Dub Talk Retrospective 006: SSSS.GRIDMAN

0:00 Warning, the Nottop podcast contains language and content that may not be suitable for younger audiences. Listener discretion is advised. There will also be spoilers for various anime throughout the course of this episode. Please use caution in case we discuss the series you haven't finished. Finally, the opinion expressed on those of the individual participants and may not reflect in our top podcast as a whole. Enjoy the show. [Music] characters. Hello and welcome to Dub

0:46 Talk, where a group of nerds come together to talk about the latest and greatest in anime dubs. Or at least that's usually the case. But as part of our podcast anniversary, uh we're doing something a little bit different. And we've been having retrospective episodes. Namely, the name of the game has been to go back over some old shows that we've briefly touched on before, but didn't really have a full in-depth discussion for and get to have a bit of a larger discussion and rev shows. for tonight. I'm your host, GridJet, and I'm joined tonight by Jamore Jackson. I'm so thirsty and Ultra Handy. I'm ready to chuck a [ __ ] in a latex suit

1:32 through a town that's made out of paperier-mâché. Yep. Unfortunately, our car brand tit had a bit of an emergency and is off to Kaiju somewhere else today. But we're going to try to carry out our spirit here today. Mhm. And as for what we're discussing this time around, we're going over the 2018 original series from Studio Trigger. SSS Grip Man. God, this show was 7 years ago, which does not sound as long as it should be, but then you're like, "Oh, that was a billion lifetimes ago. I was a different person than I think all of us were." Lot's changed. It's one whole pandemic ago. A lot has changed. I think you technically were not part of the squad

2:18 by that point, which Hey, welcome to the uh the Neon Genesis squad. Thank you. Yeah, I think it was just a little before I uh hopped on that first um girls last tour episode. Damn. Yeah. So, I remember this was back during the era where we were doing casting predictions where we actually were like, "Can I actually try to calculate who's going to be in this?" And we didn't even have the whole show then, which is Oh, man. I cannot believe we did this. What What a thing to think about. Ah, to be young and very very naive. Nobody even got stabbed by the time we did that

3:04 recording, which Oh, yeah. By the way, spoiler warning. I mean, they they did that short which basically spoiled the entire show. What is that called again? I'm probably just going to watch that on my phone quickly. So, the origins or like the midpoint origin story here of how this got a like revival project was part of Japan Animator Expo. That was how we got Death Billiards. That was how we got uh I think Little Witch Academia originally. No, I think you're off. This was This was me. This was Dragon Dentist. Oh, which means I'm Which means I'm two for two for talking about a Japan Anime Expo sequel. Oh [ __ ] you right. So this was Akira Amia. I'm butchering that name for sure, but the director from Trigger was the new

3:51 hotness. He wanted to do a thing with the Ultraman people. Yeah, Sia Productions. I think specifically he wanted to do an Ultra Man anime, but they told him Ultra Man was off limits. So they gave them the next best thing which was Grid Man and he got to do a thing with that which was effectively make a sequel to the old Gridman the hyper agent took show and it was 5 minutes of the highlights all your favorite kaiju all their favorite forms. You've got the villain from that show returning older and as a good guy. So like a direct sequel in every way but in a 5minute short. Total fan letter. People loved it and were like, "Oh yeah, Grid Man. I love that show. We should make more of that."

4:37 And then that's how they connected and this landed in Trigger's Lap. Boys Invent Great. That's what it's called. Yeah, it is interesting you bring up that short being a sequel of the original Grimb Man because this show actually does have a particular connection to another Grin Man project, specifically one that got cancelled called, I think it was Grinbandy, the Hyper Agent Fighter. Yeah, Grid Man F. Yeah, apparently some of the characters in this show were literally from that series. So, I guess this is a visually getting to put his own spin on something he really wanted to see. Did you just basically get the keys to the kingdom where it's like I could look at some of these scripts that they did get to use and I could use that for my thing. The vibe I was getting was Grid Man was born

5:24 of necessity originally of having to do like a lower production show and then it didn't get renewed for any kind of sequel but people still like had ideas or sorry once money was coming in and the project did well they're like great we've got money again let's do a new Ultra Man. So there was a bunch of ideas left on the table for a while that he did just get to root through and pull ideas from. And then he realized, oh, this project is a lot more ambitious than I thought it was. I need help. So they pull in a pinch hitter as a writer and they get the greatest Ultram man writer of all time, Mr. Hagawa. This whole project is an interesting thing where it is simultaneously incredibly accessible but also like you

