Review of SSSS.Gridman

A faithful tokosatsu homage with art house tendencies, Gridman is (pun intended!) more than meets the eye. Writing-wise, this is probably Trigger's most concise and focused show to date (sans shorter projects like Luluco and Inferno Cop, ofc). The control of information throughout the series keeps the character beats and revelations unpredictable, the world-building vague but just clear enough to keep us engaged. But the biggest thing that I love about this show is its sense of balance. As aforementioned, SSSS Gridman is a tokusatsu, through and through. It keeps the familiar tropes and borrows elements from the genre's writing formulas, while also ensuring itsmain crowd-pleasers in the form of the titular Gridman and the monsters he fights are familiarly-over the top, making sure that fans of toksatsu and kaiju are given a very nostalgic trip down memory lane.

But at the same time, SSSS Gridman makes sure from the first few minutes that the world it inhabits is not as it seems.

For all of the ground-level circling panning shots with Gridman and kaiju beating the shit out of each other, there's as many uncomfortable long takes. For every flashy transformation scene, there is tightly-edited conversation reminiscent of trends seen in mumblecore.

For every flamboyant tokusatsu element, there is a very subdued, instrospective art house element, which would have many a keen viewer reminisce not of Ultraman and the like, but of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

This juxtaposition of flash and long introspection surprisingly works to the show's benefit, lending to the eeriness of this world with something awry (other than the giant mecha and killer monsters lol).

One particular element of the show that really solidifies that juxtaposition is its sound design.

Most of the show is DEVOID of any music, highlight the background music of a store, the sound of pencil against paper, traffic driving by. That, combined with the realistic handling of dialogue (people talking over another, conversations in the background continuing even when main characters are talking, main characters acting naturally and cohorting with side characters without any restrictions) really lent to the atmosphere of the show and making the world of SSSS Gridman seem realistic, something I would not have expected from a show that features a giant robotman fighting giant deformed monsters.

And when there IS music, it's the most hammiest, cheesiest tokusatsu music you can imagine, again just highlighting the intense juxtaposition of what's real and what's stylistically fake.

That intense relative realism playing around with the hammed-up intense cheese of the main setpieces was a fantastic stylistic choice that not only kept me engaged, but surprisingly lent itself to the plot itself, leaving clues to the conclusion of all the plot threads and mysteries in an extremely satisfying way that couldn't have been done WITHOUT that intense juxtaposition throughout the anime, from the sound design to the character design, to the shot compositions.

Juxtaposition aside, SSSS Gridman really took me offguard.

I expected something that was intentionally super-schlocky or some mediocre shonen monster of the week show with horrible CGI, but what I got was this very over the top yet grounded meditation on escapism, the nature of reality, and free will, with colorful and pulse-pounding action setpieces that made me feel like a 12 year old all over again.

It's such a unique yet loving homage that I legit feltl nostalgic for Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad and Gridman The Hyper Agent even though I've never watched either incarnation.

In the end, I think that's probably the best thing the creators could have asked for.

...and the fact that Rikka's thighs can probably form a religion. Bless Rikka.