The Snow Queen (Yuki no Joou) is a 2005 anime by TMS Entertainment and directed by the late Osamu Dezaki.
Like in the original story, Gerda and Kai are childhood friends and neighbors living in a small town, playing and preparing with their families for an incoming winter. In the meantime, the Snow Queen proceeds with her annual summoning of snow and ice, leaving the Ice Palace in care of her subordinate trolls. During one of her outings, the giant Magic Mirror shatters and its shards are blown away all over the world, including their hometown. Kai’s eye is pierced by one such shard and soon his demeanor begins changing, to the point of driving Gerda away in tears. One night, the Queen sees him and decides to take him away to her castle all while Gerda is helpless to do anything about it.
When the villagers and Kai’s family give up the search and hold a funeral for him, Gerda cannot shake off the feeling that Kai is still alive, remembering her dream about Kai going off in a white carriage. She eventually encounters the town drunk who saw the same thing as she did in her dreams and decides to travel north in order to find him. She meets many people on her journey, including a mysterious minstrel Ragi and his animal companions who join Gerda in her search.
Not to be confused with The Snow Queen (1957), The Snow Queen (1977), The Snow Queen (1995), or The Snow Queen (2012).
Tropes:
- Action Mom: Frida's mom Amanda.
- Actionized Adaptation: The anime is more action-based compared to the fairy tale it was based on, particularly in the finale where the Snow Queen becomes a Lady of War who fights the Devil.
- Actor Allusion: The Snow Queen wields a sword this time around. That might have something to do with the fact that her voice actress is Mayo Suzukaze, while not exactly known for constant anime presence, once voiced one of the most famous anime swordsman ever, Himura Kenshin.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- The Snow Queen was a morally ambiguous figure in the story; here, she's a heroic figure who fights against the Devil, and demonstrates outright motherly affection for Kai.
- The Evil Prince was brainwashed by the evil mirror rather than being evil.
- Adaptation Expansion: The anime spends an episode just fleshing out Gerda and Kai and their families, and shows what their town is like. It also takes its time showing Gerda actually preparing for her journey to find Kai. And then it throws in a bunch of episodes that never were part of the original story; see Massive Multiplayer Crossover.
- Adventure Towns: Just about every town Gerda walks in will have her meet someone or do something.
- Alien Sky: If there’s an aurora borealis in the sky, chances are the Snow Queen is there. Then there’s the Avatar’s red eye like aurora…
- All Myths Are True: The Snow Queen and Holger the giant are treated as legends, with only a few people actually seeing them for real, but they do turn out to be real.
- Animated Adaptation: Of The Snow Queen.
- Animesque: Inverted in that the art and character designs resemble more of a European style than a traditional anime.
- Benevolent Genie: The witch in the “Three Walnuts” episode who gives Gerda and two siblings magical walnuts. She’s a bit of a Literal Genie when the youngest sister wishes for a carriage and princess, but it turns out she didn’t specify who it was for, so the witch herself drives off in the carriage.
- Big Damn Heroes: Ragi finds himself doing some of these for Gerda. In the final episodes, Holger also manages to show up at the ice castle (all the way from the glacier, mind you) to catch a flaming arrow aiming for Gerda.
- Bilingual Bonus: There’s some Danish
in this. - Bittersweet Ending: "The Red Shoes" has one. Karen's father dies and her brother and sister are split between different foster families. However, Karen is working for money she will use to reunite with her siblings.
- Cerebus Syndrome: While the series already dealt with fairly serious issues, it was still a story about a young girl traveling to find her friend. And then Satan shows up.
- Chick Magnet: Gerda's late father. That was discussed by Gerda's colleagues.
- Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity: Later on in the series, Gerda and Ragi need to climb over the great glacier to get to the Snow Queen.
- The Corruption: The mirror shards. Unlike in the fairy tale where other shards are mentioned but not seen, the shards are shown to have affected some people other than Kai, and Gerda runs into such people on her journey.
- Cut the Safety Rope: Ragi discusses this with Gerda on the glacier. He ends up doing it.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Gerda calls a pickpocket a “pickpocket thief”.
- Dramatic Shattering: In this case, both the mirror and the puzzle.
- Easing into the Adventure: It takes four episodes to properly set up Kai and Gerda’s daily life and relationship, Kai’s accident with the mirror shard and Gerda’s eventual decision to find him.
- Feuding Families: Amanda’s clan and Gaion’s clan have been fighting each other for years, mostly for territory.
- The Final Temptation: There’s the scene where the Avatar of the Wind takes Kai to the Garden of Paradise and even offers him immortality should he stay there. Considering the Avatar turns out to be the Devil himself, it becomes even more apparent.
