Oki’s Impression
So SSSS. Gridman was something I was actually pretty excited for because I missed out on Darling in the FRANXXX. Well, I have to be honest that immediately upon watching Gridman I found myself wishing I was watching anything else. There are a few reasons why Gridman couldn’t keep my interest but the easiest to dive into first is the tone: The story starts with the protagonist experiencing a mysterious amnesia with a score that accompanies this mystery with a feeling of anxiety and mystery. His schoolmate Takarada finds him outside her family store/home and takes care of him, while sort of introducing the series.
The problem right away is that the show doesn’t know what it is. If you watch the first half of the series you might think this was a thriller with an engaging mystery that might show people dying or struggling through incredible hardships. If you watch the second half of Gridman you’ll quickly notice that it feels more true to the Gridman Hyper Agent series it is meant to be representative of. The shame here is that I would be far more interested in the show if it dropped it’s attempted anguish and amnesia plotline to focus on the cheesy plotline of a Gridman true adaptation. I mean, it’s Gridman! It’s like adapting Kamen Rider! You have to understand that half the series is going to be cheesy and the other must be a genre properly adapted to deal with that cheesy.
I’m not saying the two genres can’t ever be meshed well, I’m saying that SSSS.Gridman is a show that fails to really embody that idea. Normally for a show like this, I would consider a 3 episode trial to see if it will become what I feel it has the potential to, but I’m a salty old weeaboo over here. If the show feels the need to pretend it is a highly mysterious angst filled thriller, a very boring one on top of that, and can’t properly adapt itself over to cheesy action then I find myself low on interest. This show may get better but it probably will not become a show I am interested in blogging about.
I did watch the show dubbed and I think this did more harm than good. While many of the performances in the dub are good the acting didn’t really clear up the tone of the show for me either. Takarada’s voice actor was at times mysterious and hinting at a drama we never really saw in the show, meanwhile, we saw the protagonist’s best friend talk about the nature of girls and then turn out to be an old-school Gridman fanboy. I don’t think this was a problem with the actors but with how the actors contributed to the vague nature of the show. I’m fairly certain the Japanese version will have the same issue because the show itself is the problem, executed in a way that makes me bored and uninterested rather than engaged. I was definitely let down by this show because the studio behind it has made so many more interesting things.
Look man, in a season where a slime anime has surprised me, I have no time to waste on shows that make me feel ‘meh’. Here is hoping that Midnight will have enjoyed the show more than me!
Possibility of Watching: Low
Possibility of Blogging: Low
Oki
I’m guessing Gridman’s aim is to start out slowly and flesh out its mystery parts as it goes forward.
If you can’t get into it now, I’d suggest waiting until half the series has aired, then watch the 6-7 eps in one go and see if things make more sense then.
Apparently the head writer also did the script for several live action Ultraman series, so interested to see where it goes.