Characters / SSSS.GRIDMAN

Gridman Character Index
Denkō Chōjin Gridman | SSSS.GRIDMAN | SSSS.DYNɅZENON | GRIDMAN UNIVERSE

This is a character sheet for the first major installment of the animated Gridman Universe, SSSS.GRIDMAN.

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Gridman

Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa (JP), Robert McCollum (EN)

^{Full Power Gridman} 

^{Gridman's true form} 

The titular Hyper Agent. Once a Kaiju is attacking the city, he and Yuta combine to face the monster.

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• 11th-Hour Superpower: He reaches his final form in the last episode, which turns out to be Gridman. As in, the original Gridman from the toku show, with all of his super moves and Yume no Hero blaring in the background. Even Alexis calls it delightfully nostalgic. This is actually more important than a simple nostalgia grab, as said form includes the classic Fixer Beam, that repairs everything with no need for kaiju.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • He was already pretty badass in the original tokusatsu, but when restored to his true form he's capable of fighting like a Trigger character.
  • This also applies to the Fixer Beam, as its main use in the original series was to repair damage after the fight. Here, it's used to take down the Big Bad.
• All Your Powers Combined: By slightly shrinking his size, he can equip all of the Assist Weapons to become Full Powered Gridman, using every armament from the Assist Weapons.
  • All the Assist Weapons, Anti and Yuta Access Flashing together allows Gridman to regain his original tokusatsu form.
• Amnesiac Hero: Gridman admits he has no memories of his past in episode 4 but only his mission. Later in the show it's implied that a fight before the show began split him into Gridman and the Assist Weapons, and they were originally one being. This turns out to only be semi-true.
• Anchored Attack Stance: Buster Borr's treads are used to stabilize Full Power Gridman when using the Twin Buster Grid Beam.
• Art Evolution: His design changes drastically, so much that he looks bulky with several digital-like patterns. Since the Ultra Series is an in-universe media in this anime, online commentors are quick to compare him with Ultraman Orb Lightning Attacker. At least until he reunites into his true form.
• Big Good: Definitely both figuratively and literally.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Can create a Laser Blade called Gridknight Saber.
• But Now I Must Go: After his mission is completed, he and the rest of the Hyper Agents leave for the Hyper World.
• Character Song: "CODE 'GRIDMAN'".
• The Comically Serious: He always talks like a typical tokusatsu hero. Even when giving Yuta relationship advice.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Averted; once the team figures out how to use all four Assist Weapons at once without them and Gridman freezing up, he starts using this as his default fighting method.
• Critical Annoyance: As with the original Gridman series, he is also fixed to a currently unknown time limit or else the Junk computer would suffer from damages.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: The original Tokusatsu Gridman was split into Junk, Yuta and the Assist weapons at the very beginning of the series. His new form is basically Gridman operating at 50%.
• Dream Walker: Grid Kinesis allows Gridman to enter the dream realm.
• Dub Name Change: Averted. Not bringing back the name "Servo" is the only thing the anime doesn't have in common with the live-action English version.
• Equippable Ally: He can equip himself with the Assist Weapons, formed by any of the Neon Genesis Junior High Students.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: The Fixer Beam, a technique that was used as almost an afterthought in the original series to repair damage done by the Monster of the Week, is the one move that works on Alexis, as it helps give Akane the strength to accept reality, cutting off Alexis' power source.
• Heroes Fight Barehanded: When not equipped with the Assist Weapons, Gridman will fight Kaiju with just his skills and barehanded techniques.
• Hour of Power: His giant form can only be maintained for a short period of time, and initially was limited to just about a minute. As Junk is repaired and he gains the Assist Weapons, he manages to last much longer.
• Impossibly Graceful Giant: Despite being giant-sized in the real world, Gridman is able to pull off aerial flips and jump kicks with no problem at all. Justified as he's actually a small being in Cyberspace, plus the fact that he's digital.
• Invincible Hero: Subverted. Episode 3 has him lose to Anti in their first fight due to Yuta's fear that Anti is a former human.
• Jump Jet Pack: He has a thruster on his back to help accelerate him in attacks on the ground.
• Mythology Gag: His Initial Fighter form takes cues from Naoto's jumpsuit before merging with Gridman.
  • His attack "Gridknight Saber Slash" is named after the unused concept from the original show "Gridknight".
• The Needs of the Many: In Episode 3, he tells Yuta to focus when Yuta was disturbed by the possibility that Anti was a former human by saying even if that is true, Anti will cause plenty of casualties unless they stop him.
• No Social Skills: In some of the radio dramas, Gridman will occasionally drop in on a conversation, much to the embarrassment and covering up that the main cast had to do when talking to people who haven't heard of Gridman.
• Not Quite Dead: After losing to Anti in episode 3 and disappearing for a day, Rikka, Utsumi, and Akane think he's dead. Luckily he was injured and came back after a day.
• Red Is Heroic: Par on both of his live action counterparts. Initially averted, as in episode 1, prior to his optimization, he was mostly blue and lacked any red. And he gains his original tokusatsu colors back in the finale.
• Shipper on Deck: After finding out that Yuta has a crush on Rikka, he nods approvingly when they get along at the end of episode 4. This is likely because he wants Yuta's personality to go unaltered as much as possible while he's inhabiting him.
• Super Mode: Full Powered Gridman is Gridman's strongest form, giving him all of the powers and equipment that come with each of the Assist Weapons. But it's still not as strong as the original Gridman.
• Talking to Themself: Anytime he and Yuuta talk to one another.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: Gridman refuses to kill anything that's actually alive — he only kills Kaiju because they're essentially just negative human emotions given form. However, he spares Anti because by then Anti has learned enough from humans to become alive.
• Transformation Name Announcement: "Hyperlink Combine! Full Powered Gridman!"
• Tron Lines: Gridman’s body is covered in a web of glowing cyan lines. They disappear once he takes on his true form at the end of the series.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Still uses the Grid Beam like his predecessor. Or rather, like he has since the 90s.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The second he learns that Anti is just a Kaiju born to kill him, he doesn't hold back at all.
• Worf Had the Flu: Gridman assuming his true form in the final battle proves that he wasn't at his full strength for most of the series.
• World-Healing Wave: When he regains his true form (that of Gridman from the original series), he also regains the Fixer Beam. With Akane's help, it can even turn the half-finished virtual world into a complete world.

Gridman Alliance

Tropes applying to all members

• Date Peepers: The boys did this in episode 4 under encouragement of the Neon Genesis Junior High students. And Gridman.
• Heroic BSoD: Rikka and Utsumi fall into this when they think Yuta, Gridman and Calibur died against Anti.
• Homemade Inventions: Junk is made from old computer parts, just like its main counterpart.
• I See Them, Too: At first only Yuta can see Gridman and the invisible monster in their city. Once Junk has been optimized, they share this ability with Yuta.
• Legacy Character: To the same trio protagonists of Denkō Chōjin Gridman and Team Samurai of Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.

• The Power of Friendship: The series goes to show that the most important and only thing this team needs is not their skills or talents, but their unwavering friendship with each other and with Akane.
• Scooby Stack: The boys did this when spying on their female classmates in episode 4. Borr even joins them in the lowest formation.

Yuta Hibiki

Voiced by: Yūya Hirose (JP), Brandon McInnis (EN)

A high school student who has no memory of his past, but seemingly knows of his connection to Gridman.

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• Amnesiac Hero: Wakes up at the start with no memory of himself. Except he never had any of Yuta's memories from the beginning. He's actually Gridman possessing Yuta's body. The real Yuta basically sat out the entire series.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Yuta yells "Access Flash!" to merge with Gridman after the second episode.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Averted by episode 4, Yuta can admit that he likes Rikka when Max asks him. He even attempts to ask her out ... too bad she didn't understand.
• Cassandra Truth: Yuta tried to tell Rikka and Utsumi everything that Anosillus the 2nd told him, including that Akane is a god in episode 7. They both refuse to believe him till they see proof at the end of the episode.
• Catchphrase: Towards the end of the series, he develops a catchphrase: "There's something I must do. Something only I can do". This ties into his identity being Gridman rather than the person known as Yuta Hibiki, with Gridman saying similar phrases throughout the first episode.
• Character Song: "ONLY I CAN".
• The Chosen One: Chosen by Gridman to be his host. This is implied to be because in a world designed to love Akane Shinjo, he instead fell in love with Rikka.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He is absolutely determined to save the day from kaiju, no matter how dangerous it is or how scared his friends might be for his safety. Having a hero possessing his body might have something to do with his determination.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He was pretty uncomfortable by the idea of Rikka going to a group date in episode 4, to the point of following her.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Of Naoto Sho from Denkō Chōjin Gridman. Whereas Yuta is amnesiac and has no other relative other than his parents, Naoto's parents are still at home and lack any traits of amnesia.
  • Then there's their relation to Gridman.Naoto is his own separate entity who merges with Gridman due to their hearts resonating as one since their first encounter. By contrast Yuta merges with Gridman because he is Gridman by way of possession.
• Dude, Not Funny!: His reaction to Utsumi's joke that the Kaiju were former humans.
• Expy: Of Jin from Ultraseven X, another Amnesiac Hero whose bounded to a redesigned hero from an older series and now have to defend their world from incoming monster attacks. Both heroes by the finales are even revealed to be their original selves from their original series.
• Henshin Hero: He needs to merge with Gridman in order to fight the kaiju. Or rather, he needs to rejoin with his splintered self to become a giant.
• Last-Name Basis: All of the girls, including Rikka and Akane, call him "Hibiki-kun," in contrast to guys like Utsumi who are on a First-Name Basis with him.
• Locked Out of the Loop: The other half of Gridman was revealed to be possessing Yuta for the entire series instead of being rendered amnesiac. The real Yuta wakes up in the very final episode after Gridman left Tsutsujidai, but because of this, it eventually makes him the only one of out of Gridman Alliance to missed out the very adventure they spent when Gridman was in his body and not knowing all of that ever happened at best.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: A mental variant. Yuta dreams a mirror in episode 11 which shows Gridman making Yuta realize his true identity. This is actually hinted in episode 9 when Yuta would keep seeing Gridman in reflective surfaces in his dream.
• Mythology Gag: He is named after the supposed main character of the early draft Gridman F and would have been Ippei Baba's classmate in a high school.
• Nice Guy: Yuta's an even-tempered guy who fights to protect people. Since he is actually possessed by half of an amnesiac Gridman, this trope only applies to the Hyper Agent as the real Yuta's personality isn't really explored.
• Not Quite Dead: After losing to Anti in episode 3 and disappearing for a day, Rikka and Utsumi think he's dead. Turns out he was still fused with Gridman still in Junk.
• Red Is Heroic: Yuta is a redhead and is always seen with a red wristband that covers the Acceptor, and his character song portrays him with the color red. Not that it ever stopped him from being a Decoy Protagonist.
• Rule of Symbolism: His red colour scheme and horn-like hair protrusions is a hint to the original Yuta being the only being in Akane's world capable of defying her (by falling in love with Rikka instead), and thus allowing Gridman to ultimately destroy her paradise.
• Ship Tease: With Rikka, since the first episode. Hilarity ensues when it turns out the original Yuta was the one with the crush on her, but it was so strong even Gridman started getting affected.
• Shout-Out: His red-hair with the side-horns was inspired by the Autobot Cliffjumper. In one episode, he even wears a t-shirt with the initials "CJ".
  • His shoes are also based off the vehicle mode of the Classics Cliffjumper toy◊.
• Shrinking Violet: Downplayed. He's not cripplingly shy, but he's very soft-spoken and tends to avoid socializing outside of his immediate friend group.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Although the real Yuta is in the back seat throughout the series. But the reason why Gridman was able to enter this "perfect world", save Akane, defeat Alexis and save this world. It all started with just Yuta's love for Rikka.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: When he recovers his memories of being Gridman.
• Supporting Protagonist: He's The Hero and primary point-of-view character, but Akane ends up being the main focus of the story.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Yuta was stabbed by Akane, forcing him to be hospitalized until the NGJHS quartet fixed Junk, allowing "Yuta" to reawaken and revealing that he was possessed by an amnesiac splintered half of Gridman. It only gets better from that point, right? Not. As the final voice drama established, after Gridman left Yuta's body, the real Yuta is yet to recover from the injury of Akane's attack, and he is required to do medical checkups according to Rikka and Utsumi.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: Even the possibility that any of Kaiju were former humans disturbs him enough that he can't fight. This leads to Anti beating Gridman in their first fight.
• Tomato in the Mirror: It's not that Yuta is suffering from amnesia. The Yuta we witness throughout the entire show is actually Gridman, who had lost his own memories of being a separate entity from Yuta. Yuta's own consciousness and memories have been suppressed due to being Gridman's host.

