SSSS.Gridman

Yuuta Hibiki wakes up in the room of Rikka Takarada and notices two things: he has no memories, and he can hear a mysterious voice calling his name from a nearby room. On further inspection, he finds a robot—which introduces itself as Hyper Agent Gridman—behind the screen of an old computer. Much to Yuuta's surprise, Rikka cannot hear Gridman, nor can she see the ominous monsters looming over a thick fog as it envelopes the town outside.

Another giant monster materializes in the city and proceeds to wreak havoc. Amidst the confusion, Yuuta is once again drawn to the old computer and merges with Gridman. Suddenly, he appears in the middle of the battle and is forced to fight the monster. Together with Rikka and fellow classmate Shou Utsumi, Yuuta forms the "Gridman Alliance" to defeat the monsters plaguing the city and find whoever is responsible for their emergence.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Takarada, Rikka Main

Miyamoto, Yume Japanese

Shinjou, Akane Main

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Hibiki, Yuuta Main

Hirose, Yuuya Japanese

Gridman Main

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Utsumi, Shou Main

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Anti Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Samurai Calibur Supporting

Takahashi, Ryousuke Japanese

Kaijuu Shoujo Anosillus (2-daime) Supporting

Takahashi, Karin Japanese

Borr Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Hass Supporting

Kitou, Akari Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Kamei, Hiroshi Producer

Itou, Hirofumi Producer

Reviews

May 17, 2024

Paperypip

Recommended

This is an utterly perfect show for an incredibly specific niche. It pretends to make concessions to those outside that niche through flashiness and fanservice— but this is maybe halfhearted, because it's the writing that carries the day, and the writing pointedly does not explain itself to anyone outside its specific niche. That specific niche is people who already love Tsuburaya Productions in general, and Ultraman in specific.

The fact the characters themselves are constantly making references to Ultraman that go over a general audience's head is your primary warning that this is the case. That this is literally a sequel to a very Ultramanlike-but-not-literally-Ultraman ... Tsuburaya Productions show— which only the most hardcore of Ultraman fans are likely to be aware of— is going to be your secondary warning. Fortunately, you don't really need to know much about the original Gridman show. However, characters will say things like "If this were the Ultra series—", and the show will assume you have some ability to complete that thought on your own.

That said, I don't want to make this show sound like an utterly impenetrable sequence of in-jokes. Even if it's extremely in-jokey, it doesn't want "people who are in on the joke" to be an exclusive club. If you've watched and enjoyed even a single iteration of Ultraman, everything will be intelligible— the alien antagonist, the bizarre henshin sequence, the light that flashes on Gridman's head, the bizarre snaps back to the status quo, and, most importantly, the dry deadpan hilarity of many of the premises of the episodes and how heartwarming the finale manages to be despite that hilarity. I'll often take off a point from a show— or even rescind a recommendation— if I think it's otherwise excellent at what it's trying to do, but what it's trying to do is too difficult to understand for most people. This isn't that— this show just wants to do something fun and weird with your memories of enjoying tokusatsu shows like Ultraman. However, you need have to have SOME fond memories of tokusatsu shows like Ultraman first, and those aren't exactly being handed out for free.

SSSS.Gridman understands the absurdity of teenage ennui and escapism. It's essentially about putting weird tongue-in-cheek twists on that escapism and warn against its dangers, but without ever really being condescending about it, and without failing to celebrate the positives we also take away from that escapism. It does this by blending the archetypal Ultraman plot with a bizarre, awkward almost slice-of-life alternative to the human cast of an Ultraman story. The cast, as established, feels like they would fit better in almost anything other than a toku tribute. It then alternates between undermining and fulfilling toku expectations in a way that feels fresh and surprising right up until the end, and does it with an odd, dry-but-affectionate wit. The push-pull of undermining and fulfilling is what makes it work. This is not a show about how it would actually suck if Ultraman, or the things that happened in Ultra shows, were real. This is not a cynical deconstruction. There's enough in its premise that could've taken that route, but it doesn't. Instead, this feels like examination of the feelings of hopelessness and alienation that cause people to be fond of fundamentally hopeful characters like Ultraman— and an assertion of belief in the possibility of overcoming that alienation. It's a basically good-hearted show.

