SSSS.Gridman Season 2 may be greatly desired by anime fans but can studio Trigger defy history by doing what the original Gridman series could not pull off in the 1990’s?
It turns out they’re going to try since the new SSSS.DYNAZENON anime has been announced as being part of the Gridman Universe.
The SSSS.DYNAZENON release date has been confirmed for April 2021, the spring 2021 anime season.
All of the Studio Trigger staff from the SSSS.Gridman anime will be returning for the SSSS.DYNAZENON anime with the addition of a new Sound Director and a new Line Producer. They will be working with Studio Graphinica to produce the 3DCG animation.
Here is the Studio Trigger staff that has been announced so far (new staff is listed first):
- Line Producer: Shunsuke Shida
- Sound Director: Fumiyuki Go
- Director: Akira Amemiya
- Scriptwriter: Keiichi Hasegawa
- Character Designer: Masaru Sakamoto
- Composer: Shiro Sagisu
- Sub-Character Design: Mayumi Nakamura
- Heroic Animation Director: Hiroki Mutaguchi
- Assistant Director: Yoshihiro Miyajima
- 3DCG Chief Director: Shinichi Miyakaze (Graphinica)
- 3DCG Director: Koji Ichikawa (Graphinica)
- Art Director: Gakuto Gonbin
- Color Key: Hitoki Takeda
- Director Of Photography: Katsunori Shirado (Graphinica)
- Editing: Masato Yoshitake
- Music Production: Pony Canyon
- Sound Effects: Eiko Morikawa
- Animation Producer: Yoshiki Usa
The SSSS.DYNAZENON cast includes Japanese voice actor Daiki Hamano as Gauma, Junya Enoki as Yomogi Asanaka, Shion Wakayama as Yume Minami, Yuichiro Umehara as Koyomi Yamanaka, and Chika Anzai as Chise Asukagawa.
TRIGGER新作アニメ
「#SSSS_DYNAZENON」のキャラクターデザインを担当する坂本勝( @tuki3002 )がデザインした本作のメインキャラクター、ガウマ、麻中 蓬、南 夢芽、山中 暦、飛鳥川ちせ、の設定画も解禁‼️こちらもぜひ、公式HPと合わせてチェックお願いいたします🔥https://t.co/hxnCD0Kkye pic.twitter.com/CnYDBAA5IV— TRIGGER Inc. (@trigger_inc) October 4, 2020
The new SSSS.DYNAZENON trailer released on October 4, 2020. It’s also been confirmed that the SSSS.DYNAZENON anime is a TV series, not a movie.
The question is whether an old animated short could be the foundation for this newly announced sequel. To understand SSSS.DYNAZENON and its relevance to the series, the SSSS.Gridman anime is loosely based on the tokusatsu series Denko Chojin Gridman, which was a live-action TV show.
The SSSS motif had a specific meaning to the anime’s story that was only revealed during the ending, but the SSSS was also a reference to the American TV version Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.
The new anime also made many references to Transformers, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and gave plenty of nods to the work of Masami Obari. While such references may make some tokusatsu fans go all fangasm, what made SSSS.Gridman come to life was the story.
Screenwriter Keiichi Hasegawa was the perfect writer for the job since he was a veteran with experience with Ultraman TV shows and movies.
This combination of talent resulted in fleshed-out characters and a plot that was character drama-driven rather than just all action. The end result was an anime that paid homage to and captured the Gainax spirit.
From a storytelling perspective, the SSSS.Gridman anime was considerably better than Trigger’s other major project for 2018.
Darling In The FranXX Season 2 seemed like a possibility until the final episodes wrapped up everything with a confusing rapid-fire ending. (Perhaps they realized they goofed since it’s already been announced that the Darling In The FranXX manga will significantly diverge from the anime’s story and provide an alternate ending.)
Warning: The following contains spoilers.
However, the story of the first season was self-contained. In a nutshell, the anime was about a girl so overwhelmed by real life that she sought refuge in a virtual world of her creation.
The story was about Akane and the “Special Signature to Save a Soul” mission. Alexis Kerib’s manipulation resulted in the Hyper World dispatching an agent to save her soul.
The ending of Episode 12 made it very clear the main goal was accomplished. Akane recognizes what she has done is wrong.
Akane’s sins are not whitewashed, but in order to redeem herself, she must leave this world that she’s damaged so much. In a surprise twist, Akane is shown awakening in the real world with a renewed desire to live life.
The original Gridman TV show of the 90’s was not renewed for a sequel, but the new anime has the opportunity to outshine the original.
