SSSS.GRIDMAN Episode 1 Review

My colleagues here at BAYOG had the pleasure and privilege to attend Anime Expo 2018 this past summer in LA. While there @blackandyellowog and I were fortunate enough to attend the JoJo’s Part 5, and TRIGGER panels. This included the overall TRIGGER and the premier for SSSS.GRIDMAN, something that they hyped as being the newest thing in animation, surpassing Pixar, Ninja Turtles, Disney, and all sorts of existing animation. While we thought they were joking it seems they laid these claims down rather seriously. And so begins my review into this interesting show, and remember “IT’S NOT A REMAKE!”

We start off with a rather stylized intro, showing off some characters, including one that the animators took great pride in for making her “thicc.” For real, we had them up on stage for like 10 minutes describing their preferences for thicc women or busty ones. Post intro, we have a red headed boy with strange hair named Yuta Hibiki waking up in the home of his classmate, Rikka Takarada, the aforementioned thicc one. He realizes he has amnesia and after a brief conversation, he wanders downstairs and sees on a computer a strangely dressed man who identifies himself as Hyper Agent Gridman, and tells Yuta he has a destiny to fulfill. He then is escorted out to the hospital for a check up, and he freaks out seeing some massive entity hovering in the distance. The rest of the first half of the show has Yuta interacting with and talking with his other classmates and friends, including his best friend Sho Utsumi and the kind and aforementioned busty one, Akane Shino.

After being begged by Sho to show him GRIDMAN, the two meet up with Rikka at her place to see the computer holding GRIDMAN. A strange figure carving a kaiju (godzilla style monster) then seems to summon him and then the monster Yuta saw before becomes mobile and begins attacking the city. Now one of the main points that TRIGGER bragged about was their new blend of CG and standard animation. This was met with mixed reception, as I enjoyed the sound of it and of course Blackatron was skeptical. The kaiju was completely CG and while it seemed a tad off, things really kick it up when Yuta fuses with Gridman and then goes to combat the kaiju. While Yuta gets attacked pretty well and seems down for the count, Rikka and Sho begin to cheer him on and inform him that the monster’s weak point is it’s neck. In a moment I can only describe as TRIGGER being TRIGGER, the monster is swiftly decapitated and then drop kicked by Gridman, revealing that it is robotic in nature. Finishing off the monster in a classic but still beautiful fashion, he uses his GRID BEAM to dispatch the kaiju.

While Sho is exceptionally psyched to continue fighting off monsters as the Gridman Alliance or some other such team, Rikka is distraught and news reports on the destruction that was wrought. Stranger yet is the mysterious individual who was watching Yuta, and looking over the school, capping off with our cast confused at the fact their school is rebuilt seemingly overnight with no sign of the previous night’s battle. So I know for sure I’ll be watching this sucker with every intent of carrying this over. If it wasn’t for JoJo’s, I’d be all about SSSS.GRIDMAN as my show of the season, but I gotta love my JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Because the show had a great feel to it and I’m super psyched to see where they go with it, I figure Episode 1 rates a solid 9 decapitated kaiju out of 10. Lemme know what you think below and if you are also looking forward to some classic style Saturday morning anime!