SSSS.Gridman is an anime adaptation of a live-action tokusatsu series from the early 1990s. It is 12 episodes long. The anime starts off introducing us to Hibiki Yuta, who wakes up amnesiac. Thus commences the trend of SSSS.Gridman unabashedly using every cheesy trope in its plot. Hibiki finds himself at a junk shop owned by the family of a fellow classmate, Takarada Rikka. Rounding out the gang is Utsumi Sho, who is Hibiki’s best friend.
The first episode is really slow as it is only at the end that we see the titular Gridman in action. This slow pacing carries through to the rest of the episodes, which makes it settle in a dangerously predictable structure. There is an old computer in the junk shop where Hibiki is the only one who can hear voices from it. The action begins when a kaiju appears in the city and starts causing destruction. Hibiki ends up gaining the power to transform into Gridman, a giant mecha (that looks like a power suit) in order to fight the kaiju threat.
The anime plays with tropes of the genre. Gridman will yell out his movements and attacks while striking poses that is extremely cheesy and cringe-worthy. On the other hand, this is a massive (and nostalgic) throwback to the live-action series of that era. You can’t tell whether it is supposed to be awesome, carrying you into the moment, or just failing to do that and makes you want to look away. Despite the supposed action, there is a lack of proper build up in the tension and atmosphere in the lead up to the climax of each episode. Thus, when Gridman powers up and defeats the kaiji through the power of friendship or some other reason, you don’t feel the same amount of excitement or eagerness that it wants you to.
Related is how the story is weak in showing causation and effect. Things happen just because. There’s rarely a good explanation for why or how it can happen. The plot gets crazier towards the end of the series and it has potential. However, the storytelling is too disjointed to fully realize this potential. It’s constantly jumping to conclusions, although the final scene of the series does help to alleviate this. The fact that it tries new things, as well as being firmly rooted to its inspiration, is appreciated even if it doesn’t work 100% of the time. Gridman has many different forms of power-ups, including various weaponry and armor. It’s pretty much a given that each episode will introduce some sort of new combination or skill of Gridman’s. This set structure is one of the anime’s flaws because it just does not feel like they have properly set it up to not feel insubstantial.
The antagonist is probably the most interesting character in the anime. They appear normal at first but are clearly insane. Then again, they appear to be manipulated by the true villain of the series. The fact that they have the power to make kaiju appear is one of the going forces of the plot. You wonder how this power works, and what purpose it serves. Once this begins to be revealed, the premise ends up being pretty weird and unexpected. Perhaps to balance this out, we have a secondary antagonist who has an unprovoked hate towards Gridman, which makes them an annoying character. Unfortunately, this annoying character keeps rearing the head and never goes away.
There are other odds things involving the kaiju to further the mystery. All the destruction that they cause gets reversed he next day. No one remembers anything and the people who die are literally forgotten. There is a spark of a romance between Hibiki and Rikka, but for all the screen-time and foreshadowing this aspect go, it never goes anywhere.
The anime is beautifully animated at times… and not so much in others. This does nothing to take away the stillness of certain scenes. The aesthetics is pretty unique and the character designs are great. The CGI isn’t as horrible as some other anime. It’s still noticeable, but acceptable. Since CGI is used for the action scenes, it’s actually quite fluid. In a rare occurrence for anime nowadays, there are frequent uses of stock footage which are mainly combination and attack scenes. Furthermore, the animation feels like it gets worse as the season goes on.
Overall, as a standalone anime without any exposure to the live-action series from the 1990s (and thus miss a lot of the callbacks), SSSS.Gridman leaves some to be desired, but is still acceptable. It started off strong but kind of went down a slow and weird downward slope, where only the charm and intrigue of the antagonist manages to keep the whole show barely afloat.
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