White & Rose Red" finishes with a brief scene featuring the girls in royal clothes (and apparently older) as they marry their princes. The last scene features them with their beloved mother, who is dolled up in a nice blue gown.
  • The maid Lisbeth from "The Old Woman in the Woods" is a rather cute and barefoot redhead girl, but she's an absolute knockout when she marries her Prince and is shown in a Fairytale Wedding Dress.
  • Peter from "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes" looks a little dirty and has a bit of Perma-Stubble, even still the three Princesses all agree that is still quite a handsome man. When he's all dressed up to marry Genevieve, he looks so good in regal clothes that his bride is VERY impressed and even giddy.
  • Josephine from Bluebeard is a quite pretty villager and when Bluebeard takes her to his castle she's given quite the makeover.
  • A rather literal example with Johan in "Bearskin". He begins as a clean-faced and rather cute soldier (save for some bruises) and then spends several years going around without being able to bathe, after the Deal with the Devil he makes (plus he grows quite a Beard of Sorrow). When he finally manages to bathe/shave/dress up/etc., the difference pretty obvious.
  • When Rose from "Brother and Sister" marries the very handsome King, she also gets a makeover and goes from a cute teenager to quite the beauty.
  • In "The Coat of Many Colors" Aleia is often mocked for her appearance while wearing her fur coat, yet the nights she attends the balls in her fancy gowns she stuns the crowds with her beauty.
  • In "Beauty and the Beast", Maria goes from wearing simple villager clothes and a white bonnet to putting on a simple yet prettier gown and Letting Her Hair Down. Towards the end she's in a black dress with a just as black veil, signifying her mourning for her father; when the spell over the Beast is broken and he returns to be a Prince, her mourning clothes magically change into a white wedding dress.
  • Elise from "Six Swans" starts cutely dressed as the Princess she is, but after her and her sibling's fall of grace she wears more plain country clothes. Then the Crown Prince takes her to his castle and she's again well-dressed like the Crown Princess Consort she becomes.
• She Is All Grown Up:
  • In "Brother and Sister", a Time Skip takes place right after Rudolf/Brother becomes a deer. The siblings live peacefully in a tiny cabin, with Rudolf as a sleeker and slightly older deer and Rose/Sister as a cute Girl Next Door.
  • Elise from "The Six Swans" grows from a a cute little princess, to such a lovely teen girl that the Prince blushes when he sees her. Her six brothers also fit in: they were transformed into swans when they were either little boys or teenagers, so when the spell is broken after six years, they've grown accordingly and their teen and/or adult human selves look quite dashing.
• Shout-Out: A lot to Disney. The most obvious being in the Mother Holle episode, where Hildegarde meets a white rabbit. Cinderella and Snow White also resemble their Disney counterparts.
• Shown Their Work: Not only did the show feature many obscure fairy tales, it also included Puss in Boots and Bluebeard, despite only appearing in the Grimm's first collection (Perrault's earlier versions are why those stories are otherwise known today).
• Silver Spoon Troublemaker: Prince William from "The Man Of Iron" is this, much to his mother the Queen's chagrin. Most of the people he meets only put up with his insults and demanding behavior because of his title. Unfortunately (or fortunately), Hans, the actual Man of Iron, is having none of that.
• Sizeshifter: The thirteenth witch from "Briar Rose" is able to grow to gigantic sizes.
• Small Reference Pools: Averted: the anime included many obscure fairy tales such as "The Iron Stove" and "Jorinde and Joringel", in addition to well-known ones like "Cinderella" and "Snow White".
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse:
  • Snow White, whose beauty causes her to gain the lethal envy of her stepmother, the Queen.
  • Princess Aleia from "The Coat of Many Colors", who is the only woman beautiful enough to meet her mad father's requirement to be his new wife.
  • The Princess from "The Crystal Ball" was targeted and enslaved by the wicked witch, because she was the most beautiful maiden in the land, and has her beauty painfully sucked out of her by the witch every night.
• Spanner in the Works: Princess Anna in "The Water of Life" acts as this. Had she not come to Franz's coronation to offer her hand in marriage to Joseph (the rightful prince who brought the Water of Life), Franz would've otherwise gotten away with all the under-handed he did to get the crown, and the kingdom would've been doomed to the reign of such a cruel, dishonest king.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • The stepmother in "Brother and Sister" has her spells broken and ends up wandering the woods in a daze, but she doesn't get burned at the stake. Her eventual death happens off-screen.