Rikka Takarada

Voiced by: Yume Miyamoto (JP), Jill Harris (EN)

A girl who found Yuta unconscious in front of her home, an apartment above a junk shop her mother runs, which just so happens to hold the computer Junk that Gridman lives in.

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• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: While not particularly aloof, Rikka tends to act more reserved and mature compared to her friends. And according to the first audio drama, her black hair was beautiful enough for Rikka to be a hair model for a magazine.
• Ambiguously Bi: She has some Ship Tease with Yuta at the start of the show and would later get together with him in GRIDMAN UNIVERSE, but her friendship with Akane is also extremely romantically coded, to the point where Akane's Japanese voice actress described their final scene together as Rikka barely holding back on confessing her love to Akane, among other hints such as The LGBT poster and pride sticker seen in the ideal dream world Akane creates for her.
  • In the final Drama CD, when Utsumi asks her how she feels about Yuta, she avoids the question without giving a definitive answer. Combine that with her apparently shipping Utsumi with Akane, and it becomes difficult to pinpoint what her exact sexuality is supposed to be.
• Anger Born of Worry: The second Yuta comes back in episode 3 after being Not Quite Dead, she hits his arm in anger that he didn't contact them sooner.
• Brainy Brunette: Rikka has beautiful long black hair, and she is very good with technology.
• Character Song: "Glass Marble".
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Of Yuka Inoue from Denkō Chōjin Gridman. Justified that since the Assist Weapons are sentient, Rikka has no way of supporting Yuta in combat. Other than that, her house is the group's meeting place.
• Deconstruction: Of the show's token girl archetype. Unlike most Chicks, she doesn't show much emotion, but deep down she is actually the most emotionally aware person in the group (despite being Oblivious to Love), as she cares very deeply for her friends and strangers hurt by the kaiju. And rather than her feelings being a nuisance or afterthought to the plot, they are the key to reaching out to Akane, ending her suffering, and freeing her from Alexis Kerib's clutches.
• First-Name Basis: She's only ever referred to by her first name, even by the guys at school, which is fairly uncommon in a Japanese high school.
• Foil: To Akane. Both are pretty girls and fairly popular and are initially presented as contrasting love interests for Yuta. What makes them different is that Rikka is can come across as aloof and mature, but is also emotional, worries a lot, and loves her friends. Akane is a lovable, flirtatious social butterfly in public, but behind closed doors she shows her true nature as a spiteful and angry murderer and below that level, is an emotionally-wounded hikkikomori who just wants a world she can control and doesn't know how to handle even this life slipping away from her.
• Hartman Hips: Rikka's character design accentuates her legs and thighs, due to Author Appeal.
• The Heart: Of the three protagonists, she's the one who cares the most about her friends and the people who are hurt/killed/rendered missing during the kaiju attacks. She's also the one with the closest relationship to Akane. When everyone wants to fight and perhaps kill Akane, Rikka is the only one to refuse such a course of action, and sets out on her own to implore Akane to stop.
• He's Not My Boyfriend: Part of her dynamic with Yuta involves her denying any accusations of romantic tension. It's a common occurrence, as her group of friends tend to ship the two often, much to Rikka's annoyance.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Rikka is the one to send Akane off to her real life at the end in a very romantically coded scene where she asks Akane to listen to her last wish, that they be together forever, before expressing a hope that it not come true - while she wants to be with Akane, she knows it's better for Akane to return to the world she came from and face her problems instead of fleeing from them.
• Leg Focus: A prominent part of her character design is having decently thick thighs, and plenty of camera work is done to accentuate them.
• Master of the Mixed Message:
  • Prior to the first episode, they had a conversation about something, but due to Yuta's amnesia both he, and the viewer by extension, has no idea what the conversation was said. While Rikka is annoyed over the fact, she also consistency dodges the question of what happened whenever it gets brought up.
  • She also tells Yuta to give her space at school, but when he does just that, she tells him that he doesn't have to completely avoid her.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Rikka is Akane's friend, no matter how much Akane pushes her away or what atrocities Akane performs. Even when she was straight up told that she was only programmed to like Akane, Rikka still wholeheartedly accepts her role as her friend and strives to correct Akane's way instead.
• Nice Girl: Takes Yuta to the hospital and later his home when he doesn't remember anything, and offers Anti her umbrella and food when it's raining.
• Noodle Incident: The content of the conversation Rikka had with Yuta prior to the start of the series and before he lost his memories is never actually explained to the audience.
• Oblivious to Love: She didn't realize that Yuta asked her out on a date in episode 4 and thought he was talking about getting food for everyone. When Gridman reveals Yuta's feelings for her in the final episode, she looks absolutely shocked.
• Ordinary High-School Student: She is the most normal person out of the main trio. Rikka is just a regular student who cares for her friends and helps her mother in work.
• Shipper on Deck: Drama CD 12 reveals that she may ship Utsumi and Akane together.
• Ship Tease: The show gives her some moments with Yuta at the beginning, then gives her even more with Akane later on. Nothing comes out of any of it during the show's run.
• Shout-Out: Her color scheme is based off of an obscure color-variant of Megatron—specifically, the Shattered Glass variant where Megatron leads the valiant Decepticons in a battle against the evil Autobots.
• This Is No Time to Panic: She can surprisingly stay calm despite the seriousness of situations, even when a Kaiju blew up the school.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Subverted; she says that she won't forgive Akane for stabbing Yuta, but because she's programmed to love Akane no matter what she does, it's immediately dropped the moment the two meet up.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: While she was never a jerk, she's more playful and mellowed out in the twelfth sequel Drama CD.
• Tsundere: Downplayed, as Rikka's "harshness" towards Yuta is actually rather tame and more out of annoyance that her friends keep reading more into their situation. Not to mention her general annoyance that Yuta forgot whatever the previous conversation was before the start of the series.
• Vocal Dissonance: Despite being a teenager, she sounds like an adult woman for some reason.

Sho Utsumi

Voiced by: Soma Saito (JP), Greg Ayres (EN)

A nerdy boy in Yuta and Rikka's class, whom Rikka seeks out for his skills in tracking down Yuta's address. The two boys later become good friends. He is the one who named their group the "Gridman Alliance".

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• Ascended Fanboy: A massive Ultraman otaku, and initially thrilled at getting to participate in an Ultra show himself. By the end of the show, however, he's far more bitter about it, coming to find the part of himself that delights in seeing Gridman's battles despicable now that he's aware of just how many people those battles trample underfoot.
• Butt-Monkey: Is the subject of getting kicked on his right leg by either Borr or Rikka.
• Character Song: "Ultra Theory".
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Of Ippei Baba from Denkō Chōjin Gridman. Whereas Ippei at least has artistic skills to design Assist Weapons and his home's basement is Junk's operating place, Sho inherits neither of them. While he's at least modestly skilled at using human networking to gather information, and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Ultra Series, neither of these skills actually prove particularly useful, and Utsumi comes to think of himself as The Load by the end. Ultimately, however, the point of Utsumi's story is that not having any special skills doesn't matter: what mattered were that he had the drive to do the right thing, and that he was friends with Yuta and Rikka.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He was pretty uncomfortable by the idea of Akane going to a group date in episode 4 to the point of following her and being unhappy that she was smiling during the date.
• Deconstruction: Of The Smart Guy/Lancer type character. Despite his glasses, Utsumi is not any smarter or more talented than his two friends (who are similarly average), and the only thing he's really knowledgeable about are mostly useless geek facts about the Ultra series. He doesn't even know how to use Junk properly; Rikka does. That said, the Reconstruction is that his importance is not based on his contributions or his functions, but on the fact that he is a loyal friend no matter how bad things get.
• Embarrassing Nickname: The Voice Dramas have Hass and Namiko dub him "Turboy" or "Turbo-kun", much to his annoyance.
• Geek Physiques: Averted, episode 5 reveals he's mildly pudgy but nowhere near overweight.
• Genre Savvy: Utsumi has an encyclopedic knowledge of Ultraman, which is at least somewhat relevant because Akane is also an Ultra fan and has patterned her whole methodology after it. While it rarely actually helps solve any problems, by the end even Borr starts asking Utsumi with complete seriousness what would happen next if this were an Ultra Series show when they're facing down a boss rush of all the past kaiju with Gridman out of commission.
• Heroic BSoD: Near the end of the show, Utsumi becomes deeply frustrated at having neither any useful skills to offer the group in kaiju battles nor any relationships like Rikka's with Akane that he can try to leverage, leaving him to watch over Yuta's unconscious body while everyone else does something only they can do. He eventually gets over it with the help of Rikka and Yuta in the final episode, realizing that he can do something since he was the one who united everyone in the first place.
• Hopeless with Tech: Utsumi states he's bad with computers in episode 3.
• The Load: As he has neither the power to transform into Gridman nor any remarkable skill beyond useless otaku knowledge, Utsumi doesn't do much to help turn the tide of battle. By the end of the story, even he himself laments how little he actually did in the story, and how powerless he is. Subverted when Yuta and Rikka remind him that he was the one who started the Gridman Alliance, so while his contribution was limited it still impacted a lot.
• Manchild: Manages to fit the bill despite, being in high school, he's closer to a child than a man. He's somewhat immature with a childish love of heroes and kaiju. This is exemplified by showing him at a memorial service with his family... where he's playing with the toys belonging to the children and not letting them have them.
• Mythology Gag: His first name Sho is a homonym for Naoto's family name in Denkou Choujin Gridman.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He jokes that maybe Kaiju are also other humans like Yuta is with Gridman. This plants a seed of doubt in Yuta's head that leads to his apprehension in fighting against Anti, particularly after Anti is the first Kaiju to actually speak.
• Noodle Incident: Before the amnesia, Yuta and Sho were never really friends, with the reunion after the amnesia the most the two had ever spoken to each other in many years.
• Otaku: Is a fan of Ultra Series, which is also an in-universe entertainment in this anime.
• Last-Name Basis: It's always "Utsumi," never "Sho."
• True Companions: In the final episode, Sho is definitely best friends with Yuta and Rikka.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: Near the end of the series, he starts to see himself as one because he never did anything special for the group until Rikka and Yuta convince him that he did help contribute to the team by starting the Gridman Alliance in the first place, and that his friendship is the only thing they want from him.
• Shipper on Deck: Drama CD 12 indicates he may think Rikka and Yuta would make a cute couple.
• Ship Tease: May have more of a thing for Akane than he lets on, especially as noted by Rikka in the Drama CD. For what it's worth Akane doesn't mind flirting with all 3 members of the main characters.
• Shout-Out: His T-Shirt is based off of Sideswipe's color scheme from Transformers - specifically his Shattered Glass version, complete with a crossed-out "8" on his shirt to mirror the latter's scratched out Autobot insignia.

