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12-09-2020, 01:27 PM | #211 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
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Honestly, I can’t argue with your assessment of Akane. Especially having seen both version of the original and both Malcolm and his counterpart Takeshi are practically saints by comparison (Malcolm’s reasons for turning the water supply into acid is marginally more justifiable than murdering a dude because he shoved you and Takeshi’s only casualty was a dog in one episode entirely by accident). Not gonna try playing any form of defence. I know for a fact “it’s supposed to be darker/lighter” does not fly with everyone, especially when some things are just plain terrible.
I’ve also been thinking about it and I think I’ve found a reason I’ve gravitated towards this show (beyond liking Inferno Cop and SSSS when I saw them for the first time) is due to some recycled elements from Ultraman Ginga. I can certainly see some similarities between Akane’s plot line and episode 10 of that show’s victim of the week plot. Though I think the latter is better handled, since we actually get a buildup over 9 episodes and a movie with this character before we see her go bad, and it does have something of a fairly epic payoff. (IMO) Another thing I loved is that the show acknowledges that Utsumi and Rikka not actively contributing much to Gridman and co’s battles with Akane’s Kaiju doesn’t make them useless. Especially since the fandom in general (mostly Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, with Power Rangers joining in to a lesser extent) seems to operate under the mindset that any character who doesn’t transform, fight or build a weapon is useless unless they do one of the three. It’s a fairly closed and unhealthy mindset which frankly goes against one of the main themes of these franchises. That being that real heroes can exist in spite of being able to transform. I’m doing something of a take that against the idea in my Sentai fanfiction where multiple minor characters try to become Rangers and end up as mindless beasts who have to be put down (though as of this post, I’ve only included it once) thus making it clear there is a reason why only these people became henshin heroes. Anyway, it’s been nice to see your thoughts on this show and it’s been nice sharing these Easter eggs. I look forward to seeing what Dynazenon has to offer. |
12-09-2020, 10:57 PM | #212 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Quote:
Heck, the overall lesson the show seems to want to preach(and thus the one Akane learns) is that you shouldn't stay cooped up in your shell and you should give life a chance, because there's alot of wonderful things out there for you to experience.
...A lesson Akane only "learns" via being cooped up in own shell. Cool. I think it's fair to call myself a big fan of the original Gridman? I forget exactly when after getting into Rider and everything (which was 2011-ish, as a reminder) I found out about it, but I remember it catching my imagination immediately as soon as I heard about it, and it never really let go. He was basically Ultraman, but even cooler, because he fought in sweet digital cityscapes, had sick combining robot allies, and arguably the greatest toku hero theme song of all time. It was something I probably would've watched at the earliest opportunity if not for the issue of there being no English subs for it back then. Kind of a hurdle, but eventually it hit me in 2017 that I'd stumbled my way into picking up enough Japanese over half a decade that watching a show raw was becoming a legitimate option. But obviously I wouldn't want to test that theory out with a show that would be super heavy on complex dialogue or plotting; I needed something older, lighter, episodic, and simple. When I searched my head for a good candidate, the answer was as clear as day – I finally get to watch Gridman. It went over way smoother than I expected. A joke or some technical jargon here or there would fly over my head, but I was following along, and I was having a great time doing it. The thing about learning a language and getting to the point where you ~kinda sorta~ understand the broad gist of it is that it's a lot like being a little kid again, and experiencing Gridman that way gave me a bit more of a profound connection to it than I think a lot of people have. It helps that the show itself is just plain awesome, and has the style and tone it does. There's a line in Gridman's finale that's become one of my favorite lines I've ever heard in tokusatsu: "If you think you've done something wrong, why not try taking responsibility for it?" It's a pretty simple sentiment for a pretty straightforward show, but it hit me like a hammer first watching the episode because it embodies perfectly what my single favorite thing about Gridman is – it's a very proactive hero show. A series about a bunch of middle school kids who manage to put together a supercomputer out of trash they scraped up with the scarce money kids have, and who use that computer to save the world. Every one of Gridman's abilities, down to his typical ability to grow in size like any Ultraman style hero, is directly owed to the tireless work of these three children punching WAY beyond their weight. Gridman has this attitude that's closely tied to its status as a new hero for the digital age, which is that people can overcome just about anything with enough ingenuity and hard work. That's what technology is, at its core. There's even a line in the chorus of that amazing theme song that goes "anyone can be a hero", and