[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

But yeah, this was a nice little breather, before the plot gets really heated.

Oh yeah, it most certainly does...

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Episode 6: Contact

Remember how I liked the little character interactions in the last episode?

Well this episode is all about that, to the point that Gridman doesn't even show up in this one.

It's also where the plot takes a massive turn, so if you've been following these posts without seeing the show yourself, and you're at all curious about it, I highly recommend actually watching it and seeing for yourself.

So yeah, spoilers ahoy!

Gonna do this one slightly out of order too, as this episode puts every major character and puts them into a pair, and so, I'll be talking about each pair one by one, in terms of what I found to be the least to the most important(note: might or might not also be influenced by my love of Anti).

Pair 1: Sho and Akane.

The two spark up a conversation over their mutual interest in Tokusatsu(or "Kaiju" as they specify here. Is that a dub thing?), specifically even talking about Red King. While Sho is finding joy in having something in common with the girl he's had a crush on, Akane is of course only humoring him to try and get information about Gridman.

Showing off their very different ideologies, Akane emphasizes that Kaiju are the "real heroes" (not her exact words but pretty much) whereas Sho claims both sides create a balance in the medium, which Akane blatantly blows off. When Akane tries to grill him directly, Sho, well, "sho's" what a devoted friend and good secret keeper he is, saying that even if Yuta has changed due to his amnesia, they're still friends and that's not going to change.

Given what we learn in this very episode, that must've hit Akane directly, so the speak.

Pair 2: Anti and Rikka

Again showing her fondness for outsiders, Rikka decides to look after Anti upon finding him literally digging through trash in the search of food. Anti seems to at first rather uncharacteristically just go along with it. But given his earlier scene with Akane at the start of the episode, I think it's pretty clear that he finds himself drawn to Rikka due to her being the first person to actually treat Anti with genuine kindness. Speaking of that scene, good continuity. Last episode Akane threw away Anti's scarf, and it's still gone come this one.

I like to also think that the questions Rikka asked of him, while basic to any normal person, made Anti begin to wonder just what kind of life he was living. Until now, all he'd ever done was literally stand around, eat, and wait for Gridman to show up so he could try to kill him. And all for an ungrateful creator who refuses to be clear cut with him about much of anything, ontop of berating him for trying to do the exact thing that she created him for. It's harsh, and is yet another element that makes me really jive with Anti's' character(did I mention he's my favorite?).

The episode even ends with a quick action scene where the Junior High Squad uses his own single-mindedness against him. I liked that scene.

Pair 3: Yuta and... some girl.

This is the biggest one in the episode, and before I get into it, I real quick wanna say, if FUNimation deliberately decided to not translate the credits on this episode, then good on them, because they give away a big spoiler, that being the identity of the girl in question. Granted, fans of either OG Gridman or Syber-Squad can most likely deduce who she is by the end of the episode, but it's a revelation I feel is alot better saved for later on.

Emphasizing that she's here to throw everything off the rails, the girl in green comes in and reveals real fast that she is, infact, a Kaiju, and that she's here to show Yuta the truth of the world that he lives in. That truth being that there's nothing outside of the city, and everything in it is the product of one lonely heart: Akane Shinjo.

The fog that covers the town from time to time? It's the same fog on the traintracks that causes people to fall asleep. It helps both hide the various Kaiju attacks as well as make sure Akane can reset everything once her tantrums are done. One nice detail of this(one I didn't notice the first time watching) is that it means the entire show started either during or right at the end of one of Akane's' resets.

Interestingly, the Kaiju are what have the Fixer Beams here, rather than Gridman.

It's at this point that viewers, especially fans of the previous shows, can most likely guess about another major twist, but I won't talk about it here for anyone who can't.

With this new information, Yuta finds new resolve in his mission of saving the city and stopping his newfound enemy. When she leaves, the Kaiju Girl says that she owed him, as her "predecessor" was helped by Yuta in the past, and the two separate on good terms.

Would you believe that this isn't even the heaviest episode in the show? Because uh, it ain't. But we'll get to that in due time.