Assist Weapons / Neon Genesis Junior High Students

Tropes applying to all Assist Weapons

Left to right: Samurai Calibur, Max, Borr, Vit

Powered Zenon

• Big Eater: Borr and Vit are more interested in sampling a tray full of pastry than joining the Gridman Alliance's date peeping hijinks.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: They all have their own eccentricities. The most 'normal' of them is Max, and he never takes off his grill mask. That said, as allies to Gridman they are unfailingly loyal and extremely competent.
• Character Song: "Xenon's Justice"
• Combining Mecha: Aside from Samurai Calibur, the other three Assist Weapons each combine with Gridman individually to give him new powers and weaponry.
  • They combine together to form a Power Armor (like Thunder Gridman / Synchro) to form into Full Powered Gridman.
  • They can also combine with each other to form a separate robot, Powered Zenon.
• Composite Character: The terms "Assist Weapon" and the "Access Code" are both from the original Japanese TV series, while the characters' names and how they assist Gridman are from the American adaptation.
• Cool Helmet: Barring Samurai Calibur, any Assist Weapon that combines with Gridman tends to give him different helmets.
• Dark Is Not Evil: They may have mysterious backgrounds and wear darker uniforms, but are equally loyal to Gridman altogether.
• Date Peepers: They spy on a date arranged by a team of YouTubers and Rikka's circle of friends.
• Equippable Ally: Each transforms into a set of armor and weapons for Gridman.
• High-Tech Hexagons: The shape of the portal they come out of when materializing as their weapon forms.
• Literal Split Personality: Near the end of the show, they start to suspect that they and Gridman may be this, and Full Power Gridman was their original unified state. They're half right.
• Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: Initially Junk simply didn't have enough RAM to handle them all at once. The first time they try, the computer crashes, causing Gridman and the Weapons to freeze in mid-air while visibly glitching out.
  • In episode 8, it is circumvented by lowering their output (be smaller).
  • In episode 11, Junk is upgraded so they and Gridman can fight at maximum output, demonstrated when Calibur is used by Gridknight, who isn't tied to Junk.
• Nice Guys: While Borr does snark a lot and Vit being a lazy bum, they altogether follow Gridman's instructions to follow the boys in peeping on Rikka, Akane, Namiko, and Hass' date with the Arcadia boys. And they do whatever they can to support the heroes and keep them safe.
• Older Than They Look: They are all apparently students at Neon Genesis Junior High School, despite the fact Samurai Calibur, Max, and Vit all look like they're in their 20s or 30s. This might be subverted because they're not actually students, so they really could be in their 20s or 30s.
  • Subverted with Borr who looks like he's either young enough or too young for junior high.
  • There is no actual "Neon Genesis Junior High School"; "Neon Genesis Junior High Student" is just a title they're given.
• Shout-Out: Their color schemes and the designs on their lapels are references to the Dinobots from the live-action Michael Bay movies.
• Transformation Name Announcement: "War God Combine! Powered Zenon!"
• Unexplained Recovery: Despite merging with Gridman to regain their original form and power for the final battle, the four are shown as separate entities alongside the complete Gridman in the ending. It's reasonable to assume that much like the other characters grew in various ways from their experiences, the Assist Weapons grew into complete Hyper Agents in their own right. That, or they were always separate people in the first place.
• Weirdness Censor: Most people can't see them. Until later in the series when Akane's world starts breaking down.

Samurai Calibur

Voiced by: Ryosuke Takahashi (JP), Ian Sinclair (EN)

Human Form

^{Gridman Calibur} 

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• BFS: Transforms into Gridman Calibur for Gridman. Ironically his counterpart, the Gridman Sword a.k.a. Samurai Sword were relatively normal swords.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: "Access Code: Gridman Calibur!"
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's very eccentric and out-of-touch with basic human interaction. He also frequently gets his swords stuck in doorways, and doesn't seem to understand that no one else possesses his superhuman agility (much to the chagrin of the Gridman Alliance, who have to follow him while he leaps from building to building).
• Character Song: "The Heart's Hiding Place"
• Cool Sword: He is one, the Gridman Calibur.
• Creepy Good: His creepy staring, disheveled appearance, and quiet nature make him come across as quite intimidating and results in him making a bad first impression on Yuta. However, Calibur is a genuinely nice, if socially awkward, guy.
• Diagonal Cut: The "Grid Calibur End" is a diagonal slash that cuts a Kaiju in two.
• Dual Wielding: Pulls out two swords when fighting Anti in human form to protect Yuta.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Has four of them. However, they only look like traditional katanas when sheathed. The swords actually have large serrated blades when in use.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Has several pet cats at home and would adopt a stray cat if he ever found one.
• Loon with a Heart of Gold: He's weird, socially awkward, and comes off as creepy, but he's about as nice as they come and rather compassionate.
• Low Clearance: A horizontal example; he has trouble going through doors because of the swords he carries. Max had to move his swords vertically when walking behind him while they entered Rikka's shop.
• Mythology Gag: Is named after the Samurai Sword, and his initials "SC" reference Sam Collins the main protagonist from Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.
• No Social Skills: He rarely expresses emotion, often struggles with social situations, and is unaware that his blunt and overly logical behavior makes him come across as creepy. A memorable instance of this is when he barges into every single room in a karaoke bar until he finds the one he's looking for and sees no problem with it.
• Odd Friendship: Develops one with Anti. He even got his phone number! And it's implied that he was the one who taught Anti good manners.
• Palette Swap: The normally yellow Gridman Calibur turns red upon becoming the "Gridknight Calibur."
• The Reliable One: As weird as he may be, he is the Gridman Alliance's first and most consistent guardian.
• Smarter Than You Look: He may be a weirdo who keeps getting his swords stuck in doorways, but he's also very observant, intelligent, and wise, to the point that he has an important role in Anti's Heel–Face Turn.
• Speech Impediment: Generally stutters when engaging in casual conversation. But he stops stuttering when he has something important to say.
• Stealth Mentor: His influence on Anti is abundantly obvious when you watch the sequel series, where the latter has adopted many of the former's mannerisms.
• The Stoic: Calibur's face almost never changes from a dull stare, even when he's smacking into a door frame (ep. 2) or sampling some pastries (ep. 4). When he finally laughs in episode 11 while talking to Anti, Borr is actually shocked.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: While no one seems to pay any attention to the scruffy looking older man carrying four katanas on him, he does have difficulty entering doorways because all of the scabbards and handles are too wide.
• Transformation Name Announcement: "Electrifying Great Sword! Gridman Calibur!"

Max

Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (JP), Cris George (EN)

Human Form

^{Battle Tracto Max} 

^{Max Gridman} 

---

• Awesome Personnel Carrier: The Battle Tracto Max is a 10WD military vehicle.
• BFG: Battle Tracto Max's main weapons, the Tanker Cannons. They become Shoulder Cannons when combined with Gridman.
• The Big Guy: Hercules Combination Max Gridman's main power is raw physical strength. Max also towers over the other guys.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: "Access Code: Battle Tracto Max!"
• Character Song: "A Far Off Day's Future"
• Cool Mask: Wears one that covers his jaws that is most likely based on the grill of his tank form. Surprisingly, he can consume food and drink without having to remove it.
• Diving Kick: One of Gridman's finishing moves when equipped with Battle Tracto Max is performing a thruster-powered diving kick that makes a Kaiju explode upon impact.
• Gentle Giant: Has a large stature and also a supportive personality. He encourages Yuta to pursue his feelings for Rikka since Max can tell Yuta clearly likes her.
• Large and in Charge: In episode 3, when Rikka asked the four assist weapons which of them are the strongest, they all pause to look at one another, giving the idea that they never stopped to ask themselves that before either. When the scene switches, it looks like they settled on Max. Episode 5 later shows that Max is the unofficial leader of the weapons.
• Lightning Bruiser: Although being a strength-oriented form, Max Gridman has no trouble in performing "somersaults.
• Mythology Gag: His Assist Weapon form is the Battle Tracto Max and is armed with Tanker Cannons. The battle helmet for Max Gridman even resembles a football helmet, as American football was Tanker's sport on the show.
• Odd Name Out: Max is the only Neon Genesis Junior High Schooler whose civilian name doesn't match up with any of the Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad Arsenal Programs. His Assist Weapon form, however, does.
• Power Fist: When combined with Gridman, he gains very large fists formed from Battle Tracto Max's front bumpers. These increase Gridman's arm strength. Max also wields a spiked fist of his own in human form.
• Red Is Heroic: Basically his Assist Weapon form's color scheme
• Rocket-Powered Weapon: When combined with Gridman, Battle Tracto Max's wheels can become thrusters to assist in attacks.
• Team Dad: With Gridman limited in his interactions, Max is the one who cares for everyone's wellbeing and guides them to their goals.
• Transformation Name Announcement: "Heracles Combine! Max Gridman!"

