5 Anime/Films with Fairy Tale Elements and a Twist

Fairy tales, everybody knows them, most especially the tales of Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc. These are the stories that can be found anywhere in media, adapted in different ways, from taking the tale and giving it a new look or giving it a completely different twist. This is no different for many anime series and films. In the past there have been different films that have adapted the iconic fairy tales and others that have built up from them.

The following listed anime and films are the ones that take after the latter. Though you may see the familiar plot of the fairy tales in the beginning of the series, at a certain point they take on a life of their own, creating diverse characters and an original plot of its own. Basically the fairy tales for these series can be considered as spring boards into the plot.

5. Heart no Kuni Alice

The tale of a young girl falling into a world with no logic takes a turn in this tale with one elemental to do so, gunfights. In this Wonderland it is more than a tale of finding the way home, it is a tale of survival. For the Alice of this story, rather than follow a white rabbit is kidnapped by an anthropomorphic one and is forced to drink a “medicine” which forces her to be trapped in this violent version of Wonderland.

Now rather than exploring and encountering people out of curiosity on her path to home, this Alice is required to interact with each of the residents of this Wonderland in order to fill up the vial that she was forced to drink and be able to return home.But with the internal conflict and mysteries surrounding each resident, this task is anything but easy.

4.Princess Tutu

This is a series that has gained recognition for a number of things and is tody considered as one of the classics in the fantasy/shoujo genre. One of the main things to know abut this series is that it is based off of the tale known as “Swan Lake”, a tragic tale of love and deception. The thing for this series though is that rather than a tale of a young maiden being cursed to turn into a swan at moonlight on a lake, it is a duck that has turned into a human and has the capability to turn into a beautiful dancer named Princess Tutu.

There are many elements of fairy tales that can be found in this series that has taken its own form with certain tropes that can be found in different anime. Whether it be the talking animals and exaggerated characters or the ability of a girl to turn into a ballerina that can drive away a corruption from a person’s heart, this is a fairy tale that brings a new look to the idea of a fairy tale with anime.

3. Ponyo

Many know the tale of the young mermaid who fell in love with a human prince to have either as a tragedy of unspoken love by Hans Christian or a happily ever after of dreams by Disney. For this story however, while there is a basis of a merperson gaining affection for a human boy, this is no tale between a prince or princess, and this is more than a forbidden love story between a mermaid and a human.

First and foremost, the mermaid and human are both children so the concept of a love story is debatable. But a tale of friendship a a tilt in nature brings in elements of grand fantasy and an adventure to restore things to the way they are while also facing the the issue of Ponyo, the mermaid reverting back to her original form

2. Snow White with the Red Hair

A familiar tale of a young princess escaping from her evil stepmother and staying in the home of seven little dwarfs takes a twist for this series. In the original tale, Snow White was targeted for her great beauty, with her raven black hair, deep red skin and snow white skin, she was named as the most fairest in the land and thus became a target for kill by her own stepmother. In this story, there is no evil queen but the fair maiden of this story is still hunted, not just for her beauty, but for her distinct bright red hair.

The elements of the iconic story found in this series are mainly found in the first episode, relating mainly to the poison apple that rendered the fair princess to an eternal sleep and was saved by the kiss of a handsome prince. There is a poisoned apple, but it is not the princess who ends up eating it. From there the tie to the fairy tale breaks off and the story takes on a life of its own.

1. Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi

This is a series that doesn’t just take in one fairy tale and make a spin of it but brings in a plethora of fairy tails and changes things up. The take of the fairy tales for this series mainly lies in the characters taking the form of iconic fairy tale characters and making it their own.The main example, the protagonist and her friend, stem from the big bad wolf and red riding hood but this wolf isn’t in the business of eating but rather in the business of helping.

A story placed in a school setting, this is a series that tells of a club that helps out those who seek them out and are able to follow their procedures. With each character that comes to visit the club there is a fairy tale to be seen and twisted, from Hansel and Gretel, to the Hare and the Rabbit, there is always a way for this tale to take their characters and give a twist.