Overview
“SSSS.Gridman” is a 2018 Japanese TV anime series based on the tokusatsu TV program “Gridman the Hyper Agent/Denkou Choujin Gridman” (1993–1994) created by Tsuburaya Productions known for their “Ultra Series”.
Directed by Akira Amemiya. Animation produced by Trigger. 12 episodes.
Plot
A first-year high school student living in the city of Tsutsujidai in Nerima, Tokyo, Yūta Hibiki falls down unconscious in front of the junk shop run by the mother of his classmate Rikka Takarada. When he wakes up, he finds that he has lost his memory.
Yūta finds a mysterious energy body who calls himself “Hyper Agent Gridman” on the screen of an old PC in the junk shop. Gridman calls on Yūta to carry out the mission to protect the city from the oncoming crisis.
A giant monster (kaiju) appears in the city. Yūta becomes a giant hero by merging with Gridman, and destroys the monster.
Yūta, Rikka and their classmate Shō Utsumi form “Gridman Alliance”, and combat the threat of monsters, but after that it turns out that their classmate Akane Shinjō has created the monsters.
Commentary
The original “Gridman the Hyper Agent” is a pioneering work that incorporated then-new materials, such as online service and computer virus, in the days before the Internet.
The TV series “Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad” aired in the United States from 1994 to 1995 is a localized version of “Gridman the Hyper Agent”.
Though this anime series follows the basic format of the original, its settings and characters have been changed drastically from the original.
Though the highlights of the series are its tokusatsu-like 3DCG battle scenes created by Graphinica, this series includes the elements of robot anime, beautiful girl characters, school drama, and simulated reality-themed science fiction, so it can also be enjoyed by the people who are not familiar with tokusatsu.
The hand-drawn anime part of the battle scenes is characterized by its eccentric techniques, such as bold perspective, like the Brave series produced by Sunrise in the 1990s.
