Review of SSSS.Gridman

If i were to boil down my viewing experience of Gridman to one word, its "HYPE". SSSS. Gridman is an anime reboot of a live action, tokusatsu (aka ultraman, power rangers etc) show from the 90s. Keep this in mind, take the goofiness of a kids TV program, stylized it as a Trigger anime then add a dash of seinen serious tone. This combination; the contrast between the absurdity of giant heroes fighting kaijus and high-schoolers dealing with loss and death, turns out to be a beautiful amalgamation of visual and auditory spectacular. Story: Every episode follows the basic Tokusatsu structure; discovery, contact, conflict and resolution.The Gridman alliance will go about their daily lives after resolution from the previous episode and discover a new threat. This comes in both the kaiju, their true enemies or even drama that they fear would affect the group's dynamics. Next is Contact, where the group or members of the group confront's said discovery (Hibiki's indirect manner of interacting with Rikka after she attended a mixer, the alliance's approach after knowing Akane's secret). Following that is Conflict, this is where you have Gridman fighting the Kaiju(s) and how the alliance have to adapt their approach due to the limitations of their memories. Finally resolution, Gridman fights the kaiju, struggles, then gets a power up from the alliance and beats the kaiju.

Art:
Beautiful, just fucking beautiful. Theres a lot of subtle nuance to the background and how they invoke this mundane atmosphere which is quickly demolished by the appearance of Kaijus. Gridman and the Kaijus are mostly CG but not the shitty quality kind that you see in the background characters of Hataraku Saibou or even Bunny-senpai. Theres a polish and this glossly tone to them contrasting them to the bland and flat colors of the world, indicating their abnormality in this world. There are several shots of our characters doing nothing but laying around, drinking tea, listening to music etc. All mundane tasks that we do in our real lives, theres not attempt to make these activities more lively or colorful because you cant and you shouldnt. Real life is boring, that is why we have fantasy, its escapism. Going back to the background designs, theres a later part of the show where you are shown this other world that is different from the world our character is based on. During those scenes, the lines between CG and drawn animation are blurred to the point of indistinguishable. My final point for the art of the show; DRAWN EXPLOSION. If you've watched Shirobako, you might remember this scene where 2 directors argue over whether to use CG or drawn explosion, the latter being more time consuming and costly. Every fight scene ends with this bombastic combustion from the defeated Kaijus (like the always do whenever the power rangers or ultraman defeats a monster) and its just so beautiful. The animation for these explosions are fluid and smooth and splashes on bright colors into this bleak and dull environment. If drawn explosions are truly more time-consuming as shirobako has pointed out, it has definitely paid off in terms of the emotions that is being brought out in those scenes.

Sound:
Soundtrack is beautiful, both OP and ED are made to get you hyped up for the next fight, especially the OP which brings forth the mixture of melancholy and excitement and accurately representing the dark and fun aspects of the show (dealing with/preventing loss and Gridman fighting Kaijus). Every fight will end off with the chorus of the OP being played, giving you that hope that Gridman is gonna prevail (like how they do in power rangers and ultraman). The sound effects used are beautiful, from the sounds of cicada in the summer, music leaking out of Rikka's earphones and other monotonous sounds of the real world to sound Gridman makes when he transforms or gets a power boost. These effects, while minor, adds up to the tone of the scene and hype for each fight.
Lastly, the silence. There is little to no qwerky tune or songs played during our character's conversations. You only hear the conversations between our characters or whatever elements that was present in those scenes. This again hammers in the point that REAL LIFE IS BORING and reminiscent to my viewing of the first Digimon movie where everything outside the digital world was slow and dull. The lack of qwerky and fun music makes certain scene really serious and uncomfortable, ie Akane and Rikka on the bus, Akane's conversation with Hibiki at the River, making you pay close attention to the subtle nuance characters are doing/saying/implying.

Characters:
Without revealing too much about the show, the character dynamics for the most part is good. The strongest (and has the most layers) would definitely be Akane, Anti and the crew of Neon Genesis Junior High (NGJH). The rest with the exception of Rikka are pretty one dimensional but thats not necessarily a bad thing. Hibiki has amnesia and only has to rely on the alliance and Gridman. Utsumi is Hibiki's best friend and a Kaiju weeb and gets fired up during every fight, sometimes to his detriment.
Our main antagonist Alexis, is your typical straight up evil being who exist only to destroy. He manipulates others and has no real motivation to see kaijus destroying the city other than "he likes it". That sounds really bad right? However, we get these scenes where Alexis interacts with the other members, engaging in candid dialogues and almost having a meal with Hibiki. Its almost as if destruction is just a hobby to this character, take that a way, he can simply become a normal person who jokes around his friends that no one would notice (apart from looking like a villain, but the restaurant owner seem to mind).
The NGJH are the accessories and weapons of Gridman in human form. Each having their own distinct personality and preferences but are united under the Gridman cause, they serve mainly as the supporting cast but in the latter episodes, shown that they have a care for others and the Gridman Alliance crew (ie. Max cleaning the dishes behind the cafe counter).
Anti is the underdog of the show and whose story is one of redemption and acceptance, basically Viral of Gurren Lagann, and theres no way i can hate such a character.
Lastly everyone's waifu, Akane (whom i want to kick me in the face). Akane and the Alliance have this L and Kira dynamics going on for half the show. Both parties have information that the other does not and want to see the other fail. Its a game of cat and mouse to see who's gonna get who first. Theres no way i can elaborate further without spoilers so if you like the character design (or have a foot fetish), just watch the show.

Overall:
I've seen a couple of bad reviews on this show and could only attribute them to the lack of understanding of the source material. This is an adaptation of basically ultraman. Theres gonna be cheesy moments because thats the very nature of the show. It is a show that requires you to play attention to for the subtle hints to certain phenomenon. Character motivations ranges from simplistic to downright complex, each with their own merits and watching that kind of character drama being resolved (like how they do in a good seinen show) is extremely satisfying. If i were to pick a flaw of the show, it'd be the lack of screen time for NGJH since they're easily the most badass characters.