Yuri Quickie: SSSS.Gridman

When it comes to mainstream sweetheart anime, specifically “sweethearts”, I rarely give in to the hype and join the party. It didn’t happen with C.C. (Code GEASS), Hestia (DanMachi) or 002 (FranXX). If spinoffs like Sword Oratoria or Gun Gale Online did not exist I would not have cared. Attack on Titan was one of the few exceptions for an obvious reason. Then something happened when the poster girls for the following anime popped up. Their show peeked my interest but I was not fully convinced. Then a super dood of mine jumped in and her reports were encouraging up until the end. Finally another super dood binge watched the show and was left with a solid impression. That did it. I had to see for myself and draw my own conclusion. I initially labeled the show as a “dud” on Twitter without having seen it. Now that I have I will give the interested a quick rundown of what to expect and then go over the main attraction.

Plot Summary: Yuta Hibiki awakens with amnesia and the ability see things that others cannot. He first encounters a Gridman in the reflection of his friend Rikka Takarada’s computer and it tells him to “Remember his calling,” but Yuta doesn’t understand what this means. Later, in the distance, he sees an extremely large monster but it doesn’t move. It’s only when Yuta gets to school that the two sightings make sense: a monster attacks and the hero Yuta saw in the computer screen pulls him within the computer and transforms Yuta into a giant hero named Gridman.

Gridman’s first battle.

Let us briefly go over what the show entails. On the surface it is a Tokusatsu homage show with many references to Ultraman, Godzilla and other series in the kaiju subgenre. Reminds me of Action Heroine Cheer Fruits paying tribute to Super Sentai/Power Rangers and its ilk. Gridman starts off formulaic in the first half as the main story progresses:

• The heroes are trying to figure what is going on and live their daily lives in between.
• The villain creates a kaiju to attack the city.
• The heroes manage to save the day in the nick of time.
• Rinse and repeat till episode 6.

The tokusatsu part of the show is solid. It neither blew me away nor bored me. The fights were cool and some of them had me all giddy but I personally enjoyed others more like Rinne no Lagrange. I have a feeling longtime fans of the genre will appreciate the show more. I will say it was interesting seeing the mystery of what was really going unfold. Its presentation is pretty good, its soundtrack has some nice tunes here and there. One theme that comes to mind I will talk about in a bit. The OP’s good and the ED is really good.

---

That is all I have to say about the Tokusatsu stuff. Now it is time to talk about the REAL main plot and the main protagonists. Yes. Yuta Hibiki is not the main character. The following two ladies are not only the main reason (I am 99% certain) most people watched the show but I am not exaggerating or being biased when I say they are the main characters.

WARNING! Spoilers coming up, specifically the red text.

Watching Gridman felt similar to watching Kannazuki no Miko and to an extent Ga-Rei Zero where the main focus was the relationship between two girls. Everything and everyone in between were as important as the viewer wanted them to be (be it of great importance or not at all). I will say there were two side-characters I liked, HAAS and Rikka’s Mom…and maybe the female member of the Neon Genesis Junior High Students (who I am sure to not be the only one reminded of the Elite 4 from Kill La Kill by them).

Rikka.

Anyway on to Rikka and Akane. Rikka, or as I dubbed her the Thigh Princess (who surprisingly did not get as many sexy angle shots of her Aphrodite blessed thighs as I thought she would) is a chill, aloof beauty and a friend of the people though she prefers not showing it very much. She cared about her friends, even other classmates, very much and despite not being a fighter (Sadly she did not hospitalize anyone with a roundhouse kick) she contributed a lot to the Gridman Alliance despite her not believing it to be so. She has personal conflicts from time to time but that is because she is not very sociable despite already having friends. Something I can relate to.

Akane.

The second protagonist/antagonist is Akane, kaiju fangirl and creator of most of the kaiju the Gridman Alliance faced. One of the sexiest villains of 2018 Akane has a cute and kind exterior but in actuality has a twisted mind and heart. Funny thing is she is one of the cutest “psychos” I have seen. First example on the show: A girl accidentally hit a volleyball on one of her sandwiches. Moment of silence before she was like “It’s cool” but in episode 2 she was like “The girl ruined one of my sandwiches. She had to die, yes.” Even when she laughs maniacally it is not because she is out of her mind but because to her it felt like winning a hard fought campaign against a worthy opponent. Socially awkward to the extreme. Not exactly a sociopath. Also she knows how to toy with people. Keep this in mind.

The story follows their developments:

• Rikka trying to understand her role in life and what it is she wants to do or can do in the Gridman Alliance.
• The layers of Akane’s madness slowly peeled away revealing what kind of person she is.

Then there are their few but effective interactions.

It’s complicated.

The spoilers are coming up so I will sum up Rikka X Akane with the following:

Thing is, Rikka cares about her buddies but there is one she cares about and wants to talk to the most, Akane. When it comes to Rikka Akane shows the strongest reactions compared to other people be it her allies or enemies. Rikka is the one who has the strongest influence on her throughout the show. However, the curious must be patient. Readers who thought Bloom Into You was slow…yeah. Patience and awareness are required. Solid mecha show with an interesting main duo.

Spoiler time.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Akane was not only the creator of the kaiju but the world Rikka and friends lived in. It was her world to do as she saw fit when the mastermind Alexis * Kerib appeared and granted her that power. He took advantage of her dark thoughts to create a perfect world of her own where she had kaiju destroy and rebuild until it was the way she wanted. If there was someone or something that annoyed her she would mold a kaiju and then Alexis gave it life to dispose of the nuisance. For a while Akane thought little of her crimes but she did show a small bit of concern for Rikka whenever she was in the way of a kaiju attack. Later it was revealed the people of the perfect world were also created by Akane’s kaiju, including Rikka. However, as is often the case in sci-fi storylines about “creators and creations” Akane realized she could not control everyone to love her unconditionally. Even Rikka, who she thought only cared about her because she was “programmed” to, did it voluntarily, much to her surprise. In spite of her crimes Rikka hoped to reason with Akane, which became easier when she learned it was Alexis pulling the strings. Akane thought it was too late for her but thanks to the efforts of the Gridman Alliance they got through to her. Akane realized there was no place for her in this perfect world and was about to leave. Rikka had one last conversation with her, encouraging her to make a great impression in the “other world”. She also had one last request, to be together with Akane forever. While it seemed impossible both had a feeling deep down it might happen one day.

Here is my head-canon. If the very last scene is an indication that everything that happened was a dream (or happened in a dream world) she had (Just guessing here)…then there is a “Rikka” in the “other world” Akane wants to be with. The experiences in the dream world gave her the courage to leave her room and approach the other Rikka.

Update: Ivn brought up a good theory. What if the ED was secretly the epilogue the entire time and Akane hooked up with the “other world” Rikka as shown during said ED? If the writers want to go all “open for interpretation” with the finale then until proven otherwise we can go with lvn’s theory.

I await manga prologues and extras to learn more.