It could be argued that there are enough mysteries related to the Hyper Agents for a SSSS.Gridman sequel, but the title change to SSSS.DYNAZENON indicates that the sequel is focused on a different Hyper Agent.
Not much is known about the story yet. The SSSS.DYNAZENON announcement video mostly used clips from SSSS.Gridman. While that could mean some older characters might return, alternatively SSSS.DYNAZENON could simply pick up where an old Trigger video short left off.
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Updated December 7, 2020: Added new SSSS.DYNAZENON trailer, key visual, and release time frame.
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Updated September 29, 2020: SSSS.DYNAZENON trailer announcement.
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Updated December 16, 2019: Added SSSS.DYNAZENON announcement.
This article provides everything that is known about SSSS.Gridman Season 2 (SSSS.DYNAZENON anime) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
The history of the SSSS.Gridman anime is a path to the future for SSSS.DYNAZENON?
The story of the SSSS.Gridman anime started with director Akira Amemiya, who is best known for working on KILL la Kill and Inferno Cop.
Several years ago, Amemiya met with Tsuburaya Productions and pitched a concept for an Ultraman reboot. They shot down the idea since they were already working on an Ultraman project but they offered him the option of doing a Gridman anime.
The result was a short video called Denkou Choujin Gridman: Boys Invent Great Hero, which was presented at Japan Animator Expo and is now watchable on YouTube.
The story is set 22 years after the original 1990’s show and it has a reformed character named Takeshi Todo watching an extremely condensed animated version of the events of the original TV show on junk television sets.
The ending also briefly features Gridman Sigma, a design which was originally planned for the Gridman 2 sequel that never happened.
In the original series, Todo designed the kaiju monsters on his computer and the villain Khan Digifer brought them to life. Similarly, in SSSS.Gridman Akane hand-sculpted the kaiju while Alexis Kerib instigated the destruction.
Akane is now awake in the real world, and therefore presumably not available for a sequel, but Boys Invent Great Hero already provides a similarly reformed character.
SSSS.DYNAZENON could forge yet another new direction for the series, but it could simply continue Todo’s story by inventing a twist on the formula that gives him a new reason to fight as Gridman.
Rikka Takarada is SSSS.Gridman’s best girl
The SSSS.Gridman character Rikka Takarada has anime fans crushing hard. To put things in perspective, creepy pervs fans were Google searching for “SSSS.Gridman Rikka Thighs” and also the character’s age.
Made this for a class. Rikka is best girl <3 Fite me#SSSS_GRIDMAN #SSSSGRIDMAN #Rikka #TakaradaRikka pic.twitter.com/I4j4hqTAUP
— OwOed (@illowoyou) October 19, 2018
Created by character designer Masaru Sakamoto (Kill la Kill, Panty & Stocking, and more), Rikka has been inspiring a lot of fan art. But it’s unknown if this “best girl” will return if a sequel is produced.
六花ちゃんのふとももに釣られて見始めたグリッドマンがめっちゃ面白かった！ pic.twitter.com/JWFRy2hOoF
— かにビーム (@kani_biimu) October 20, 2018
SSSS.DYNAZENON release date in 2021
As of the last update, studio Trigger or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the SSSS.Gridman Season 2 release date.
However, the SSSS. DYNAZENON release date is confirmed to be scheduled for April 2021.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
From a financial perspective, there’s no major obstacle to producing a second season. The anime series has generated almost as much interest as Netflix’s Ultraman reboot.
The anime has been popular on Crunchyroll/Funimation and SSSS.Gridman Blu-Ray sales made the top 10 on the Oricon charts when the first volume went on sale in December 2018.
The sales were more than double than that of My Hero Academia Season 3 (see our article on My Hero Academia Season 4) and even beat Attack On Titan Season 3 (see our article on Attack On Titan Season 4).
The SSSS.DYNAZENON announcement was something of a surprise since Trigger is not exactly known for creating sequels.
In the past, Trigger employees have openly talked about wanting to do Little Witch Academia Season 2 but the closest they’ve come is the video game Little Witch Academia: Chamber Of Time, which was arguably a quasi-sequel since Trigger handled the cutscene animations for the story.
The anime studio is also booked up with projects years in advance. Therefore, SSSS.DYNAZENON has probably been in development for years and thus the SSSS.DYNAZENON release date was in 2021.
Anime fans should just be glad that the demand for SSSS.Gridman Season 2 (or SSSS.DYNAZENON) was great enough that Trigger was forced to make a sequel. Stay tuned!