6:12 can tell this is made by like feed freak otakus who are like this is that cool good [ __ ] indeed. And uh and if you're someone who is wholly unfamiliar with this show, allow me to uh quickly pull up the description from an endn uh Yui Heibiki awakens with amnesia and the ability to see things that others cannot. He first encounters Grin Man and a reflection of his friend Ra Takar on his computer and tells him to remember his calling. But Uta doesn't understand what this means. Later in the distance, he sees an extremely large monster, but it doesn't move. It's only when UT gets the school that the two sightings make sense. A monster attacks and a hero uses on the computer screen pulls him within the computer and transforms you into a

6:59 giant hero named Grin Man. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm still watching this in the background and I'm just All right. Akira Amamia is the Inferno Cop guy because that was just a [ __ ] PNG of Dino Zenon just getting dragged through a wormhole like it was out of [ __ ] Inferno Cop. Yep. Original Grid Man was around that era when digital effects were just becoming a thing and they they were improvising a lot. So that's pulled straight from the the old show. Incredible. For full transparency sake, I have not done a lot of Tokusatu stuff. I know I do not have a history of Power Rangers

7:47 really as much as I believe you two have a much bigger history of stuff for at least like Power Rangers. Correct. It did run on public television until I was at least 10 years old. So, I got some stuff that way and like one Ultra Man series which was dubbed into English over the original footage called Ultra Man Tigga four kids dub. I don't remember it well, but it exists and I saw it. Yeah, I think I might have seen some of that. I saw a pretty good amount of Power Rangers growing up. I think I watched like one episode of the newest the Ultra Man thing and I enjoyed it, but I never got back around to the rest. And I've seen like a little bit of live action go, but definitely more like the animated stuff. So yeah, I'm also not a super big Tokatu fan, but I do like what

8:32 I've seen of it. I think I watched Ultra Man Rising, which is technically an Americanmade Ultra Man, but it's not like it's not a four kids Ultra Man. You could tell somebody absolutely adores Ultra Man got a chance to make this. And like I've been wanting to get a crack at like a proper Ultra Man series ever since Okatron's been doing all those new dubs. No, I got a craving now. I think these Super Raya guys might be on to something. And that was well before I really understood. Yeah, those trigger guys know how to make a damn good tokusatu drama. This [ __ ] [ __ ] It's full of hopes and dreams. It's

9:18 about hopes and dreams and helping a girl wake up from her reality, but also the show [ __ ] It is a very good show and it also has a very solid which we I guess we'll now start talking about. Mhm. So, if you're new to this podcast, uh first of all, welcome. Second of all, what we normally do is just kind of go down the cast list and a bit of the crew behind the move. And first we're going to start off by talking about our ADR staff for this dub. And going into the staff for our voice director, we have one Clifford Chapen on scripts for the dub. We have Clayton Browning as our lead writer who is assisted by Howard Wang for episode 8. Clifford Chapen has

10:05 directed DS for such shows as go Dr. S and Planetarian. Clayton Browing has done dub scripts on such series as Concrete Revolution, Blue Lock, and MF Ghost. And Howard Wag has done dub scripts on such series as bottom tier, million offer, and DJ. So, how do you guys feel about the saff? I'm going to say we are no strangers to one Clifford Chapen on this podcast. This podcast has been around long enough that we have monitored entire people's rising careers. So, it's kind of [ __ ] up to realize, oh, we've been following Mr. Chapen's

10:51 acting and directing career for our entire podcast. Oh, yeah. I remember. Oh, yeah. that equin going places. That guy that killed himself to to record New Game season 1 in 6 weeks. Yeah, that son of a [ __ ] really did New Game in 6 weeks. That was And we interviewed him way back when we did, one of our few interviews was with Mr. Chapen where we talked about that and he's like, "Hey, here's how I broke into the industry. People never do what I did." Ain't that always the way? Ain't that always the way? So, I kind of miss his directing fair because Cliff did

