SSSS.GRIDMAN Episode 3 Review

Ok, so this episode starts out kinda strange with a kid who may or may not be Akane’s brother at first glance being really, really angry. Once again, no one seems to remember the aftermath of the Gridman Kaiju battle, and all has been returned back to normal and fixed up. Sho has a theory he jokes with Yuta about that with Calibur able to transform into a weapon that perhaps the very kaiju they fight are people. While he laughs about it, Akane calls the boy named Anti and tells him to go wild, resulting in Anti transforming into a Kaiju.

 

Samurai Calibur goes about collecting everyone and bringing them to Junk while Akane does her crazy thing. Yuta is taken aback when the kaiju begins to talk to him, and while being beat down, Calibur transforms. At this point, Calibur begins to convey to Yuta that unless they defeat the kaiju, many more people will die. Anti can copy other’s power and in turn uses his list-tailored abilities to defeat Gridman. While Akane screams to the heavens in joy about her victory, a strange fog rolls through the town, and the damage is restored and we see three kaiju sculptures on the horizon.

With this reset, we find Rikka and Sho moping around, depressed that their friend has in all likelihood died. During this, we get a bit of surprise exposition while Akane takes Anti to a buffet as a reward for performing so well and then mocking Sho’s human-kaiju theory. Sho and Rikka run off to Yuta’s place and are at a crossroads whether are not to see if, like their other classmates, Yuta could have been dead and not remembered by anyone. As they converse, Rikka and Sho argue about how to go about things, and Sho plans to disband the Gridman Alliance, when three strangers appear. They begin to discuss their intent to assist Gridman and declare flat out that neither Gridman nor Calibur are dead. Of course, the strangers inform Rikka and Sho to simply contact him, and logically, they call and Yuta picks up.

Now I’m not going to lie, seeing how casually it was that Gridman was alive and coming back triumphantly had me cheer him on. Again, I can’t help but feel like a kid watching Saturday Morning cartoons when I see this show. The gent with the face mask then turns into a rolling artillery piece, who then transforms into a set of gauntlets, making Gridman “Max Gridman” (technically Heracles Combine Superman Max Gridman) who then proceeds to beat the ever loving crap out of Anti. When asked if he’s human, Anti replies that he isn’t and his only goal is to kill Gridman, much to the gratitude of Yuta, who proceeds to go all out and defeat Anti.

As we roll out of the third episode we now have the strange new allies introduced as the Neon Genesis Junior High Students. What the hell that specifically means is beyond my knowledge. We do, however see that Anti is still alive, but Akane is not happy with the poor kid-kaiju as she chucks food at him. While the pacing of this episode was a bit off, I still enjoyed the crap out of the second half. I’m enjoying the fact that they have a good mix of Saturday Morning cartoon evil villainy from Akane, but that she also still plans things out, like designing smarter and more effective ways of defeating her opponent. I’m really digging that the rest of the support programs have arrived and are now going to be part of the show, as they are a component really, REALLY hyped during Anime Expo. Again, I admit this episode started off weak but it really finished strong and I’m rating this at a slightly lower but still great 8.5 all you can eat kaiju buffets out of 10.