People love to treat Studio Trigger as successor to Gainax— SSSS.Gridman makes a stronger case for that than almost any other entry in their catalogue.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 26, 2022

oswalld

Mixed Feelings

This review will be written in English and Portuguese [PT-BR]
Essa resenha será escrita em inglês e português [PT-BR]
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SSSS.Gridman é mais sobre a forma do que o conteúdo.

SSSS.Gridman é um copo cheio para os amantes de Tokusatsu, tanto que esse anime foi “baseado” em um Tokusatsu, do mesmo pessoal que produziu Ultra Man inclusive... É uma pena que a Trigger apostou mais na nostalgia do que em realmente transmitir uma mensagem. A pergunta que fica é: Isso é algo ruim?

A estética e nada mais
SSSS.Gridman esteticamente é incrível, não tem muito o que falar aqui, pois todas as decisões estéticas que a Trigger tomou foi muito bem ... aplicada aqui, e não estou falando apenas da animação, mas na produção com um todo, desde as trilhas sonoras empolgantes que remetem aos antigos Tokusatsu de certo modo, até o design dos personagens que é muito bem feito, cada personagem nessa obra é único, com suas próprias características estéticas, sabe? A animação então nem se fala, é muito consistente em praticamente todos os episódios, fora a coloração das cenas e dos próprios personagens, enfim, tudo aqui é muito bem feito e consegue nos mostrar que quando a Trigger faz um anime, o mínimo que devemos esperar é o “crème de la crème” da indústria de animes, ao menos, esteticamente falando.

A falta de um subtexto nunca fez tanta falta como faz em SSSS.Gridman
Esse anime não quer dizer nada, ele simplesmente quer nos mostrar uma história divertida, com um bom visual e músicas fodas, mas fora isso, SSSS.Gridman não quer dizer nada, e isso é ruim? Bom, para mim, sim! Quando consumimos uma obra, seja ela qual for, sempre existirá alguém por trás daquela obra, no caso um autor, e esse autor, em algum nível, foi influenciado por sua experiencia de vida na construção da história ou da estética daquela obra, a questão é que em SSSS.Gridman parece que nada disso importa, a impressão que tenho é que esse anime foi feito por uma inteligência artificial que simplesmente pegou aquilo que funciona e que é “mundialmente aceitável” na indústria e juntou tudo nesse anime. Esse anime é claramente cativante, e sempre tentar parecer bacana e fodão, porém ele faz isso de forma artificial, pois não existe nada por trás, sabe? É com sair como uma garota muito bonita, mas culturalmente pobre, é legal o fato dela ser bonita, mas e depois? Como será a convivência com uma pessoa que não tem absolutamente nada a te agregar? Talvez seria uma perca de tempo, não?
Não estou necessariamente dizendo que assistir SSSS.Gridman é uma perda de tempo, mas é fato que a Trigger quis jogar no safe aqui, ela não quis construir um enredo que realmente quisesse falar algo, e tudo bem, se formos muito caridosos dá para falar que ela até trousse uma discussão sobre pertencimento, sobre um grito de socorro de uma juventude presa nas pressões sociais que a cultura japonesa impõe, mas o anime realmente diz isso? Eu acho que não, isso foi somente algo que matutei aqui comigo durante minha experiencia com o anime, mas acredito que essa não foi realmente a mensagem que esse anime quis passar, até porque, pelo que parece, ele simplesmente não quis ativamente passar nenhum valor ou mensagem através de seu texto ou subtexto.

SSSS.Gridman não se esforçou, logo, eu também não
Eu não tenho muito mais o que comentar sobre essa obra, é um anime esteticamente muito bem feito, com poucas falhas no geral em suas qualidades técnicas, mas que não traz nenhuma substancia a ser analisada, sabe? Ele não apresenta uma profundidade narrativa e nem trabalha de maneira satisfatória seus personagens, todos ali parecem seguir simplesmente aquilo que foi escrito no roteiro, mas não agem como jovens normais agiriam, eles só seguem padrões para atender as necessidades que autor impões sobre seu trabalho. Mas no final, nada disso realmente importa, porque esse anime é bonito, não é?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


SSSS.Gridman is more about form than content.