11:36 some very interesting things with the stuff he got to work on. And honestly, this is legitimately one of my favorite dubs he's ever directed. And even just going through the Behind the Grid Man Alliance featurette on the uh Blu-ray, I was like, "Oh, this dude was like in love with this show." I I could just tell the way he's talking about it. Like this was also I don't remember if this was a same day dub, but I think they had the materials real early for this one. I remember. I'm pretty sure it I'm pretty sure it was a same day. Okay, that would explain why he had the materials so early and why he was trying to keep secrets from his cast. Even mentioned having to like hide the Akane is evil thing, but everybody else who just

12:22 watched the show on their own was like, "Yo, is Akane evil?" H if I had to describe Grid Man as a whole, I'm coming at this from the perspective of how how Clifford Chapen directed and got this project done. The anime dub as a whole. It's like what if those really cool aur film directors really wanted to make a real psychological character drama piece but also holy [ __ ] those [ __ ] cool ass toys though. That that's the whole vibe of the show and that vibe is everpresent throughout the entirety of this dub and it's great.

13:09 We're talking like Clifford was the new kid on the block. You know, this is still one of his best partially because it was such a huge passion project for him at the time and because when he goes into a project, he goes whole hog into a project. There's a very clear care and passion that goes into a bunch of his stuff. But also like he also seemed to understand and have seen superhuman Samurai Cyber Squad. Yeah, know this kid's a lifelong fan. He had the toys. Yeah. Yeah. I think I remember him bringing that up when he like first and he went directly. He saw the hacked up Hakee Sabon job of this that must have been filmed in like a month on a shoestring budget and was like that's awesome. I'm going to carry that with me into the future and call back to that

13:56 experience. Considering we are now in like a whole four kids revisionist history stage now, I'm not even that terribly surprised by that. Okay, I don't think we're at the four kids revisit history stage quite yet. I mean, if you ask the average person, how do you feel about the four kids one piece that I'm pretty sure they'll still throw something at you? I mean, One Piece, here's the thing. Enough time has passed. The old four kids era One Piece is not even a scar anymore. We long since passed. It's been gone longer than it was around, which was like 3 years at most. 100%. I have a lot of nice things to say about the people working at 4Kids and the people working on Power Rangers.

14:42 The people at the top of these looking to turn around a quick buck off of Japanese footage less. So, I I think is where the revisionist history has uh led us to at this point in time. I think that is a point I could agree with. But back to Cliff's directorial style, like this show calls for a different approach. Not to do the cliche, unlike other Gundam shows, this one's about the people. It's always been the case. These are always human struggles, especially when it's a kids show. But, uh, this one has a different vibe that is not very anime. It's hitting several different tones of this grounded, downto-earth character drama that would feel more in place if it was live action, for

15:29 example. And then you get the contrast of that with the big huge toku fights. I say with full sincerity, if this had come out several years later, this would have been called Shin Grid Man and this would have been directed by Hideyakano. Yeah, absolutely. The Neon Genesis Evangelion references are not unfounded. I I think is where I'm leading to with this. It is a very grounded and quiet show with the good greasy character interactions and and frictions and frustrations and also big loud bombast. I was going to say the characters in the show have better relationships with their dads and I was

16:15 like wait a second there are no dads. And here I just going to bring up the really obvious point. Uh this literally has the Genesis Effect composer on it. So uh there you go. Good old Shiro Takasu. There you go. This is Otto's perfect fantasy. There are no dads. No, th this is a really strong dub, I think, for those reasons because it's got multiple tones to hit and a hard bit of care to hit, especially in the these quieter moments. So, you have to really balance that. Uh, which also makes me want to praise the mixers on this show. Oh, yeah. Shout outs to uh Cliff. had a lot of fun working with Gino Palencia on this one. I'll bet they're talking about like when they're coming up with all the kaiju sounds, Gito would come over him

17:02 like, "Yo, yo, yo, you got to check this out. Yo, check out this cool thing I did with this sound." Like, oh my god, it's so sick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All that makes me think this is really strong. Like that's the vibe I get. Like 50% this is the theater kids, this is the filmmakers, this is the indie director's introspective. and 50% of Oh my god, did you see that thing where he does the [ __ ] rider kick? Oh my [ __ ] god. Did Didn't Anno get his start doing like student films and filming his friends doing that kind of [ __ ] This feels very in conversation with those types of things. I'm just [ __ ] around as as a student, young and and excited. I can't believe the [ __ ] Inferno Cop guy is this good at