  • The older sisters in "Bearskin". In the original story, reduced to envy, they commit suicide and the Devil takes their souls. Here, they are clearly upset when they find out what they lost, but they don't actually kill themselves.
  • In "The Old Woman in the Woods", the party Lisbeth travels with don't get murdered by bandits. Instead, they get transformed into trees by a witch, and are restored to their human forms when the spell is broken.
  • At the end of "The Hare and the Hedgehog", the Hare collapses in exhaustion, but doesn't cough up blood and die the way he does in the original story.
• Stupid Evil: If Bluebeard didn't want the murders of his wives to be revealed, then why on Earth did he establish the rather dumb "test of character" in which he'd give each one keys to all the rooms in his household, including the cellar where he kept the corpses? Looks like he never thought that his "habit" to deliberately and fatally bait his spouses would backfire on him one of these days, like it did when his last wife Josephine and her especially her protective older brothers trashed his plans to left and right...
• Superpower Lottery: The Hot Witch and Wicked Stepmother of "The Six Swans" have many, MANY skills: Summon Magic (the snake she summons against her stepfamily), some Reality Warper skills (when the King has a Gut Feeling after meeting her and almost refuses her mom's marriage proposal, his surroundings begin to change inexplicably), Master of Disguise (she disguises herself as the King before cursing the princes), Forced Transformation (which she applies to her stepsons), Wind Magic (which leads to her Karmic Death, ironically), etc.
• Story Within a Story: "The Hare and the Hedgehog" Are Stories, Within a Story, Within a Story.
• Strong Family Resemblance:
  • In "Rapunzel", the title character's son with the Prince has his father's features and his mother's hair and eye colors.
  • In "Snow White & Rose Red", Snow-White is pretty much a younger version of her and Rose-Red's mother.
• Take a Third Option: Gretchen in "Rumplestiltskin" either has to guess the nymph's name or hand over her child. The last night she has to guess, her husband proposes another solution: "If the name my men gave me today is not correct, I'm going to protect our child from that nymph with my sword".
• Talking Animal:
  • In "The Iron Stove", a bunch of these aid the Princess, particularly the frogs. They're humans under a spell, and when the Fairy is defeated and implied to be killed, they recover their human forms.
  • In "Brother and Sister", the younger brother Rudolf transforms into a deer from drinking enchanted water, but luckily, he is still able to talk just fine, eventually regaining his human form some years later.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes" invokes and averts this: the Princesses try drugging Peter's wine to escape to their dancing "dates", but Peter outsmarts them by quietly disposing of the drink and then pretending to fall asleep.
• A Taste of the Lash: The witch from "Brother and Sister" punishes her stepchildren by whipping them. When Rose fails to stop her from doing this, Rudolf shields her by covering her with his body.
• Teen Pregnancy: "Rapunzel" has the title character being impregnated by the Prince at age sixteen. Then again the Prince seems to be in the same age bracket, or just a little older.
• Textile Work Is Feminine:
  • In "Jorinde and Joringel", Jorinde is seen working with her spinning wheel when her boyfriend Joringel visits her with flowers.
  • Used twice in "The Six Swans". First, in a bit of Adaptation Expansion the Hot Witch transforms a magic branch into a golden needle and then sews six white capes to imbue them with the magic that transforms her stepsons into the titular swans. Then, Princess Elise puts her own sewing skills to work by sewing six shirts from starflowers to free her brothers from the wicked queen's curse. She finishes right before being burned at the stake for crimes that she never commited, and the shirts are also tied to her stake/cross; right after they save her, the swan princes wrap themselves in Elise's shirts and are released from the spell.
  • Poor Gretchen from Rumpelstilskin gets in trouble when her father, the miller, brags about how skilled she is with her spinning wheel.
• Thanatos Gambit: Death's Godson pulls one off, as he gives his life to save the princess, escape his contract with Death, and be reunited with his family in heaven.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: The Wicked Stepmother from "The Six Swans" murders her husband at some point during the Time Skip.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: In "Snow White & Rose Red", Rose-Red is a very cheerful and no-nosense tomboy who wears pink clothes, has long reddish hair and sometimes Thinks Like a Romance Novel (especially when the Bear Prince's brother is around).
