Common Name: SSSS.Gridman
Score: 8/10, 5/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Mecha, Supernatural, Psychological, School Life
Summary: As if waking without any memory of who he is and who the people that associate with him expect him to be weren't hard enough, Hibiki Yuuta has woken up in a world filled with kaiju only he can see. What's more, he's the only person who can see and hear the being that resides in a piece of junk computer that calls itself Gridman. According to this being, both he and Gridman have a purpose they must fulfill. As to what that purpose is, neither can say. Luckily, both Hibiki and Gridman seem to have people they can rely on as they work to learn who they are. Until then, their hands certainly busy with destroying the newly created kaiju that have started to rampage across the city.
Review: Ah, it's great to see TRIGGER doing what they do best--making shows that are visually stunning, wonderfully animated, and narratively incomprehensible when taken at face value. If you know TRIGGER, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. With every one of their original titles, there's always one or two incredible narrative underpinnings that make the madness their shows are known for seem genius once they've been "solved." From Little Witch Academia and its message of technology in modern society killing creativity and childish whimsy to Kill la Kill and its call to be more body-positive and accepting who are regardless of what fashion and society say, every one of their shows can be dissected as social commentary hidden beneath a layer of the highest quality anime bullshit the industry has to offer. Trying to figure what that criticism might be and smashing conspiracy theories together until something makes sense is honestly half the fun of these shows. And trust me, SSSS.Gridman has plenty to offer the madcap theorists like myself. Before we can get into that, though, we need to lay out and address the basics of this show and its worth when taken at face value.
Don't you worry, we'll definitely get into some of those conspiracies as well as my own toward the end since those are going to require treading into spoilers.
So, let's start with the very basics. SSSS.Gridman is a series based on the older tokusatsu Hyper Agent Gridman movie and TV series, titled Superhuman Syber Samurai Squad in America and Canada (hence the "SSSS"). Though bits of the anime make this title out to be a sequel to the TV show, it is perfectly accessible on its own. The only downside of not being familiar with the original show is that it'll be easy to miss a few of the anime's in-jokes, references, and outright features that have little effect on the show's plot. In its own right, however, SSSS.Gridman serves not just as a pseudo-sequel to the older Gridman franchise but is just generally a love letter to the tokusatsu genre in general. From the way Gridman functions as a character to the kaiju monsters he fights, everything calls back to how tokusatsu series started and how far they've come in terms of complexity and production value--going from men in detailed, if a bit ridiculous, rubber suits to puppetry and CG. In fact, many of the show's monster designs are created to make that association plane to see as the block, CG creations lumber about in much the same way a man in a suit would on a destructible set. What's more, most of the show's battles across the series fall very much in line with the standard tokusatsu formula wherein most fights feature transformation scenes that only need to be filmed once and can be spliced in at will. As the show goes on, various transformation options become available to Gridman to better deal with the show's kaijus. Then, lastly, there's a decent variation between episodes dedicated to action-packed conflict and ones that are meant to build on the characters and their larger story, ending with a very brief kaiju battle just to keep the fans of the action engaged.
To best prove how well the show expresses this dedication to the genre, let me just say this:
I'm not even a die-hard tokusatsu fan. Yet I still picked up on what they were channeling.
Now, as for the show's story and characters, there's plenty to like about this show beyond its ties to the tokusatsu genre. The same can even be said when considering the characters' occasional references to the TV show. For all intents and purposes, this show can very easily be separated from the original canon due in large part to the fact that, apart from the titular character of Gridman, this show is populated with original characters. Neither Hibiki Yuuta, Shinjo Akane, nor any of their friends have any connection to any previous Gridman title. In spite of that fact, though, I'll also be the first to acknowledge that these characters aren't all that original in regards to the world of anime. Hibiki Yuuta, for instance, starts this show off in much the same way so many other shows before it have in that he has an oddly convenient case of amnesia, making him an ideal audience stand-in that fills us in on things at the same pace that he learns of them. To extend the trope further, though, his amnesia also marks him as "the special one" in that he starts the show as the only person who can see the statue-like kaiju that surround his city and can interact with Gridman, who conveniently resides in a cobbled-together computer in the family shop of Hibiki's crush. As the show goes on, Hibiki essentially becomes Gridman's means of manifesting in Hibiki's world as they fuse and battle the various kaiju that appear. Though, to be fair, the show does eventually go on to explain the hows and whys of Hibiki's situation and even why he's kind of a non-character beyond being the designated hero but more on that later.
Poor Hibiki's got a lot to deal with on top of trying to remember who he is.
