There’s definitely an element of macro vs. micro in assessing SSSS.Gridman.
First off, I still love SSSS.Gridman. I love all its weird quirks, its restrained style intercut with moments of extreme pandemonium (and BGM). I love Amemiya-sensei’s directorial choices and the cinematography, and the epic kaijuu shots. And the Gainax explosions – fucking glorious (why does no other explosion look like that?). If I live to be a thousand years old I will never, ever tire of Gainax explosions in my anime.
The funny thing is, though, I find myself loving what’s going on in itself while finding myself- well, bemused, let’s say – with the direction of the series as a whole. Yes, Gridman is poised to be a big commercial hit and will almost certainly have a second season at some point, but the writing staff didn’t know that when they planned it (and in fact, this series apparently wrapped far earlier than most anime do – leaving the staff tweeting about actually having free time). With that in mind, where in the world are they going with this? I don’t mind that it’s repetitive, because what’s being repeated is some of the best anime of the season. But we don’t really seem to be advancing much.
With that in mind you’re going to have to forgive me if I say some of the same things I’ve been saying for the past two months, because that’s what we’re getting on-screen. Akane is still by all appearances a terrible person, and Rikka is still making allowances for her (even Yuuta is casting her as a victim of Alexis). Akane is still making kaijuu, and Gridman is still finding ways to beat them. We’re still getting hints about what’s really going on here in dribs and drabs, but even if you’re not knowledgeable about the franchise that seems to be more or less what you’d expect. The Shinseiki Chuugakusei are still endlessly entertaining, and Yuuta is still in love with Rikka.
So what’s new? Well, I did ROFL at Yuuta’s horror when the junior high squad showed up at school – because they were in outside shoes. There’s a culture fest coming up, and Akane sees that as the perfect opportunity to trot out her strongest kaijuu yet, and she basically dares the SSSS to try and stop her. What comes out of this is disagreement amongst the squad, with Shou and Yuuta adamant (and quite rightly, I would contend) that Akane needs to be taken down while Rikka clings to the notion that it’s wrong to fight a classmate. The spat between her and Shou is interesting – even if she’s in the wrong, Shou was a total dickhead in the way he called her out for it. But maybe this was a lesson Rikka needed to learn on her own.
While Rikka and Shou do eventually apologize to each other, my pet peevish side would like to know why the both of them never apologized to Yuuta for how they treated him last week. And the headline is probably that Akane as much as tells Rikka straight-out that she’s a NPC – that she (and by extension, all the NPCs in the city) was “set up” to adore her. I’m not going to take anything Akane says as a given, though in general terms she seems to be a truthful sociopath. But if Rikka is indeed not “real”, what does that say about Shou – and maybe even Yuuta?
Meanwhile, Anti-kun appears to have hit rock-bottom – mutilated, famished and desperate he shows up at the junk shop looking for Rikka, only to find the Chuugakusei Squad in hostile mode. Rikka’s mom is sympathetic, and so is Max – maybe even Calibur, who gets Anti’s phone number (that’s a Chekov’s gun if I’ve ever seen one) but Anti isn’t quite ready to join the good guys yet (his expression while watching Gridman take out Akane’s kaijuu is implacable).
Yes we do get another fight, though there are some twists to this one. It’s Yuuta who comes up with the strategy of using Gridman to terrorize the school and force an evacuation before Akane’s super-kaijuu can attack the festival. It’s also Yuuta’s idea to decrease the output of the weapons (basically downsize everyone) so that the entire JH squad can do a zen-gettai with Gridman without overloading Junk and freezing the system. With that on-board Gridman once more manages to foil Akane – who must be realizing by now that for a “God” her won-loss record is pretty piss-poor. Kaijuu defeated, the festival (and the cross-dressing) can go on – but sooner or later something has to give here. And with only four episodes to go, we don’t have a whole lot of “later” left.
DauntingOverlord
November 25, 2018 at 5:44 pmI actually think it’s kinda telling that Anti did not join the fight this episode, I don’t think it was a matter of him not noticing in time. Anyways, I’m still deeply invested in the story, but I can’t deny that I’m feeling nervous about if this train reaches the end or derails in the penultimate episode. It IS Trigger after all.