Borr

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (JP), Apphia Yu (EN)

Human Form

^{Buster Borr} 

^{Buster Gridman} 

---

• By the Power of Grayskull!: "Access Code: Buster Borr!"
• Character Song: "Dig Dig Boooom!"
• Drill Tank: His Assist Weapon form.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: At first, it looks like Aoi Yūki has been typecast again as a young girl, but she surprises everyone by revealing on her Twitter account that Borr is a boy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sure he's snarky, but at the same time is also observant of Sho and Akane, especially when taking account of the latter girl's suspicious behavior.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Two types missiles Borr has are Sydney Super Adhesive Missiles and Forrester Extinguisher Missiles.
• More Dakka: Buster Gridman's main method of attack is a lot of cannons, missiles, and gatling guns.
• Mythology Gag: He's named after the Borr Arsenal Program from Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. His missile attacks are called "Sydney Super Adhesive Missile" and "Forrester Extinguisher Missiles" which are named after Borr's pilot Sydney Forrester. Also, the helmet for the combined form, Buster Gridman, closely resembles the helmet of the original Thunder Gridman, with only the central crest unfolded (the crest comes out when used for the Full Powered Gridman formation).
• Shout-Out: Buster Gridman's combination process echoes those of Super Fighbird.
• This Is a Drill: The Assist Weapon Borr is a double Drill Tank like the original Twin Driller / Borr. However, his teammates claim that Buster Borr's drills are only for show and are not functional or useful in battle.
  • The drills are properly usable when Full Powered Gridman is activated.
• Transformation Name Announcement: "Full Armor Combine! Buster Gridman!"
• Trick Bomb: The Sydney Super Adhesive Missiles and Forrester Extinguisher Missiles.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Gridman's finishing move when equipped with Buster Borr is firing two large laser beams from the Twin Drills on Gridman's shoulders, which is capable of slicing through even the biggest of Kaijus.

Vit

Voiced by: Masaya Matsukaze (JP), Chris Burnett (EN)

Human Form

^{Sky Vitter} 

^{Sky Gridman} 

---

• Backpack Cannon: A section of Sky Vitter becomes this when combined with Gridman.
• Beam Spam: The "Amp Laser Circus" is, fittingly enough, a homing laser-based Itano Circus.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Vit may be a Hyper Agent, but he's shown to be quite a lazy one. He didn't help push any of the Junk's parts to Yuta's location, he was probably the one who had only one coin when buying the Junk, he doesn't help out a customer looking for another keyboard in Rikka's shop, and when he's called into action he just gives a look of confusion.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: "Access Code: Sky Vitter!"
• Character Song: "INTERSECTION!"
• Cool Plane: His Assist Weapon form.
• Flight: When combined with Sky Vitter, Gridman achieves the power of flight, allowing him to reach even atmospheric heights.
• High-Altitude Battle: Sky Gridman is designed for aerial combat.
• Homing Lasers: Sky Vitter's Amp Laser Circus fires a multitude of beams that are tracked on the opponent.
• Irony: The fastest of the Assist Weapons is the slowest thinker.
• Lazy Bum: He is seen mostly on his phone and doesn't act until others tell him to or when the situations get serious.
• Mythology Gag: He's named after the Vitor Arsenal Program from Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. His attacks are also named "Lucky Smoke Screen" and "Amp Laser Circus", after both of its pilots.
• Smoke Out: "Lucky Smoke Screen."
• Transformation Name Announcement: "Empyrean Combine! Sky Gridman!"
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Beam Cannons on Sky Gridman can fire two powerful energy beams.

Antagonists

Alexis Kerib

Voiced by: Tetsu Inada (JP), Barry Yandell (EN)

A malicious being who has the power to bring Kaiju to life.

---

• Adaptational Nice Guy: He's much nicer to Akane than Khan was to Takeshi. That doesn't mean he's not still totally evil. Also he's faking it to manipulate her into making Kaiju.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Once he ends his long charade and reveals his vile motivations, Alexis shows his true colors as far more monstrous and sadistic than Khan Digifier/Kilokahn ever were.
• Affably Evil: Unlike Akane, who reveals her true sadistic personality as soon as she's out of the public eye, Alexis is courteous and cheery even while he's face-to-face with Yuta at a restaurant. He even pays for dinner. If not for the fact that he's trying to destroy the city and kill Gridman, Alexis would be the nicest, friendliest character in the show.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Mind you, the above mention actually subverts this, as he does end Episode 7 cutting Anti's face with a motor saw and then again in Episode 11 when he turned Akane into a Kaiju after she became useless to him...
• Asshole Victim: You don't weep for him when Gridman eradicates Alexis predatory ass with his Fixer Beam.
• Big Bad: The main source of bringing the kaiju to life, the one really in charge of his and Akane's partnership, and the one who shattered Gridman into Yuta, Junk, and the Assist Weapons.
• Character Song: "Darken Red Sky".
• Complete Immortality: It's not that he's hard to kill or Gridman needs some special power to kill him, Alexis actually legitimately cannot die. Even when Gridman beats him, Alexis is still alive, just sealed away to await trial in the Hyper World.
• Creative Sterility: For all his power, he's not very imaginative. Wandering the multiverse for so long has left him so bored that the only thing he takes pleasure in anymore is harming others. Lacking any other feelings besides emptiness and sadism, he just doesn't have any great ideas. Turning Akane's sculptures into Megavirus Kaiju eventually gives him a little bit of a spark, which he uses to turn her into a Kaiju now that she's no longer needed.
• Dark Is Evil: His color scheme is black, acting as a Foil to Gridman's primarily white color scheme.
• Did Not See That Coming: His final form is immortal, recovering instantly from whatever attack Gridman throws at him due to being powered by Akane's despair. What he did not foresee was that Gridman didn't only have the power to destroy, but the power to repair and heal with his Fixer Beam, which he uses on Alexis to repair Akane's heart, and shatter the source of Alexis' power.
• Dual Wielding: Wields two large swords in his fight against Gridman in his original form.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Played With and Subverted: Alexis chides Akane's destructive fits as "violent" but in the end desires for her to get worse for his own purposes.
• Empty Shell: By his own admission Alexis' Complete Immortality leaves him empty inside, something he remedies with the emotions of others.
• Evil Is Petty: Alexis makes Akane look complex and multi-dimensional when it comes to evil motivations. The long and short of it is that he's empty inside due to his immortality, so he manipulates others to basically feed off their emotions.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Akane saw him as her assistant and worked with him to control her world. In the end, she finds out that as far as Alexis is concerned, she's the toy for him to play with for awhile, break, and easily replace with a shiny new one.
• Eviler than Thou: Makes it clear that he's a far greater threat than Akane by turning her into a Kaiju and then using her as a battery for his own power.
• For the Evulz: His motivation in the end. He corrupted Akane and god only knows how many before her simply because he was bored. Specifically, his immortality leaves him empty inside so he decided to fill that void with the emotions of others, and he especially enjoys schadenfreude.
• From a Single Cell: Alexis can regenerate from any injury, thanks to his immortality. In their final battle Gridman vaporizes Alexis in an explosion, cuts him in half, and blows his head off. Alexis is barely inconvenienced by any of these, and the last one doesn’t even interrupt his monologue.
• Hate Sink: Once you're privy to the fact he's exploiting Akane's depression and loneliness to serve his own ends Alexis becomes the most loathsome character in the series.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: He’s quickly established as Akane’s partner in crime, but his origin, goals and motives for helping her to carry out her vendettas against the people she dislikes remain unclear for most of the show. The final episode reveals the truth: he’s a bored, immortal being who takes pleasure in the suffering of people like Akane, and he provides her with Kaiju so that he can watch her drive herself further into despair by tearing down her ideal city over and over again.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Several times:
  • He's not actually stuck in Akane's computer and can roam around the world at human scale as he pleases. This in turn serves as Foreshadowing about the true nature of the world the story takes place in.
  • He doesn't need Akane to recreate a destroyed kaiju as a statue: once it exists, he can call up a whole army of them if he wants. He only needs the statue because he's not very creative himself.
  • He's not limited to turning statues into kaiju. He can do it with people just fine.
• Immortality Immorality: He's utterly unkillable, and will happily step over every line to fulfill his sick desires.
• Inexplicably Awesome:
  • Alexis is easily the most powerful foe Gridman has ever faced. To the point where he could only win indirectly by destroying Alexis' power source with the Fixer Beam rather than straight up defeating him. Yet at the end all we know is that he is immortal and that he caused the events of the show because he was bored. Unlike Khan Digifier, it isn't even revealed if he's from the Hyper World like Gridman or not.
  • Subverted, Maybe. If his voice actor wasn't joking, then at one point in development it was decided that he used to be Over Justice and was corrupted.
• Legacy Character: Of Kahn Digifer and Kilokhan.
• Man Behind the Man: Akane would be quite literally powerless without him, at least as far as her ability to make monsters goes. And according to Anosillus? He's using her.
• Mook Maker: Alexis's "Instance Abreaction" allows him to transform Akane's statues of kaiju into the real thing. Or turn Akane herself into a kaiju, when she's outlived her usefulness.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Faithfully follows his original concept from Gridman F.
  • Barry Yandell's performance in the dub is akin to Tim Curry's performance as Kilokahn in Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad.
• Orcus on His Throne: Alexis typically sits in Akane's computer, not unlike Gridman in Junk. Unlike Gridman, he's not confined to it and can roam around town at human scale as he pleases. Despite this, even after revealing this ability he only chats with Yuta rather than attack him while he's alone and vulnerable. Justified with his motivation being to enjoy Akane's dark emotions. He doesn't actually need to anything personally to get what he wants until Akane stops making kaiju for him.
• The Power of Hate: Alexis claims his kaiju run on this to determine their strength. Akane's desire to destroy everything and everyone that displeases her works well with this requirement, although on one occasion he lets Anti make a kaiju instead to see if his stronger hatred of Gridman than Akane's will do the trick.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Alexis is a rather odd name for a villain. But don't let his name fool you. He's still one of the biggest threats in the show.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Mostly dark with a red visor.
• Resurrective Immortality: Alexis can be stabbed, sliced in half, and otherwise killed just as easily as anyone else, but it doesn't stick.
• Revive Kills Zombie: No amount of violence will kill Alexis when it finally comes time to throw down with him. The only thing that works to defeat him is Gridman's Fixer Beam, which reduces Alexis to a state where he can be imprisoned and taken into custody.
• Sadist: He says himself that nothing brings him joy except witnessing damaged souls like Akane fall into despair.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Gridman seals him into a small cube and takes him back to Hyper World at the end of the series.
• The Sociopath: Keeps an affable and suave demeanor at times, while he enjoys manipulating those working for him (i.e., Akane) and taking sadistic pleasure at making them suffer. To him, everything else around him are nothing more but his stress toys he loves to break. He also by his own admission feels empty for the most part, only able to feel joy by causing destruction and suffering to others.
• Sinister Shades: A nice shiny pair of red at that.
• Shout-Out: His design is almost identical to Over Justice. It serves as an internal Shout-Out since the show is produced by Trigger and Alexis and Over Justice share a voice actor. His Kaiju form even resembles an Evil Counterpart to both Over Justice and Inferno Cop. A later official interview then half-jokingly stated that he is Over Justice, albeit transformed into a dark persona after travelling the stars. He becomes his regular old self again after the Fixer Beam, well, fixes him.
• Toxic Friend Influence: He acts like a friend to Akane, but based on Anosillus the 2nd's Exposition Dump he's faking it to manipulate her into becoming a worse person so she can make stronger Kaiju. Once her usefulness ends in Episode #11 he turns her into a Kaiju, then when that fails he just absorbs her to achieve his own kaiju form.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: A downplayed example as he certainly never implies he wishes he wasn't completely immortal. But as a result he's just so terribly bored which unfortunately leads to a particularly heinous example of Immortal Immaturity.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Although he takes the time to make sure he's milked Akane for every last scrap of creativity she's got before finally turning her into a kaiju, then eating her to enhance himself. He's then all too willing to go find another toy to play with.