• Tongue Trauma: In "The Six Swans", the wicked queen threatens to cut out the princess's tongue when they meet again.
• Too Dumb to Live: The evil sorcerer in Puss In Boots. Probably a bad, bad idea to turn into a mouse with a clever cat about...
• True Love's Kiss:
  • Actually subverted in "Briar Rose": what wakes up Briar Rose is not a kiss, but the appearance of a Prince that is specifically destined to wake her up... plus him pricking his finger and lightly bleeding from it when he leans in to kiss her, so that a drop of his blood falls onto her lips. They do get The Big Damn Kiss very soon, however.
  • Also subverted in "The Frog Prince": the Frog and his servant Henry believe that Princess Leonora has to kiss him to change him back into a Prince. But when he asks her to kiss him near the end^note In the English dub; the dialogue in Japanese is different, she throws him against a wall in anger, apparently killing him. Then she instantly regrets what she has done and cries Tears of Remorse, and her tears break the spell instead of a kiss, bringing him back to life in human form. The English narrator adds at the end of the episode that the kiss of true love came later, assumedly at Leonora and the prince's wedding.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter:
  • The Hot Witch from "The Six Swans", Lisbeth from "The Magic Heart" and Rapunzel are all much, much prettier than the wicked witches that are either their mothers or their Parental Substitutes.
  • In a sibling version, "Bluebeard" has Frederick and Josephine looking much younger and prettier than their two eldest brothers.
  • The King from "The Six Swans" is as much plain-looking, but his seven children look adorable in one way or another.
• The Unfavorite: Hans, despite his kindness towards them, is treated horribly by his family, while his older brother, Franz, is adored.
• Unkempt Beauty:
  • Even dressed in peasant garbs and slightly dirty, Prince Joseph is still a rather handsome man.
  • Peter, having come from war, is filthy and his clothes are tattered, and even still Genevieve and her sisters comment that he is good-looking.
• Undignified Death: In "The Six Swans", not only the Hot Witch fatally catches fire, but as she's running around while burning, the huge cross that Elise was bound to falls on her and definitely kills her.
• The Unmasking: Inverted in "The Six Who Went Far". In the beginning, our soldier protagonist first approaches the greedy king and his daughter for a reward whilst wearing his helmet. After they send him away with little more than moldy coins, he doesn't wear his helmet for the better part of the story, making him unrecognizable the next time their paths cross. Towards the end when the royal villains are defeated, he dons his helmet once more to let them know he's the same soldier from before.
• Unreliable Narrator: Not in the stories, but the dub theme song itself, which claims that "...every story ends so happily!" Again, this is first-edition Grimm material here: though many characters get their happy endings not everything ends well even for the protagonists. On a related note, we're still waiting on those "friendly elves" mentioned by the theme song...
• Vain Sorceress:
  • "The Crystal Ball" has an evil witch murdering a beautiful woman and stealing her identity. To keep herself young and beautiful, she keeps a beautiful princess trapped in her castle, and performs a ghastly and unholy ritual every night where she bites into her neck and drains her of her lifeforce, and leaves her a rotting corpse. For reasons unexplained, the princess revives within a matter of seconds after the ritual is performed. When the murdered woman's sons find out what is going on, she turns the two of them into animals, but the youngest escapes and is able to destroy her.
  • In the English and Hebrew Dub, the scenes with the biting were removed, and she simply switches ages with the princess. This is actually closer to the original story. The Spanish changed it to drinking her youth, but showed the biting.
• Villain Song:
  • The wolf in the "Little Red Riding Hood" gets one.
  • The wicked King and Princess in "The Six Who Went Far", also gets one.
• Villainous Glutton: The wolf from "The Wolf and the Fox", who is always complaining about wanting to eat. It costs him in the end.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: No one shall ever take the Prince from "The Iron Stove" away from his Princess!
• Vocal Evolution: In "The Six Swans"'s Latin-American Spanish dub, Elsa Covián's Elise speaks in a rather high-pitched tone before taking up her vow of silence, and when she finally can speak again her voice is deeper. Justified: six years have passed between both events and she's gone from a little girl to an older teen, plus her vocal cords were probably a bit "rusty" so to say.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting:
  • The evil witch from "Briar Rose" is able to take on multiple different forms. Her most frequently used is a bat, but she also tricks Briar Rose by turning herself into a seemingly harmless textile spinner.