SSSS.Gridman is a perfect anime for Tokusatsu lovers, so much so that this anime was "based" on a Tokusatsu, by the same people who produced Ultra Man... It's a shame that Trigger bet more on nostalgia than on actually conveying a message. The question that remains is: Is this a bad thing?

Aesthetics and nothing else
SSSS.Gridman aesthetically is amazing, there's not much to talk about here, because all the aesthetic decisions that Trigger made were very well applied here, and I'm not just talking about the animation, but the production as a whole, from the exciting soundtracks that refer to the old Tokusatsu, the very well done character design, each character in this anime is unique, with their own aesthetic characteristics, you know? The animation is very consistent in almost every episode, not to mention the coloring of the scenes and the characters themselves. All in all, everything here is very well done and manages to show us that when Trigger makes an anime, the least we should expect is the "crème de la crème" of the anime industry, at least aesthetically speaking.

The lack of a subtext has never been so lacking as it is in SSSS.Gridman
This anime doesn't mean anything, it simply wants to show us a fun story, with good animation and very good music, but beyond that, SSSS.Gridman doesn't mean anything, and is that bad? Well, for me, yes! When we consume a work, whatever it is, there will always be someone behind that work, in this case an author, and this author, on some level, was influenced by his or her life experience in the construction of the story or the aesthetics of that work, the thing is that in SSSS.Gridman it seems that none of this matters, the impression I get is that this anime was made by an artificial intelligence that simply took what works and what is "worldly acceptable" in the industry and put it all together in this anime. This anime is clearly catchy, and it's always trying to look cool, but it does it in an artificial way, because there's nothing behind it, you know? It's like you go on a date with a very pretty but culturally poor girl, and it's nice that she's pretty, but so what? How are you going to talk to a person who has absolutely nothing to add to you? Maybe it's a waste of time, no?
I am not necessarily saying that watching SSSS.Gridman is a waste of time, but it is a fact that Trigger preferred to stay in its safe zone, it did not want to build a plot that really wanted to say anything, and okay, if we are very charitable we can say that it even brought a discussion about belonging, about a plea for help from a youth trapped in the social pressures that Japanese culture imposes, but does the anime really say that? I don't think so! This was just something I thought to myself during my experience with the anime, but I believe that this was not really the message this anime wanted to convey, because from the looks of it, the anime simply did not want to convey any value or message actively through its text or subtext.

SSSS.Gridman didn't try hard, so I didn't try hard either
I don't have much else to comment on this anime, it's an anime that is aesthetically very well done, with few flaws in its overall technical qualities, but it doesn't bring any substance to be analyzed, you know? It doesn't present a narrative depth nor does it work its characters in a satisfactory way, everyone there seems to simply follow what was written in the script, but they don't act like normal young people would act, they just follow patterns to satisfy the needs that the author imposes on his script. But at the end of the day, none of this matters, because this anime is beautiful, isn't it?

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 1, 2023

Tablekun

Not Recommended

Well, it isn't Kill la Kill, that's for sure. I watched this because it was a short series, mecha and from Trigger, knowing nothing about the source material of Gridman. This isn't the worst anime in the world by far, it's barely watchable. What it does do decently is it's fanservice mecha stuff. It has an interesting dynamic between the main chars, which pushed me to finish it. In the end, a very forgettable anime, but I ended up watching SSSS Dynazenon as well, so I guess there is some charm to its themes and animation.

Animation 7/10
- The standard ... animation is rather basic, but the mecha, fight scenes etc are better.
Sound 7/10
- Decent sound design with the mechs, decent OP/ED.
Story 4/10
- Basic, not unexpected for the kind of series it is.
Characters 5/10
- Mostly bland characters, but there is some interesting development with Akane.
Enjoyment 5/10
- Barely watchable, but I didn't drop it, so there is that.

I can't recommend this to anyone regardless of your interests in mecha or not. This series just doesn't offer enough.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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