17:48 doing teen drama. Some people can wear a lot of hats. But yeah, uh like you guys were saying, I really like the balance this the balance that was struck here between really grounded character drama and uh and being able to go like really loud and bass with all the action and stuff. H could have been easy to do and especially considering they were going is an issue without a lot of lead time, but Clifford did a really good job of handling that really well. But on the direction front, I feel like this dub so holds up insanely well. Uh, doubly so with great script. I think it does a really good job of making a lot of the dialogue here feel pretty natural in a way that fits the general tone the show is going for. Well, also not being

18:35 afraid to patch it up every now and then whenever we're getting something uh with the action scenes or I guess the kids equip pretty much whatever Boris is pretty much anything to put into these chops. That's always pretty funny. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say there was a lot of oneliners. Having context to things to come really let them hyper emphasize certain lines of dialogue or give double meanings to a lot of terms. There's some a lot of real good like, oh [ __ ] what did she mean by that? There's something I must do. And it's like, oh, there's a lot of [ __ ] going on with that, too. That's great. This is a cool show. That's the word I was looking for was pensive parts of the the character dramas. It's real like uncertain, a little bit

19:21 anxietyinducing of the uh melancholy of liinal space and empty hallways. Especially that first episode being very kind of quiet and it it doesn't feel right to call this angst. It doesn't even feel right to say on. I love pensive. That's that's strong. That's you. You get a banana sticker for that. Good. The source. Thank you. Thank you. This is definitely a somewhat different take on depression than what we got in Evan Goian. Very much so. We can get more into that. Now, I was going to also mentioned that yeah, the the oneliners on this are real good. The conversation between high school students is real good. Just one of the ones that came up was these guys are the Neon Genesis Aangalian High Schoolers. That sounds

20:08 like a shitty band name. I I enjoy that they're not afraid to throw in a little cursing. Just just a sprinkle. I do believe that the people talking are high schoolers. I do not believe that the Neon Genesis Squad are middle schoolers for a second, but I believe that the high schoolers talk like high schoolers. Uh on that note, guess we can start talking about some of the characters in this show. So, first up, we do in fact have the Neon Jennison Junior High students. These guys are basically all the serious allies of Grinbad who can transform into weapons to help him in battle and are otherwise just kind of blazing around not really doing much of anything. Don't you guys have jobs? You know what makes the Ginu

20:55 Force work is that everybody is of a different size and shape to make the real cool dynamic poses lock in real good when you need to. It's like you need the really short one, you need the two reasonablesized guys, and then you need the one big [ __ ] to all just have them like look really good in a shot together. Big man. I I still think of that thing that was posted in the chat. Max just looks like Terry Cruz wearing the sign that says sevenyear-old boy. Ah, that's great. Uh so going down uh these characters real quick. Uh we have Samurai Caliber who's basically the quiet gloomy one. We have Max who's just

21:40 kind of the somewhat quieter big guy. Bore the very stalking little gremlin who's basically just busting us chops every 5 minutes. And we have Vit who's just kind of the really blazy one. They're all delightful little scrunkos for whatever your scrunko needs are. And of course for your trivia, those are all names that they had in the dub of Super Samurai Squad. Oh [ __ ] it was Oh, that's great. Oh, I did not know that. That rules. Oh, that's great. It's just a bit more interesting than whatever they were like big digger or something like that. Thunderfly just really kind of cool because they have English words in Japanese, but more exciting if vit and bore and max. Samurai Caliber does

22:27 sound very uh western producer thinks that sounds really cool to kids now that I think about it. Oh yeah, absolutely. Uh so going into who plays these characters, for Samurai Caliber, we have Ian Sinclair. For Max, we have Chris George. For Bore, we have Afia U. And for Vit, we have Chris Bernette. Ian Sinclair has played his characters as jealous Jedawir and Mado. Broken One Piece and Fav Leone and Ra Babu Genesis for sure just plays his characters as Takaruno in Fire Force Ugo and Doran God and can get to Maki and My Hero Academia. Au has played such characters as May [ __ ] and garancing line. Kahung Jimoji and Hyoka and Yo Globalized

