This is not going to be a typical review. I’m not even sure what to talk about aside from the massive stain that is the subtitles. So I guess think of this more as a warning or PSA.
For those that aren’t aware, Gridman has a rather infamous reputation when it comes to its subtitles. The initial release was handled by TokuHD, reading something more akin to a bad parody than a translation. Mistranslations, misspellings, grammar issues, you name it. Eventually MillCreek would acquire the home media release, and that raised the question on if the subs would be changed.
Well a few months prior to said release, there was word that Gridman received an overhaul by MillCreek and that the team was working hard to make sure the new subs were good. With that in mind, I decided to pre-order.
They did not.
In fact, they’re not even really all that new. It’s more accurate to say that- at best- the team tweaked some of the really egregious lines of dialogue and restructured some sentences in a more natural-sounding manner.
But while the series isn’t and never was complete gibberish, most of the original subbing is left untouched and is still horrendously laughable. The subtitles still use “Jesus” as basically the only term for being exacerbated. Much of the dialogue is still very questionable, varying from a strange choice of wording to a lack of pluralization where needed. There's poor grammar throughout and they sometimes even get character names wrong.
Keep in mind, these aren’t just once in a while occurrences. Every single episode has multiple instances of the above.
It's a goddamn shame because under all this mishandling is an engaging show that is still relevant in its subject matter and oddly prophetic in many of its plots.
Waaaay back when I reviewed the M/subs of the first two or three episodes, I talked about how one of the main antagonists, Takeshi Todo, is an emotionally fragile self-centered weirdo that believes the entire world is against him, and that those very reasons allow him to become easily manipulated by Kahn Digifier to do his bidding. A damaged youth enthralled by an evil force over the internet is a fantastic setup and probably why the same basic premise was kept for SSSS. Gridman.
It’s not perfect, of course. Some of the performances are a bit stilted early on, and some of the digital effects are hokey as all get out. But there are enough good qualities for it to not matter all that much. If you can look past the subbing, the characters have a wonderful chemistry with one another and the dynamics are surprisingly solid. Yuka, in particular, is a shockingly great female lead who's treated better than many women in more recent Toku series. The practical effects are, as always, fantastic, and the music is great, particularly the main theme “Yume No Hero” which is one of my absolute favorite Tokusatsu tracks.
But I’m also not sure how to evaluate and critique this show when the subs make anachronistic pop culture references or feature a character claiming they're smart while talking like a caveman because of piss-poor subbing. You can get the gist of something, but I don’t feel that’s good enough. I can’t fully judge a narrative or characterization when random inaccurate or bizarre lines are tossed on screen, it’s simply too distracting. You’re basically in a constant battle of seeing the glimmers of what Gridman actually is and what the subtitles are telling you.
Honestly, I'm astounded by how much goodwill was squandered in this one release. I actually cited the TokuHD Gridman in my Ultra Q review for being the one example I could think of worse than Ultra Q having random-ass symbols in the subtitles or misspellings. Because as bad as those QC issues were, and as much as it was not okay for massive retail release, it was at least only in a handful of episodes. Skip ahead to Ace and it finally feels like Millcreek has ironed out the major subbing issues. I didn’t notice any grammatical errors or misspellings. Maybe there are some deeper mistranslations I didn’t get, but they read well in my eyes. They were consistent.
Now combine the above with Gridman suddenly becoming relevant again in 2018 with a smash hit anime and a successful sequel that aired this very year. You have a fantastic setup for generating interest. Obviously, not everyone into the anime is going to jump on a live-action show from the early 90s, but there is certainly a precedent set for this being good in driving sales. There’s finally far more brand recognition in NA than just Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad.
Imagine all that, and they don’t even bother to put in the money or work for fresh subs, while still charging $40 for the exact same derided and broken subtitles you can get on Tsuburaya's YouTube channel.
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I’m not sure how something like this even happens outside of not giving a fuck. Maybe they rushed this to actually cash in on Dynzenon before it faded from memory. But if that was the case, why even bother tweaking what little they did? Everything about this feels weird.
God, this is disappointing. I was hoping that maybe I could review Gridman for September with a full breakdown of the characters and themes. I truly was looking forward to reviewing this ever since I watched those fan subs years ago. But the fact is I can’t waste my time on this release. I'm not even sure if I want to keep the Bluray.
Maybe one day I’ll give Gridman the review it deserves, and maybe one-day Gridman will have the translation it deserves. Until then, your money is better spent elsewhere.
Oh and Ultraman Gaia's subs blow too. If they didn't fix Gridman, they're sure as hell not going to touch up Gaia. If you've got a pre-order for Gaia, I would highly suggest you cancel that ASAP.
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