The following contains spoilers for The Grimm Variations, now streaming on Netflix.

When it comes to Netflix anime, although there are licensed properties on the streaming service such as Naruto and Boruto, there are also some intriguing original series. The Castlevania series, as well as Baki Hanma and Blood of Zeus are some examples. They all aim to help the streamer create diversity and attract viewers from different walks of life, whether they like video games, old-school manga and anime franchises, or Greek mythology.

The Grimm Variations is another new property, aimed at appealing to viewers who love fairy tales. It reworks the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, but with modern sci-fi and horror twists. Episode 3, “Hansel and Gretel,” riffs on the first, working in a stunning twist to subvert what brother and sister mean to each other. In the process, it boils down to existential dread, the purpose of humanity, and the lengths some will go to create a utopia.

How do Netflix's Grimm variations flip the script on Hansel and Gretel?

Grimm Variations Turn Hansel and Gretel into Remixed Wanderers

• The Grimm Variations Episode 3 is directed by Jun'ichirō Hashiguchi.
• It aired on April 17, 2024 and its runtime is 46 minutes.

In this chapter of the anime anthology, Hansel and Gretel are in boarding school. Their father (Dad) and mother (Mom) are strict disciplinarians who teach them about the planet. Any insubordination is punished, including the curious siblings being left in the forest on some nights. Their teachers can't stand curious children, so they believe that temporarily abandoning them in the cold forest will create more docile children. But as the children wander, they encounter a mysterious old woman.

She looks like the witch from Hansel and Gretel tradition. Fans would recall that the children's stepmother convinced their father to abandon them in the forest. They used pebbles to get home, but the day they used breadcrumbs, the birds ate them. This caused them to get lost, stay in the witch's house, and be fattened up so she could cook them. They fought back, however. Bravely, they ended up throwing her into the fire, escaping with her jewelry, and reuniting with their father.

Their stepmother died, so they used the jewels to live happily ever after. In this anime, it seems that the cold parents really did doom the siblings. However, the witch feeds them, literally and then mentally, encouraging them to ask questions. These include: Is the world round? What is the force field at the edge of their playground? When they return home, using the special candy she gave them, the story is reversed. The parents provide no answers. They continue to throw them away. Thus, the children’s pilgrimage has a higher calling, allowing them to feed on the information of this witch—someone who is more like a shaman than anything else in the world. The Grimm Variations Season 1.

What is Hansel and Gretel's mission in the Grimm Variations?

Hansel and Gretel are on a quest to learn about their true destiny

• The original Hansel and Gretel story was published in 1812 as part of Grimm's Fairy Tales.
• It was set in medieval Germany and has been adapted into various media.
• These adaptations include the opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck, which was first performed in 1893.

After a final trip to the forest, the sweet opens a portal and takes them to a spaceship. Their mother is a robot who chases them. They escape, which leads the wise man to admit that they are part of a special salvation project. Surprisingly, the Earth has become uninhabitable, so they have been kept in spaceships for years. This breeding project has created new children, smarter and stronger than before. They were in simulations and projects run by AI, similar to The Matrix films.

Moving from digitally building the farm to the ship is a shift taken from science fiction shows like 1899 also, where environments and realities are designed to deceive and condition people. Putting that drama aside, Hansel is now ready to fall into a capsule. He is mature, understands the world and must be ready to help develop the planet again. The witch-shaman was testing them all along to see who was worthy of this responsibility. Hansel never expected such a great mission to be thrown his way.

But the witch confirms that based on the questions she asked and the workings of his mind, he is prepared. He underestimates himself, but everything will make sense when he reaches the “blue orb”. Hansel accepts this mission, thinking that he will have his sister with him. He is finally ready to go to his new home, but Gretel is not going. Specifically, she cannot go. Hansel is stunned, but Gretel has a secret of her own. It is one that fans The Sixth Sense would love.

What is the big twist at the end of Hansel & Gretel from the Grimm Variations?

The episode confirms that Gretel is a figment of Hansel's imagination.

Gretel begins to disappear. She confesses that it was all in his imagination. She was supposed to help him overcome his trauma, isolation, and provide him with companionship. Hansel can't believe it. But she makes it clear that he is prepared to be a hero. She firmly believes in him and has no doubt that he will do great things. This leaves him in tears because he can't imagine life without his best friend. Eventually, Hansel descends to Earth, where he meets other students like Fritz.

They thought they were dead, but they were chosen first to go down, work in the fields, boost agriculture, and prepare things for the others in the Netflix anime. This cleverly subverts the concept of siblings needing each other. In the source material, they stuck by each other through thick and thin. They protected each other in the forest. They fought off their stepmother and the witch. They even begged their father to take care of them. They were a true unit.

Well, this dramatic anime episode makes them part of each other in a jaw-dropping way. Admittedly, more information could have been given about their backstory, how Gretel came to be, and what trauma and torment Hansel endured to conjure her. It would have resonated better if Hansel had parents or if he had grown up in a laboratory, given his inner desolation and lack of connection with other students.

Gretel was also seen eating in the witch's room, so it's unclear whether the sage helped design her, giving his charges a soulmate and a bond to help Hansel through the transition. That way, showing how their love began would have provided the relevant context as to why Hansel and Gretel became this seemingly inseparable pair of siblings. There seems to be genuine love on the ship as well. The father is seen cuddling the mother's robotic shell after a door crushed it.

The witch hints that Dad is human, so obviously there's an interspecies romance brewing, much like the Western World series, which could have been explored. It would have been touching to learn more about the couple and how they dealt with knowing they had to be mean to their children. Some of the students may even have been robots meant to guide the humans. It would have been quite a story to dissect, remixing what Pluto, Astro Boy,AI and other stories featuring children being androids and cyborgs have been done over the decades.

This story is packed with potential, talking about various factions, their pre-defined programmed lives, destiny and whether they can change their higher calling. It comes out The Grimm Variations with room for a prequel story. Or more can be said in The Grimm Variations Season 2, follow-ups should be greenlit as the witch continues to test other children. Hansel may not like children being mentally conditioned by anguish and lies, so he may rebel to free them.

Simply put, this hub as a beacon and last bastion for humanity is fascinating. Other ships may even have different simulations that reference different fairy tales. Snow White and her seven dwarfs, or Sleeping Beauty, could be interesting stories to see how young men and women deal with the situation before being sent to Earth. As it stands, Hansel and Gretel is very thought-provoking, proving how these fairy tales have so many possibilities to be transformed into more nuanced narratives.

All eight episodes of The Grimm Variations are now available on Netflix.