Director [claps hands]: Okay. Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I just wanted to discuss some further details on the series that I thought appropriate.
[Staff members nod their heads and grunt in agreement]
Director [smiling]: Great! Okay. Masaru [Sakamoto], you are in charge of the character designs, right?
Masaru [nodding]: Yes, that is correct.
Director: Okay. May I see how they look so far?
[Masaru nods and shows him a clipboard containing several designs of the main characters. The director takes his time glancing at each of the female designs.]
Director: Okay. I like what you have here, but I think we can make both of these female characters stand out more.
Masaru [intrigued]: Sure. What would you want to change about them?
Director [pointing at Rikka]: Okay. [leans towards Masaru’s ear and whispers in a serious tone] I want dat ass big and her thighs thicc!
Masaru [choking in absolute shock]: Uhh sir, I mean… are you sure about that?
Director [grabs Masaru by the collar]: Okay listen here bucko, I’ve been in this industry for over a decade. I was an animator for one of the most successful anime from this year, Darling in the FranXX, so I think I know a thing or two about what sells in this business. [Releases his grip on Masaru and returns to a light-hearted tone] And try and make the other girl look cute, but not with thicc thighs. Only one girl gets that.
Masaru [still stunned after what had just transpired]: Wh-what do you mean, “look cute”?
Director [walking away]: Just think what I would look like if I were a high school girl. Okay?
[Masaru has no idea how to respond and decides to ask mechanical designer Shigeto Koyama on his opinion. Koyama sees the designs of both girls and a slick smile forms across his face.]
Shigeto [amused]: Well, when all else fails, you can always make dem titties big!
Masaru: ….
(Inner Masaru [sighing]: What the hell did I sign up for?)
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Regardless of how seriously you take the frankly awful transcript written above, it’s hard to argue just how much attention to detail went into the creation of SSSS.Gridman. While being heavily inspired by the 1993 live-action series Gridman the Hyper Agent, this version is loaded with visual references to numerous tokusetsu series and mecha anime of the past – Space Runaway Ideon, Getter Robo, Evangelion, several iterations of Gundam and more receive stunning rendition scenes that serve as quick but effective throwbacks appealing to nostalgia for the die-hard fans of yesterday. Whilst on the other side of the community, Gridman had managed to conquer the ever-present “best girl” debate of the season, with each week providing more material and support for why each girl and this series is worth one’s attention. Hell, there was even a theory made halfway into Gridman about whether or not Rikka was secretly pregnant with the protagonist’s child the entire time (there’s actually a fair amount of evidence about it, not gonna lie.) But first impressions are usually not what they seem and this saying holds true for Gridman, as the very first episode comes off as anything but the fun mecha shows its constantly compared to.
SSSS.Gridman introduces its audience with several long shots lasting for uncomfortable periods of time – focusing on rather mundane things like a pile of shoes and dozens of students leaving school for the day, with only the sounds of cicadas being heard. Our protagonist Yuta wakes up in an unfamiliar room, with an unfamiliar female sitting across from him. The unfamiliarity continues as shots continue having characters fail to dominate the frames they are in, often outsized by their environment; constrained into small spaces of scenes. And when characters are allowed to dominate frames, the camera often takes weird perspectives placed either above or below their eyelines, almost intimately close to these characters. There’s a strong, distinct direction present that forces the viewer to rarely ever feel comfortable about what is being presented, coupled by a minimalist-style soundtrack that further emphasizes a quiet, environmental atmosphere rarely ever attributed with mecha shows. Its presentation is one that is more inclined to push anime fans away given just how different the show appears to contrast with the majority of anime airing nowadays. Some may call it a series with striking directing techniques that ultimately lacks proper direction. but I would urge otherwise as Gridman still has a lot of upside that helped make it one of the most popular shows of the season.
The story focuses on amnesiac Yuta Hibike, who after finding himself in the home of fellow classmate Rikka Takarada meets a robot known as Gridman inside of an old computer. This has coincided with a sudden appearance of giant unmoving Kaiji, with one abruptly attacking the city causing Yuta to merge with Gridman to battle the Kaiju. In the aftermath however, the city around them appears rebuilt, with those having died being forgotten and people’s memories being reset around this fact, all bar the main characters. Because of this, Yuta attempts to stop the Kaiji from attacking and uncover the truth behind these disappearances. The mystique behind these events is what ultimately drives the story forward, however majority of the first half of Gridman almost rigidly follows a simple formula akin to tokusetsu monster-of-the-week: slight plot development occurs, monster appears, big hero/monster fight ensues with the heroes coming out on top, maybe some followup and repeat. This is not necessarily a detriment to the show as it works well to further establish most side characters and the setting in general, but once again it’s a tool that can easily alienate more viewers looking to see why Gridman is so well-liked.
Gridman’s cast may not be seriously complex in their characterization nor development but still remain a solid aspect of the series, especially with the chemistry between more characters. The way each of the high school students are able to bounce personalities off each other is impressive and the least someone like myself can ask for of characters barely important to the plot. Although there still are some specific characters worth mentioning: Yuta as an amnesiac portrays a relatable human response in trying to carry on as usual to the best of his ability, reflecting how many of us will often try and find a sense of normalcy, coping to the best of our abilities instead of shutting out entirely despite the desire of sometimes wanting to. Meanwhile on the other side of the spectrum, Akane serves as the main antagonist to Yuta and friends, spending most of her time inside her eerie room, creating Kaiji inspired from daily frustrations and petty grudges. Underneath her outward reputation as a talented student lies a psychologically twisted girl barely able to be kept contained. Thematically, the series dangles along threads of memory and connection and both of these characters are integral to these ideas.
As far as Gridman's production value is concerned, this is where the series really shows off its strengths. Distinct character designs and colour palette that never overwhelms a single scene, detailed backgrounds that give off an ominous sense of uncertainty, subtle edits to further keep the audience away from any settled feeling. Its animation is somewhat limited considering the number of stills used in Gridman but does utilize a significant amount of 3D animation in conjuction with 2D animation, and here is where opinions can get easily divisive. From the time of Gridman’s airing, anime still has a long way to go with improving CG animation to looking anywhere near as appealing as traditional-style animation, and when both styles are used in the same show, the consensus thought is that it comes off clunky, immersion-breaking and overall detrimental to the show visually. But Gridman stands as an exception to this, with the CG-animated fights coming across more reminiscent to that of tokusetsu battles. In this way, these action scenes give off a similar sense of scale of larger-than-life monsters duking it out, destroying vehicles and buildings as if they were mere toys. These moments also encapsulate what I feel are the best parts of SSSS.Gridman.
Whenever a Kaiju attacks and Gridman, the hero and giant ass-kicking robot enters the fray, everything regarding the purposeful directing fades out: the unsettling camera angles, the absence of music, the alienation – all of the uncanniness is annihilated for this moment courtesy of the triumphant emergence of the hero confronting the evil. All of the sudden the cameras move into action, the music blares out, frames are completely dominated by the two behemoths. It doesn’t last very long but for this moment we as viewers finally are at ease and it becomes a glorious release of pent-up emotion. Expert manipulation of the audience that while it may sound simple on paper, could only work under the guise of splendid filmmaking ability. And that, is where SSSS.Gridman truly shines.