- Find the Cure!:
- In the beginning, Gerda sets out to find herbs for her grandmother’s fever in during winter.
- In the later episode, Ragi searches for some after Gerda herself falls ill (which ends with him getting down with one as well).
- Forbidden Fruit: The fruit of the largest tree called the Ancestor in the Bandits’ Forest. Eating it is what gets both Frida and Gerda in trouble with the bandit clans.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: While on a picnic with her family, Gerda hears a strange church bell that she knows isn’t coming from her town. Her grandmother tells her she heard the same bell years ago and later a notice came to her from the military; Gerda’s father had died in the war.
- Foreshadowing:
- In Episode 2, when Gerda is looking for Liverwort, The Snow Queen allows some to appear near where Gerda was looking, hinting at her benevolent nature.
- Later, in Episode 3, Gerda prays at a church, that Kai can get protected so that he can go back to his old self, after he got hurt by the mirror shard. The very next scene shows The Snow Queen sensing Kai, and immediately going over to whisk him away. This revelation is more poignant with The Snow Queen protecting Kai against Satan himself.
- Grim Up North: Where the Snow Queen lives.
- Grand Finale: The series concludes with the characters fighting off the Devil.
- Harmless Freezing: Ragi freezes at the bottom of the glacier and notably dies. Played straight when he’s revived.
- Healing Spring: Frida is tasked to find the Spring of Life by Bae to save her dying mother.
- Heartwarming Orphan: Often. Gerda herself is an example.
- Hope Spot: Kai finally finishes the puzzle which restores the magic mirror and seals the Devil back where he belongs… only for him to tumble over when his heart starts to hurt, with the Devil still free to rampage due to the shard still lodged in Kai’s heart and leaving the mirror incomplete.
- Hot Witch: The Flower Garden Witch in her younger form.
- Ice Palace: The Snow Queen's home.
- Identical Stranger:
- There’s the Prince, apart from the fact that he’s older than Kai.
- Gerda also meets a Captain who bears a passing resemblance to her father.
- I'm Not Afraid of You: When the witch’s rat transform into a dragon, he is surprised Gerda isn’t afraid of him. Played for Laughs since she manages to convince him she will act like she’s afraid if he gives her back her shoes. She ends up running out on him while he’s distracted.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Gerda (eleven) and Ragi (middle-aged), with shades of Parental Substitute.
- Involuntary Dance: In the episode based on “Red Shoes”, which ends with disastrous consequences.
- Lady of War: The Snow Queen.
- Lighter and Softer: Although neither the episode nor the original story are exactly G-rated stuff, the episode "The Red Shoes" is this to the original story. The episode ends on a much lighter note than the original story, as noted in Bittersweet Ending above.
- Like Brother and Sister: Gerda and Kai, to some amusement to their schoolmates.
- The Lost Lenore: A rare male example; Holger the giant. The Snow Queen still hasn’t gotten over his death a hundred years ago and he does have a significant presence not just for her, but for the other characters as well (mostly through his legends as they likely didn’t know he existed or that he was already dead till the final episodes). Gerda names the wolf companion after him and the Queen appears to see much of Holger in Ragi.
- Loyal Animal Companion: Holger and (to lesser degree) Amor.
- Magic Mirror: The Snow Queen can observe faraway events with it even when it is broken. It also contains the essence of the Devil that can turn people evil and makes them susceptible to his control.
- Mama Bear:
- Amanda, Frida's mother. Already an Action Mom, She dives after her daughter to save her from her possible execution, rules of the forest be damned. Amanda almost dies from her injuries. Luckily, Frida and Gerda are able to get water from a Healing Spring.
- The Snow Queen herself proves to be this. At first, she appears to be the Big Bad of the story. But throughout Kai's stay at her Ice Castle, she treats him almost like a cherished son. This is solidified given her combative approach to protecting him from The Devil, and the revelation that she was working to protect Kai from his influence.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: References and adaptations of other Andersen stories appear throughout.
- Men Don't Cry: Averted because everyone cries in this. Girls, boys, women, men, old people… all of them.
- The Mourning After: The Snow Queen for Holger.
- Mysterious Mist: One comes up at night in the Star Falling Valley that was once the place of a huge war.
- New Year Has Come: Episode 19 has a fun one made from "The Little Match Girl". She ends up dying from the cold.
- No Name Given: Some of the characters from the original story gain names in this version, such as the Robber Girl who becomes Frida, others (like the witches) stay unnamed.
- Nonchalant Dodge: Ragi and the Snow Queen are fond of this.
