English Dub Review: SSSS.Gridman “Decisive Battle”

You get a kaiju, and you get a kaiju…

Overview (Spoilers!)

After the stabbing, Yuta keels over, his blood spilling across the floor. Akane shoves Junk and runs out of the store. The others drive Yuta to the hospital.

Even though a kaiju attacked the night before, the city hasn’t reset, and the city in the sky still hangs over it. Yuta will survive. No one has access to phone service or internet. Rikka heads to school and sees the city preparing for evacuation; she reconnects with Namiko and Hass.

Akane tells Alexis that she doesn’t need to make kaiju anymore because she killed Gridman. Alexis reminds her that Anti is the new Gridman, but Akane still refuses. Alexis recycles her old designs to spawn a whole horde of kaiju.

Neon Genesis claims they can’t fight until Yuta wakes up, but Anti shows up with other plans. Utsumi is mad at himself for enjoying mecha/kaiju battles when so many people become causalities; he almost punches Anti, but draws back. The gang requests Gridknight’s help. Rikka asks Anti where Akane is, but he doesn’t answer.

Gridknight easily defeats three kaiju, slicing them in half—but there’s still many more to fight. Yuta won’t wake up, so Neon Genesis and Rikka’s mom run home to test a theory—if they fix Junk, maybe Yuta will awaken too. Rikka runs off to find Akane, leaving Utsumi alone with the sleeping Yuta. In his dreams, Yuta talks to Gridman, who says that they’re one and the same. When Neon Genesis turns the computer on, Yuta wakes up.

Anti has defeated all kaiju but the one he created. Yuta explains to Utsumi that he doesn’t have amnesia; he’s Gridman dwelling in Yuta’s body, and the real Yuta will be asleep until he leaves. Gridman says there’s something he still must do; Utsumi is worried Yuta’s body will get hurt, but Gridman runs off.

Alexis spawns the enormous kaiju from the rafting trip. Gridman transforms, as does Neon Genesis. Gridman lends Gridknight his sword, and together, they defeat the remaining kaiju. Rikka finds Akane, who wants to die. Rikka insists that, after everything, she’s still Akane’s friend. Alexis turns Akane into a kaiju.

Our Take

SSSS.Gridman has taken a turn for the serious. The stakes are higher, the tone is darker, and I am loving it.

The plot doesn’t advance all that much in this episode, but I still enjoy the subtle bits of character development we get instead. Rikka, who was prone to skipping school for no other reason than a lack of motivation, decides to attend class during a kaiju attack when she has the perfect excuse not to. Her dedication to Akane, even after everything Akane has done, is interesting as well. I doubt Rikka forgives her, but the message here seems to be that rational conversation and proffered support is the best way to deal with someone’s terrible behavior. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the final episode, especially now that Akane’s a kaiju!

I’ll admit I didn’t see that twist coming, but it feels like the logical conclusion of Akane’s development—she can’t feel fulfilled without creating kaiju, and now even that refuge has failed to raise her spirits, so the only step she can logically take is to become one. This storyline also harkens back to the show’s theme of what makes someone human. If Anti is a kaiju who became a human, could Akane really be a human who becomes a kaiju? Or will she simply be a human who looks like a kaiju, the way Gridman is a hyper agent who looks like a high school boy?

Speaking of which, once Gridman presumably leaves at the end of the series, what will happen to Yuta? What will happen to the relationships he’s built? Will his friendship with Utsumi be different? Will he stop talking to Rikka? How will his friends deal, if he doesn’t end up remembering any of the stuff that happened with kaiju and Gridman? I’m glad that we get such a compelling explanation of Yuta’s amnesia, and I’m excited to see where the story leads him. At the same time, I’m a little confused about the details here—sure, Gridman wouldn’t have Yuta Hibiki’s memories, but why doesn’t Gridman have any memories of his own? Where did Gridman come from? What is Gridman’s deal? If we don’t learn that next episode, the series will feel incomplete.

Meanwhile, Utsumi grapples with his role in the team, as a “normal person” when so many of the others have a clear supernatural role to play. In the tension of the moment, the gang seems to leave him behind, and it’ll be interesting to see what role Utsumi eventually decides to play in the final battle. “Everyone else has a thing they must do,” he mumbles, and we get a quiet, powerful shot of him sitting in Yuta’s hospital room to reflect on that. In the end, that’s what this episode is—a moment of self-introspection for the characters to figure out who they are and what they value. Sure, there’s the Gridknight fight, but that’s more about establishing Anti’s newfound loyalty to Gridman than it really is about the battle.

Speaking of which, I get that this is the penultimate episode, so it’s fun to bring back enemies from past storylines—like the final act of a firework show when all the fireworks we’ve seen before explode at once. But I still can’t help but wish that this fight didn’t just seem like a summary, a recap of battles from episodes past. Honestly, the Gridknight fights are the least interesting thing about this episode, and I’m much more invested in what’s happening with the characters.

But the Neon Genesis students are finally beginning to charm me. There’s a neat shot of them running past Gridknight’s fight, where they’re tiny in comparison with the huge battle looming in the distance. It’s also pretty funny that Rikka’s mom sees them do some magic stuff with Junk and just accepts it, no biggie. What a chill mom.

There’s a lot of hype riding on this final episode. It’ll need to pack in a lot of info in order to avoid any loose ends, but I believe SSSS.Gridman is capable of doing the thing this show must do, the thing only it can do.