Get ready for Deja Vu, because like with my build review, talking about SSSS Gridman's story is problematic because of its main selling point being mystery focused. To talk about the plot in any great detail is to give away too much, so instead, I'm going to keep things simple and very basic to keep from spoiling too much. I can't say this is 100% spoiler free, but I will not touch any major ones.
Now, let's begin.
Our three main Characters are Yūta Hibiki, Shō Utsumi, Rikka Takarada.
Hibiki is our primary protagonist, the one bonded with Gridman and suffering from amnesia throughout the show, mostly so he can act as an audience surrogate to the events going on. Thankfully this means that even if you're not familiar with the original 1993 Toku series, Yuta's predicaments allows newcomers to learn the ins and outs with him.
Utsumi acts somewhat as our token insert character. He's a fan of Kaiju and Ultraman, he's optimistic at the start and responsible for forming a team to assist Gridman, consisting of Yuta, himself, and their third friend, Takarada.
Takarada- who I will be referring to as Rikka from this point on, is our final member of the team and the one largely responsible for providing a base of operations as it were; her family's resell shop. Her meeting and eventual friendship with Hibiki was incidental, as they were barely more than acquaintances before the start of the series, Yuta passing out in front of the shop just before his amnesia being the primary reason of their meeting.
There's not a whole lot to say about the support units beyond highlighting that they manifest in humanoid form and aren't confined to the computer like Gridman. They consist of the clumsy and stammering Calibur, the no-nonsense Max, the ever shit talking Borr (My favorite), and Vit, who is always lost in thought.
It's not entirely clear where they come from, either. They pretty much just show up mysteriously in the work of their own accord.
On the flip side is our Antagonists; Akane Shinjō , Alexis Kerib, and a failed Kaiju named Anti.
Akane is good friends with Rikka and an incredibly popular student. However, she is secretly a heavily demented and pitiful girl who takes out her frustrations by sculpting Kaiju for Alexis, a digital being that can make the imaginary real, having them do whatever Akane pleases, which is often times murdering those for the littlest of offences.
Anti is a bit of a unique anomaly. Unlike Akane's other Kaiju, he is capable of duplicating Gridman's abilities to an extent and has a human form. He is somewhat sentient if one track minded, with his only real goal a strong desire to kill Gridman, meaning he doesn't follow orders that well despite his higher intelligence. Anti's overall arc is learning that maybe he doesn't have to serve the creative purpose given to him and can choose who he wants to be rather than what Akane wanted. I won't elaborate much more than that, but suffice to say he ended up turning from an almost egregiously generic villain into someone with at least a decent amount of progression.
The basic premise is pretty straightforward in the initial episodes. Gridman is a virtual being that fights monsters but needs to bond with someone like an Ultra to do so. Rikka's shop contains Junk, an old cobbled together computer in which Gridman resides. Monsters created by Akane seemingly appear out of nowhere and Gridman fights them. Damage to the city is mysteriously repaired in 24 hours, however, if someone dies, they remain dead, history being rewritten so that person died a different way in an accident much earlier in life. Additionally, no one outside the main characters retains any memory of the events occurring. They're nice establishing episodes that lay the groundwork for the setting, pretty basic stuff. Further development and elaboration occur when they establish the support units a few episodes in while continuing to build up Akane as an antagonist, even teasing that she might know who Gridman is before anyone even has a clue where the Kaiju are coming from. This is done to set a formula before diving head first into the real drama to really shake everything up.
I will say the fifth episode is the most egregious, primarily because it is painfully fan-servicey. But the following sixth episode makes up for it by kicking off things with just how big a threat Akane and Alexis are. Before, we had questions on why no one remembered the attacks, why everything went back to normal the next day. Those are partly answered with what become far more pressing questions, such as the true extent of Akane's powers though Alexis. Implications that the rest of the world might not exist, or perhaps there never was one in the first place, which is where SSSS. Gridman's bread and butter lies. It seems that everytime more is found out, the more questions we have with no clear answers for anything.
The show prides itself on audience speculation. Is this just a pocket world of sorts? Is any of this real? Is it possible the world was overtaken by something? Is Akane even human? There's a constant stream of questions that make you want to keep tuning in, pulling you back in just to see the next reveal.
