Gridman: Universe

 I think I have a contender for this year’s October surprise.

Gridman Universe premiered in Japanese theatres in March of last year, and was finally made legally available, via Crunchyroll, just a few days ago after only a few days' notice. If that’s not surprising, I don’t know what is. At least it’s a welcome surprise.

Anyway, this is the sequel crossover film of Studio Trigger’s anime duology, SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon, both of which update Tsuburaya’s cult classic superhero show, Gridman the Hyper Agent, which was adapted, Power Rangers-style, into the also cult classical Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. That sounds like a lot to take in, but it's a bit easy to summarize if I phrase it right.

Yuta Hibiki, the former human host of the Kaiju-fighting Gridman, now fights butterflies as he tries to ask out his classmate, Rikka Takarada. He’s soon forced to join with Gridman again when a new Kaiju shows up. The Kaiju overwhelms him until his support crew - who can become basically auxiliary zords for Gridman - show up with the cast of SSSS.Dynazenon. It turns out something’s merging their worlds together, and they have to figure out what it is. In the meantime, the casts hang out, and even help Rikka write a stage play for the upcoming school festival. I think that’s it.

As a sequel movie, you’ll get the most mileage if you’ve already watched both shows, or are even a bit familiar with the stories thus far. You’ll just have to accept a few things at face value if you haven’t. The recaps of both shows are even rendered as old TV footage, which is an interesting touch. The plot sometimes gets a bit confusing, particularly when an alternate of a certain character shows up to decimate the Gridman and Dynazenon teams, and quickly appears as an ally. Sure, we get an explanation later, but the dynamic entry is confounding. The mastermind of the “Big Crunch,” as the film describes the multiversal convergence, a Kaiju named Mad Origin, is just an average villain.

However, there’s a particularly moving scene for those who haven’t see SSSS.Dynazenon. That is when Gauma, a 5,000-year-old mummy and one of the titular robot’s pilots, is reunited with his beloved Princess, who is now a crab-monger. You can feel his happiness when they meet, and their talk of “promises, love and best-by dates” is pretty endearing. The two of them actually originated from the live-action show, but their scene here is one that doesn’t require any prior watching. I was bemused that the subtitles have him call her “Princess Hime,” or “Princess Princess.” But other than that, the scene is just that good.

The story focuses more on the characters hanging out than big battles. We get some decent character moments as we wait for these battles, all three of them. It's fun to see the cast iron-out that play, whether the Gridman team are alone or with the Dynazenon team. Those who haven't seen either anime will warm up to Gauma when he goes from tough guy to big lug. Yomogi Asanaka, SSSS.Dynazenon's main character, gets along quite nicely with Yuta, whether it involves consoling Yuta about his lost memories or playing wingman for Yuta. A minor speedbump for Yuta - an apparent boyfriend for Rikka that turns out to be her brother - is resolved pretty well. A few supporting highlights are Bor, one of the auxiliary zord characters; Rikka's laid-back mom Orie; and even the former co-villains of SSSS.Gridman, Akane Shinjo and Alexis Kerib, who show up to save the day.

All three big battles exemplify the word bombastic. Dynamic cinematography effectively sells us on the magnitude and scope of each battle, especially when we see the first fight from directly beneath. The CGI animation used for the giants blends pretty well with the more traditional animation of the human characters. The final battle is a little over twenty-minutes of delightful craziness as Gridman and Dynazenon take on Mad Origin and his Kaiju hoard. The way they defeat Mad Origin is pretty nifty, to say the least. All of them are accentuated by a great score by Shiro Sagisu, with the highlight being Gridman's heroic march. It also gets pretty spooky when apparent ghosts get involved in the plot. You'll just have to see who they are.

I don't know why Crunchyroll didn't license Gridman Universe for a theatrical release. You're reading the review of someone who would have gone right away if they did. In any case, that it was streaming at all was why I finally reactivated my Crunchyroll account. Its blend of bombastic action and fun character chemistry is a good reminder I should have checked out the duology years ago. But better late than never, I guess, and those late like me will find Gridman Universe a pretty good anime superhero film. Its villain could have been more interesting, but it's still an entertaining use of almost two-hours. Access Flash onto Crunchyroll if you want to see what I mean. That's it for now.