that's what Naoto, Ippei, and Yuka all are; they're people who won't crack no matter what you throw their way. Naturally, then, Takeshi is the main antagonist because he represents the opposite of all of that. He's a guy who will take half a step towards solving his problems, say it's too hard, say that he tried, and go back to his room to listen to the digital devil on his shoulder telling him he should waste his time with unproductive schemes for petty self-satisfaction instead. Takeshi avoids dealing with his feelings. Takeshi retreats. In SSSS.Gridman, nearly every character is Takeshi, and that drove me absolutely insane. I knew seeing the trailers and everything back in 2018 that it was going to be shooting for a very different story. To be honest, I think I even started expecting to hate it, which usually means I move on with my life right then and there, but SSSS.Gridman was receiving so much hype, and when it started airing, people generally seemed to be utterly enamored with it. I wanted to be able to make myself see it that way, but I just couldn't get over how cold the show felt. Sure, there are hot-blooded battles and all that, but it all seemed superficial to me. The raw core of the anime was this group of dejected protagonists who have no idea how to communicate and always seem in a rush to leave every scene they're in – nothing like my precious Gridman and its warm, exuberant camaraderie. They seemed so distant. I could not get into it for the life of me, and by Full Power Gridman's debut in episode 8, I was broken. I gave up, and I stopped watching, but a month later, right after the show finished, the feeling of leaving business unfinished became unbearable, and I pounded out the last stretch of episodes in a day or two. And you know, maybe the time away helped, or maybe DreamSword is on to something about SSSS.Gridman being designed for binge-watching, but whatever the reason, I felt so much less miserable doing it. Heck, by the end of it, I felt like apologizing, because suddenly I felt like I understood what it was going for. It all felt purposeful. Like it was all worth it, from the very start. Here's the part where I get to rave a whole lot about UNION; everyone reading this is encouraged to take the opportunity for a quick break first. UNION is one of the best theme songs anything has ever had. I thought this song was a masterpiece even back when I hated the show it was attached to, and constantly questioned why it deserved a jam this good. And maybe if I wasn't being a f***ing idiot, I would've actually listened to the lyrics, and realized it was explaining all this to me from day one. There are two things I've always suspected about the song that I never had confirmed until I looked it up to make this post and immediately found out were both dead on. One is that the lyrics were written after reading the scripts for the show, and the second is that those lyrics were also actively written in parts to be directed at the audience of adults who grew up watching the original Gridman. Now, I'm not saying I'm some great detective for figuring that out on my own; quite the opposite. I'm complimenting UNION for having such astonishing precision in its word choice that it'd be harder not to notice. Each verse leans harder in one direction, but the entire song has this extremely clever double meaning to it where it's talking about the literal events of the anime while also being a sort of metaphor warning against growing into an emotionally detached person who sees the world as a cage. And it pulls that off so effortlessly because those two topics aren't mutually exclusive. SSSS.Gridman was about cold people, but it wasn't a cold show. It was portraying these distant people in order to tell a story about the necessity of closing that distance. It's even a motif in that music video up there that was made after the series concluded. The original show represented the optimism of a world of rapidly advancing electronic technology, and the anime, in what is arguably a very smart and logical update, represents the remoteness of the world built atop that. It's a show about teenagers who know each other superficially, calling themselves friends, working together or hanging out for the odd shallow conversation about recent gossip or hobbies or what have you; all the while never really leaning on each other, never risking getting too close. Most of the characters in the show are running away from their feelings in some way. It's most obvious with Rikka and Akane, but extends to characters like Anti and even Yuuta in one way or another too. And the thing is, eventually, they do learn to lean on each other, and they're all so much healthier for it. Gridman goes back to being that optimistic toku hero of old and lifts the literal sedative fog trapping everyone in their narrow world. Rikka is the one telling Utsumi to have more faith in his childish concept of the Gridman Alliance, and says it won't be a big deal if Yuuta doesn't remember the events of the show, because they can just make friends with him again. That isn't a big deal to her! And then there's Akane, who abandons the repetitive cycle she's resigned herself to in favor of facing a world that can give her happiness that will be more than a lie. She stops retreating. Does she deserve that? S***, I don't know. I mean, I don't really like her, but I still know DreamSword's Daguva comparison is definitely way overboard when Akane's capacity for remorse alone disqualifies her from being that level of monstrous. I think there's a bit of a problem with the show trying to have its cake and eat it here; Akane getting off