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EP. REVIEW: SSSS.Gridman


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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1193
PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:24 pm Reply with quote
Also, I remember earlier in the thread, folks trying to suss out the meaning of Anti's name. "Anti-gridman", "Anti-virus", etc.

Well. I guess now it's "Anti:Hero". Wink
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Doodleboy



Joined: 23 Dec 2013
Posts: 296
PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 5:20 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
We get a lot of exposition from Akane as she defines kaiju by their inability to read people's feelings and their empty drive for destruction. She stops short of directly stating the connection, but it's clear she's come to think of herself as a kaiju as well.


This was my favorite part of the episode. We know that Akane loves Kaiju and now we get the reason why. Despite Akane being awful, the reason is heartbreaking. Akane spent her childhood watching Ultraman cartoons and as her self-esteem dropped she started identifying with the Kaiju, seeing them as personifications of herself. Somebody incapable of being a kind and productive person. Somebody who's existence in the world brings only pain.

Gridman is a story about an abusive person's wallowing in their self-hatred and trying to escape from interacting with real people. That's why she made a world where everybody likes her, where the world literally revolves around her. That's why even when she tries to befriend the main cast it's always done in an controlling way, she has to call the shots. She's afraid of an honest relationship, of course that's entirely the reason why she gets rejected.

It's also why she freaks out over the pettiest inconveniences and acts like an entitled monster, because she made a world that revolves around her but she still isn't happy.

And the reason she hates Anti is that Anti shows her that she's capable of being better. That a Kaiju isn't destined to only cause harm, Anti proves it by learning to care about other people. Akane's a monster, but she doesn't have to be a monster.

I always wondered how they were going to try to redeem Akane despite the terrible shit she pulled, now we see how.

Essentially it's an anime version of that clip from Bojack Horseman. "You can't keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself like that makes it okay. You need to be better!".
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Gurren Rodan



Joined: 04 Jan 2018
Posts: 263
PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 5:33 pm Reply with quote
These are excellent breakdowns of the episode, both in the review and here in the thread. It's definitely clear that Akane is a mental case (is that a poor choice of term?), and for all of her deplorable actions, she seriously needs help of some kind. Even if Akane can't be redeemed, I hope she gets a satisfactory resolution.
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Generations



Joined: 21 Jul 2016
Posts: 204
PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 2:01 am Reply with quote
I agree, there's a lot of excellent discussion about the meanings behind the actions both in the review and in this thread, and honestly all of them could quite possibly ring true.

Akane isn't just the antagonist. She's also the protagonist. No she's not the hero, but she is the core the story revolves around on as much as she is the person that needs to be dealt with for the story to reach its destined conclusion. Gridman is just the outside formula she needed to get to that solution. The question now is: what next?

This fake world has never belonged to her, as much as she says she is the God of it and as much as she tries to manipulate it. Because deep inside, she'll always be her own worst problem in that world, and nothing she can do to manipulate that world can allow her to change herself. I still believe Rikka has a bigger role to play in this than presented.

Still wondering what Kilokhan is getting out of this.
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Birriaman



Joined: 24 Jul 2015
Posts: 94
PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:54 am Reply with quote
I’m pretty sure there was a talk between Rikka and Akane early on where the latter mentions that they are neighbors. Just never thought that meant next-door neighbors... That scene where the heroes left the junk shop and walked next door has become one of my all-time favorites in anime!
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Gurren Rodan



Joined: 04 Jan 2018
Posts: 263
PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 1:21 pm Reply with quote
^Akane mentioned in the dream world that she had recently moved next door to Rikka, which Rikka had not realized. Just the same, seeing it established in the "real" world, in such a nonchalant manner, was definitely a comedic highlight. Honestly this show has had a great low-key sense of humor overall.
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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1193
PostPosted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 4:22 pm Reply with quote
Am I the only one who doesn't really care about the Yuta stuff? I think the reveal has been pretty obvious while whatever's going on with Akane has been the real draw of the whole series. Damn, these endings though. Nice little changes to the OP, too. One more to go!
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TexZero



Joined: 25 Oct 2017
Posts: 582
PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 3:14 pm Reply with quote
Gem-Bug wrote:
Am I the only one who doesn't really care about the Yuta stuff? I think the reveal has been pretty obvious while whatever's going on with Akane has been the real draw of the whole series. Damn, these endings though. Nice little changes to the OP, too. One more to go!


The Akane draw is literally just parroting the source. This will likely end in a very similar manner to that as well with her being reformed and potentially taking up the mantle of the next Gridman.
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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1193
PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 6:26 pm Reply with quote
TexZero wrote:
Gem-Bug wrote:
Am I the only one who doesn't really care about the Yuta stuff? I think the reveal has been pretty obvious while whatever's going on with Akane has been the real draw of the whole series. Damn, these endings though. Nice little changes to the OP, too. One more to go!


The Akane draw is literally just parroting the source. This will likely end in a very similar manner to that as well with her being reformed and potentially taking up the mantle of the next Gridman.


