Anime Spotlight #17: Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a,k,a, The Animeister

The Anime Spotlight returns after a week of absence, controversial detours, less-than-Marvelous reviews, and some Throwback Thursday bull to bring you the awaited reviews of Studio Trigger's best executed works ever (well, one was well executed, but we'll get to that a bit later): SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon.

But before they were Studio Trigger, the folks behind the SSSSeries previously created anime as members of Gainax (whose other founding members went on to form GONZO). To check out my thoughts on some other Gainax, GONZO, and Trigger anime, click the following links:

• Rosario+Vampire (GONZO): Anime-BAW #4: Harem Genre (Part 3)
• My Bride Is A Mermaid (GONZO): Anime-WTF? #2: Attack Of the Clowns
• FLCL (Gainax): Anime-WTF #3: Revenge Of the Shith
• Darling In the FRANXX (Studio Trigger): Anime-WTF? #4: Uhh...No Hope
• Full Metal Panic! (GONZO): Anime-BAW #6: Full Metal Panic!
• 18if,
  Aokana: Four Rhythm Across the Blue,
  and Conception (GONZO): Anime-BAWklog: Finished Series A-Z (Part I)

Animeister's Note: Gainax also worked on the live-action Cutie Honey film. My thoughts on the series itself can be found near the end of the above Anime-BAWklog  post.

Back in the 90s, just about everyone was trying to capitalize on the Power Rangers craze, even going so far as to copy Haim Saban's business model of licensing footage of Japanese tokusatsu series (special effects-driven films and television shows that typically saw costumed heroes using their vehicles, weapons, and actors dressed as giant robots to make actors dressed in rubber, evil monster suits explode), shooting new scenes for local audiences, and cutting the two together (with the local actors dubbing lines over the legacy footage) in a way that tried to make sense. ABC's attempt at the Ameri-satsu formula was a single season series starring Matthew Lawrence (Money Plane), titled Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, which was based on the Japanese series, Gridman: The HyperAgent. Tsuburaya Productions, the owners of the Gridman and Ultraman franchises, also co-produced Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad with DIC Entertainment and ABC. They also co-created SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon with Studio Trigger.

SSSS.Gridman has a lot of clear anime tropes, and tropes often seen in previous Gainax and Trigger productions, specifically FLCL. Like in most anime, you can pick out the romantic leads by their hair color, and those paired hair colors are generally red and black. The main character of Gridman is a red-headed high school boy named Yuta, who has amnesia after some sort of unexplained accident (perhaps some psychotic alien chick ran him over with her scooter?), and soon discovers that a giant robot named Gridman is living in an old computer in a local junk shop, and he's the only one who can see or hear it. As if the FLCL references weren't obvious enough, SSSS.Gridman serves as Yuta's coming-of-age story, as he navigates his feelings for his dark haired, female classmate, Rikka. That is, when he's not helping Gridman save their city from eerily convenient kaiju attacks. Things get existentially Twilight Zone-ier and WandaVision-ier when blurry Godzilla statues begin appearing in the distance, the city is seemingly isolated from the rest of the world, buildings that were destroyed in kaiju attacks are magically rebuilt the next day with no one remembering what happened (a unique twist on explaining the "Japan rebuilds quickly after monster attacks" trope from various kaiju franchises), and people who were killed in those attacks seem to go forgotten by everyone but Yuta, as though they had never existed. Also, the classic tokusatsu tropes like the evil version of the hero, combining vehicles and weapons, and new power-ups and team members (embodied in the "Neon Genesis Junior High Students," because Gainax did Neon Genesis Evangelion and the comedic irony that they're all too old to be in Junior High School, nor are they students), all go through their natural progression. One of the main draws of the Gridman anime, besides the character dynamics, the sci-fi mystery, and the epic banger of a theme song, is the animation. It's a pretty fluid combination of hand-drawn and CGI, but everything is animated to move like practical effects, from the perfectly replicated zoom sequence that makes Gridman grow, to the lumbering, floppy, rubbery movement of the kaiju that makes them look like puppeteers and actors in cheap costumes, to the way certain close-up "shots" are composed to make it look like the scenery has stage hands moving it around from behind the scenes, to Gridman doing slow, floaty jumpkicks like he's being lifted by wires. It's incredible how well Trigger and Tsuburaya were able to replicate the live-action feel of the Gridman vs. kaiju sequences, while also putting Trigger/Gainax's insane, speed-line-infused artistic flair on the fight choreography and finishing energy blasts. I love it!

The reason behind the kaiju and why the world is the way it is has some FLCL influence to it as well, but it's not worth spoiling beyond that, and there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it post-credits scene that will break your brain. So despite all the tropes, this one's a very high recommend from me.

The sequel is never as good as the original. There are cases, like Terminator 2, Evil Dead 2, and Aliens, where it's as good or even better. But Studio Trigger is no James Cameron or Sam Raimi, and SSSS.Dynazenon sounds more like a sleep aid for snakes than a blockbuster sequel worthy of what came before it.

In terms of world building, Dynazenon has almost nothing in common with Gridman aside from the presence of kaiju, and the kaiju don't even operate on the same rules as before. It's not a case of lore expansion or power scaling; it's just completely different rules. Instead of being created by someone, kaiju just exist now, and there are people who can use the Vulcan salute to impose their wills on the kaiju. No existential crisis or rebuilding overnight as before; things get destroyed and there's collateral damage (barely), and that's it. Even when the hero, Yomogi (who looks like an amalgamation of Hiro and Ichigo from Darling In the FRANXX, so not even the character designs are given much effort), figures out he can also do the Vulcan mind meld trick with kaiju, it's almost a one-off, and the reason is never explored, whereas the events of Gridman had a high-concept, but reasonable explanation within the scope of the established world.

The cast on both sides of Dynazenon's conflict is bloated and underdeveloped, the coming-of-age romantic beats are given focus but are weak in importance to character motivation or plot progression, the animation is far less practical-looking, the theme song isn't as good, the series feels more like a collection of Dynazenon toy commercials (four vehicles, a robot, a gold dragon, a "GridKnight," and at least a dozen combined forms throughout as many episodes) than an engaging plot.

If you can even remember or recognize them by the time they show up, there are two returning characters who had varying degrees of importance in the Gridman series, but I had to Google them, and even then, I didn't care. Maybe I distracted myself too much in anticipation of how the "Gridman Universe" would fit together, but that anticipation was the only thing that kept me engaged, and with my thoughts on everything else about Dynazenon, it amounted to a soulless tease.

If you agree, or you think I got Dynazenon completely wrong, let me know in the comments below, and Grid Beam those like buttons while you're down there.

Also, Stay Tuned for an Anime Spotlight on the RWBY franchise (since the Ice Queendom dub is streaming now and Rooster Teeth has a new Volume is in the works), and a special, Halloween mega-post on the Jeepers Creepers franchise.

Fingers Crossed, and

Animeister,

Out.