scott-free for murder kinda hinges on the idea that these virtual people are only as real to her as is convenient, but the audience is conditioned from the start to just see them as people, so even if all her evil gloating is merely a mask for deeply rooted self-loathing, it could come off pretty awkward in the end, for sure. But on a broad strokes level, Akane growing to realize other people don't exist at her convenience, and everybody being willing to see the human heart at the center of all that evil, it all makes total sense for a narrative that is, once again, about closing distances. SSSS.Gridman starts and ends with an awakening. Literally; the titles of the first and last episodes are the same, with only one difference. Every episode title in the show is made up of a single word comprised of two kanji (I swear I've heard that somewhere before...), separated by this little dot: ・ It's used in Japanese to separate words in a few different contexts, such as when writing out foreign names. It can be a sort of decorative choice as well, however, with Kamen Rider Fourze even doing something similar with its titles. What's curious then about SSSS.Gridman doing it is that it's dropped solely for the final episode, which is written normally instead. That always baffled me. I could never figure out what the significance was, and even looking around for an official explanation, nothing turned up very quickly. But in writing this post, I think I finally figured it out. Like I said, the dot is there to separate things. To keep them apart. So to remove that at the very end of the series, well, what else could it symbolize but removing all that distance, too? ...I'm really sorry this ended up being so long? I feel decent about how it came out, which doesn't always happen when I ramble this much, but I don't know. I guess my whole point can just be condensed to what I've already said, which is that SSSS.Gridman is a series I wasn't super welcoming of that turned itself around for me with a final stretch I thought payed major dividends on so many elements I was previously quite grumpy about. Nowadays I still feel conflicted – removed from the initial excitement, it became clear again I wasn't exactly imagining a lot of my issues, either, but still, I'm an awful lot more inclined to say the show is owed its success these days. I'm also not too sure if I want to watch Dynazenon for fear of going through this emotional rollercoaster twice, though, so... yeah, conflicted. Hopefully this wasn't a drag to read!
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12-10-2020, 04:19 AM | #213 |
Reiei
Join Date: Sep 2018
Posts: 3,691
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Reading Dreamsword's opinion on Akane is very interesting in that I never actually felt this way on my first watching. I don't know why though. On me following this thread, it did make me go: "Wait a minute, he's right!" on several instances. Akane's character has some issues on the writing, maybe the show needed more episodes to convery her character other than "girl with escapism issues enabled by a big bad with a weird name". And yeah, it's become jarring that she's done a lot of things and the main cast kinda just forgives her for that. Especially when she stabbed Yuta and Rikka wasn't all that much angry.
I still like her tho. But with the reveal of this anime (and the prequel manga I'm attempting to read) that the people living in the world are all digital beings called Repli-Compoids that were programmed to basically like Akane unconditionally, it kinda lessens the impact of any death. The characters forgiving Akane easily, as iffy as it was, now kinda makes sense. They were all pretty much tools to Akane for her fantasies. Only that the fantasies grew a bit of their own conscience and told Akane to wake up. Gotta talk about one of my weirdly favorite scenes tho. The scene where Yuta and Sho hang out in 721 after he got into and argument with Rikka about fighting Akane. It's not my favorite because of what happens in the scene, it's the atmosphere and took me back a bit to my first trip in Japan and entered one of their convenience stores. That or I just like convenience stores in general. Anyway, I think I could also hear Ultraman R/B's ED in the background as well during that scene? I happened to think of it when Youtube played R/B's ED and I thought I recognized it from somewhere. Got not much else to say. Again, I enjoyed following this thread and rewatching a few episodes of Gridman and I eagerly await SSSS Dynazenon, especially with the possibility of Sigma showing up. The kind with the blue hair and yellow eyes is very suspicious. |
12-10-2020, 08:17 AM | #214 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,428
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Okay right off, thank you guys for the responses! Legit I loved reading them, and appreciate that you all gave my uncharacteristically long giganto-post the time of day, haha.
Now let me go ahead and make another one via responding to all these! *deep inhale* Quote:
Honestly, I can’t argue with your assessment of Akane. Especially having seen both version of the original and both Malcolm and his counterpart Takeshi are practically saints by comparison (Malcolm’s reasons for turning the water supply into acid is marginally more justifiable than murdering a dude because he shoved you and Takeshi’s only casualty was a dog in one episode entirely by accident). Not gonna try playing any form of defence. I know for a fact “it’s supposed to be darker/lighter” does not fly with everyone, especially when some things are just plain terrible.