  • Heidi and Sean allow the Old Woman to turn them into frogs so that they may escape the Water Nixie's pond.
• War Is Glorious: The king and princess in "The Six Who Went Far" sing a Villain Song about the glory of war (said glory being that the conquering soldiers bring home tons of gold and jewels, which, naturally, all goes to the king and princess).
• What Does She See in Him?: "The Marriage of Mrs. Fox" has Mr. Fox, a vain smug jerk who mistreats his housemaid and believes his loving and beautiful wife to be unfaithful with incredibly flimsy evidence. We actually do get an answer, though. He's rockin' nine tails in his pants, and she won't settle for anything less.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • In "The Water Nixie", the little son of the main couple is never mentioned at the end of the story. Maybe a choice of writer because in the original story, it is implied that he, alone and without parents, starved to death.
  • The two elder brothers from "The Crystal Ball" pretty much disappear from the story after the Witch turns them into animals. They do however turn up in time to help Anton rescue the Princess, and return to their human forms.
  • Nothing is mentioned of what happened to William's mother or his kingdom by the end of "The Man of Iron".
  • The fate of Aleia's kingdom and her mad king father is never revealed.
• When She Smiles: At the end of the "The Golden Goose", the boy protagonist (after some people were stuck to him because of the Golden Goose's curse) went to a city where a worried King had decreed that his Perpetual Frowner of a daughter should marry whoever made her laugh. The sight of the procession made the Princess smile and laugh, and so the curse is broken, the boy marries her and inherited the kingdom.
• When Trees Attack:
  • A group of evil trees appear in the episode "Jorinde and Joringel" — brought to life by the witch who holds Jorinde hostage. The trees chase Joringel through the woods. When he loses sight of them and thinks they are gone, one of them sneaks up behind him and eats him. Luckily, it's revealed to be All Just a Dream as Joringel wakes up in a bed right after the tree eats him. Later, he's attacked by trees - and the Grim Reaper - for real while going to rescue Jorinde. Only the Deus Ex Machina appearance of the Red Flower - which grows on the spot where his tear fell on the ground - makes the trees and Reaper disappear and saves Joringel's life.
  • The English dub gives the witch (via voiceover) some humorous dialogue in the dream sequence (there was no dialogue in the Japanese outside of Joringel screaming for help):
    Witch: You can run, but you can't hide! But don't worry, you're safe for the moment. [as the tree eats Joringel] Sorry, I lied! Hahahahaha!
• Wicked Stepmother:
  • You can't have a collection of fairy tales without one of these in at least one such story. It's only a matter of taking one's pick.
  • "Mother Holle" has Hildegard's stepmother. Although she married into Hildegard's family, she rather favors her lazy daughter Elaine, and works Hildegard to the bone. Even when Hildegard is nothing but kindly and obedient, it doesn't change that she treats her stepdaughter like a slave.
  • In "Six Swans", the king's new wife (secretly a witch) starts out pretending to be sweet before her true nature comes out at seeing the children reject her. From there on, her treatment of them goes downhill, from tryin to assasinate them with a giant snake to turning the brothers into swans.
  • "Brother and Sister" opens up with the titluar characters' stepmother whipping both children out of sheer spite. And that's before she decides to kill them for the offense of trying to escape her.
• Winged Humanoid: The Imp from "The Iron Stove" has a pair of red bat-like wings, and is referred to as an Evil Fairy.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman:
  • Snow White who is the fairest of them all.
  • In a dark take on this trope, Aleia in "The Coat of Many Colors" is the only maiden beautiful enough to fulfill her mad father's requirement for his Queen.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • In "The Six Swans", the wicked queen abandons Elise's infant son to die. Fortunately, the titular Swans find the baby and rescue him.
  • The young boy Rudolf and the pre-teen girl Rose from "Brother and Sister" are whipped by their Wicked Stepmother.
• Yandere: The evil fairy curses Prince William, trapping him in the titular "Iron Stove", until he returns her affections.
• Youngest Child Wins: The Saban English dub averts this in "Bearskin" by making the heroine the middle daughter (she was the youngest in the original dialogue and story, however).

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