Gridman Universe

Finally got to watch Gridman Universe, and my GOD, what an ambitious, self-indulgent, and beautiful mess that was, lmao.
So here are my rambling thoughts about it.

A meta-commentary on storytelling, writing, fanservice, and most importantly the stories we tell ourselves to live, the movie tries to do maybe TOO much, but it all makes sense in the context of what the previous two series tried to do.

The movie starts with Gridman's cast living their normal lives after the events of the first series, while the school festival approaches. Yuta is thinking about confessing to Rika, while Rika and Utsumi are writing a script for their class ... play, that will be about Girdman. As they are the only ones who remember what happened, they want to tell the story, but their idea keeps getting shot down by the rest of the class as it "lacks realism".

That script is the main element of the film that allows it to make all the meta-commentary that the first series was so loved for. SSSS.Gridman was both a love letter and a deconstruction of the Tokusatsu genre, while Dynazenon was more about its characters. This franchise is always walking a fine line between realistic character interactions and bombastic Tokusatsu spectacle, and this movie was the perfect way to close the connection between those two disparate elements.

Just as Akane created the world of Yuta as explained in Gridman, Gridman seems to have created the world of Yomugi, Gauma, and Yume. None of them are "real" in an absolute sense, but as the Kaiju girl says in one moment, humans are "the only species with the power to believe in fabrications".

The movie points out how we as humans process everything through storytelling. We love stories for a reason. And even in our daily lives, we tell ourselves stories all the time. We create narratives about the things that happen to us, so we can make sense of them and create meaning in our lives.

But, just as Yuta is doing throughout most of the film, we sometimes think that what "happens to us" is the only thing that can happen. We forget we're the protagonists of our own stories, that we have agency, and that we too can "make things happen".

The movie made me think about so much, both about storytelling and about my own life. Is it perfect? Hell nah. The first half is super funny and sometimes creepy in the best possible way, while the second half veers into the purest form of fanservice you could think of. But it was still fun! And that's also the point.

In the end, they do make the play about Gridman, and people don't really get what Rika was trying to get across, but they laugh a lot!
Stories aren't meant to be understood by everyone, but writing is a means to understand yourself and others better.

Hell, I'm writing this for myself, because I needed to process this film. There's SO MUCH to unpack here!
So yeah. I loved this film. It stands for everything I love (and everything that I don't love so much) in the Gridman franchise. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

This was a perfect closure to one of my favorite franchises in recent years. I loved to visit these characters one more time. And I probably will come back at some point, when I need a narrative about giant robots and fabricated humans to make sense of it all.

Personally I don’t think Gridman Universe was as crazy as I was led to believe. Expectations are dangerous things, so my advice is to keep them tempered! However, if you enjoyed SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon and appreciated their characters, it’s easy to recommend seeing how they wrap it all up here without reading on. But if you’re still unsure, I’ll share my thoughts.

This has the casts from SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon, and they’re very nice to see again! Unfortunately this many characters means only a handful get time to shine. The characters that are simply There still have fun little moments or animations at least. SSSS.Gridman’s cast ... mainly get the limelight though, but that worked out well since that story was solid.

I ended up as more of a Gridman: The Hyper Agent fan than I thought I would’ve, so I was super excited to see that get properly thrown in with the two anime series for the Ultimate Gridman Crossover. Let’s just say that if you feel the same you should really temper your expectations. Most people probably won’t mind but I will admit the disappointment hit me pretty hard…

As for the movie itself, its first half and ending are nice! I got somewhat lost when the main plot point came in between those, though. On top of me not entirely getting what was going on, it felt a little too asinine for me. It’s possible I just didn’t get it. After all, I really liked the main takeaway point of the story.

In true Gridman fashion, Gridman Universe is primarily about the characters and story more than the fights. However, while I am the kind of person to go “YOOOOO” when a new weapon or transformation happens, I can’t say I did much of that for this movie. By now it goes as you’d expect. The enemies are nothing too interesting either, but it’s always funny to see the suit-like kaiju designs in this series. On top of that, the camera placements and character movements make the fights hard to follow more often than I’d like.

Still, the movie as a whole was pleasant! It wasn’t as exciting or groundbreaking as I was expected. But at the end of the day I did enjoy seeing everyone again, interacting with each other and working things out.

Extremely conflicted on its approach to meta commentary. It felt very confused and heavy-handed with the kind of message it wanted to tell with the concept of Gridman. Its message about the beauty of fiction allowing itself to spread and inspire others to make their own creations is something I really admire on paper, but it feels very at odds with the idea it presents earlier of so many ideas collapsing in on itself to the point where it's super overcrowded feels at odds with that, and it doesn't really do enough to make a clear distinction of the difference between the two. It doesn't ... have the balance to its meta that other works I've seen tackle such themes, where there's a much clearer distinction made to the power and beauty of fiction while also showing the danger of getting too lost in it. Without being able to really ground itself in that balance, it feels like it gets lost in its own crowded spectacle. It feels more interested in displaying the power of fiction and creation rather than letting the audience *feel* it. Also the Dynazenon cast deserved better.