SSSS.Gridman

Yuuta Hibiki wakes up in the room of Rikka Takarada and notices two things: he has no memories, and he can hear a mysterious voice calling his name from a nearby room. On further inspection, he finds a robot—which introduces itself as Hyper Agent Gridman—behind the screen of an old computer. Much to Yuuta's surprise, Rikka cannot hear Gridman, nor can she see the ominous monsters looming over a thick fog as it envelopes the town outside.

Another giant monster materializes in the city and proceeds to wreak havoc. Amidst the confusion, Yuuta is once again drawn to the old computer and merges with Gridman. Suddenly, he appears in the middle of the battle and is forced to fight the monster. Together with Rikka and fellow classmate Shou Utsumi, Yuuta forms the "Gridman Alliance" to defeat the monsters plaguing the city and find whoever is responsible for their emergence.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Takarada, Rikka Main

Miyamoto, Yume Japanese

Shinjou, Akane Main

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Hibiki, Yuuta Main

Hirose, Yuuya Japanese

Gridman Main

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Utsumi, Shou Main

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Anti ing

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Samurai Calibur ing

Takahashi, Ryousuke Japanese

Kaijuu Shoujo Anosillus (2-daime) ing

Takahashi, Karin Japanese

Borr ing

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Hass ing

Kitou, Akari Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Kamei, Hiroshi Producer

Itou, Hirofumi Producer

Reviews

Apr 19, 2025

lastnameEver

Recommended

Any action show more or less follows a blueprint, or anyway, there’ll be an action set-piece to set up that takes time away from meaningful dialogue. Despite this, some anime make it work, and they make it work better than SSSS.Gridman. The easy example is Eva: it manages to link together the action with the rest of the show. Shinji gets punched by his classmate. who has issues with Shinji, and these issues are resolved when the Angel shows up. With Gridman though the show splits itself between slice-of-life and action. Any issues brought up are resolved in each section, resulting in less time given ... to develop character. The action scenes are more at fault, but they have bigger faults to worry over.

The action scenes are animated in 3D. The 3D models move in imitation of people in costume like in tokusatsu entertainment, which you would know if you were sixty years old and Japanese and watched Ultraman. I know because I googled it. Once you know, you accept it, but if you don’t, it looks bad. Every frame or so of 2D animation intercut between 3D made me wish it went all 2D. If this were true though the fights still wouldn’t be good.

Fights follow a strict formula: Kaiju appears; Gridman gets beat up; Gridman gets a power-up; Gridman kills the kaiju; day is saved. The different kaiju distinguish themselves with different looks and different moves, and Yuta defeats them with Gridman with different moves each time, by himself and sometimes with others – usually in one hit, which gives too little satisfaction. Fights are cut too short; couple this with the sluggish way the 3D models move and they become unexciting to watch.

But the fights do prop up the scenes of everyday life. These parts are great. When characters speak they speak very naturally and convey who they are in a lowkey way. In the same lowkey way their faces are drawn to reflect this. Scenes keep a good walking pace and shots don’t overstay their welcome. Sometimes there are very long pauses














and then we’re back into the action.

The big reveal midway through reveals a big revelation that makes you think wow this is big. It changes little apart from marking more plot. The slice-of-life parts take a back seat to a story that doesn’t engage. Points of interest still appear but the character drama does not try hard enough to be convincing. Looking at the last episode as an example: Utsumi criticises himself about not caring about the damage kaiju do – damage that was being reset, so who cares. Anti’s problems aren’t real, so who cares. Akane is escaping from reality, but you don’t know why, so who cares.

But you will care about how Gridman pictures everyday life. The way it does it should be seen. The atmosphere these scenes create is perfect. If Trigger managed to distil this atmosphere across the whole runtime this would be the best anime ever made. As it stands, this is a good show that carries a lot of baggage, but this baggage is tolerable and should be tolerated to see what’s really good about it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Nov 26, 2024

iwashalfawake

Mixed Feelings

SSSS.Gridman is an extremely boring, average series to a fault. It has nothing special about it, with the MC being an amnesiac character with pretty much an empty personality, nonsensical plot that realistically doesn’t even make sense in their own world, a boring villain that is just there to be driving the plot, and pretty much no lore or explanation of the world they are in.

The only redeemable factors are the cinematography/directing, as it is from studio Trigger, and the dialogue. The characters might be one-dimensional with little to no inner conflict, and empty personalities, but the dialogue isn’t half bad, and the voice acting ... is pretty good.

The fights themselves are extremely corny and don’t make any sense, as expected from any kaiju/mecha anime, but they aren’t too boring most of the time. It’s only 12 episodes so it’s not really a drag to watch the whole thing quickly, but you’re better off without it. It hasn’t been 24 hours since I finished it but i already forgot the characters names.

boring show, nothing special going for it. In my humble opinion, you’re better off skipping this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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Sep 1, 2023

Tablekun

Not Recommended

Well, it isn't Kill la Kill, that's for sure. I watched this because it was a short series, mecha and from Trigger, knowing nothing about the source material of Gridman. This isn't the worst anime in the world by far, it's barely watchable. What it does do decently is it's fanservice mecha stuff. It has an interesting dynamic between the main chars, which pushed me to finish it. In the end, a very forgettable anime, but I ended up watching SSSS Dynazenon as well, so I guess there is some charm to its themes and animation.

Animation 7/10
- The standard ... animation is rather basic, but the mecha, fight scenes etc are better.
Sound 7/10
- Decent sound design with the mechs, decent OP/ED.
Story 4/10
- Basic, not unexpected for the kind of series it is.
Characters 5/10
- Mostly bland characters, but there is some interesting development with Akane.
Enjoyment 5/10
- Barely watchable, but I didn't drop it, so there is that.

I can't recommend this to anyone regardless of your interests in mecha or not. This series just doesn't offer enough.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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