[DreamSword]

Episode 10: Collapse

I've already done alot of complaining about Akane, so I'll try to spare you all that.

Instead, something I wanna bring up that I haven't mentioned as of yet is that when I first watched this show, it was of the SimulDub.

For those who don't know what I'm getting at, when it comes to SimulDubs, they often feature first drafts of the script, in order to be able to pump the episode out faster. These scripts then get revised when the show gets a home release.

During this rewatch I've been watching the Blu-Ray release that I bought ages ago but never opened until now. And admittedly, while it has been close to 3 years since I saw the SimulDub, I haven't noticed any major changes to the dialogue. Minor bits, sure, but the show has been mostly the same.

However, I bring this up now because the revised script makes two major changes that I don't approve of. One in this episode, and another in the next. I even went ahead and skimmed previous episodes as well as the next one in order to make sure I wasn't crazy in misremembering this(which also lead me to discovering the other change I didn't like, but that's next episode).

Surprising no one who's been keeping up with these posts so far, both of these changes involve Anti. During the scene in this episode where Anti confronts Full-Powered Gridman, Borr makes a remark akin to "Oh, you again? Don't you ever get tired of losing?" And Anti's' response is "I'll keep going until I finally crush you!" Standard villain dialogue right? Well, that's not actually how the exchange went in the SimulDub. Here's how that went down:

"You again? Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Yeah me again! And as a matter of fact, no I don't!"

Which to me is A) Hilarious, and B) speaks alot about Anti's' character and state of mind throughout the entire episode. Whereas before now his sole purpose in life being to kill Gridman was something he embraced, now he does it solely because he knows nothing else, and you can tell by the way he's breathing heavy and how his movements are slower than normal that this is weighing heavy on him. In other words, unlike Akane, he is an example of a tragic loner done correctly. This will be further exemplified later on.

This episode might as well be all about Anti as far as I'm concerned, even though he only takes up maybe a third of it, because yet again, he's the biggest highlight. And his character arc as a whole comes to a head with this:

This is Anti's' final form, Gridknight, and from what I can gather he's based off of the many different concepts for a Gridman sequel that never came to be. And to help differentiate him from Gridman, Gridknight does not fight in the standard way that Gridman has fought all throughout this show, instead focusing on wild movements and high acrobatics. It's a ton of fun to watch via contrast!

So what takes up the other two thirds of this episode? Well, outside of the typical Akane nonsense, I actually kinda dug the first third, though it does have its own issues. Essentially it's the characters talking about the nature of their lives; What their purpose is if they really were born from Kaiju, what the state of the world might mean should their God disappear, and how most of the Gridman Alliance are infact aliens.

The problem is that they jump to alot of conclusions without any real substantial evidence. For example, the Junior High Squad theorizes that they and Gridman were all originally one entity... even though in previous episodes they've displayed knowledge and history with one another as separate beings. They also yet again keep assuming that Alexis is the mastermind and that Akane is innocent, despite how even the audience has seen by now that, frankly, that doesn't really hold much weight.

That aside though I did enjoy the discussion aspect. Is it done better in other shows? Certainly. I've already talked about Android Kikaider in this thread afterall(seriously go watch that), but to make this clear, I am in no way demanding this show go super "deep" with its themes. I'm just glad that there's a follow up at all to the question posed towards Syber-Squad that I brought up in a previous write up: "What if people lived in those virtual cities?"

SO WITH THAT SAID LET'S END ON A NEGATIVE NOTE(SORRY!)

The episode ends in a moment that shocked pretty much everyone who'd been keeping up with the SimulDub at the time... but it kinda just made me roll my eyes. Ignoring the contrivance of the Team leaving the Junk Shop door open and Akane just happening to be there, Akane waltzes in, right up towards JUNK, and just starts taunting everyone. And rather than, I dunno, immediately decking her in the face and restraining her in order to get information, everyone makes the great decision of letting her get the chance to do this:

Certainly makes for a great visual though, I will give it that.