Mythology Gag / SSSS.GRIDMAN

General

As a celebrational tribute of both the original series and its American counterpart, there are a lot of hints and nods that fans can find to get their nostalgic fill.

• Of course, there's the fact that the four S' in the title are taken from Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad. While they mean something different in-universe, the reference remains.
• This show adopts elements from various scrapped plans in the original series, including the scrapped sequel, Gridman F:
  • Yuta Hibiki, the new host of Gridman is also one in this scrapped series. Had Gridman F were given the greenlight, he would be assisted by Ippei Baba, who went to a different high school from Naoto and Yuka after failing his entrance exam.
  • Alexis Kerib, the main villain from Makai World and leader of five monsters is reused as this anime's Big Bad.
  • Yuta's classmate Akane was meant to be Takeshi Todo's expy from the scrapped planning. Anybody who heard of this, they were right for their money in episode 2 of the anime.
  • The show takes place in the high school of Tsutsujidai. The original planning, however, said that the high school is an industrial high school, whereas the anime counterpart is just a normal high school.
• On top of that, The Men in Black / Assist Weapons Quartet, which comprises of Samurai Calibur, Borr, and Vit are named after the Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad arsenal programs Samurai Sword, Borr, and Vitor. Big Guy Max is the odd one out until he transforms into the Battle Tracto Max with Tanker Cannons.
  • Likewise, the attacks for the Assist Weapons are named after the four pilots for the Samurized Attack Vehicles in Syber-Squad: Tanker, Sydney Forrester, Amp, and Lucky.
  • Like Servo's friends in SSSS, they have to be transported through the computer to help Gridman.
  • To complete the reference, the Assist Weapons as a group are a literal superhuman cyber squad featuring a Samurai among their ranks.
• The illusion monsters that appeared within each episode are based on Venora from episodes 25 and 26 of Gridman.
• So the name of the shop that Rikka's mother operated is Junk Shop AYA? Well in the original series, Junk is obviously referring to the computer that Naoto and his friends made and the AYA suffix refers to INTERIOR SHOP Aya, Hiroshi Baba (Ippei's father)'s workplace.
• Akane's carving knife looks identical to the model of knife Takeshi uses in series.

Episode 1

• Yuta was treated in Inoue Hospital, which also made an appearance in the original Denkō Chōjin Gridman as the workplace of Yuka Inoue's parents, hence its name. It was where Naoto Sho's brother, Daichi was being treated back in episode 1 until an attack by Gilarus caused all surgical instruments to go haywire.
• Akane gives Yuta a Special Dog (a type of hot dog). This food appeared in episode 5 of the original series and was Ippei's inspiration for designing Barrier Shield (aka. the initial form of Gridman Sword).
  • This kind of plot is also revisited in Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad Episode 11, where Tanker creates a similar looking hotdog on the computer to send Servo the Barrier Shield.
• The dub goes further in its homage of Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad by giving Alexis Kerib a voice akin to Tim Curry, who played Kilokahn.
• When Utsumi says that "Yuta has been eaten by Junk", its the same dialogue by one of his friends when Naoto gets sucked in episode 1.
• When fighting Ghoulghilas, Gridman does the same flying kick motion as his live-action counterpart's Neo Superconductivity Kick.
• The TV Network ECN made its cameo appearance. For those who watched the original series, that was the same TV Network that Naoto's dad Soichiro Sho work at.

Episode 2

• The name of the family restaurant that Sakiru Tonkawa's family work at is Ryutei (Dragon), as in Gattai Ryutei King Gridman.
• Hints of Akane's allusion to Takeshi Todo:
  • When her homeroom teacher ignores her after two bumped into each other, the Fish-Eye Lens focuses on her infuriated expression.
  • We get a good look at Akane's house, a giant mansion with no sign of anybody else except her and her room being unkept. And then there's Alexis on her computer before she puts on a glasses, giving another vibe to said boy.
• Gridman shows some shades of this after being optimized:
  • With the Primal Accepter, Yuta initiates Access Flash and does the same motion as Naoto in the original series.
  • Gridman replicates the rise of his live-action counterpart.
• So how did Samurai become Gridman Calibur? He shouts the Access Code. In the original series, Gridman cannot exit Junk unless the trio enters the Access Code "GRIDMAN". In episode 31, entering the wrong code (GRIDOMAN) would be ineffective.

Episode 3

• Anti's look effectively screams itself as the Legacy Character of Shinobilar/Skorn, down to being the first Kaiju to talk in their series.
• Anti tries to spin itself to confuse Gridman, based on how Shinobilar/Skorn performs a Doppelgänger Spin on Gridman/Servo before he throws the Thunder Axe.
• After their initial victory, Akane treats Anti to the restaurant Donguri no Ki (Acorn Tree), the same place where Naoto, Ippei, Yuka and her cousin Akiho had their lunch in episode 36 of Gridman.
• Max's Battle Tracto Max not only is a reference to Tracto from SSSS, but its Tanker Cannons also one for the Team Samurai drummer Tanker, as well as his football helmet in Max Gridman.
• Calibur remarks how telephones are connected to everybody's lives, the same dialogue that Yuka said in episode 3 of Gridman.

