A brand new Gridman anime film is set to premiere in 2023. The title is indicative, too: GRIDMAN UNIVERSE: The Movie.
The news was announced during the SSSS. GRIDMAN x SSSS.DYNAZENON Special Event that took place yestereve in Japan. The first teaser visual was revealed on the spot, with the official GRIDMAN UNIVERSE website popping up soon thereafter.
Notwithstanding the missing info on the actual premiere date, quite a few chunks of information can be inferred from the GRIDMAN UNIVERSE website.
GRIDMAN UNIVERSE: What we know so far
That being said, let’s take a look at what we know so far.
GRIDMAN UNIVERSE: The Movie is based on the Denkou Choujin Gridman (円谷プロダクション) classic Japanese superhero series (more precisely — tokusatsu* series). Originally created by Tsuburaya Productions — the Japanese special effects studio best known for its Ultraman franchise (a.k.a. Urutora Shirīzu — The Ultraman Series) — Gridman has become a household name since its debut (1993).
Apparently, GRIDMAN UNIVERSE will be a theatrical version of the popular series, according to multiple Japanese news sources.
The film is being directed by studio TRIGGER (Delicious in Dungeon), which also produced SSSS. GRIDMAN and SSSS.DYNAZENON.
The staff is, as follows:
- Akira Amemiya — director
- Keiichi Hasegawa — scriptwriter
- Masaru Sakamoto — character designer
- Shirō Sagisu — music composer
The seiyuu from SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon will be reprising their roles for the movie:
- Hikaru Midorikawa — Gridman
- Yūya Hirose — Yūta
- Junya Enoki — Yomogi Asanaka
- Yume Miyamoto — Rikka Takarada
- Yūichirō Umehara — Koyomi Yamanaka
- Sōma Saitō — Shō Utsumi
- Shion Wakayama — Yume Minami
- Chika Anzai — Chise Asukagawa
GRIDMAN UNIVERSE: The Movie was originally hinted at in the SSSS.DYNAZENON’s finale in December 2021.
SSSS.DYNAZENON was broadcast during the Spring 2021 season (from April to June 2021). Its predecessor SSSS.GRIDMAN aired during the Fall 2018 season (from October to December 2018).
SSSS.GRIDMAN follows Yūta Hibiki from the fictional city of Tsutsujidai. Yūta meets Hyper Agent Gridman and is told he has a mission to fulfill. Alas!, Yūta is an amnesiac, so he sets out to discover what the ‘mission’ may be, also hoping to restore his memories.
SSSS.DYNAZENON follows a different protagonist, namely high schooler Yomogi Asanaka, who unravels the story from a different angle.
Both SSSS.GRIDMAN and SSSS.DYNAZENON revolve around kaijū** and fall under the mecha genre.
GRIDMAN UNIVERSE: The Movie is an SSSS.GRIDMAN x SSSS.DYNAZENON crossover.
*tokusatsu (特撮, lit. “SFX”) — the Japanese term for live-action movies abundant in special effects.
**Kaijū (怪獣, lit. “Strange Beast”) is a sub-genre of tokusatsu that features giant monsters. Godzilla is a notable example.