Monster, Yuki no Joou (TV) Recommendations
Snow Queen is an anime adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, ahem, well this particular fairy tale should probably be a little familiar to most of you...
The young girl, Gerda, is a witness to her beloved childhood friend, Kai's, disappearance so she sets out on a journey to rescue him and with very little assistance most of the time. She oftentimes succeeds based on the power of will and determination alone. Only a few other characters in her journey believe in her story, and the very few whom acknowledge the Snow Queen's actual existence are able to give her more clues
where to go next. The story revolves around good, evil, happiness, sadness, life, death, cruelty, hope, finding love and compassion. Sooo...if that doesn't sound like the makings of a wonderful story then when else can I say? Also, if you don't think that sounds a little bit similar to Monster's plot then what else can I say? There are also characters in Snow Queen the anime that share the same names as a few of the characters in Monster (i.e. a little girl named Johanne, her mother named Nina, and her father named Karl).
Oooh, seriously, I can't stress enough how both shows have astounding art and rather accurately drawn settings: Monster is set in Czechoslovakia/Germany and Snow Queen is set in and around Germany/Denmark (I think?). You will also notice the art style used in Snow Queen is very whimsical and at times when circumstances are no longer sweet and innocent it can be a little jarring. It is almost as if Franz Bonaparta's storybook characters would be right at home in this kind of atmosphere...yeah, try to ignore that I'm intentionally creating nightmarefuel, okay?
You should expect, however, that Snow Queen is NOT nearly the kind of demented fairy tale à la Monster storybooks, then again it is NOT quite as innocent a children's fairy tale à la Disney movie (perhaps with the exception of the tragic Disney short film "The Little Match Girl." "Pinocchio," also, feels a little similar at times to "Snow Queen.") One more thing, Snow Queen has only been subbed in English up to episode 23 and is very slowly being subbed, unfortunately, but I still recommend whole heartedly that you check it out if you liked Monster or vice versa. Both shows get a 10/10 from me!
read more