Episode 4

• The bus that Rikka and Akane rode at the beginning had the word Sakuragaoka on its next destination, which was the setting of Gridman.
• In the karaoke center, one of the songs that can be heard is a karaoke version of "Futatsu no Yuuki", a song from the Gridman soundtrack originally performed by Compoid Three (rumored to be members of Hikaru Genji) that actually never made it into the show.

Episode 5

• The monster of the week unleashes its fireball attacks with the same sound effect to Volcadon (Gridman)/Kathod (SSSS).
• The Neon Genesis Junior High students need to bring Junk to the mountains for Gridman to transform. Back in the last episode of Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, Team Samurai (minus Sam who was on a date) went on a hike and they brought along their computer in case of Megavirus Monster attack, which did happen as Tanker becomes Servo for that battle.
• Both of Borr's missile attacks - the Sydney Super Adhesive Missile and the Forrester Extinguisher Missile - refers to Sydney Forrester, one of the main characters of Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. Fittingly, Sydney was the pilot of the drill tank Borr in that series.

Episode 6

• A whole lot of references to Denkō Chōjin Gridman's episode 6:
  • The customer buying the keyboard at the Junk Shop AYA is voiced by Masaya Obi, the actor who portrayed Naoto Sho. In Gridman episode 6, Naoto, Yuka, and Ippei borrowed a keyboard from a music shop in order to stop the rampage of the anti-virus kaiju Anosillus.
  • The end credits reveal that the little girl kaiju who talks to Yuta is Anosillus the 2nd. She says she is indebted to Yuta's predecessor, due to the actions of Ippei and Yuka saving Anosillus. Her shirt also has a treble clef design on it, referencing the original Anosillus's Compoid companion Unizon who wore clothing with a similar design.
  • Anosillus the 2nd uses her music to keep Yuta awake when the sleeping gas begins to affect him. The song that is played is a piano rendition of the Gridman opening theme "Yume no Hero", the same song Yuka used to pacify the original Anosillus.
• The manzai animation on TV at the Junk Shop is the same animation from Denkou Choujin, complete with sound effects.
• At the train station, the next destination is once more, Sakuragaoka.
• While at the bookstore, there's a surveillance camera named "Cat's Eye". This security company appeared in episode 12 of Gridman in the wake of a catburglar named Matty who stole things throughout Sakuragaoka (said burglar is, in fact, an employee of Cat's Eye) to promote his service before Takeshi sent Magnegauss to hack into his system.
• Anosillus the 2nd claims that those Venora-like mirages repair the city, which works in the same way as Gridman's Fixer Beam.

Episode 7

• The bicycle shot was recycled from the 2015 anime short Denkou Choujin Gridman: boys invent great hero.
• The alien city that was above the sky is, in fact, the Computer World from Denkou Choujin, aka Digital World in Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.
  • According to some sources, this is based on the original concept of Denkou Choujin Gridman, wherein the battle in Computer World would also have had an upside-down scene.
• Gridman finishes the monster with a weapon called Gridknight Saber Slash. The attack is based on a) Grid Light Saber that his live-action counterpart uses and b) Grid Knight, the unused concept which eventually becomes Gridman Sigma.
• Sky Vitter and Sky Gridman's attacks are named "Lucky Smoke Screen" and "Amp Laser Circus", after both of its pilots.

Episode 8

• Full Power Gridman is essentially this season's Thunder Gridman, but for those who didn't know, the original Gridman also has a Full Power Gridman formation, which is basically Thunder Gridman standing on top of King Jet and holds the Dragonic Cannon from the Mao no Gyakushu photonovel.

Episode 9

• Powered Zenon and the Powered Axe is this season's God Zenon and the Thunder Axe.
• Gridman uses Grid Kinesis to help wake the Alliance as he did with Naoto in the original series.

Episode 10

• Anti transforms into Gridknight, an unused character concept from the original series.

Episode 11

• The scene of Junk's upgrade mirrors a scene of the original series Junk's completion.

Episode 12

• The English dub has Alexis refer to humans as "meat-things", Kilokahn's preferred way of describing humans.
• Gridman does a bare handed blade catch to Alexis Kerib like he did to Khan Digifer in their battle.
• The portal Alexis opens is similar to the ones that Gridman uses to go from Junk to the Computer World.
• The room that Gridman, the Alliance and the Neon Genesis Junior High Students had their last meeting is the same design as the one Gridman resides in within Junk in the original series.