English Dub Review: SSSS.Gridman “Defeat”

Antis, don’t interact.

Overview (Spoilers!) 

Akane hands a bento to a young man named Anti, wishing him good luck. The boy declares, “I’ll crush him. No doubt.”

Yuta and Utsumi spy Caliber out the window of their school, lurking the rain. No one else pays him much heed. Rikka skips school and heads for the park, where she ignores a call from Yuta and sees Anti stuffing his face. Utsumi suggests that, like Yuta controlling Gridman, the kaiju maybe humans too. Rikka offers Anti more food, but he walks away after receiving a call from Akane. Screaming, Anti transforms into a kaiju!

Caliber bursts into the classroom grabs Yuta and Utsumi, and leaps out of the building. He picks up Rikka along the way, and they head to Junk, where Yuta transforms into Gridman. After a few blows, the kaiju verbally taunts Gridman; Yuta is horrified that it can talk. The kaiju punches Gridman repeatedly, but Yuta refuses to fight another human. Caliber transforms into a sword and encourages Yuta to fight. Akane explains that this kaiju can copy all its opponent’s powers. After a large blast from Anti, Gridman falls; Junk shuts off, and Yuta and Caliber don’t return to the shop.

Akane celebrates her success. Rikka and Utsumi are depressed, and Rikka regrets not taking Yuta’s call or apologizing for missing it. Akane takes Anti to a buffet, and he goes wild. She explains that kaiju are just kaiju, even if they can look like humans. Rikka and Utsumi plan to ask Yuta’s parents if he’s alive, but they get cold feet and leave before talking to them.

Rikka and Utsumi are bickering when a group waltzes in, claiming they want to support Gridman. They announce that Caliber and Gridman aren’t dead. Rikka calls Yuta, and he picks up! Caliber returns to the shop. Suddenly, Gridman springs to life again! Anti transforms into a kaiju to fight him. The newcomer Max becomes a tank with cannons, and when he combines with Gridman, Gridman is more powerful than ever. After some time has passed, Anti abruptly transforms back, and Yuta and Max return home. Rikka apologizes. Supposedly, the people in the shop attend Neon Genesis Junior High; they want to fight together with Yuta.

Disgusted at his failure, Akane throws a bento into Anti’s face.

Our Take

Once again, an episode of SSSS.Gridman subverts my expectations completely. I did not expect Yuta to lose a battle, and I certainly didn’t expect him to die. For a show about giant robots and monsters, SSSS.Gridman is incredibly good at showcasing small, quiet, uncomfortable emotions. Utsumi and Rikka’s mourning feels painfully real, from the way they snap at each other to Rikka’s sudden inability to make decisions to her fixation on one tiny mistake. The rain creates a great ambiance, and even details as small as the voice actors’ groans feel genuine. I’m also intrigued by Rikka’s propensity to skip school—it seems like there’s a lot to this character that we don’t know yet, especially because the Neon Genesis crew seems to think she’ll be a handful. But yeah, SSSS.Gridman is amazing at the little things. The detail on the umbrellas and cubbies at their school. The fact that students take photos of the kaiju on their iPhones. Amazing.

Speaking of the Neon Genesis crew—that’s got to be an Evangelion reference, right? But it is really hard to believe these guys are in middle school. Especially the stubbly Caliber and Max, who’s literally built like a tank. Come on.

I do have to take off some points, though, because this episode falls back on what’s basically my least favorite trope in all of the media. The main character dies, and the audience is supposed to feel super sad about it, until, surprise, he’s actually been alive the whole time, we fooled you! It’s an attempt to manipulate the audience’s emotions without having to actually follow through with the consequences of the storyline. Even worse, it cheapens the stakes of the entire show. If Yuta can’t really die if he loses a fight, why do I care? It doesn’t matter if Akane wins. Yuta will just get back up and fight another day. Plus, I don’t understand the mechanisms at all of where he went when he “died” and what allowed him to come back. On the phone, he tells Rikka that he doesn’t know where he is. I really hope we get to see what that mysterious netherworld is like, and learn how he’s able to transport himself from our world to there. I also want to know what Anti meant when he said he ran out of time to fight Gridman—is there some kind of time limit in place that they can stay transformed? Why did Yuta return to the shop before the battle was finished? I don’t really get what was going on. Plus, and this is a very little thing, but in one scene Akane clearly calls Anti “AJ.” Is that his human name or something? Or was that just a mistake on the part of the dub team?

Additionally, I don’t love the idea that Yuta will win the rest of his battles by utilizing support objects created by the Neon Genesis crew. I’m interested in seeing how characters learn and grow and solve problems, and if Yuta’s only growth is gaining some new items now and again, it won’t be very interesting to watch. The Neon Genesis machines really are the ultimate Deus ex… machina.

To be fair, “Defeat” does bring up some intriguing ideas, especially about the personhood of kaiju. If kaiju aren’t humans, then what is Anti? He certainly acts animalistic, but how was he created? Does he have a soul? Would it be immoral to kill him? What makes someone human, anyway? I love that the show is delving into these issues that are too philosophical for most action-oriented premises to explore. And this show just has so much emotion—it broke my heart and made me laugh in the same episode (the scene where Caliber leaps out the window while holding the Gridman Alliance is absolutely hilarious. Caliber, in general, is absolutely hilarious).

This isn’t my favorite episode of SSSS.Gridman so far, but it’s still pretty well-executed because these creators know what they’re doing.

Score
7.5/10