'SSSS.Gridman' Is a Fantastic Tokusatsu Anime with Big Surprises

SSSS.Gridman is an anime TV series adaptation of the 90’s live-action tokusatsu TV series Gridman the Hyper Agent.  The “SSSS” in the title is a reference to Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, the 90’s American TV series that used footage of the original show (similar to how Power Rangers used footage of Super Sentai), although it’s revealed in the end that it also specifically means to the anime as “Special Signature to Save a Soul.”  The 12-episode series is a collaboration between Tsuburaya Productions, the studio of the original show as well as the various Ultraman series, and Studio Trigger.

The plot follows Yuta Hibiki, a first-year high school student who wakes up one day without any memories.  He also begins to see figures of kaiju towering over the city, which others around can’t see.  Soon, he meets Hyper Agent Gridman through an old computer, i.e. Junk, who tells him that he has a mission to fulfill.  When kaiju monsters begin regularly attacking the city – this time, something which other people can see – Yuta merges with Gridman to fight them.

Assisting Yuta and Gridman are his classmates Sho Utsumi, a huge tokusatsu fan boy, and Rikka Takarada, whose mother’s junk shop houses Junk and serves as their base; along with the Neon Genesis Junior High Students (NGJHS) – the quartet of Samurai Calibur, Max, Borr, and Vit – youths in black uniforms who can transform into weapons/vehicles to support or combine with Gridman during battles.  Utsumi names their group “The Gridman Alliance.”

Strangely, each time Gridman beats a kaiju, the memories of everyone in the city – save for the Gridman Alliance – get erased, and the damaged structures revert back to normal, as if nothing happened.  Meanwhile, people who are killed by the kaiju are retcon out of existence.  Later, it’s revealed that, through the help of an “alien” named Alexis Kerin, their popular classmate Akane Shinjo is the one creating the kaiju so she can  get rid of the people she dislikes.

SSSS.Gridman caught my attention immediately after it debuted because I had never seen the tokusatsu formula fully applied on anime before.  I can’t remember ever seeing Gridman the Hyper Agent as a kid, but I did watch a couple of Ultraman shows (on top of my head: Ace, Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia).  So, I got interested because it was an “Ultraman” anime of sorts.  And that was exactly how this series felt like during the first episodes – a dose of riveting “Ultraman vs. Kaiju” action – so I was pleased.

However, I was also a bit wary because it was co-produced by Trigger. For, as my previous experience with a Trigger anime proved, even if the first 80% or so of the story has been terrific, it’s no assurance that it won’t drop the ball horribly in the latter 20% – ruining what could have been a potential classic.

Thankfully, this time around, Trigger manages to do a solid job from start to finish.  I like how it hits many familiar tropes of the tokusatsu genre, but still avoid succumbing to stale storytelling.  It follows a “monster of the week” structure in its first few episodes, but it lays nuggets of information that makes one think, “What the heck is really going on here?”  Just when it gets to a point that one may feel it’s getting predictable, the focus shifts to the peeling off of the overarching mysteries of its plot.  By the time it gets to its final episodes, the twists and turns have made it into something more complex than your traditional tokusatsu.

As a whole, I found the plot to be both confusing and brilliant.  In the end, one will have a general sense of what the finale’s plot twists mean for the story – they will completely make you view what the series is differently.  However, the extent of “how much differently” is a bit indefinite.  There are certain details that aren’t as firmly confirmed as I would want to.  This is why it’s “confusing.”  But if my interpretation of the information revealed is correct, then the story is actually kind of genius.  The ambiguity in some parts is the only thing preventing me to describe it as purely “brilliant.”

The anime can be understood and enjoyed without any familiarity with Gridman the Hyper Agent.  However, by the time it reaches its finale, it’s quite obvious that it’s more rewarding to those who did watch the source material.  It can be even said that it’s connected to it.  After watching the finale, I had to do some looking up to make a few things clearer to me.

In the end, SSSS.Gridman is a fantastic anime by itself.  It successfully delivers the best things about its genre – and then some!