Quote:
I’ve also been thinking about it and I think I’ve found a reason I’ve gravitated towards this show (beyond liking Inferno Cop and SSSS when I saw them for the first time) is due to some recycled elements from Ultraman Ginga. I can certainly see some similarities between Akane’s plot line and episode 10 of that show’s victim of the week plot. Though I think the latter is better handled, since we actually get a buildup over 9 episodes and a movie with this character before we see her go bad, and it does have something of a fairly epic payoff. (IMO)
Heck, there were apparently a ton of Transformers references that all went totally over my head since I'm not really into that franchise. Quote:
Another thing I loved is that the show acknowledges that Utsumi and Rikka not actively contributing much to Gridman and co’s battles with Akane’s Kaiju doesn’t make them useless. Especially since the fandom in general (mostly Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, with Power Rangers joining in to a lesser extent) seems to operate under the mindset that any character who doesn’t transform, fight or build a weapon is useless unless they do one of the three. It’s a fairly closed and unhealthy mindset which frankly goes against one of the main themes of these franchises. That being that real heroes can exist in spite of being able to transform.
Power Rangers SPD does this same lesson in a fantastic way with the episode focused on Boom, and to emphasize your point about the fandom, people still to this day insist that Boom should've been the Omega Ranger, even though that would've totally went against both Boom's' and Sam's' character development. Quote:
Anyway, it’s been nice to see your thoughts on this show and it’s been nice sharing these Easter eggs. I look forward to seeing what Dynazenon has to offer.
Quote:
Okay, I've rewatched the last episode, thought about everything a whole lot, and, thanks to your surprisingly negative take on a lot of what the show does with its story, I've figured out where to start. Or maybe it's more like where I want to end? I mentioned I have complicated feelings about this show. Describing my personal experience with it could easily involve saying a lot of very mean things if I really wanted to, but I don't *ever* want that. I don't think I'd be able to forgive myself for s***ing on something a lot of people love just for the sake of it. Now, arguing in favor of the creative vision of a work? That is the kind of thing I'm here for. Plus, it can still involve the personal stuff! (This will take a minute; apologies in advance for using this thread as an excuse to vent.)
I'm kidding! I'm kidding! And yeah, despite how (apparently) good I am at sounding negative, I tried my best to highlight why I still love this show regardless. And no need to apologize! That's part of what stuff like this is here for. Quote:
I think it's fair to call myself a big fan of the original Gridman? etc.
Discovering your own little show that you enjoy immensely, man, that was part of the feelings behind me making this thread! Quote:
There's a line in Gridman's finale that's become one of my favorite lines I've ever heard in tokusatsu: "If you think you've done something wrong, why not try taking responsibility for it?" It's a pretty simple sentiment for a pretty straightforward show, but it hit me like a hammer first watching the episode because it embodies perfectly what my single favorite thing about Gridman is – it's a very proactive hero show. A series about a bunch of middle school kids who manage to put together a supercomputer out of trash they scraped up with the scarce money kids have, and who use that computer to save the world. Every one of Gridman's abilities, down to his typical ability to grow in size like any Ultraman style hero, is directly owed to the tireless work of these three children punching WAY beyond their weight.
And in terms of taking responsibility for your actions, that is some Malcolm definitely did come the end of the show, which is something I felt Akane never properly did, or at the very least it felt alot more hallow after all was said and done. ...That is until Syber-Squad got artificially inflated, but that's a whole 'nother rant. Quote:
Gridman has this attitude that's closely tied to its status as a new hero for the digital age, which is that people can overcome just about anything with enough ingenuity and hard work. That's what technology is, at its core. There's even a line in the chorus of that amazing theme song that goes "anyone can be a hero", and that's what Naoto, Ippei, and Yuka all are; they're people who won't crack no matter what you throw their way. Naturally, then, Takeshi is the main antagonist because he represents the opposite of all of that. He's a guy who will take half a step towards solving his problems, say it's too hard, say that he tried, and go back to his room to listen to the digital devil on his shoulder telling him he should waste his time with unproductive schemes for petty self-satisfaction instead. Takeshi avoids dealing with his feelings. Takeshi retreats.