On top of its designated "special one," however, the show does offer us a number of legitimately compelling characters in the form of Hibiki's friends who eventually for the "Gridman Alliance." Most notable among this group are Hibiki's human friends, Utsumi Sho and Takarada Rikka. Being the simplest of the group, next to Hibiki, Utsumi plays the role of Hibiki's best friend and moral support throughout the show. Whenever Hibiki runs into trouble of any kind, Utsumi is his the person he usually turns to since he's the first person who tries to help him get over not remembering who he is or what their friendship was like up until now. Yet, rather than just being Hibiki's "yes man," he does get several moments in the show where he shows some understandable moments of weakness when, for example, he starts to feel useless and overwhelmed since he can't really do much to help fight off the kaiju. Like any teenage boy, he's extremely insecure and self-centered, which often puts him at odds with the rest of cast who, from his perspective, have more to offer the Alliance. Yet, at the end of the day, he is still Hibiki's friend through-and-through and manages to stick around in spite of his occasional outbursts and moments of weakness.
It ain't easy being a support character.
For better and worse, though, Takarada Rikka stands to be this show's second-most-complex character. On top as serving as the Alliance's token female member (excluding the non-human Borr), Rikka serves a number of different roles for a number of different characters and manages to be all of them without too much difficulty. For Hibiki, she becomes a romantic interest that serves to humanize Hibiki as a character. Though nothing comes of this romance since his duty as Gridman's partner takes priority over all else, their relationship or lack thereof serves as a good vehicle to get to know many of the show's other side characters and their world as a whole. For Utsumi, she's something of an antagonist and reluctant comrade who only deepens his insecurities as Hibiki focuses more on her than he does his supposed best friend. Most important of all, however, is what Rikka is to the character of Shinjo Akane who not only serves as this show's primary villain but also the focal point of the entire show--more so even than the titular Gridman. Before I get too ahead of myself, though, it is worth noting that Rikka is essentially the vehicle that drives the majority of this show's drama since she is the neutral-leaning knot that ties all these different characters and factions together. As she is pulled in one direction, she strains under the pressure as the others pull to keep her on their side. So, for most of the show, she's forced to walk the fine line that divides the two primary factions as she also works to get to the bottom of which side stands for what and who she should really support--her distant friend that threatens her friends and family or some boy who forced himself and all his chaotic drama on her, making her an easy target for the misguided anger of that same friend.
Honestly, pretty much everyone in this show has it tough. Rikka has it especially bad since she's
the neutral party as well as the show's primary source of fan service.
Now, as for the character of Shinjo Akane, I've already said a great deal about her role since she is the primary source of drama that drives Rikka's development as a character. Still, though, it cannot be expressed how big a role she plays in the show overall. While she is the primary villain, she is presented simultaneously as bring despicable and sympathetic. Her story is what drives the whole of all this show's underpinnings and conspiracy theories, but ultimately boils down to her lashing out at a world she doesn't feel she belongs in. Though she has friends and people who care about her, Akane Shinjo is the portrait of a depressed, bitter, and isolated teenager whose rage against everyone and everything around her trumps the social norms that put her in this place to begin with. While the show obviously never condones the things she does, the is nonetheless made out to be a victim in need of saving--both from herself and the villainous alien, Alexis Kerib, that aims to use her to further his own agenda.
What an adorable little sociopath.
So, with all that said, I think I can say without a doubt that this might very well be one of TRIGGER's better shows just for the thought and depth put into its characters alone. As with most TRIGGER shows, though, this show does go to some pretty weird places and even dips into the alien nonsense they're practically notorious for at this point. For some, that level of weirdness will be a solid turn-off for this show and I can't exactly fault that mentality. After all, there have been a few times where the crazy got just a little too crazy for my tastes. That issue paired with the show's fairly inconsistent quality and disjointed plot definitely doesn't do the show any favors when it comes to grabbing a new audience or keeping those they already gained interested. Particularly as the plot started moving toward fleshing out its dramatic mystery surrounding Akane, the manner in which the show posed questions and ideas that it didn't want to answer or commit to only begged the question of why we should stay committed to it. By the end, though, I think I can happily say that this show is worth the journey. Weird as it is, it goes places and has things to say that had me absolutely hooked once I had been given enough information to figure this stuff out. As for those who simply want a good, action-packed punchy anime, you really can't go wrong with anime's take on the tokusatsu genre. It fun, silly, and full of some absolutely great fights and designs that are bound to catch your interest. So, at the end of the day, I have to say that I loved SSSS.Gridman and would recommend it to anyone who wants to join in this celebration of Japanese nerd culture.
From Godzilla and Power Rangers to Transformers and retro computers,
this show's got something for everyone.
