SSSS.Gridman

O hai Gridman :D

I can't believe this didn't cross my mind earlier, but the Samurai in Samurai Calibur may be referring to Drift, who was Slug's partner in Bayformers.

Wow, that was some ending. So in the end Alexi is just doing it For the Evulz, Akane was just destroying the city because she couldn't get it exactly the way she wanted. Gridman defeats Alexi with a goddamn care bare stare, Rikka just follows her assigned role to the end, and none of it matter because it was all just a dream.

Holy shit, I didn't expect much from the final episode, but this was just amazing in the wrong way.

In the way I find Gridman story to be a waste of time, but the animation and cinematography prop up the whole thing to watchable levels. It's just sad it wasn't used on something better.

For the record, it's worth noting that the Repair Beam is a long-delayed Gridman punchline - it's how he always cleared up after the Monster of the Week in the original show, so this is him regaining the last part of his standard, iconic power set after entering Akane's broken mind shatters his own. I think saying that the story is meaningless because it exists within Akane's head is also missing the point - it's the story of a magical therapist attempting to rescue a severely troubled teenager from a catastrophic mental breakdown, and unlike a standard All Just a Dream story, there's a fair amount of tension over whether the dreamer will be able to wake up and join the real world in the end.

Laculus, I understand you look way deeper into this than other people, but could you respect that not everyone is going to feel that way?

Saying someone is "missing the point" of a work is implying that you're somehow thinking about it more "intelligently" than other people.

In short, you kind of sound like that "You have to have a high IQ to understand X" meme, except you're serious

...not really. Not always, at least. Missing subtle cues or undertones in a work would mean that, but here Iaculus is talking about the narrative point of the story. I agree with him, missing that is missing the point. But that doesn't necessarily imply anyone is thinking more intelligently than the others. One can miss the narrative point of a show without being less intelligent than others for it.

Yes, but people have also acknowledged that the series didn't do an amazing job of setting that up, so Shulgo's view is still valid.

I never said it wasn't. I do think he's letting a bad impression of the characters affect his view of the show a bit too much, but it's still his opinion to have. If he doesn't like it, that's his right.

Still, it's so weird to have Shlugo criticizing an anime while I'm defending it. It's usually the other way around

The point is put in so badly that missing it is not surprising. Akane mental problems are so badly established or explained that they're more of a fan theory than anything. And more importantly the series, really really doesn't give much reasons to care about Akane's well being either way. She spends most of the runtime being just the worst, then has a breakdown when things don't go her way, and has some last minute turn of heart at the end. None of this makes what's supposedly the main thrust of the series any compelling. If that's supposed to be the point of the series, it frankly failed completely.

It doesn't happen that often, does it?

Most works of art operate off an assumed language. For populwr, contemporary works, this can be largely invisible, because they're talking about similar topics in similar ways to a bunch of other stuff you've already seen before. For instance, watching Dragonball provides much of the prep-work you need to understand most action shounen of the past few decades, and those are influential enough in themselves to educate you in the language used by a bunch of peripheral works (like, say, seinen stories commenting on shounen tropes).

If the work is using an unfamiliar language, though (for instance, if it is from/is referencing another culture, or if it is from/is referencing an obscure or old genre), then you can have a really tough time interpreting it. To use an extreme example, a Renaissance still-life is going to look like a boring pile of random objects if you aren't familiar with the particular meaning of those objects and why placing a skull next to a stalk of asparagus is likely to get you an unfriendly visit from the Inquisition.

SSSS.Gridman isn't nearly that esoteric, but it does signal pretty clearly early on that it's taking a lot from the Ultra Series and from Neon Genesis Evengelion, and if you aren't familiar with those works, what they tell stories about, and how they tell stories about it, then you're going to have an uphill struggle with reading this show. Shlugo seems to be assuming the work doesn't have anything to say, rather than that it's doing so in a language he personally isn't familiar with, and that seems like a pretty severely myopic way to engage with media that will lock you out of a lot of fun, interesting stuff. It's not elitist to say that not every work is read in the same language - it's just an acknowledgement that human culture is vast and diverse, and different people and different artists will focus on different bits. Shakespeare, for instance, made gleefully filthy entertainment for regular proles, but good luck spotting that several centuries later without an annotated script.

That sure is a long way of saying "You just don't get it man!".

Yeah I'll be honest the further I get from the show the more I kind of sour on everything post ep 10. The first ten episodes are this fantastic, melancholic, subtle adventure of Toku funtimes and Akane/Alexis shenanigans, but then when it's time for answers they're unsatisfying at best.

Gridman Classic appearing with Ume No Hero blaring in the background was still pretty hype.