In SSSS.Gridman, nearly every character is Takeshi, and that drove me absolutely insane. Quote:
the theme song and why it's a banger
The biggest one, atleast to the way my brain is wired, is "What was the promise Yuta made to Rikka before the start of the show?" Like, the anime brings it up about three separate times and we never actually learn what it is. The theme song itself even mentions it, for crying out loud! I guess they thought the audience wouldn't be satisfied with the answer no matter what it was, so they dropped it? But yeah, it's no Baby Dan Dan, but it's a great song in terms of, well, everything about it! Quote:
SSSS.Gridman was about cold people, but it wasn't a cold show. It was portraying these distant people in order to tell a story about the necessity of closing that distance. It's even a motif in that music video up there that was made after the series concluded. The original show represented the optimism of a world of rapidly advancing electronic technology, and the anime, in what is arguably a very smart and logical update, represents the remoteness of the world built atop that. It's a show about teenagers who know each other superficially, calling themselves friends, working together or hanging out for the odd shallow conversation about recent gossip or hobbies or what have you; all the while never really leaning on each other, never risking getting too close. Most of the characters in the show are running away from their feelings in some way. It's most obvious with Rikka and Akane, but extends to characters like Anti and even Yuuta in one way or another too.
And the thing is, eventually, they do learn to lean on each other, and they're all so much healthier for it. Gridman goes back to being that optimistic toku hero of old and lifts the literal sedative fog trapping everyone in their narrow world. Rikka is the one telling Utsumi to have more faith in his childish concept of the Gridman Alliance, and says it won't be a big deal if Yuuta doesn't remember the events of the show, because they can just make friends with him again. That isn't a big deal to her! And then there's Akane, who abandons the repetitive cycle she's resigned herself to in favor of facing a world that can give her happiness that will be more than a lie. She stops retreating. Quote:
Does she deserve that? S***, I don't know. I mean, I don't really like her, but I still know DreamSword's Daguva comparison is definitely way overboard when Akane's capacity for remorse alone disqualifies her from being that level of monstrous. I think there's a bit of a problem with the show trying to have its cake and eat it here; Akane getting off scott-free for murder kinda hinges on the idea that these virtual people are only as real to her as is convenient, but the audience is conditioned from the start to just see them as people, so even if all her evil gloating is merely a mask for deeply rooted self-loathing, it could come off pretty awkward in the end, for sure. But on a broad strokes level, Akane growing to realize other people don't exist at her convenience, and everybody being willing to see the human heart at the center of all that evil, it all makes total sense for a narrative that is, once again, about closing distances.
I could also argue that she only feels "remorse" in so far as how it affects her rather than actually feeling any empathy towards others, but that's an ENTIRE other debate that is probably best left alone. Quote:
deep symbolism in the common period and closing distances
I think here's probably the best spot to say the new thing you made me realize about the Dream episode. The episode wasn't just about "Don't you feel bad that Akane has no friends?" (although that is a major part of its framing) but also to show that Yuta, Rikka, and Sho, all knew it was better to face reality and that they could count on eachother to pull them through, rather than trying to force any sort of relationship like what Akane was doing. It's just a shame that the episode puts so much emphasis on Akane that it's hard to see that other aspect. Quote:
...I'm really sorry this ended up being so long? I feel decent about how it came out, which doesn't always happen when I ramble this much, but I don't know. I guess my whole point can just be condensed to what I've already said, which is that SSSS.Gridman is a series I wasn't super welcoming of that turned itself around for me with a final stretch I thought payed major dividends on so many elements I was previously quite grumpy about. Nowadays I still feel conflicted – removed from the initial excitement, it became clear again I wasn't exactly imagining a lot of my issues, either, but still, I'm an awful lot more inclined to say the show is owed its success these days. I'm also not too sure if I want to watch Dynazenon for fear of going through this emotional rollercoaster twice, though, so... yeah, conflicted.
Hopefully this wasn't a drag to read! Quote:
Reading Dreamsword's opinion on Akane is very interesting in that I never actually felt this way on my first watching. I don't know why though. On me following this thread, it did make me go: "Wait a minute, he's right!" on several instances. Akane's character has some issues on the writing, maybe the show needed more episodes to convery her character other than "girl with escapism issues enabled by a big bad with a weird name". And yeah, it's become jarring that she's done a lot of things and the main cast kinda just forgives her for that. Especially when she stabbed Yuta and Rikka wasn't all that much angry.
I still like her tho. I will say this though, and I know that this is gonna sound SUPER weird after all the ranting I've done, but I actually liked Akane more when she was portrayed as nothing but a kill-crazy lunatic. I found her alot more entertaining that way. So when the anime tries to pull "Oh but you see she's actually SUPER DEEP don't you feel bad for her?" All I could think to reply with was "Uh, no? What are you even doing?" Basically killed the whole mood. Quote:
But with the reveal of this anime (and the prequel manga I'm attempting to read) that the people living in the world are all digital beings called Repli-Compoids that were programmed to basically like Akane unconditionally, it kinda lessens the impact of any death. The characters forgiving Akane easily, as iffy as it was, now kinda makes sense. They were all pretty much tools to Akane for her fantasies. Only that the fantasies grew a bit of their own conscience and told Akane to wake up.