- One Side of the Story: Ragi believed the Snow Queen refused to help his men who were dying in the raging snowstorm and even thought she deliberately caused the blizzard, despite him begging her to help them. It’s revealed only later that she did try to help them, but was too late as they were all already dead. He humbly admits that he was wrong about her.
- Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: All over the place. Just look who directed this.
- Parental Substitute:
- Ragi seems to be this for Gerda. He does what he can to ensure her health and safety. He goes out of his way to ensure she has what she needs, and needs to know, for her journey, even accompanying her. Even performing a Heroric Sacrifice for her sake.
- Similarly, The Snow Queen becomes this for Kai. She makes sure he is comfortable, gets regular rest, and isn't lonely in her Ice Castle. She even tucks him in bed, and even rewards his hard work with a goodnight kiss. Kai, in turn, returns her fondness.
- Pensieve Flashback: Gerda has one when she enters the ice castle. she sees herself as a baby along with her mother and Kai’s family as they are seeing off Gerda’s father who is going to war. She tries to talk to him and prevent him from leaving which doesn’t work since the Snow Queen uses this memory to lock Gerda in a room.
- People Puppets: The Devil can control people who have a mirror shard lodged in their hearts. He even tries to use Kai like this against the Snow Queen.
- Plucky Girl: Gerda.
- Port Town: There was one that was absolutely crazy about mermaids.
- Premature Eulogy: When Kai doesn't come back for a long time, his father and the other townspeople give up and declare him dead. Gerda's positive he's still alive though.
- Recap Episode: Episode 20.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The baby seal the Snow Queen brings to Kai so he’ll have someone to play with.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Downplayed with Kai and Gerda. Both are children with the, expressiveness and cheerfulness characteristic of kids their age. Kai is more devoted to school studies, is skilled with Jigsaw puzzles, and overall is more mellow and overall prefers solitary activities, but still loves playing with Gerda. Gerda on the other hand, is more active and competitive with physical activities, has much more determination and spirit, and is overall more extroverted and hard working.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: King Globo.
- Shirtless Scene: Kai's father, Carl, has one when he tries to find his lost son in the water.
- Shout-Out: There are several episodes with episodic story arcs based around other Andersen’s fairy tales, along with the more obscure ones.
- Episode 5 has a merchant with a backstory and Trunk lifted directly from "The Flying Trunk"
- Episode 7 has King Globo. Who is a stand-in for the titular character of "The Wicked Prince", complete with being defeated by a singular insect.
- Episode 11's plot and it's focus character, Karen, are lifted from "The Red Shoes"
- Episode 17 features a woman who is said to be 'Good For Nothing'.
- Episode 19, "Girl Selling Matches", is based on "The Little Match Girl".
- Episode 23, "The Garden of Paradise", has a garden based on the titular story.
- Episode 24, "The Moonlight Mermaid" has another mermaid child, Lily, try to befriend Gerda, with the events of the original story "The Little Mermaid" become an in-universe legend.
- Sick Episode: Episode 26.
- Small Role, Big Impact: If it weren't for the town drunk witnessing what Gerda saw in episode 3, Gerda's journey wouldn't have happened.
- Soft Water: When Frida is made to go over a waterfall in a barrel as a punishment, she survives. On the other hand, her mother who dives after her to save her sustains massive injuries and ends on her death bed.
- Split Screen: Mostly used during dialogue to show faces and expressions of both participants.
- Tailor-Made Prison: The puzzle on the floor of the ice castle is what keeps the Devil under lock. When it’s broken into many pieces, he escapes and it has to be reassembled before they can seal him again.
- Talking Animal: There’s the rat who works for the witch with the flower garden, Bae the great reindeer, the bear that protects the Spring of Life and the crows.
- They Died Because of You: A father of one of the deceased men that served under Ragi accuses him of being a Dirty Coward who abandoned his troop to save his own skin since he was found in a cave miles away from them with no real explanation.
- This Is Unforgivable!: The Snow Queen says this to the Avatar who kidnaps Kai and Ragi is not at all willing to forgive her for not helping his dying troop.
- Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: The Snow Queen vs. Satan.
- Work Off the Debt: Gerda does this willingly a couple of times, in exchange for lodgings and pay. Also, Hans tries to sweet-talk the waitress into opening a tab on him, but ends up working since the elder owns the restaurant.
- World Tree: The Ancestor in the Bandits’ Forest which is said to have made the forest.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: The witch’s flower garden. It’s stated Gerda spends six months there.
- You Remind Me of X: Ragi seems to remind the Snow Queen of Holger… which is what also prompts her to save him not once but twice.
