SSSS.Gridman

Title:SSSS.Gridman
Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad Gridman
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Trigger
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.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


12-episode TV anime that premiered on October 6, 2018.
Animated by Trigger.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 8 8 8 6 6 6 Ggultra2764 [series:3580#1552]
Gridman is a modern telling of a 90s live-action tokusatsu series set in a city that is seemingly controlled by an alien race, the sociopathic teen Akane Shinjo, and the monsters they create; with the only threat to their domination coming in the form of the hero Gridman who can be summoned by an amnesiac teen named Yuta Hibiki. The series is a bit of a mixed bag throughout its run as while it offers some decent plot twists later in its run concerning Akane's motives for her monster creations and the nature surrounding the mysterious enemy creating monsters, the show's characterization mostly leaves much to be desired since most characters are rather two-dimensional in personality and all the episodes follow a "monster of the week" style formula which is the norm with tokusatsu-based titles. While the series might be a treat for fans of the Gridman series or tokusatsu titles in general, it doesn't offer much else that allows it to stick out from other titles of its ilk.

Last updated Saturday, December 22 2018. Created Saturday, December 22 2018.
Unevaluated Stretch [series:3580#628]
(Three episodes watched):

Personally, I found this show to be more intriguing before we learned that it is tied to the usual giant monsters vs. mobile suit premise than afterwards. My impression once that happened was that this show wouldn't be quite as novel as I had previously thought. Nevertheless, it seemed enjoyable and I wouldn't have minded getting some sort of explanation of Yuta's amnesia, or why an antique computer acts as a portal to communicate with the MS. Yuta and his friends are likeable and I could still wonder what would become of them. Apparently everyone knew what a 'Kaiju' (giant monster) is even before this happened (they seem to be more like robots than living creatures); and we learn that somebody is behind them. An added twist is that for some reason everything seems to be back to normal at the end of the episode, even though tremendous devastation was wrought upon the city. There was no guarantee that the explanation would make sense; for that matter, there was no guarantee that there would be an explanation at all. But I decided to watch at least one more episode.

Episode two didn't seem to bring us any closer to an overarching explanation of what's going on. The various mysteries were kind of fun, but I couldn't help worrying that the whole thing might never make sense. Why can only Yuta and a couple friends see the Kaiju that are usually sitting idle within the city? Why do the Kaiju do that? I didn't sense much effort being made to explain such things. This might just be a show which was betting on the usual mecha vs. monsters with plentiful special effects rather than feeling a duty to tell a complete and fairly plausible story. One thought that occurred to me going into episode three was that if you're not going to answer questions like why clouds shaped like monsters drift over the city, at least acknowledge that the questions exist. I wish characters would notice these things and say that they are confused, too--otherwise I can only wonder if I missed something that everyone else noticed. The Transformers-like tactic that Gridman and a new ally used during the episode seemed like something that children would love but underwhelmed me. 'Ah, so that's what sort of a show this will be' I said to myself, and decided to quit watching. The story seemed to me to be too mixed up for a coherent and truly engaging plot to ever come together, and I have better things to do than watch what was seeming more and more like a children's show.

Last updated Sunday, December 23 2018. Created Tuesday, October 16 2018.

Other Sites
NameURL
Official Japanese Series Web Site https://gridman.net/

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