Quote:
Gotta talk about one of my weirdly favorite scenes tho. The scene where Yuta and Sho hang out in 721 after he got into and argument with Rikka about fighting Akane. It's not my favorite because of what happens in the scene, it's the atmosphere and took me back a bit to my first trip in Japan and entered one of their convenience stores. That or I just like convenience stores in general. Anyway, I think I could also hear Ultraman R/B's ED in the background as well during that scene? I happened to think of it when Youtube played R/B's ED and I thought I recognized it from somewhere.
Quote:
Got not much else to say. Again, I enjoyed following this thread and rewatching a few episodes of Gridman and I eagerly await SSSS Dynazenon, especially with the possibility of Sigma showing up. The kind with the blue hair and yellow eyes is very suspicious.
--- *deep exhale* Thanks again guys! I know I usually finish these off with a pic of some new merch related to the show I just covered, but unfortunately my pre-order of GSC's' Primal Acceptor got delayed by two months, so instead I'll just repost a pic I took featuring my favorite Toku Heroes: No idea what I'll cover next, but whatever it ends up being it's gotta wait awhile. My job is currently in the middle of its busiest time of the year so uh, not too much free time right now! As always, if anyone has any suggestions or wants to discuss other aspects of the various shows already talked about in this thread, go for it!
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Last edited by DreamSword; 12-10-2020 at 09:41 PM.. |
12-10-2020, 09:23 PM | #215 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Man, I'm not even sure I've thrown Die that much of a brick wall of text in a while.
Thank you for indulging my habit of writing things that are way too long; rest assured returning the favor is the absolute least I can do. That final thoughts post hit on a lot of really nice points, and even echoed some of my own issues with the show. Quote:
While it wasn't in the US adaptation, the overall idea is still there in Syber-Squad. While Servo is some mystical anomaly that just kinda attaches itself to Sam, everything else involving him, from his weapons, to his robots, are all made via the collective effort of Team Samurai.
It's neat in that sense that SSSS.Gridman in turn went out of its way to acknowledge it to the extent it did, because it's the kind of thing it's easy to imagine Tsuburaya and/or Trigger barely even remembering existed at all. One thing I really should give the anime more credit for than I was at the time was how it kinda has legitimized the concept of Gridman being its own little franchise, and brought a fair amount of attention to it from people who would've otherwise never heard of it. Like, it's such a small body of work, and yet there are all these odds and ends like a foreign adaptation, obscure spinoff characters, abandoned plot arcs and sequel concepts... and the anime managed to pull from just about every last bit of it in some way? That sheer passion is truly out of the ordinary, and I have to commend the show's staff for excitedly working deep cuts into their story whenever they could. I mean, Anti is essentially a fully realized version of the Grid Knight concept I would've loved if the original series had time to do it, right down to the progression from villain to hero, except now he's voiced by Kenichi Suzumura; talk about worth the wait! It's come up in the thread before, but this is also probably a good time to mention Trigger's "boys invent great hero" short film from 2015 that sort of led to this series eventually happening in the first place. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a reverence for stock footage in my life. I remember being floored that they deliberately recreated the cheesy digital scaling effect of the show's combination sequences for Dyna Dragon's transformation. Not to mention the screw on the back of God Zenon's head that's inexplicably taken from the toy and not the show. It's all so unabashedly esoteric and nerdy, and in retrospect, yeah, I probably would trust the guys who put it together to take good care of the property on a longer-term basis if I was Tsuburaya. Quote:
As someone who's a sucker for the power of friendship, I felt SSSS.Gridman did it quite well(mostly). I personally felt that it did a good job at portraying just how awkward total strangers put into this situation would actually be, and how they grew to bond with one another over time. The Beach episode did a nice job at highlighting this I feel, with Yuta and Sho acting alot more like actual friends, and Rikka refusing to be left out not just because she was a part of the group, but because, well, she was a part of the group. And genuinely cared about the boys ontop of her "duty" as one of the city's' protectors.