Oh, I'm aware, but not everyone watching(myself included) are familiar with the original series. I remember bits of Superhuman Samurai from childhood, but that's it. It definitely hasn't taken away from my enjoyment of this series.
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Gurren Rodan



Joined: 04 Jan 2018
Posts: 263
PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 7:09 pm Reply with quote
^^^Yuta's arc does feel like the shallowest of the main characters; his/Gridman's drive to fight isn't well-defined besides it being his "duty". Contrast that to Rikka's very human concern about her friends and family, or Utsumi's geeky fascination with the fantasy-turned-reality, or even Anti's own struggle with his designed purpose.
This doesn't really bother me, though. Ostensibly, Yuta might be the protagonist, but I think the other aforementioned characters are deliberately meant to carry the emotional weight of the story.
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Generations



Joined: 21 Jul 2016
Posts: 204
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 6:57 am Reply with quote
Boy, people in this story sure take to a lot of weird-ass things well. Mom just saw 4 kids enter a computer and was 'm'kay' and all the students just saw freaking KAIJUS and there's a freaking city in the bloody sky and took it like they just found an extra quarter in their pocket. Is everyone too high to react like normal human beings or something?

There's still so many mysteries and with one episode left, I don't know how many of those are actually going to be answered in a satisfying way, which leaves me a bit worried. Still wondering what the hell the other kid kaiju was about.
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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1193
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 7:19 am Reply with quote
Generations wrote:
Boy, people in this story sure take to a lot of weird-ass things well. Mom just saw 4 kids enter a computer and was 'm'kay' and all the students just saw freaking KAIJUS and there's a freaking city in the bloody sky and took it like they just found an extra quarter in their pocket. Is everyone too high to react like normal human beings or something?

There's still so many mysteries and with one episode left, I don't know how many of those are actually going to be answered in a satisfying way, which leaves me a bit worried. Still wondering what the hell the other kid kaiju was about.


I'm under the impression that everyone in this world is a fake/program except Akane. Gridman, the power-ups, Alexis, and Kaiju girl are likely programs from somewhere -else- (if folks are familiar with Reboot, I think it's like that; they're all just hopping from another system in order to corrupt/protect this one). I could be totally wrong though.

And yeah, I'm also worried that we won't get a satisfying answer to all of this in one go this week. :/
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pharmboy23



Joined: 05 Oct 2018
Posts: 196
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 7:47 am Reply with quote
Depending on how complimentary you want to be to Trigger, you could argue that the lack of development for Yuta makes perfect sense since he hasn’t really been in the show anyway Wink
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 11:12 am Reply with quote
Generations wrote:
Mom just saw 4 kids enter a computer and was 'm'kay...


But to be fair, that was very in-character for her! She's pretty much the coolest mom ever. Cool
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Cab329



Joined: 01 Apr 2017
Posts: 132
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:46 pm Reply with quote
Cannot wait for the finale! This episode was amazing.

I like how they kept the theme of communication going through this episode: as Akane becomes more closed off, the city also shuts down (probably due to the maintenance Kaiju being killed last episode but still). And then when Akane and Rikka are finally having a conversation, Alexis shows up to interrupt it and take advantage of Akane’s despair.

That is what I like about Alexis, he’s been toxic in a different way, encouraging Akane’s worst aspects while playing at being a supportive friend. And now that she won’t do what he wants, he’s going to just use her and put her in harms way.

I wrote about this a few pages back but I honestly think Yuta and Akane might be more connected than it first appears and might actually be two versions of the same person. They both have absent parents, they both arrived in spring, and both are attracted platonically/romantically/sexually (though possibly to separate degrees) to Rikka.

From a visual standpoint the two often take similar positions in the frame (episode 1 it transitions from Akane to Yuta waking up and Yuta talking to Rikka outside the cornerstore is created with Rikka and Akane). Additionally, real Akane needs to wake up while the Yuta we never met is also considered sleeping at this time.

Additionally, Utsumi is friends with Yuta but what got them to become friends isn’t stated. It would make sense for Akane and Utsumi to become friends due to their mutual love of Kaiju and tokusatsu.

So what if they are the same person?

Yuta could either represent Akane’s real appearance or could be a creation meant to stand in for her as she still wanted space from them. Once “ Yuta” is taken over by Gridman, she notices the change and either suspects some influence from an outside source or is just delighted to see him go past the parameters she set (after all, he isn’t opposing her yet).

So when Yuta rejected her, it wasn’t just her creation rejecting her, it was herself rejecting her (at least to her) which led to her funk growing worse.

So the picture I have of Akane is, she was a very lonely girl who was desperate to connect to Rikka and Utsumi but felt she couldn’t even though Rikka was right next door and Utsumi loved the same things, she felt she couldn’t connect with them...or something happened to make it so she couldn’t connect with them (what if some of the class, including Rikka and Utsumi, are dead). Feeling trapped she went online and encountered Alexis, who promised to help make a world where she would feel safe and adored...he just needed some help.

So Akane agreed and made sure Rikka and Utsumi were there...but while she made sure they didn’t hate her, she still had her socialization issues from the real world and kept her space, but created Yuta, a guy they would accept as their friend and who would be a surrogate for her.

Course I could be wrong. Either way, can’t wait for the finale!
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