Akane Shinjo

Voiced by: Reina Ueda (JP), Lindsay Seidel (EN)

Portrayed by: Coco Nitta

^{Akane's true form (SPOILERS)} 

A girl at the same high school as the others, who is seen to be a perfect student and is very popular. This hides her true capricious and vindictive personality traits that come out when she has Alexis bring her Kaiju to life to right perceived wrongs with the city.

---

• A God Am I: Anosillus the 2nd implies this when revealing to Yuta that Akane is in control of all of the Kaiju and constantly rebuilds Tsutsuji-dai in her image after sending Kaiju to kill people off that bothered her. Episode 7 has her affirming these claims by calling herself a god. Episode 8 has her revealing that she even created the people in the world, and made it so they'll all love her unconditionally.
• Ambiguously Bi: She's just as flirty with Rikka as she is with Yuta, Anti and Utsumi. Rikka is also described as the only person in the simulated world that Akane truly loves.
• Anime Hair: Akane certainly stands out in the crowd with her purple/white hair. This is entirely the point.
• Ax-Crazy: Her response to someone messing up her day for the smallest of infractions? Death by Kaiju and, if it manages to succeed, causing the victim(s) to be partially Ret-Gone. She indulges in this for shits and giggles at Alexis's encouragement, on top of the wanton carnage caused by her creations in the first place. And the worse things get for her, the worse she gets, to the point of outright stabbing Yuta near-fatally once she hit a mental breaking point in constant failures against Gridman.
• Bad Boss: It's honestly amazing that neither Alexis Kerib or Anti have kicked the crap out of her yet since they are a computer demon and a super Kaiju while she is as far as we know a Puny Earthling.
• Bait the Dog: She initially comes off as a sweet and friendly if mildly annoying girl who has a blatant crush on Yuta. Then it's revealed she's directly causing the Kaiju attacks, and for the sake of petty revenge at that.
• Big Bad Wannabe: The series' fights are direct results of her desire for petty revenge and her anger. At least until her repeated defeats wear her down and leave her a wreck that's tossed aside by the true Big Bad: Alexis, who reveals to her she's little more than an easily broken and discarded toy.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She seems like a nice gal, but her true side is psychotic and uncaring.
• Break the Haughty: The events of episodes 7 through 9 gradually demolish Akane's confidence and god complex. Episode 7 shows that she is replaceable as the Big Bad, and for added injury it was by Anti. Episode 8 shows that for all her boasting, Gridman can easily destroy all of her kaiju. And Episode 9 shows that she no longer has control of her world and probably never did. By the end of it all she was practically suicidal.
• But Now I Must Go: She leaves the simulation world after accepting her flaws.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Given that her real body looks more like an average Japanese high-schooler, her avatar's large-for-her-age breasts were a result of this mentality on her part.
• Call-Back: Her choice of knife is a box cutter, calling back to an episode of the original show where Takeshi attempted to stab his good alter-ego Takeo with one. In both cases, the box cutter is a visual metaphor for self-harm.
• Character Song: "I Want to Know More About You".
• Complete Immortality: Within her perfect world, Akane appears to be completely invulnerable to harm, given she at one point throws herself off the top of a construction yard to no effect. Word of God is that she doesn't do things like sweat or gain weight from overeating either.
• Composite Character: Her favorite food is special dog (a type of hot dog), which is Ippei Baba's favorite food and is presented as an ace in her classroom like Yuka Inoue. And then there's her creating monsters and Alexis materializes them, fully embracing this anime's role as Takeshi Todo.
  • Meanwhile, her family name is one Kanji away from Akiho Shinjo, Yuka's cousin from episode 36 of Denkou Choujin.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Takeshi Todo, both are humans who made a partnership with the Big Bad and the ones who created monsters to attack the Computer World. However, while Todo in an unlucky introvert, Akane is smart enough to put a friendly facade towards every people around her.

