English Dub Review: SSSS.Gridman “Scheme”

Guess who’s coming to dinner!

Overview (Spoilers!)

Yuta tells Utsumi and Rikka about his encounter with the kaiju, but they flat-out refuse to believe that Akane is behind the attacks. The next day, Anti shows up at school—against Akane’s orders—looking for Gridman. Yuta splutters that Gridman doesn’t show up without a kaiju, and Anti runs away.

Back at the shop, Yuta again tries to convince his friends, but only Max believes him. Yuta resolves to ask Akane tomorrow. He arrives home—only to find Akane sitting on his bed. He serves her some tea, and she… asks him to join her in bed?! (She clarifies that she wants him to join forces with her and her kaiju, but damn, her innuendo game is strong). He rejects her offer, so she asks him to walk her home. On the way, Akane receives a phone call and says that her friend will be buying them dinner.

Rikka determines to give Akane the phone case she saw the last episode. Akane takes Yuta to the Chinese restaurant owned by Tonkawa’s family. She orders a lot of food—that Yuta worries are poisoned—and tells Yuta her reason for “erasing” Tonkawa. Alexis shows up in full mecha regalia and explains that he’s been bringing Akane’s designs to life. Yuta’s wristband informs him of a kaiju nearby, and although Akane claims she hasn’t made one today, a “UFO” is indeed drifting above the city.

Yuta merges with Gridman, but the spaceship doesn’t seem to want to fight. Gridman destroys it, but it reforms and attacks him. Alexis tells Akane that Anti designed this kaiju. Vit teams up with Gridman this time, allowing him to fly! The UFO keeps regenerating despite Gridman’s continued attacks. When Gridman finds the parent kaiju, sitting in wait above the clouds, Anti transforms as well. Fleeing from their attacks, Gridman discovers a city in the sky. He cuts the kaiju in half and shoots down Anti. On land, Alexis hunts down Anti and brutally mutilates his face.

Our Take

This episode is full of shocking twists and turns, and I am living for it.

Sure, the “guy witnesses something supernatural and then no one believes him” cliché has been done to death before, even in this show—in episode one, Rikka refused to believe that Yuta was really seeing kaiju all around the city. But after that brief storyline plays itself out, the hijinks just keep coming. Akane seeks out Yuta and tells him everything? Alexis eats dinner with them?! Anti makes a kaiju? THERE’S A CITY IN THE SKY?!

I love the way this show handles Akane. Instead of a villain who fights battles only with physical force, we get a character who is willing to reason with words and ends up twice as threatening because of it. Lindsay Seidel does a wonderful job of infusing creepiness into Akane’s actions—somehow, it’s deeply chilling that she’s able to make Yuta, her sworn enemy, feel compelled to serve her tea in his own home (of course, she proves her selfish entitlement by drinking it straight from the bottle).

The bit where she asks Yuta to join her, though… that sequence gets pretty uncomfortable. Akane squirms around on the bed, lying in a seductive pose and rubbing her hands all over Yuta’s pillow like she’s caressing a lover. It doesn’t totally fit with the rest of the scene at all, and I’m still so uncomfortable every time this show sexualizes its characters (They’re in high school! They’re high schoolers! If you want to sexualize an anime girl, please at least make it an adult!).

But I continue to be intrigued by Rikka and Akane’s relationship. Even after she learns that it’s possible Akane is behind all the kaiju attacks, Rikka lies in bed fantasizing about buying presents for her. Not gonna lie, I kind of ship it. Maybe Rikka’s just really desperate for some new gal pals, but she seems even more into Akane than Utsumi is. Speaking of—why does Utsumi purposefully conceal that he knows Akane is into kaiju? What does he get out of lying? Does he just not want to admit that he hung out with the enemy—or leave himself vulnerable to his friends’ teasing for going out with his crush—or is Utsumi hiding something?

In general, this episode is pretty funny. When Yuta first relays the news about Akane, Utsumi deadpans, “I’m gonna smack you now.” Anti steals Yuta’s lunch before running away. When Caliber is asked what he thinks about the situation, he moans, “I think nothing.” None of these lines seem particularly funny on paper, but the comedic timing is gold, and the voice actors nail the jokes. The way this show utilizes silence is just so good—during Gridman’s fight, no one moves for like 30 seconds before Vit realizes that he’s supposed to use his access code, and it’s hysterical.

Plus… the idea of Alexis walking into a restaurant looking the way he does and just… sitting down and ordering some food is the funniest thing I have ever seen. Why doesn’t Tonkawa’s dad notice something is up? Does he just think Alexis is a weird cosplayer? The whole scene is so ridiculous and I loved every minute of it.

The battle of the week is pretty good, too. The kaiju once again has a unique design, and I like the idea that Anti is fed up with mistreatment and is taking matters into his own hands. It’s intriguing to me how much Akane doesn’t know—she forgot how Anti’s powers work, and she had no idea he would make a kaiju. Surely she’s not quite the all-powerful god everyone believes her to be. And because of how badly she starves and demeans Anti, I’m kind of on his side here, which is bizarre, considering he wants to kill the protagonist. I like that the fight is becoming more complex than just good vs. evil, where you can root for the good side and rejoice when the antagonist is punished. Like, yeesh. Alexis’s treatment of Anti is brutal. Did he blind him? I hope Anti is okay.

Also, the city in the sky reveal is fascinating. Do people live up there? Who built an upside-down city hanging over the clouds, and for what purpose? Can it really be true that nothing exists outside the bubble of their city? And, like Utsumi seems to be realizing, if Alexis is really an alien, how can that fact coexist with the idea that only their city exists—because it would mean that there aren’t any other planets out there?

This episode a delight, down to the smallest aspects—the sound effects produced by the “UFO,” the detail is drawn into their school’s soccer net, the unsettling music that plays when Akane explains herself to Yuta. I’ve never really been into mecha shows before, but I won’t hesitate to say I’m hooked on this one.