[image description: a gallery of concept art and screencaps of characters from the anime series SSSS.GRIDMAN]
The anime SSSS.GRIDMAN, a reimagining of the early 90s tokusatsu series Denkou Choujin Gridman—brought to the US in the form of “Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad”, referenced in the title of this new show—has some unexpected additional references, in the form of character and prop design. But it’s not to any incarnation of the Gridman character, nor to other Tsuburaya Productions franchises like the long-running Ultra(man) series.
No, it’s to Transformers toys, including some comparatively obscure items like the fanclub-exclusive Shattered Glass mirror universe. As Twitter users (including yours truly) have noted:
Protagonist Yuta Hibiki is made up of references to the Classics Cliffjumper figure, including wearing shoes that homage his car mode, and a backpack that looks like the “Wave Crusher” accessory when worn in robot mode.
Yuta’s agemates are all dressed in references to Shattered Glass:
Best friend Sho Utsumi was the key that made it obvious to everyone: the slashed-out purple logo on his shirt, color scheme, and bagstrap branded TURBO in black on a yellow background all directly homage the side-changing rebel hero Sideswipe.
Deuteragonist Rikka Takarada features a subtle nod to the heroic Megatron in her color scheme and accessories, featuring a black-on-white outfit with a prominent splash of red (SG Megatron’s Decepticon insignia), and a few spots of red-orange, as well as yellow accents.
Popular girl Akane Shinjo may be referencing the patterns of the Botcon 2008 version of the evil Optimus Prime, clad in a sweater with a pattern shaped like his aero fairing, with a purple bow.that seems, like Rikka’s red one, to be an imitation of the faction insignia.
The “Mysterious Boy” has a flame pattern on his clothing, with edges that match the specific purple fire motif of the evil Rodimus, sans goatee.
Classmate Namiko wears a tie that homages the chest deco of the noble Starscream’s first toy, and she even wears a hair clip styled after that toy’s Cyber Planet Key…
…while her friend Hasu is seen wearing a facemask, green hair accessory, red bow tie, and a towel with the image and name of RAVAGE, all indicating she’s meant to be the very groovy Sir Soundwave.
A student briefly seen from behind wears a jet-themed jacket with the word THUNDER, in the the colors of the Action Master homaging heroic version of Thundercracker.
Rikka’s mother is more subtle, wearing an apron with a motif under the collar that imitates the deco found on G1 Megatron’s abdominal section—making the choice of Transformer into something that runs in the family.
A group of suit-clad characters whose names reference the mecha and weapons from Gridman and SSSS are all wearing lapel pins that homage the live-action movie Dinobots:
Samurai Calibur has a purple pin in the likeness of the pattern on Slug’s robot mode shoulders as seen on one figure, a result of the deco on his triceratops mode’s frill,
Big man Max has a gold pin that homages the jawbone-styled armor of the Japanese version of one of Grimlock’s figures.
Twintail-wearing Borr wears her own gold pin, this time imitating the chest deco of spinosauroid Scorn, as seen on another Japanese-exclusive version.
And most overtly yet simultaneously subtly, Vitt has lapel pins that form the eyes—lined up with the ‘mouths’, on his lapels—of the likeness of monster pterosaur Strafe’s two heads.
But there’s more! I thought it was just a coincidence until i saw people talking about Sho, and Yuta’s shoes, but there’s a scene later in the episode where Sho is using a pair of binoculars that are an exacting imitation of the alternate mode of “Real Gear Robot” Longview, as seen in this image put together by twitter user ussa1226:
Will the second episode feature more homages? How did this sneak in, and why, when Transformers is a wholly unrelated property owned by competitors? And does it symbolize something more about Yuta’s mysterious memory loss and the “mission” Gridman speaks of, that he’s the sole non-SG kid… especially when the Classics-verse Cliffjumper’s role in Shattered Glass was as an interdimensional traveler?
