English Dub Review: SSSS.Gridman “Provocation”

Ah, the fabled swimsuit episode.

Overview (Spoilers!)

The class is going rafting in the mountains! Yuta and Utsumi take the train, but they fall asleep and almost miss their stop. Everyone gets ready in the locker room. Yuta, Namiko, Hass, and Akane mock Utsumi’s pudgy belly. Akane tries to bond with Rikka. Then the class rafts down the river! Kids roughhouse and laugh.

Akane finds Yuta, and they sit apart from the group. Akane admits that social functions are difficult for her, that things were going well in her life but not anymore. Yuta tells her that his memory isn’t back yet. Akane says that Yuta is “transforming,” but she leaves before he can ask what she means.

At Akane’s command, the mountain comes to life—it’s a kaiju that can shoot lava from its head! Yuta plans to call Max and ask him to bring Junk, but his cell phone is back in the locker. While the class piles into vans, Yuta and Utsumi run to the locker room, telling Rikka to stay behind. They find a pay phone along the way, but can’t use it without knowing Max’s number; fortunately, Rikka was running behind them and calls her family shop. Max and his friends buy Junk. Akane is upset that Gridman hasn’t shown; Anti gives her a piggyback ride. Rikka is exhausted, so Yuta leaves the others behind—but he slips on a rock. The Neon Genesis crew also falls asleep on the train and almost misses their stop. They meet Yuta at the station while the woods blaze with fire.

Aided by Borr this time, Yuta transforms. Borr extinguishes some of the fire, but the massive kaiju beats Gridman back. Anti transforms and starts firing lasers on Gridman, but Borr immobilizes him before combining with Gridman. They fire missiles at “the big guy,” destroying it and crushing Anti. The Gridman Alliance reunites with their teacher and Rikka’s friends. Max wonders where the kaiju are coming from, and why they always show up around these kids.

Our Take

The bleak and gritty tone of SSSS.Gridman episode one has vanished, and in its place is a cutesy filler episode full of laughter and bonding and, yes, swimsuits. As fluffy as this episode can be, it is nice to watch the cast smiling and having fun—and it’s interesting to see how Yuta deals with the issue of kaiju popping up far away from Junk. This episode doesn’t blow my mind or make me think, but what for what it’s supposed to be, “Provocation” is a pretty fun time.

And even so, it does find ways to tie the fluff back into the main storyline. We see Yuta throwing clothes around his room in a frenzy as he struggles to locate his swimsuit. Why doesn’t he know where it is? “Amnesia’s such a pain in the ass,” says Yuta. In another attempt to get close to Rikka, Akane asks her to spread sunscreen on her back; she once again hides her fury towards the field trip under a mask of cheeriness. And the gag that first Yuta and Utsumi, then the Neon Genesis Junior High students, fall asleep on the train and nearly miss their stop? That’s hilarious but also meaningful: Max realizes that Yuta is exhausted from his constant efforts to protect the town.

I still don’t really get the point of the Neon Genesis crew, but they sure are funny. As they lounge around Rikka’s family shop, Caliber moans, “I think we have too much time on our hands.” When Rikka’s mom asks them, “Do any of you actually have jobs you go to?”, the ensuing silence is hilariously long. And when she tells the gang the price of Junk, Borr and Vit chorus, “So pricy!” They empty their pockets to pool their money, and Max triumphantly declares, “We won’t be needing a receipt.” I have no idea where these guys came from, but their awkwardness makes me laugh every time.

On a different note, maybe I’m a killjoy, but it was pretty painful to watch all the fat shaming in this episode. One of Rikka’s friends admits that she’s been trying to lose weight, and the other laughs at her for trying to do it by eating granola, claiming that fasting is the key to weight loss. Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, but sure, let’s promote the idea that skinny teenage girls should be fasting to make themselves even skinnier. And I winced just as much watching everyone gleefully humiliate Utsumi, mocking the tiny amount of fat on his body and touching it without his consent. I mean, even from a writing perspective—good writing doesn’t include scenes that don’t add anything to the story, right? So what do these moments add? An opportunity for viewers to laugh at fat people and eating disorders? An opportunity for fat viewers to feel bad about themselves? Poor Utsumi is seen in a later scene self-consciously poking at his body, and I feel so bad for him.

So, yeah. My frustration at societal beauty standards aside, this episode is cutesy filler and an exciting battle and not much else, but hey. Not every episode of a kaiju/mecha anime is going to be Hamlet. The kaiju design is once again really cool, and we get to see a new member of the Neon Genesis group in action. For her part, Akane’s storyline is just getting stranger—after Gridman defeats her kaiju, she announces, “So that just happened. Guess that’s how it is!” I’m fascinated by her motivations. Why doesn’t she care if she wins or loses? Why does Akane feel like creating kaiju to fight Gridman is something she has to do? Does it have something to do with the fact that her life has taken a turn for the worse recently, that she doesn’t feel comfortable in social situations with the people around her? It was cool to see Akane open up to Yuta even a little bit, and I’m so excited to learn more about her.

The main thing that’s disappointing about this episode, though, is that they dropped a plot from last episode that I was sure would return: Rikka wondering if the kaiju attacks are her fault. I was sure that would be a major arc in this week’s story, but Rikka never seems to dwell on that thought again. Instead, it’s Max who’s taken up wondering where the kaiju come from. Maybe the writers are just trying to invest their audience in the mystery by continuously bringing up the question, but it feels a little weird that Rikka wouldn’t wonder about it ever again.

Honestly, the mysteries surrounding Akane’s motivations and Yuta’s amnesia are what makes me excited to come back to this show week after week. But if there has to be a little filler in the meantime? I’m not really complaining. Maybe next time, we can just try a little harder not to promote self-induced starvation.

Score
7.5/10