Now, as I promised, it's time to take the deep dive into the treasure trove of conspiracies and half-baked theories this show has to offer and, oh boy, are there some real gems in this one. So, if you'd rather avoid spoilers, I'd recommend leaving now and coming back once/if you give this show a chance. If you're like me, though, and don't mind spoilers since watching the journey that leads to this nonsense is just as much fun as coming at it fresh, welcome. I'll try to make these following paragraphs as succinct as possible since it'll be easy to get lost in the maze of what-the-fuckery.
Let's have some fun.
Alright, first and foremost, let's tackle what is likely the most reasonable and sane of the theories that surround this show: the idea that SSSS.Gridman is not just a love letter to but also a criticism of the tokusatsu genre. I say this is the most reasonable mostly because it stands to reason that a show that is very much tuned into the love and mentality of a fandom would also be inclined to criticize what they love in the hopes that it gets better. Unfortunately, though, this one draws primarily on some half-baked connections that I see working in theory but could very easily fall apart under strong scrutiny. For example, like most of these theories, this all starts with the character of Shinjo Akane. Clearly presented as a fan of the tokusatsu genre herself, particularly when it comes to kaiju, Akane can be seen as a representation of the creators and designers that are often the source of all the things that make this genre so much fun to enjoy. At the show's start and middle, Akane's designs are absolutely fantastic and are quality enough to be something I'd wholly expect to see on a sentai show. However, as she is forced to churn out more and more designs by her industrious taskmaster, Alexis Kerib, her designs start to falter. The kaiju she is forced to churn out so rapidly start to look lazier and more roughshod or outright terrifying (which is inappropriate for shows typically aimed at kids) as the unreasonable "schedule" Alexis sets for her forces her to desperately dig deeper into her well of creativity until it all but runs dry in the end. Content to just discard her, Alexis, our heartless business executive or producer, is content to just hand Akane's job over to the new, untrained, and infinitely less talented Anti. Failing that, he also turns to just reusing the same enemies Akane created before until he's functionally driven the show into the ground in terms of its creativity. So, following that logic, it's fair to see how this show might be seen as a criticism of an industry that forces its creative staff to just constantly churn out stuff to keep their long-running series as long as they can to make more and more money. Yet, to bring that theory home, it's very easy to recognize Gridman and the Alliance as the fans who love and support the creators of what they love. So, with their love and power of the series, they effectively rip Akane from Kerib's clutches so she can go back to being a fan of what she creates rather than a slave to her talent.
After all, what is a writer or designer if not a god to the things they create
and the people who worship those things in turn?
While easily the craziest theories I've read regarding this show, I can see where some people might get the idea that SSSS.Gridman is the tale of Akane Shinjo coming to terms with the different, conflicting parts of her personality that make up the sum of who she is. Most notably, this theory posits that Rikka and Akane are actually the same person. Considering how the world they live in is a construct entirely of the real Shinjo Akane's creation, it figures that she might be trying to isolate the various parts of who she is as she works to decide who she wants to be. By this logic, the pearl-haired and red-eyed Akane is the manifestation of her nerdy, creative self and the self that she primarily identifies as herself. Yet, based on what the real Akane Shinjo looks like, this theory extends that to mean that Rikka is the personification of a different ideal Akane wants from her life. Rikka is cute, popular, loved by everyone around her, and has a family that cares about her, which are all things her creative self seems to lack. What's more, when in her dreamscape, she instinctually replaces Rikka for herself to seduce Hibiki. Yet, in spite of her taking Rikka's place in this moment, she can't imagine herself having a supportive mother, hinting at some family problems that could very easily be part of what caused her breakdown in the first place. Where the rest of the show's characters fit into this theory, it's hard to say and that is ultimately where I think this one falls apart. Yet, in some ways, I can't deny that it makes sense when you hone in simply on those two characters and the odd bond they share.
All the more so when you consider how the image of the bird on Rikka's bracelet looks like the pair
of one-winged birds from Darling in the Franxx that, when together, look like a single bird.
Now, as for what I believe, my own theory exists as a kind of expansion on the previous one that rationalizes or dismisses some of the more out-there aspects of that theory so as to make room for the rest of the show's cast. So, first and foremost, let's state a few known quantities. Firstly, we know that the real Akane Shinjo created a world as a form of escapism, presumably due to some dissatisfaction with her own. She is, after all, established as being a cowardly, wimpy nerd who isn't actually all that great when it comes to dealing with people. Second, we know that Akane is a fan of the tokusatsu genre and a couple other nerd-related things based on what is seen in her real-world room. Third, we know that she creates kaiju to effectively vent her anger and frustration at the characters she's created in her false world, particularly when they act in a manner that inconveniences her or are beyond her control as this world's god. Put all that together and what do we get? My theory essentially boils down to the belief that SSSS.Gridman is the story of one girl's battle with self-loathing and depression.
