Movie REVIEW: Gridman Universe

In addition to the worldwide exposure they've given the Ultraman franchise, one of the best things Tsuburaya Productions have done in the past few years is taken Gridman the Hyper Agent and turned it from a fondly-remembered (but still fairly niche) 90s tokusatsu series and turned it into a fully-fledged franchise. Together with renowned animation studio Trigger they produced both SSSS.Gridman in 2019 and SSSS.Dynazenon in 2021 - each one expanding upon concepts from the original series. After both series were met with resounding praise, the only logical next step was to bring the two together - and what better name for it than the very thing these shows have helped to create? Gridman Universe was released in Japanese cinemas in March 2023, following the release of two recap films to give viewers a refresher (or alternatively bring new ones up to speed) prior to the crossover.

Toybox REVIEW: THE GATTAI DX Gridknight & Goldburn

Release Date: November 2021 

RRP: 8800 yen 

Dynazenon may be a fantastic robot on its own, but as soon as SSSS.Gridman fan favourite Gridknight made an appearance in SSSS.Dynazenon fans immediately knew that a bigger combination was on the cards. Naturally it took a few episodes to happen, but the debut of Kaiser Gridknight in episode nine of the series certainly did not disappoint. And much in the same way – THE GATTAI DX Gattai Ryujin Dynazenon may be a fantastic figure on its own, but why stop there when you can have something even bigger? Enter THE GATTAI DX Gridknight & Goldburn, an add-on set that was released to coincide with the reissue of Dynazenon. Prior to its November release collectors who had previously bought Dynazenon were invited to take part in special lottery, with the prize being the opportunity to purchase and receive the set some months ahead of its official release. Unfortunately said official release wasn't quite as straightforward as Dynazenon's, with the set being made exclusively available through the Good Smile Company online store…plus any middlemen services that chose to carry it of course.

Toybox REVIEW: THE GATTAI Gattai Ryujin DX Dynazenon

Release Date: May 2021, October 2021 (Reissue)

RRP: 22,000 yen

As beloved as SSSS.Gridman was by anime and tokusatsu fans alike, there's one thing that we can agree that wasn't so successful - the toys. Whether it was the price or quality control issues, the anime successor to Hyper Agent Gridman seemed to draw the short straw when it came the perfect version of Full Power Gridman - with the DX offering from Good Smile Company being the most notorious of all. So when sequel series SSSS.Dynazenon was announced by Studio Trigger and Tsuburaya Productions, naturally collectors feared the worst when it come to get a nice big combining figure of this impressive super robot. However it looks as though Good Smile learned from previous mistakes, even teaming up with popular high-end toy company Sentinel (who've released more than their fair share of incredible robot toys) to produce THE GATTAI Gateau Ryujin DX Dynazenon. Though originally announced as a standard DX release, prior to its release Dynazenon was adopted into THE GATTAI - a new range from Good Smile focusing specifically on high-end combining robots. Somewhere both Gridman and Dynazenon would feel right at home.

Anime REVIEW: SSSS.Dynazenon

SSSS.Dynazenon is available in streaming form on Funimation

After lying dormant for decades, Gridman the Hyper Agent has come a long way in the past six years. When Trigger revealed their Denkou Chojin Gridman: "boys invent great hero" short at the Japan Animator Expo back in 2015, who would have thought that a collaboration between the animation studio and Tsuburaya Productions would eventually lead to the creation of a Gridman Universe. Following the success of SSSS.Gridman in 2018, this universe continued to expand in 2021 with the release of SSSS.Dynazenon. This second animated instalment ran for a total of 12 episodes, introducing a whole new cast of characters and story despite the familiar setting. After being revealed to mean "Special Signature to Save a Soul" at the end of the previous series, here the "SSSS"-prefix takes on a whole new meaning right from the very beginning - "Scarred Souls Shine like Stars".

First Impressions: SSSS.Dynazenon

SSSS.Dynazenon is available in streaming form on Funimation

When Tsuburaya Productions first announced that they would be teaming up with anime juggernauts studio Trigger on an animated adaption of Denkou Chojin Gridman, fans were expecting big things but perhaps weren't ready for quite how much of a rousing success SSSS.Gridman turned out to be. Offering up an incredible series that immediately won over both the tokusatsu and anime communities, it's no real surprise that three years later the two studios are collaborating once more for a second entry into the Gridman universe. This time around it's the support machines of the original 1994 seemingly taking centre stage, amalgamated and reimagined as SSSS.Dynazenon. As well as acting as a double reference to Gridman's American adaptation Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, for this series the SSSS prefix also stands for "Scarred Souls Shine like Stars".