But, there are some issues we need to address.
My biggest complaint with SSSS. Gridman is that the characters- with exception to Akane, are flat. Yuuta is about as generic as they come with his entire point of being just serving as a host for Gridman, which itself does have a good explanation that I won't spoil. But suffice to say, we don't really get to know Yuuta beyond the fact he crushes on Rikka. That's the extent of his character.
Utsumi isn't much better but he does at least have some more discernable defining characteristics such as feelings of uselessness as it becomes more apparent he provides little purpose in terms of substance to the rest of the team. I suppose in some ways he's similar to Akane, right down to being a big Kaiju fan, which the show does make used of at times with occasional attempts of manipulation from her.
But it also has another point in that his feelings of inadequacy to his friends plays a role in the primary overarching theme of SSSS. Gridman being about unity. It never amounts to much for Utsumi, but perhaps it's an indication that by all means, he has the same qualifications to become someone like Akane if not for his friends to pull him out of a rut and remind him that he does matter.
Arguably things aren't much different for Rikka because the most captivating thing about her is via association with Akane.
The most notable thing about her is a big reveal I can't divulge without major spoilers. Although I will note CR kinda miffed the translation on the reveal, so I'm hoping that'll get fixed later on. In any case, it's a massive callback to the original show. But if I do give Rikka anything its that she does serve a purpose beyond just providing a base, and that is for the secondary antagonist of the show, Anti. While he was at first generic as hell, he did fill a role showing that some kaiju could become independent and that redemption is possible. Rikka's kindness that she shows him before his identity is known perhaps being a big part of that change in him.
Finally, we come back to Akane. She is the most developed as previously stated. In many ways, the show is about her more than anyone else and it's very interesting to see a villain developed far more than what is presented as the protagonists. Akane isn't just evil, she's sad and pitiful, lonely- yet popular and surrounded by people. She's twisted, at times sympathetic, and yet also unsympathetic. Her state of mind progressively getting worse as the series progresses and her plans fail. There's a subtext with Akane regarding adolescence unable to control the world around them and how frustrating it can be, how sad it is to be alone, and how easy it is to allow yourself to be used in the state of depression. Your whole world crumbling around you.
Akane manages to be compelling even when she's doing atrocious actions.
Ultimately, Gridman is about saving people and that includes trying to save Akane from herself if possible. It's what gives this show heart and it makes Gridman stand out from what could have easily been standard Shonen shlock pretending to have more meaning than it does. It's not just about defeating the monster, sometimes it's saving someone from being one.
It's pretty clear by the end that Akane was always meant to be the true focal point of the show, which is probably why everyone else of SSSS Gridman is very barebones. For my part, I'm fine with it as the story and developing mysteries make for very engaging episodes, while the characters aren't ever annoying and at least sensible enough to discuss new developments with one another. I think it's fair to say what happens to the cast is more interesting than the majority of the cast themselves. I was fascinated enough that I didn't mind this shortcoming, but it might irk some people that Gridmaan has very little in the way of character development for 90% of them- which is a very fair point.
But for me, it works. The most fun I had with Gridman was unravelling the mystery and people trying to figure out just what the hell was going to happen next if there was anything hinted at in the most subtle of ways (and there is a lot). Episode 7 perhaps gives away too much to the mystery, but none the less, the continuing buildup and ominous feeling the show strides on keeps the viewer engrossed. I think a large part of that is that the writing wasn't handled by Trigger.
I'm going to level with you, I enjoy some Trigger shows but their template is basically "Adorkable dumb character and their even more goofball companions get in Hijinks" That's every show from Kill La Kill to Luluco and Little Witch.
But SSSS. was handled at Tsuburaya by Keiichi Hasegawa, a Tsuburaya regular. He's written on multiple Toku shows, most notably heading Ultraman Dyna and Nexus. But he has also done work for Toei, being a secondary writer on W, Fourze, Drive and Ghost (later head writer). He was also one of three writers on Godzilla GMK just to round out working for the big three toku studios.
Hasegawa was a fantastic choice for this series, he's a writer that understands that no matter what you're writing, you can still write it maturely- (not necessarily dark, although some works like Nexus do lean towards that) but that you shouldn't write down to your audience regardless of age. I'm sure SSSS. being an anime and thus able to target a more teen demographic helps a lot as well.