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12-10-2020, 09:57 PM | #216 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,428
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Quote:
Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad is something I become increasingly curious about every (rare) time I see it get brought up, because it seems like the singular western toku adaptation spawned in the wake of Power Rangers that made a concerted effort to be a fairly faithful adaptation of the source material. It sounds like the broad strokes of the plot in particular are nearly 1:1, even.
If you ever do decide to check the show out, I will say that it is very much a "turn your brain off" type of show, but in the fun way! It's also what made the handful of episodes that actually did feature genuine character development and stakes stand out all the more. Malcolm(and the lunch lady) being the highlight character, much like how Anti was in this anime and Takeshi seems to be the star of Gridman. It's 90s cheese at its finest, basically. Quote:
It's neat in that sense that SSSS.Gridman in turn went out of its way to acknowledge it to the extent it did, because it's the kind of thing it's easy to imagine Tsuburaya and/or Trigger barely even remembering existed at all. One thing I really should give the anime more credit for than I was at the time was how it kinda has legitimized the concept of Gridman being its own little franchise, and brought a fair amount of attention to it from people who would've otherwise never heard of it. Like, it's such a small body of work, and yet there are all these odds and ends like a foreign adaptation, obscure spinoff characters, abandoned plot arcs and sequel concepts... and the anime managed to pull from just about every last bit of it in some way? That sheer passion is truly out of the ordinary, and I have to commend the show's staff for excitedly working deep cuts into their story whenever they could. I mean, Anti is essentially a fully realized version of the Grid Knight concept I would've loved if the original series had time to do it, right down to the progression from villain to hero, except now he's voiced by Kenichi Suzumura; talk about worth the wait!
When the first trailer aired, I remembered loving Syber-Squad as a kid(just as I did most US Toku of the time), and as soon as that title flashed on screen, that stylized "SSSS" brought back a ton of memories, and I knew exactly what it meant. The upside of not many people remembering the show anymore also meant it was easy to find for a rewatch, which was great. Had a fun time seeing it again right before the anime started airing. Quote:
It's come up in the thread before, but this is also probably a good time to mention Trigger's "boys invent great hero" short film from 2015 that sort of led to this series eventually happening in the first place.
It also almost got me to rewatch Syber-Squad back in 2015, but I ended up getting distracted by a ton of other things and ended up not getting around to it until three years later, haha. Quote:
Yeah, this is the kind of thing I suspect I might appreciate more on a full rewatch if I ever get around to it? Lots of little moments that I probably wasn't paying anywhere near enough attention to in the moment because I was going into the show with a bad attitude.
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Last edited by DreamSword; 12-10-2020 at 10:31 PM.. |
12-25-2020, 11:28 AM | #217 |
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Quote:
If anyone has a preference on what to tackle first, by all means, cast your vote! Whatever one I end up doing won't be until the New Year though. But, before the Current Year closes out, I feel like there's a bit of unfinished business on my end... --- I wanna talk about the overall design of Primal Gridman, and just how cool it actually is. Like, this is something I really only realized recently, because that design fulfills alot of things all at once and seriously, props to whoever came up with it. First off, it really does look like the sort of "techno-future" sort of design you'd seen on most rebooted characters, from the tech-lines, to the various armored bits. That alone is cool, because it succeeds where the 2017 MMPR movie failed; Creating a design that not only still resembles the given character, but is also still appealing to look at ontop of making sense within the context of its own story. Because you see, there's also a reason this form is known as "Primal" Gridman, which should've been obvious to me once the epic finale hit. Taking a closer look at the design, it really comes across to me that, especially with the various tech-lines emphasizing it, well... it straight up looks like Gridman himself is missing chunks of his body, or at the very least that his body is barely being held together. It really hammers home how Gridman became fragmented upon entering Akane's' virtual city, and how only by becoming whole again and uniting the hearts of everyone could he once again become his true self, or, the classic Gridman everyone knows and loves. It's something that super went over my head until the rewatch, and it made me love this anime's' visual aesthetic even more. Merry Christmas!
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12-26-2020, 08:56 AM | #218 |
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It's definitely a well thought out design, for sure. One thing in particular that bugged me about it at first but is genius in retrospect was how, despite still working blue into the color scheme elsewhere, Primal Gridman doesn't have the cool panels on his chest where the original fired the Fixer Beam from... which turned out to be ~pretty~ significant in the end, didn't it?
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01-24-2021, 08:49 PM | #219 |
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I linked to my Highlight Reel of what I consider my personal favorite episodes across the Power Rangers franchise in the opening post if anyone here is interested. I was honestly surprised at how much of a positive reception that got, so thanks to those who read it!