Crazy, I know, but hear me out.
Rather than claiming that this world Akane has created is the product of splintered and conflicting personalities and personas that she wants society to see her as, my theory rests on the simple assumption that Akane is herself. I simply dismiss the similarities between her real-world counterpart and Rikka because Rikka looks more like an actual Japanese girl than Akane's internalized self. Particularly when you consider how Akane seems to hate who she is, it figures that she might want to look like someone else in her escapist mirror of the real world. So, rather than the rest of the cast being splinters of herself or what she wants, I find it wholly believable that the rest of the cast is, quite simply, her actual classmates--albeit ones that have been defined by/associated with Transformers references, which is something socially inept nerds are known to do in real life . Her real-world counterpart very likely has some friends or, at the very least, people she thinks she might want to be friends with, so all her classmates are simply mirrors of their real-world counterparts. So, given her godly powers in this world, she's able to inflict harm on the people who may have slighted her in the real world. Since she has no desire to house them in her ideal world, he has no reason to recreate them after she's finished working through her frustration by killing them with something she legitimately loves--kaiju.
But that love might not be the healthiest thing for her in the long term.
Being a nerd, Akane's love of tokusatsu shows and kaiju very clearly sets her apart from her classmates, a sentiment the created Utsumi even vocalizes during his dreamscape interaction with her. Because of her "weird" interests, it stands to reason that she'd feel alienated. Considering that and her growing penchant for sabotaging her perfect world by destroying it just to kill people she hates with something she loves, it also figures that something darker would start to grow within her. Represented through the existence and steadily increasing presence of Alexis Kerib, a being who describes himself as an alien that feeds on Akane's darker emotions to grow stronger, Akane's depression slowly and steadily grows throughout the series. This depression gradually makes her more and more bitter and angry both with her created world and likely the real one, leading her to continually destroy it and any positive feelings that might combat her growing depression.
Now, what in this show could possibly reflect those positive emotions? I wonder.
Thus enters the presence of the Gridman Alliance: a union between a character from the tokusatsu shows she loves, a collection of cool add-on characters that function in a similar manner to the Transformers Mini-Cons, and the human characters that either exist as her real friends or people she desperately wants to be friends with. Now, whether the actions of the Alliance's human characters have anything to do with the actions of their real-world counterparts, it's hard to say for sure. Even if they don't, though, their actions as things Akane created point toward a part of her that wants to break free of her destructive behavior and the depression (Alexis) that is fueling it. Yet, as proven in the dreamscape episode, she has no real clue how to be friends with them, noted by her confusing friendship for romance as she tries to seduce the cast into being friends with her. Despite her failures and growing depression, though, her created friends and Gridman still work to ultimately save her from Kerib's grasp.
Of course, such a great internal struggle could only be expressed in the most TRIGGER way possible
with Gridman punching Akane's depression in the face.
What really drives home this idea of the Gridman Alliance being a representation of Akane's more positive feelings working to save her from herself, though, is the birth growth of Anti. Over the course of the show, Anti comes to be the perfect representation of a passion can do both harm and good for a person in their darkest hours. Initially born as a means for Akane to lash out against her hope of getting better and making friends, ie. Gridman, Anti spends most of the start of the show aimlessly battling Gridman and growing more and more confused since his own nature is dualistic in Akane's mind. On the one hand, he is her means of venting her darker emotions. On the other, he still represents something she loves. The longer Akane leaves him to his own devices, the longer he has to realize that latter aspect of his being. Thus, Anti eventually comes to switch sides, changing from the destructive negativity that is Anti into a kaiju that uniquely knows how to battle Akane's negativity and help her heal as Gridknight.
Yeah, kick that depression-born monster's ass you little monster.
Now, as to why Gridman, specifically, is the hero who saves her, the logic there is actually pretty simple. As a tokusatsu hero with the unique power to appear in and influence other dimensions, Gridman would be the only one she could really think to call on to save her from her own, internalized reality. Thus this version of Gridman is born with the unique power to fight Akake's depression and self-loathing with the things she cares about most. What's more, he's created or divided in such a way that he comes to represent more than just the tokusatsu shows she loves but also the people and a number of other nerdy franchises she loves. Thus ends the theory of Akane Shinjo and her crippling battle with depression. Now, I'm sure there are some holes in this theory but it's probably the best and most comprehensive I've seen posited yet. Still, if you have any thoughts or criticism of this theory, I'd love to hash all this out again. After all, these kinds of theory discussions are a good part of why I love the bizarre stories TRIGGER has to tell.