On the subject of Trigger as the studio, the animation is of course really good. Despite the nature of the show being animated, it still operates and even looks like a Toku in many areas. A surprising amount of early episodes keep fights short and rather simplistic in a general sense like a Toku- if albeit without budget limitations. There are however shots and dynamic lighting that are detectibly anime, so it's like a merger of iconographies.
Later on, they do take full advantage of the animation in typical Trigger fashion, pulling off stuff no suit actor could and scaling that would be impossible.
The animation from Trigger is just as visually captivating as one might expect, be it fast-paced fights, characters secretly showing up several episodes prior to a proper appearance, visual gags, or incredibly specific things. I could be here all day listing all the visual references and incredible attention to detail, but I don't wanna dwell on this and it's best to actually view them yourself. Besides, Mach Dent already has compiled all these great homages, which I highly suggest checking out after watching the respective episodes, that's half the fun of the show for me personally.
That said, while I think you get the most out of Gridman in spotting these little references and callbacks, both visually and narratively- there's absolutely no harm in watching the show as is. You'll still appreciate the art and story, even if you're not aware of the origins regarding specific allusions.
And yes the ending is fucking amazing. I will not at all even give an inkling of what it entails but goddamn it's going to go down as one of the best endings to a show thematically in my book. I know Trigger is known for big finishes, but holy fuck is this one good.
Furthermore, on the visuals, I will say that quite frankly I don't care for the look of Gridman in this show, nor the individual support unit combinations for that matter, which just exacerbate everything. The proportions are a little too lanky in some areas and bulky in others.
It's quite clear why the original series never did individual combinations.
I appreciate doing something different, let alone something that clearly could not be done in real life practically (proportionally speaking, there is an actual SSSS suit, if much bulkier) but more than that, I dislike how busy the design is. There's a line between fine details and overly designed, I'm inclined to say SSSS' styling falls a little bit too much in the latter for my liking. But perhaps that was the point, Gridman is meant to look a bit inhuman, the black geometrics giving a fractured appearance to fit with everything else in the world just being ever so off, even Gridman himself.
Although I will admit the full combination is great.
I also love the Powered God Zenon, kinda has a Diaclone/Getter Robo style going on. I love the colour palette contrasting with the original Zenon as well.
Gridman isn't the only thing here though, he's gotta have something to fight and the designs of the Kaiju are top notch, I mean goddamn these are some truly great models, on par with Ultra Kaiju. They also aren't constricted to having a human see and breath, not to mention move. This results in quite a few kaiju being quadrupedal or having long necks.
Although one of the Kaiju, rather hilariously, looks like a slapped together Showa suit complete with holes in the neck.
And this abomination looks like a combination of Metron, Baltan and Reguran. It's fast, flops about like Majora and even has a creepy as hell laugh. It's my personal favorite of the series.
Btw, just for funsies, here's them recycling animation. This isn't a complaint mind you, just something you're bound to notice in so few episodes. Keep an eye out for Utsumi's face near the monitor of Junk, they reuse that shot no less than four different episodes.
Music.
The opening and ending are the only memorable tracks, which are fine. UNION by OxT is no Dream Hero, but what is? I do like the ending theme, youthful beautiful, the most. Part of that might be biased since it's performed by Maaya Uchida, who I admit I adore as I'm a big fan of Chuunibyou.
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| Wait a minute... |
Final thoughts.
It's only 12 episodes so you can breeze through in just a few days, or hell, 6 hours if you've got the time. I think if you enjoy tokusatsu this will be up your alley and I think if you're specifically an Ultra fan, even more so. I can only imagine how someone that grew up with Gridman would react to this as they're essentially getting a sequel 25 years later, a pretty damn good one at that.
I should also note there is a dub of this, which is probably worth watching if just for the fact that Alexis' dub actor, Barry Yandell, does a Tim Curry impression.
Between this and Ultraman R/B, I'm inclined to say Tsuburaya is in some form or another putting out some of the best content as of late. I do highly suggest Gridman.
Btw, Ultraman being a franchise within the Gridman universe really throws some weirdness into question when it comes to stage shows.
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