Anyway, with that (mostly) done, I've decided on what the next show I'll cover here is, based solely upon an action figure I received in the mail recently: Detonator Orgun! It's a short but sweet OVA that, while not one of my favorites, has alot going for it, and I feel deserves more attention than what it normally gets. I definitely recommend watching along. Will begin covering it this weekend!
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01-28-2021, 02:39 PM | #220 |
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Detonator Orgun is certainly an interesting, yet tricky piece of anime history for me to talk about. The biggest hurdles being that it's a very obscure OVA, even moreso than what Android Kikaider is, and the other being that I can't read Japanese, so finding information on this thing is pretty tough. But, I'll do my best to share what I know with you all I cover this. From what I've grown to understand, this 3-Episode OVA, was originally pitched as reboot of Tatsunoko's' more popular production: Tekkaman the Space Knight. If you have no idea what that is, well, here's all you really need to know: Isn't it great!? Anyway, Tekkaman took alot of inspiration from Toku shows(like many of Tatsunoko's' shows did), and both it and its eventual reboot are considered cult classics in both Japan and among anime hardcores alike. But, that reboot is decidedly Not Detonator Orgun. As I understand it, Tatsunoko actually turned down the initial pitch in Orgun, and as such, the minds behind the project then went on to create the OVA we have now. The OVA ended up doing well enough that Tatsunoko would actually in turn use it as inspiration for the actual reboot that Tekkaman would eventually receive: Tekkaman Blade. So yeah, if anyone reading this is a fan of Tekkaman Blade(localized as Teknoman Blade), then you have Detonator Orgun to thank, making this a really interesting watch if only for the sake of comparison. But! This OVA has more going for it than that, which I'm hoping I'll be able to highlight over the next few days. This is gonna be tricky though, because every episode is an hour long, and I wanna try to hook you all into checking this show out. So, I'm not not gonna do a huge play-by-play. I don't wanna spoil too much, and if I DID do that, every post would be like a novelette in terms of length, so instead, I'm gonna go for a slightly different approach and instead do a more sort of generalization of each episode. And if at any point any of this sounds interesting to you, then please, feel free to check this OVA out and post your thoughts! I also recommend watching the subbed version if you can find it. Because while I don't think the dub is out and out bad, it is definitely on the more mediocre side of things. With that, let's begin! Episode 1 The show starts off intense and remains that way throughout most of the first episode. While I couldn't find a rip of Orgun's' main theme, Super Robot Wars W(the best SRW game) actually managed to do a really faithful recreation of it with the NDS sound card. Check it out: Detonator Orgun takes place in the far off future of the 80s, where life seems pretty good. Humanity has expanded its reach across the solar system, having colonized various planets. Modern technology means everyone's' daily needs are met no problem, and the Earth Defense Force is made up of soldiers who wear Transformers as armor. Enter our protagonist, Tomoru. He's a young man with way out of date fashion sense who doesn't know what he wants with his life. While he's making it through college fine, and certainly has family connections that make finding a career not much of a hassle, he appears lack any clear focus or passion, and instead finds himself spending most of his days sleeping and playing videogames. He considers joining the EDF, but feels it rings hallow compared to the military of thousands of years ago. Things have gotten rather weird in recent times though. Tomoru begins getting these odd visions as he sleeps, and a local psychic predicts that a great disaster is about to befall the Earth. Ontop of that, EDF scientist Professor Kanzaki and her supercomputer, I-ZACK, receive a transmission from space; A set of blueprints allowing them to build an incredibly advanced suit of armor that they have no idea the purpose of. And sure enough, they're gonna need it because an alien race known as the Evoluder begin to invade Earth, on a mission to recover that suit of armor specifically. The episode does a great job at selling just how dangerous just one of these creatures actually is too. It lays waste to the city at large, takes no damage from any of the EDF's' current weaponry, and appears to be a sort of living weapon in and of itself. It is only by Tomoru accepting his destiny that the threat is able to be dealt with. The episode overall is really heavy on mysterious atmosphere. From the mystery of what the Evoluders are, to Tomoru's' visions, to how exactly Orgun is involved in all of this, the OVA is very definitely following a defined 3-Act Structure, and as such, the first episode is all about build up. It has good animation, well directed action scenes, and the music, while not amazing, does a fine job at getting you in just the right mood for whatever is going on. It definitely did its job in capturing my interest and getting me to watch the other two episodes, if nothing else.
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