Akane's mental condition is mostly left to subtext, aside from a vague "hate" that she carries in her heart for Alexis to feed off. It's pretty clear subtext, but maybe only if you had some direct experience with depression or similar conditions. So yeah, maybe they should have expanded on it a little bit more for the sake of accessibility if nothing else.

Hey, man, you get more out of art if you engage with it on its own terms. It's not just 'you just don't get it', it's that having faith that there is something to get and going out to look for it as a show invites you to is generally a more entertaining and interesting way to approach media. I mean, this entire subforum is for talking about Japanese shows in English - where would we be without some of that? Trigger shows in particular are intensely rooted in what's gone before - pretty much every one of their original works has been an endless list of 'hey, this is cool, you should check it out'.

I mean, yes, that does come at the expense of more general accessibility, but diving deep into a specific language allows you to get much more specific in what you're saying in it. It's the whole reason jargon exists - sometimes, regular conversational language won't tell you everything you need, and you need to create your own more precise language.

Edited by Iaculus on Dec 25th 2018 at 11:14:08 AM

It definitely felt like it needed more a focused narrative for the main cast.

The Gridman Alliance are really bland, and while that's not a bad thing, it also makes it hard to invest in them too, especially when they setup some mystery between them that ultimately goes nowhere.

Akane's issues would be more palpable if it was less subtext and more actual text. When you're trying to make a thematic point, it's important to be as clear as possible. Also, making her less psychotic evil would go a long way of earning audience sympathy.

The premise is fine and Toku action is easily the draw of the show, but the execution of the characters is very flawed. Series is still good, but I'll have to dock points for that.

That's fine, but nobody else is obligated to feel that way and draw their own conclusions and sometimes they're contrary to your own.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Dec 25th 2018 at 6:35:42 AM

Alright now that the seiries is over, now is as good time as ever to watch it.

But for humors sakes tell me..... is it better than Darling in the Franxx?

Way better.

I didn’t hate Franxx, but this show is easily its superior.

Like night and day: even with all of this series' flaws, it's way better than Franxx.

Ahahahahahahah, perfect.

A single episode of this is already better than the entirety of Darling In The Franxx, with the exception of the one specific episode in that show that was actually really good.

Seriously though, hyperbole aside, yeah, this show is leagues ahead of Franxx.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Dec 25th 2018 at 10:08:46 AM

Alright, I finished the marathon of it.

Overall, this series was fun as fuck in that cheesy Saturday morning cartoon way, and I love that shit. All of the shout outs to the OG Gridman series, even if I didn't watch it personally, were great. And the action is Trigger giving it their all.

Purely in a vacuum, the final episode was pretty good and wrapped up everything it set out to do and gives the characters a pretty good send off.

And now...I have to rag on it unfortunately. While the technical merits of this series were great, I can't really say the same for the writing. It really suffers from "Twelve episode syndrome" as a lot of the plot points were not fleshed out enough and really felt rushed. This is particularly apparent in how Akane's character arc plays out as we really don't start delving into her issues until the last four episodes, which means everything feels really crammed and rushed and not as satisfying as a result.

And some plot points are just dropped entirely or never elaborated on; whatever happened between Yuta and Rikka is never brought up, and why Gridman chose the former as his host is only really implied. Rikka's friendship with Akane is treated as really important, but that's not really apparent until the last few episodes, same with Utsumi's own character arc and both characters just feel superfluous before that. Gridman possessing Yuta really doesn't impact the plot at all and makes his amnesia a pointless plot point as well.

Hilariously, the only character I felt that had a more complete arc was Anti as he transitioned from a one-note rival character to searching for his own purpose beyond what he was created to do.

But the supporting characters are great, the NGE Jr High squad were fun to watch, and Rikka's Mom is surprisingly chill about...everything .

So yea, to give my final impressions.

The series looks amazing, with very good detailed environments and art. The action is top notch and somehow manages to make CG look not completely glaring. I also have to praise the voice acting in particular of the dream episode as it legit felt like actual people talking and not people voice acting for a show, it's such a weird detail that I really liked.

But the writing feels really rushed, which is apparent towards the end of the show and really makes the main characters come off as uninteresting and the show's primary central character, ultimately has her entire character arc rammed in four episodes with only little build up beforehand.

But yea, flaws aside, I enjoyed it a lot and this show makes me forgive Trigger for Franxx earlier this year.

There’s also one more opportunity for forgiveness for Trigger depending on how that Promare movie is.

Now then, on to getting off my lazy ass & watching this shit soon.

Edited by slimcoder on Dec 25th 2018 at 8:56:49 AM

The best thing to happen now would be Gridman making a cameo in the new Ultraman anime, especially since Tsuburaya released a a short where Gridman passes on his will to fight bad guys to the new Anime Ultraman (an adaptation of the 2011 Manga, at that).

I agree with pretty much all of this.