• Cute and Psycho: Cute as a button and won't hesitate to send a freakin' Kaiju on your ass if you do anything she thinks offended her. She creates Anti to be a perfect opponent to Gridman for no reason. While she praises and lavishes gifts of expensive food upon Anti for beating Gridman a first time, his second fight and loss is followed up the next day by Akane throwing food in his face.
• Damsel in Distress: Rescuing Akane from her desire to run away from reality is essentially the main goal of the series and Gridman. This manifests in rescuing her from Alex Kerib's clutches.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • Episodes 8 and 9 together send Akane tumbling over the edge. The kaiju she creates in this state is outright stated to be her heart incarnate: a lumbering, disheveled mess that conceals within itself a horrifying Laughing Mad abomination intent on destroying everything, human and kaiju alike. When that doesn't work, she goes to Rikka's house and stabs Yuta with her knife.
  • After stabbing Yuta with a box cutter, she loses all inspiration for making Kaiju and talks in a dull monotone.
  • She actually hit it long before the show even started, her fabricated city where she's virtually perfect being her escapist fantasy where she can get away from her self-esteem issues and fear of the real world. When said city starts getting out of her hands as she cannot control everything, she starts violently lashing out and ultimately crumbles as Gridman's actions even take away her ability to remove what she considers flaws in her ideal world.
• Disproportionate Retribution: This seems to be her M.O. for the Kaiju attacks.
  • In the first episode, she sends the first Kaiju to kill the volleyball team simply because they accidentally ruined the special dog she was giving to Yuta.
  • In the second episode, she sends another Kaiju to kill her homeroom teacher after he bumps into her by mistake and didn't apologize.
  • In the fourth episode, she sends a Kaiju to kill all four members of the Arcadia webcast because one of them incorrectly identified the kaiju she uses as her profile picture, and interrupted her as she attempted to pry information about Gridman out of Rikka.
• Dissonant Serenity: She's cheerful and perky even when she's causing kaiju attacks out of petty revenge, and treats the whole thing like she's playing a video game.
  Alexis: What are you planning on using [that kaiju] for?
  Akane: (cheerfully) Killing my homeroom teacher.
• The Dragon: For the majority of the series, she thinks Alexis Kerib is this to her, but it turns out she was this to him.
• Evil Former Friend: Towards Rikka. Rikka states that they used to walk to school and hang out but for some reason stopped. While Rikka is interested in being friends again, Akane has no interest. No need to invest time in the relationship, after all, since Rikka is programmed to be her friend no matter what Akane does.
• Evil Is Petty: Oh boy is she ever. Akane will literally send a monstrous kaiju on someone just because they annoyed or accidentally offended her.
• Evil Laugh: Gives a menacing one when she thinks Gridman's was finally beaten.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Akane seems nice. This only holds up as long as nobody does anything to make her lose her temper. She takes out her frustrations on people with Kaiju, and that's only for starters.
  • Note how her glasses and cellphone screen are cracked as a telltale sign she's also "cracked".
  • As another sign of her insanity, her Trademark Favorite Food is tomato juice, as a metaphor for blood.
• Faux Affably Evil: While Akane is sweet and cheerful in public, the moment she doesn't have to put on the act, she stops and reveals her true cold and sadistic attitude.
• Foil: To Rikka. Both are pretty girls and fairly popular. What makes them different is that Rikka is occasionally aloof and mature, but is also emotional, worries a lot, and loves her friends. Akane is a lovable, flirtatious social butterfly in public, but behind closed doors she shows her true nature as a spiteful and angry murderer and below that level, is an emotionally-wounded hikkikomori who just wants a world she can control and doesn't know how to handle even this life slipping away from her.
• The Heavy: Akane is the most prominent antagonist in the show. She designs the Kaiju which Alexis Kerib brings to life, with said Kaiju being created both to carry out her vendettas against the people she dislikes, and to keep Gridman from interfering with those vendettas. Despite her prominence, she is not the Big Bad; Alexis is.
• Hikikomori: Akane has shades of this as though she does go outside to school, her room is full of bags of trash between the glass display shelves full of kaiju statues she made that are yet to be brought to life by Alexis Kerib.
  • The finale hints that this is due to her actual self in the real world, rather than her avatar in her simulation.
• Hypocrite: Acts like attacking someone over ruined special dog is justified, but she stomps on the hotdogs Anti was carrying and doesn't give a damn. Granted Anti stole them from Yuta.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Alexis Kerib sought out Akane because of her extreme negative emotions and desire to be in control of her life. He brought her to the false Nerima where she was allowed to create the city and make versions of everyone within it that would exist solely to be her friend and love her unconditionally. Despite this, and the fact that the world is a simulation of the real one, she has not been perfect with this and desperately wants Yuta, Rikka, and Utsumi to be her friends. The three do admit that if they had met Akane under different circumstances, it would have come out that way, but instead they met her in the form of a petty misanthropic god.
• Jerkass: Akane's personality outside of school is very uncaring. When Anti fails to defeat Gridman, she throws his food at his face and when he comes back to her house, she throws her phone at his face. She's really that horrible of a person. Granted, more than half of this comes from the fact that she sees all residents of Tstsuji as literally artificial and malleable, and there is, to her, seemingly no need to be kind to NPCs you can mold and replace at your whim.
• Karmic Transformation: After spending the entire series murdering people with her kaiju for the most petty reasons imaginable, she's turned into one herself, tormented endlessly by the images of the people she's killed. The form itself is implied to be incredibly painful if her screaming is any indication.
• Karma Houdini: Gets away with stabbing Yuta because no one, not Rikka, not Utsumi, and not the Assist Weapons, were programmed to stop her from doing so. The shock of her suddenly barging into the store when no one expected it certainly helped.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Granted, while she gets away with the above in the short term, stabbing Yuta emotionally shatters Akane, leaving her unresponsive as Alexis orders her to continue making Kaiju. Eventually Alexis decides to put her to use by transforming her into a Kaiju herself. When that form is defeated, Alexis absorbs Akane and uses her negative emotions as a battery to power himself up.
• Mad Artist: Akane is an extremely talented sculptor, making all of the show's kaiju in the same way that Ippei Baba made the original show's Assist Weapons.
• Men Can't Keep House: Inverted for Akane, who lives in a mansion but her own room is filled with garbage bags. This is actually even more telling than it first appears, since she could presumably just create a new room for herself whenever and have the old one removed, but her trash-filled room is the one she keeps retreating to and she even gets angry when it is "violated".
• Misanthrope Supreme: It becomes apparent by Episode 4 that Akane has a general disdain for everyone around her. She creates Kaiju to wipe people out of existence all for mildly inconveniencing her in her day-to-day life. It then gets a bit more complicated when it comes out that she doesn't even, on the surface, see the residents as people, since they're all just NPCs in her simulation and she set the parameters for the major ones to begin with. How much of a misanthrope she truly is at heart is a major source of tension for the finale.
• Mook Maker: She designs the Kaijus Alexis brings to life with his powers. When she no longer wants to make anymore, Alexis decides to absorb her and move onto the next victim.
• Ms. Fanservice: The show really likes to emphasize her figure whenever she's in her room. Which is likely the point. Why would she want to look like she does in real life when she could be as beautiful as she wants in the computer world?
• My God, What Have I Done?: After episode 9, she begins to realize that although she created them, the residents of this world are sentient people just like her...which includes all the people she's killed. Her remorse and self-loathing over this only accelerates from there.
• Mythology Gag:
  • She is borrowed from the concept of Gridman F, based on a similarly named character who is supposed to be a Takeshi Todo Expy. Turns out, she did end up being a counterpart of Takeshi.
  • In episode 1, she forms her hands like a pair of scissors. Although being a nod to Alien Baltan, it is also based on the Kaiju Metallus from the original Gridman. Ippei Baba also did this in episode 5 of Gridman to be exact.
  • Her boxcutter, which she uses to craft monsters are the same type from Takeshi's in episode 33 of Gridman.
• Obliviously Evil: Akane doesn't really understand her creations are people, viewing the world as something akin to a Life Simulation Game. Thus from her perspective, her murderous actions are no different than taking her frustrations on NPCs in such a game. It isn't until later in the series that she comes to realize the truth of the situation, and doesn't take it well at all.
• Otaku: Seems to be one of sorts given her collection and knowledge of Kaijus from different media and her conversation with Sho.
• Psycho Knife Nut: It's a hobby knife she normally uses to sculpt her kaiju, but it'll stab Yuta in the gut just fine.
• Reality Warper: A real person would seem like that to the virtual world, at least.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Akane has vivid ruby eyes with yellow highlights and a vividly vindictive personality.
• Save This Person, Save the World: The key to defeating Alexis is to save Akane and mend her shattered heart, thereby cutting off Alexis' power source and leaving him weakened enough for Gridman to imprison him.
• Shout-Out: Her color scheme is based off of the evil Shattered Glass-variant of Optimus Prime, who leads the evil Autobots. More to the point, her glasses are the same shade of green as SG!Prime's windshields and feature the same crack in the same lens, and she is eventually redeemed and reborn.
• Sexier Alter Ego: Her real self looks pretty cute, but she's a real live person, not an anime character with exotic hair and massive breasts.
• Sophisticated as Hell: In public, Akane gives off the impression of a meek and elegant Yamato Nadeshiko. In private? You will find her room littered with trash bags, wearing cracked glasses, and loafing around her place barefoot. Her personality is characterized with tantrums and raging at her computer like a gamer who needs an intervention.
• Tears of Remorse: Akane sheds tears after admitting that she was wrong for her actions and that all she wanted was to be loved. Given her situation, it's hard not to cry along with her.
• The Tease: She's quite fond of teasing others with outrageous statements or false requests.
• The Vamp: Akane's not above trying to make use of her sex appeal to sway Yuta to her side.
• Trash of the Titans: What little floorspace in her room that isn't covered by furniture or shelves is buried under a spreading sea of filled plastic garbage bags.
• Unwitting Pawn: She believes Alexis Kerib is her friend and assistant, but in reality he is manipulating her for his own ends. After it becomes clear that she’s lost any drive to keep designing new Kaiju, Alexis turns her into a Kaiju.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: In episode 5 she pulls out her phone from her bikini top. There is no indication it was there and it should have been visible considering the phone's size and how thin and fitting the bikini was.
• Villain Ball: Giving Anti the same weaknesses as Gridman is either out of her control, this, or part of a brilliant plan beyond the understanding of mere mortals.
• Villain Protagonist: She has the most important and best explored character arc, ultimately being the main focus of the overall story.
• We Can Rule Together: Episode 7, she offers this to Yuta knowing that he's Gridman.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Outside of a few other people, she largely sees the rest of the town as inconveniences and "things to be changed" whenever something doesn't go her way. The pain of the consequences her erasing causes (such as several people now losing their children young) doesn't concern her as they're all just people the kaiju created, in some cases (like Rikka's) to her exact specifications, which makes her see herself as the only real person. She starts to realize otherwise towards the finale, eventually having a complete Villainous BSoD.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: When she finally discovers how Hibiki becomes Gridman, she wastes no time in walking in and shanking him with a box cutter. She then trashes Junk for good measure. Deconstructed when destroying her enemy so directly and abruptly causes Akane to emotionally collapse and wander around in a daze.
• You Have Failed Me: Throws her bento at Anti's human form after his previous battle with Gridman ended with a draw.

Anti

Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (JP), Stephen Fu (EN)

^{Kaiju form} 

^SPOILERS Gridknight

A Kaiju created by Akane for the sole purpose of defeating Gridman. He is unique in that he can take on the form of a pre-teen child.

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• All Your Powers Combined: In the final episode, despite being a monster and not originally a fragment of Gridman, he gains an Accepter and presumably fuses with Gridman's original form to defeat Alexis. This also probably saved his life, as he had been impaled by Alexis moments beforehand, and the fusion allowed him to heal/survive long enough for Anosillus the 2nd to rescue him.
• Anti-Villain: No pun intended, but his laser focus on defeating Gridman means he has no interest in serving Akane's petty grudges, and will even fight other kaiju to keep them from stealing his kill. Combined with his attachment to Akane, always coming back to her when he fails to defeat Gridman and even when she constantly mistreats him, it shouldn't be a surprise that he eventually transitions into an Anti-Hero.
• Badass Arm-Fold: He does this pose (the traditional Gainax pose) very often as Gridknight. It's even part of his transformation!
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Rikka, Yuta, and even Samurai Calibur's kindness to him confuse/infuriate him at first, but when Akane and Alexis discard him, the Gridman Alliance become the only people left in the world that he even knows, and their continued patience with him complete his transformation from monster to ally.
• Big Eater: And has no table manners at that.
• Bishōnen Line: Heroic example: his evolution into Gridknight causes him to transform from a kaiju into a genuine second Gridman, increasing exponentially in power.
• Butt-Monkey: Akane can barely contain her contempt for Anti after his debut episode, subjecting him to frequent physical abuse. Alexis isn't much better, gouging out one of his eyes as punishment.
• Chainsaw Good: His weapon is a circular saw on his left hand, not unlike how the SG Rodimus got one from SG Ratchet after his left hand dismembered. As Gridknight, he gains the ability to product a similar circular saw called Gridknight Circular as a throwing weapon, just like the original Ultraman's Ultra Slash.
• Character Song: "My Way".
• Combat Pragmatist: During his fight against the Boss Rush of Kaiju as Gridknight, he uses his Gridknight Circular finisher to slice clean through the second Anonymous A so it can't switch forms to the faster and more deadly Anonymous B.
• Creepy Child: His human form is this.
• Critical Annoyance: Unfortunately making your Kaiju as a counterpart to Gridman also means giving him the same weakness of being bounded to limits or else the Color Timer on his forehead blinks to let him know his time's up.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He is not much of a villain and while he only follows his programing to fight Gridman, he has shown to have some noble qualities. His Gridknight form may also come off as evil looking due to being a clone of Gridman in his Kaiju form's colors, but by the time he's got it he's pulled a Heel–Face Turn.
• Denied Food as Punishment: Akane throws her bento at his face for failing to beat Gridman in the day after that.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Gets taken in by the Anosillus kaiju at the end of series with his injuries healed to boot.
• Evil Counterpart: Akane set him up as a Kaiju version of Gridman.
• Expy: Anti's obsession with proving his strength by defeating Gridman and his almost stalkerish devotion to his master, Akane, despite her mistreatment of him is all quite similar to Viral of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
• Eye Scream: His "reward" for failing to defeat Gridman after convincing Alexis Kerib to allow him to make the kaiju Diriver, via his own circular saw weapon in Alexis's hands.
• Flight: Gains the ability to fly after confronting Sky Gridman.
• Generation Xerox: An interesting example. Although Anti isn't genetically related to his creator, he practically shares the same hairstyle as her.
• Gone Horribly Right: He was created to counter any of Gridman's abilities and destroy him. This lead to him developing a single-minded obsession with killing the Hyper Agent, to the point where he's willing to waste all his energy fighting Akane's monsters to get a swing at him personally.
  • To develop those counters, Anti's main ability allows him to copy Gridman's powers and skills. This ultimately leads him to copy Gridman's noble spirit and become a Gridman himself.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: His entire original purpose was to exceed and kill Gridman, with not much else in the way of personality or drive. As of the end of the series, he considers himself more of Gridman's rival and has developed a desire to save Akane from both Alexis Kerib and herself.
• Hand Blast: As Gridknight, he gains the Gridknight Storm as his answer to Gridman's Grid Beam.
• Heel–Face Turn: By episode 10, Anti finally decides that he'd rather fight alongside Gridman, as he thinks that it is the only way to crush him.
• Honor Before Reason: A possible explanation for all of Anti's actions through the show. Whether its his loyalty to Akane, his obsession with Gridman, or his Heel–Face Turn. Anti's motivations stem from a desire to honor and repay Akane. Even as Grid Knight his motivations are mostly to save Akane from Alexis and herself.
• Hour of Power: One undesirable feature Anti copies from Gridman is his time limit in kaiju form, in contrast to other kaiju who can seemingly stay active for days. Anti can do about three minutes. Furthermore, Anti can't use his kaiju form at all until Gridman's already on the field.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Alexis impales him with a sword in the final episode, though Anti survives this.
• Irrational Hatred: He seems to really have it out for Gridman as he wants nothing more than to kill him as violently as possible. Post Heel–Face Turn, it's more of a rivalry than anything.
• Jabba Table Manners: Being a kaiju and all, he eats like an animal.
• Large Ham: Once he gets to fighting, his calm demeanor drops immediately.
• Legacy Character: To Ninja Kaiju Shinobilar/Skorn of the original shows, as he has an Auto Intelligence that allows him to talk and think independently, unlike the other Kaiju.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's fast, strong, and excels at melee and ranged combat. But maybe not quite as much as Max Gridman, though he survives the fight. Taken to even higher levels when he becomes Gridknight.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Gains this ability after confronting Gridman combined with Borr.
• Meaningful Name: He's meant to counteract Gridman.
  • "Anti" has also been used as a slang equivalent to "hater", usually by unsavory people online who've been called out on their behavior.
• Mythology Gag:
  • His power-copying ability is a reference to Khan Knight, an unused concept of Gridman wherein the third quarter of the show, Takeshi Todo was supposed to steal Gridman's data and become the hero's own evil doppelganger before making a Heel–Face Turn and becoming Gridknight. It should be no surprise, then, that this is exactly what happens to Anti.
  • His starting kaiju form is almost a Palette Swap of the original Gridman's Shinobilar, or Skorn as he was called in the dub.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Anti's not just a copy of Gridman as he was when Anti was created: instead, every time Gridman shows off a new power, Anti immediately gets his own version of the same power. His transformation into a full-fledged second Gridman, however, comes from his Character Development.

• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Anti refuses to allow anyone else to kill Gridman, even attacking another Kaiju that had Gridman trapped. His dedication is so strong, he refuses to attack anyone that isn't Gridman even if Akane orders him to. That said, he eventually grows desperate enough to create another kaiju himself just to bring Gridman out to fight.
• Power Copying: Akane claims that he can replicate Gridman's abilities, in addition to his Super-Speed. Anti indeed has his own versions of everything Gridman shows himself able to do, but unfortunately for him, that includes copying the time limit. His transformation into Gridknight is assumed to be this until Samurai Calibur confirms Anti actually became a fully fledged second Gridman.
• Redemption Promotion: It's not a stretch to say that as a villain, Anti was treated as a punching bag by hero and villain alike with Rikka being the only person that treated with any sort of dignity and even then it was mostly out of ignorance. But Anti as Gridknight is very much the Evil Counterpart of Gridman that Akane wanted to create in Episode 3. Shame for her that by that point Anti's on the other side.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Before assuming kaiju form, his eyes glow red and his body emits a red aura.
• Sleep-Mode Size: Assumes the form of a young boy when not in combat.
• Shout-Out: His color scheme and the flame-decals on his jacket are inspired by the evil Shattered Glass-version of Hot Rod; fittingly, both characters were created by evil people (Akane/Optimus), repeatedly disappoint them, and wind up wielding circular saw-weapons.
• Super-Speed: One trait Anti doesn't copy from Gridman is his superior speed and reflexes. It becomes his primary distinguishing feature as Gridknight, where he's able to keep up even with Akane's fastest kaiju.
• The Stoic: Rarely if ever emotes in his human form beyond a scowl. In combat, though, he goes to quite the opposite extreme.
• Tron Lines: As Gridknight, he gains glowing yellow lines to contrast Gridman’s glowing blue lines.
• Unexpected Successor: Goes from someone fanatically trying to destroy Gridman only to succeed him in protecting the realm after Gridman departs in the end.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Is the first Kaiju to deliver an out-and-out defeat to Gridman, (though granted, Yuta was in the middle of a Heroic BSoD at the moment). Even with his new power up, Gridman is unable to beat him, only outlast him until his powers run out.
• Wolverine Claws: To replicate Gridman's Gridman Calibur, Anti grows claws from his hands to counter his opponent.
• Wrestler in All of Us: As Gridknight, his signature move is a hurricarrana. Note that so far, all Kaiju and heroes had been intentionally animated somewhat clunky to emulate old toku suits, so the nimble maneuver is all the more surprising.
• Villain Decay: By the end of episode 5 Anti feels less like Gridman's Evil Counterpart and more like a one-man Team Rocket. Only that at least Giovanni didn't throw bento at them. In a twist on this, instead of continuing his decay or taking a surprise level in badass to become threatening again he just switches sides.

Other Characters

Orie Takarada

Voiced by: Mayumi Shintani (JP), Anastasia Muñoz (EN)

Rikka's mother and owner of Junk Shop Aya, where the computer Junk that houses Gridman is kept.

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• All There in the Manual: She's only credited as "Rikka Mama" in the actual anime; but her full name, as revealed in the Blu-ray covers, is Orie Takarada.
• Legacy Character: Possibly based on Ippei Baba's father, due to their shops ended with the "Aya" suffix.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Notable because every other character except Akane (red eyes with yellow highlights) and Rikka (blue with red highlights) has a normal eye color, and the only other people with yellow eyes were Alexis and a Gridman-possessed Yuta. That said, her overall importance doesn't come up in show, but Amemiya mentions that the connection is significant. In the spinoff web novel, it all but outright states that Rikka's mom is a Hyper Agent.
• Unfazed Everyman: She's only mildly perturbed at the presence of the Assist Weapons in her store, beyond occasionally asking why none of them seem to have jobs. She eventually decides to take advantage of their perpetual squatting to have them run the store whenever she needs to go out. She does show surprise when seeing Yuta and the Assist Weapons transforming.
• We Sell Everything: It's not clear what kind of store Junk Shop Aya actually is, seeming to be equal parts cafe and thrift shop. It's also Rikka's house on top of that.

Hass & Namiko

Hass voiced by: Akari Kitou (JP), Amber Lee Connors (EN)

Namiko voiced by: Suzuko Mimori (JP), Sarah Wiedenheft (EN)

Hass

Namiko

Rikka's two best friends and classmates.

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• Character Song: "Oh! My Hero!"
• Fauxshadow: Rikka's early vocal fears about not wanting to lose anymore classmates to the Kaiju seemed like it was setting up for Hass and Namiko to become future victims themselves. They actually make it through the series perfectly fine.
• Ship Tease: Despite constantly teasing Utsumi, Hass is shown to have a crush on the boy in the Gridman Stage shows.
• Shout-Out: Hass's design is a reference to Soundwave, what with her blue jacket and always-masked face. Her name is also a reference to Hasbro, the US company that produces the Transformers. Meanwhile, Namiko's hairpin is a Cybertron Key.
• The Gadfly: If they see an opportunity to tease Rikka about something, they will never pass that opportunity up.
• Those Two Guys: Almost always shown together and commenting on the notable "absences" of Rikka and the Gridman alliance.
• Unfazed Everyman: It's shown by the end of the series that they were finally able to see the Kaiju, though they don't seem too disturbed by it.

Anosillus the 2nd

Voiced by: Karin Takahashi (JP), Monica Rial (EN)

A friendly kaiju who first appears before Yuta in episode 6 to open his eyes to the truth about the city.

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• Creepy Child: Like Anti, Anosillus the 2nd doesn't seem to know or care much about human social norms.
• Creepy Good: Creepy tendencies aside, she is firmly on the side of the heroes.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: After Anosillus the 2nd is revealed as a major character, viewers have gone back to find out she has been in every episode up until this point in some fashion^note On the train during the Ghoulghilas attack, in the Tonkawa family restaurant at the counter, making chalk drawings on the street after Gridman and Yuta's disappearance after losing to Anti, scrounging around for loose change at some vending machines outside the Tsutsuji-dai Station as the Neon Genesis Junior High Schoolers bring Junk out to the mountains and she has a face-on close-up appearance in the opening theme sequence right before the chorus kicks in, again.
• Legacy Character: Appears to be this to Anosillus from the original Gridman. In the first solid connection to the original show's events, she claims her predecessor owes Yuta/Gridman a great debt. This is confirmed in the final episode where the original Anosillus appears with her.
• Moe Anthropomorphism: While not quite a Cute Monster Girl as she appears to be fully human, her design is still heavily inspired by the original kaiju. Outside of her dark skin, Cute Little Fangs and orange eyes, she also has a double-layered hoodie and backpack meant to evoke the suit's turtle shell, and braids twirling like the monster's horns.
• Miss Exposition: Her primary purpose is to tell Yuta about Akane being the one behind the kaiju attacks, and to peel away the masquerade of normality to reveal just how empty the world is.
• Mythology Gag:
  • She has a treble clef on her shirt, an allusion to the original Anosillus' friend Compoid Unizon.
  • The music she used to save Yuta from the sleeping gas is, in fact, the piano version of "Yume no Hero", played by Yuka Inoue to purify Anosillus. This theme is also included in the soundtrack list.
• Nice Girl: Was willing to buy Yuta some food on their "date" and is overall pretty calm. In the final episode, she's kind enough to rescue Anti and heal his wounds.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Par on course with her predecessor.
• No Name Given: Technically unnamed in the actual show, with her name only mentioned in the credits and later confirmed on the official site with the other Kaiju.
• The Pig-Pen: Yuta mentions that she stinks. It's not certain whether this is because she's essentially a hobo, or due to her monstrous nature, since the same remark was made of Anti.
• Sizeshifter: While normally much shorter than Yuta, she suddenly turns into a giant for one scene to prove her status as a kaiju. Given she still fits in the alleyway, it's probably only a fraction of her true size.
• Wham Line: "That wasn't there."

Kaiju

Ghoulgilas

The first monster that Gridman fights.