Guardian Enzo
November 25, 2018 at 5:49 pmWow, that was fast!
Yes, this is Trigger after all. And while Trigger is generally all the bad about Gainax and none of the good, even Gainax wasn’t exactly notorious for great endings. Still, the production schedule being so on-point gives me hope that this was a production that generally had its shit together. Hopefully that applied to the writing, too.
You may be right about Anti not jumping into that fight. Hopefully we find out next week.
DP
November 25, 2018 at 7:47 pmFor the life of me, I will never understand why people fret about a series having “only” 12 episodes, or there being “only” four episodes remaining. Four episodes provide almost as much time as a feature-length movie! There are many, many great movies that are based on very long novels!
Great art and design are based on creators making smart choices. So far, at least, the writing and directing team behind Gridman has produced a thrilling, moody, and atmospheric series filled with great dialogue and stunning visuals. Sure, they could still screw it up, but if they do, it’s not going to be because they have “only” four episodes left.
Guardian Enzo
November 25, 2018 at 7:56 pmThat’s a very reductionist take on the issue, I would argue. There’s a lot of wheel-spinning going on here – vastly entertaining wheel-spinning, granted, but nonetheless. I don’t deny there’s enough time for Gridman to make all this work, but so far it’s behaving more like a two-cour series than a one-cour. And for all that I agree that the visuals and stylistic choices generally have been excellent, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the same is going to hold for the story construction. I’ll take my chances with a staff that do nail those other elements in that it implies general competence, but it’s far from a sure thing.
Scampi
November 25, 2018 at 8:34 pmI’m getting my hopes up that Akane is not getting her redemption and it’s Anti who’s going to switch sides. Her trying to unleash the kaijuu on the school just because it’s cultural festival is just plain filthy. I think Rikka’s take, coloured as it is, is that they need to solve the Akane rampage to get to the root of the problem. But even if the trio can’t hate her, there’s going to be a divide that can’t be crossed. I can’t even begin to imagine the lines the writers need to come up for Akane while switching sides, she just doesn’t seem like the kind of person to bow her head and is just dancing tighter in Alexis’ hands as she isolates herself from school circles in her failure.
By the way I’m half expecting Anti to make the observation that Gridman appeared before kaijuu appeared, and is going to come yelling for another fight next episode.
TheYepMan
November 26, 2018 at 4:12 pmI don’t think a redemption for Akane would be hard to pull off, but it has to be right at the end of the show.
Her kind of character is the kind that has to touch bottom in order to realize they need to get their shit together. She has an enabler that’s very obviously using her, and as long as she’s enabled she’ll continue falling without realizing. I do like that her character Has Real And Serious Issues instead of being a good-but-being-deceived archetype because the really fucked up characters are the hardest to get right and thus the sweetest in terms of payoff when it’s pulled off well. I hope Hasegawa-sensei can step up to that challenge.
Bob
November 26, 2018 at 4:40 amIt’s very telling that Anti doesn’t attack Gridman during the battle with Akane’s super kaiju. The purpose of his existence is to kill Gridman, but with the positive interactions he’s had with Rikka – and by extension, the SSSS – his side-changing is only a matter of time.
Something else of interest is that Akane immediately disengages when Yuta starts to dig at her misanthropy and asks for a reason. That’s probably the raw nerve that’ll get yanked on during the screamfest that’ll accompany any sort of redemption.
TheYepMan
November 26, 2018 at 4:18 pmThis episode was, in my opinion, pretty clever in how it contrasted Akane’s assumption that no one in the city could hate her because “that’s how you’re all made” with Anti very obviously making a change in behavior. If that isn’t a huge, albeit subtle, way of hinting at how Akane is not really aware of how things work in her own creation, then call me an overthinker.
Scampi
November 27, 2018 at 11:20 amThe city is changing in unintended ways. Suddenly the students can see Calibur, and we get a crowd of people animated in this kaiju fight. The citizens are becoming more aware of whatever oblivious veil coding Akane put in them. Also people pointed out giant kaiju’s spikes are falling apart in the bus scene.