A 2023 Japanese fairy tale murder mystery, based on a novel by Aoyagi Aoto. In this world, Little Red Riding Hood grew up to become an itinerant Amateur Sleuth. She runs into Cinderella, and a pair of friendly witches who transform their clothes, turn a pumpkin into a carriage, etc. so they can attend the royal ball. However, halfway through the ball, the royal stylist is found dead and the suspects are everyone at the ball.
It premiered on Netflix on September 14th, 2023.
Not to be confused with the 1992 movie of the same name.
Tropes for the film:
- The Alibi: The prince was out in the woods alone during the time of the murder, a seemingly unverifiable alibi. Fortunately, another person happened to be watching him the entire time anyway.
- Axe-Crazy: Hans the hairdresser.
- Decomposite Character: The fairy godmother is replaced by a pair of witches, Barbara and Tekla. Barbara transforms Red and Cinderella's clothes, turns a pumpkin into a carriage and mice into horses and a driver, etc. However, she is "bad at shoes" and so calls Tekla in order to give the characters glass slippers. Barbara's magic only lasts until midnight, while Tekla's magic lasts for 24 hours, hence explaining why the glass slipper that Cinderella leaves behind while fleeing the ball doesn't disappear at midnight along with everything else, and hence can be found by the prince later.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Cinderella might have gotten away with killing Hans or at least gotten a solid self-defense argument had she not taken the time and effort to cover up the crime by framing Margot.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: It's Cinderella as a murder mystery, with the addition of Little Red Riding Hood. The original novel also included Hansel and Gretel.
- Large Ham: Barbara is very theatrical, which makes it all the more hilarious when Red just walks right past her.
- Obsessed with Food: Margot is always shown eating.
- Police Are Useless: Played with. The kingdom’s investigators are at least good enough to narrow down the time and method of Hans’s death, but begin faltering when the case starts getting complex, necessitating Red Riding Hood to step in with her observational and deductive abilities.
- Revealing Cover Up: The murder of Hans gains attention after three separate people try to cover it up.
- Scars Are Forever: Remi escaped from Hans with a cut on her cheek, but withdrew herself from society because her "disfigurement" would have caused the beauty-obsessed nobility to shun her. A year later, it hasn't properly healed.
- Sherlock Scan: Upon meeting Cinderella, Red deduces that she has an abusive stepmother and a step-sister named Anne, just from a glance at her clothes.
- Tap on the Head: The murderer's plan relies on knocking out Margot and leaving her with the weapon at the scene of the crime in order to frame her. However, Margot wakes up too quickly the first time, forcing them to knock her out again, which provides the vital clue that leads to the plan unraveling.
- The Girl Who Fits This Slipper: The glass slippers that Tekla produces can only be worn by the recipient. As usual, Cinderella leaves one behind at the ball and the prince comes by the next morning for her to try it on. Subverted in that he had her try on a different glass slipper, one that was connected to the scene of the murder and thus proof that Cinderella was the murderer.
- Who Murdered the Asshole: Hans was obsessed with forcibly cutting off the hair of beautiful women, giving nearly every girl in the kingdom a motive for his murder, and he was blackmailing the prince for good measure as well.