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• Attack Its Weak Point: The neck is less structurally stable than the rest of its body.
• Came Back Strong: Averted; see Mecha Ghoulgilas.
• Expy: Heavily based on Femigon due to its straight-lined neck and body shape.
• Fireballs: Shoots these from its mouth. They even bounce like volleyballs, possibly as a nod to who the monster was supposed to kill.
• Flawed Prototype: If its design and structural weakness at the neck is anything to go by, Ghoulgilas seems to have been hastily deployed; its horns and claws are just exposed bits of wire from its wire skeleton, and the weak point at its neck appears to be crumbling in close-up shots.
• No Name Given: Isn't actually named in the show itself.
• One-Word Vocabulary: The monster's roar is Akane saying "shine" (die).
• Playing with Fire: Its main form of attack is to shoot explosive fireballs from its mouth.
• Small Role, Big Impact: It's the first kaiju fought. It also sets the stage for everything to come; the city-flattening battles, the deaths of people Akane dislikes, and even the first hints as to the true nature of the world via it having wirey insides when it gets decapitated. It even comes back as a giant robotic version of itself later!
• Starter Villain: As the first major threat to the heroes.

Dévadadan

The second monster Gridman fights, and the first one he fights after being re-optimized.

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• Attack Reflector: Dévadadan's body was designed to absorb and reflect Gridman's Grid Beam finisher. Unfortunately for Akane, Yuta had met Samurai Calibur that day and so Gridman gained the Gridman Calibur.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Akane's high school teacher bumped into her. In retribution she made Dévadadan specifically to hunt down and to kill him.
• One-Word Vocabulary: It roars a digitally altered voice of Reina Ueda saying "korosu" (kill).
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Akane created it to kill her high school teacher and it uses enormous energy blasts that wipe out entire city blocks with one shot to do this. Somehow it failed.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Its primary attack is one of these from the chest.

Gonglee

The fourth monster that Gridman faces, the third being Anti, created to kill the members of Arcadia, a popular online video group. Three of the four are killed before Gridman stops it.

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• Bizarre Alien Biology: See that thing near its legs? That's its mouth. What seems to be its upper body is actually just a crest of sorts with one single red eye on its "head".
• Combat Tentacles: Uses these to kill the first three members of Arcadia, and also uses them to choke Anti when he interrupts its fight with Gridman.
• Eaten Alive: Given the tentacles it used to kill off Arcadia's members also would've pulled them straight towards its enormous mouth, this is probably how it dispatched them.
• Ominous Fog: It uses this to hide itself so it can sneak around the city undetected. Somehow, despite being the size of a building, it works.
• One-Word Vocabulary: "Kimoi!" (disgusting).
• Slasher Smile: Its mouth seems to be twisted into a permanent one, best seen right before attacking Yamato.

Go'yavec

The fifth monster that Gridman faces, and also the largest in the series so far; it's so big that a single claw is larger than Gridman!

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• Art Shift: Is animated like its part of the background, unlike every other monster so far. As a result, its animation is a lot more limited in motion. The most movement we see is its claw being smacked into Gridman.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Even by the series standards, Go'yavec is massive. Gridman isn’t even as large as one of its fingers.
• Behemoth Battle: What the fight against it boils down to.
• Expy: He is one to Volcanic Monster Volcadon except much bigger.
• Fireballs: Fires these from volcanoes on its back.
• One-Word Vocabulary: "Kaeritai!" (I want to go home)

Diriver

The sixth monster that Gridman faces. Created by Anti instead of Akane.

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• Chrome Champion: Its skin has a distinct chrome coloring.
• Fighting a Shadow: While it's UFO lance is initially believed to be the Kaiju of the day, seemingly regenerating non stop no matter what they throw at it, the characters eventually realize that it is just an extension of the main body.
• Flight: It can fly without any visible means of propulsion.
• Glass Cannon: Its regenerating UFO lance is a formidable weapon that Diriver can utilize to great effect. However, the moment Gridman gets a clean hit on the main body Diriver folds.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: The UFO lance that it controls regenerates a few seconds after being destroyed; it uses this as its main form of attack.
• One-Word Vocabulary: Since its not a monster of Akane's creations, Diriver yells the distorted vocals of Anti saying "Taosu!" (defeat) and "Nikui!" (hate).
• Non-Standard Character Design: Is much more humanoid than other kaiju, somewhat resembling the object of its creator's murderous obsession: Gridman. Its lack of the People in Rubber Suits aesthetic other kaiju follow also reflects its creator's unfamiliarity with tokusatsu.

Mecha Ghoulgilas

The seventh monster that Gridman faces, and also the only mechanical one so far.

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• Came Back Strong: Averted. Despite Akane's confidence in the monster's power, it gets thrashed in the span of a couple minutes by Full-Powered Gridman.
• Curbstomp Battle: Receives one from Full-Powered Gridman.
• Made of Iron: One of the few things it can lord over the original Ghoulgilas is its durability, at least to Gridman's finishers. It still has the same structural weakness around its neck.
• More Dakka: Has far more ranged capability than its predecessor.
• Shout-Out: The shape of the robotic attachments on its back is designed after King Joe.
• This Is a Drill: Its head can become a drill.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Despite all the improvements to its durability, ranged capability and firepower, Akane neglected to fix Ghoulgilas' biggest weakness, the structural weakness where its neck meets the rest of its body.

Bujack

The eighth kaiju to appear. Gridman does not face it; instead, the Assist Weapons do.

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• Attack Its Weak Point: The wings in the dream world; once they're destroyed, it becomes tangible in the real world and can be killed.
• Bedtime Brainwashing: Created to induce this in an attempt to undo the Gridman Alliance's efforts to stop Akane.
• Intangible Man: It is completely incorporeal in the real world, at least until Gridman manages to wound its dream world counterpart. Then it becomes solid and vulnerable to attack.
• One-Word Vocabulary: "Ikanaide!" (Don't leave me)
• Shock and Awe: Can spew green lightning from its upper mouth.
• Squishy Wizard: As Akane never expected its Bedtime Brainwashing to be broken, its actual combat ability is weak once it becomes tangible.
• Too Many Mouths: Has two mouths, one under its eyes and the other as its beak.

Anonymous

The ninth kaiju to appear. Powered Gridman easily defeats its first form early on, but its second form hidden inside it gives Gridman a challenge.

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• Confusion Fu: Part of the reason it's so dangerous is the fact that it can bounce and twist around the battlefield like Kid Buu, making its movements unpredictable.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Issues a devastating one to Full-Powered Gridman. Its battle with Anti is much more even, until he becomes Gridknight and gives this to it.
• Despair Event Horizon: Anonymous B is walking embodiment of the more violent aspects of Akane's. Where Akane herself starts sinking into sadness and apathy, Anonymous B gleefully tears down the illusion by decapitating the Kaiju producing it, starts indiscriminately totaling the city and tries to brutally kill Gridman.
• Expy:
  • A gigantic genocidal monster that wipes the floor with the main protagonist until he gets help, cackles maniacally as it lays waste to everything and everyone without pause, and has no good reason for all of this? It's a design change away from being King Ghidorah in all but name.
  • Being an eldritch monster whose second form is a humanoid creature that giggles non-stop and moves in a disturbing, warped manner also gives it plenty of similarities to Greeza.
  • In appearance, Anonymous B resembles an Alien Metron from Series/Ultraseven. In particular, it looks like the iteration from Ultraman Max who has a nasty jagged scar running up its torso from taking an Eye Slugger in the '60s, but has a reversal of Metron Jr's color application. B being a complete psycho is also pretty funny in this light, as the Metrons are consistently portrayed as A) intelligent and surgical in their planning and B) fully capable of integrating into human society.
  • The cheap-looking A form sounds like Heisei Metron's pet dinosaur: it's actually named Dinosaur and was a reused costume from an attraction.
• Evil Laugh: Its second form's cry sounds like this.
• Gonk: Out of all the Kaiju, Anonymous's original form A is the most hastily and poorly made, until Anonymous B comes out of it.
• Lightning Bruiser: Its second form is fast enough to dodge most of Full-Powered Gridman's attacks with contemptuous ease, and strong enough to rip the Assist Weapons off Gridman's body after beating him to a pulp. Also, most Kaiju have clunky movement to emulate actors in rubber costumes, but Anonymous B's movements are based off sped-up versions of real life acrobats, for shock value.
• No Name Given: While it's credited in English as "Anonymous", its Japanese title is "Nanashi" or "Nameless". This is likely because Akane was so emotionally drained by this point she didn't even bother to name it.
• Omnicidal Maniac: It is completely indiscriminate in what it attacks in its second form; it destroys the entire city and the Illusion Monsters, all while giggling madly.
• One-Winged Angel: Anonymous B bursts forth from Anonymous A's left-behind corpse and easily lays waste to not only the restoration Kaiju but Gridman.
• One-Word Vocabulary: Averted. Its not guided by Akane's specific petty grudges, but her lingering Despair Event Horizon leads to the first form's roar being her weeping noise, and the second form being her Laughing Mad.
• People in Rubber Suits: Invokes the look the most, seeing as it has obvious fold lines, "seams" and peepholes while its shape looks pointy enough for Anonymous B, the "suit actor", to easily hide inside.
• The Power of Hate: In its second form, it is the manifestation of every ounce of hate in Akane's heart; this is shown by the fact that it discards the assist weapons when it defeats Full-Powered Gridman, but when Gridman is all that's left it starts to choke him out.
• Stylistic Suck: Anonymous A looks like a shoddily made, ill-fitting, low budget Kaiju costume. That's because it basically is. The lazily-applied splotches of colour on its stomach also evokes the Off-Model paint job on vintage kaiju sofubis◊.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Anonymous was made with every last bit of Akane's hatred, down to the depths of her heart. Consequently its creation proved to be immensely emotionally draining on her and proved to be her final creation.

Zegga

The tenth kaiju to appear, made directly from Akane herself. Gridknight defeats it, only for a nastier surprise to follow...

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• And I Must Scream: Akane remains conscious throughout its rampage.
• Big "NO!": Its roar is a pitched up and distorted version of Akane screaming in fear and pain as Alexis turns her into Zegga.
• Made of Iron: Zegga never actually takes any damage from anything Gridknight throws at it, and its only killed when Gridman's World-Healing Wave erases it from the virtual world.
• Mighty Roar: Its roar alone is able to flatten buildings.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Zegga's design is based off an unused design from the original Gridman, in particular the flower-like main body with a human face inside it.
  • Akane becoming a monster? Cute, because Malcolm Frink was there first.
• One-Word Vocabulary: The only thing it can say is an ear-splitting "IYAAAAAAAA!".
• Psychological Torment Zone: Its insides are one for Akane, filled with images of all the people she killed tormenting her with guilt.
• Rolling Attack: Its shell is used this way for improved mobility and combat.
• Super-Scream: Zegga's scream is powerful enough to devastate multiple city blocks.