23:14 Sunshine. Lastly, Chris Fredette has played such characters as Oto and Dividegate, How and How the Movie, and Romeo and Romeo X Juliet. What an interesting cast of characters, which I thought they were like all computer alien people, but then like most of them are kind of normal and then just Calibers just kind of a [ __ ] weirdo. Yeah, I feel like we can start with Vit first cuz like he's fine, but he kind of has the least to do out of these guys. Vit is the guy who is tired and doesn't want to be there, but I feel like he passes as the most just a guy to where uh Ra's mom puts him in charge of a store for a day. It's like, "Hey, uh

24:02 how much is this keyboard for?" What? I don't know what if there if there's no price tag on it, I can't help you. V's the laid-back Liz a fair type. If you aren't paying attention to him, he just kind of disappears into the background and then go, "Who me? You guys need me to do something?" Uh, I guess that feels so real because that is just the soul of a guy who's not getting paid enough to be dealing with customer service. So, Chris Bernett is very delightful in doing that for uh Vit. And I thought that was very fun. Max is just the dad. He is the 12year-old dad. Uh, he's great. Are they actually middle

24:48 schoolers or is that a ruse for their operations? I don't know. And that in itself is fascinating. I think there was actually a specific reference supposed to be for, but let me see if I can find it. Okay. So, apparently, okay, so apparently in the original grid band, the protagonist were all middle schoolers. So apparently just like as a little bit of a nod to that, that's where the like Neo Genesis Junior High name came from. Okay, that is and apparently like having them go be adult was just part of the joke. Okay, that's fun. Okay, so they all they all are supposed to be adults, but they call them junior high as like a not that. Okay, that's cute. Close enough. So yeah, I think he's just like the chill guy that he's doing his best, but he

25:35 sounds very tough, but also very mature, friendly, and supportive. He's broadly the levelheaded one of the group. They don't have a leader between the four of them, so he's kind of just the deacto leader by virtue of things need to get done. He is the guy in the group project where it's like, okay, nobody agreed to step up and be in charge. I guess that's me. And I love the fact that they're like, does any of you have money? And I just thought the always sunny, it's like the economy, the economy is in shambles. You know, it is funny that they put their funds together. And I think it's only like Max and Boore that have any money on them. I mean, Boore has a knife. That's got to be worth something.

26:22 Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate anyone glad they had like literally just enough. Like I was saying that's for better or for worse. These are much more straightforward characters, but their presence is genuinely welcome in a series like this because they're just kind of cool designs and they're hanging around and it is always sick as hell when they do the thing and they get to show up as a plane or like a drill dozer and like a tank. It's like it's always cool. Yeah. Also, it is not lost on me that the little twin of Grand is the one that transforms into a drill. Oh, yeah. Bore. Yeah. Yeah. They give the twin tails drills. Oh, they give the twin tails. [ __ ]

27:09 Let's just say I love bore. I love Afia's sassy little [ __ ] is just like a scene stealer. Every time Afia gets to play with Boore, he's got a big ass knife that's like half the size of his body. That's not a knife. This is a knife. That's not even just like a switchblade or anything. That's like It's just technique. That's like one of those replica like demon blades you get from a con and is not going on the plane with you after you go home. Yeah. Yeah. I just enjoy that Bor was like the only one who was just hostile to Auntie the entire time because like they are both short tiny little Pomeranians that are

27:55 insecure about their height. The tiny ones are always the loudest and the most ready to bark and call some [ __ ] out. I think they call Boore the strongest or they were intending to send out one person and it was Boore because they've got the most firepower. I can believe that. Yeah. Yeah. We We can't put Boar in charge. They would just fight all the time and cause [ __ ] everywhere they go. Bore strikes me as like their default reaction is, "All right, let's throw hands. Your hands don't even reach my legs." Andrew, that's not how you talk to short people. That's how you lose your knees. Yeah, it's freaking weird. Uh, poor me. Bor is just always going for his knees. Ju just because he pissed Bor off. Has

28:41 Usumi ever tried just holding bore? Would that even go well or would that just end up with like the knife in between his eyes? Yeah, it certainly would. It would go poorly. Yeah, Bor's grade always has a snide remark for any situation. Little little [ __ ] store. Me against the world. Very very delightful fun character. And then probably my favorite and the most developed actually of the squad, Caliber. Uh yeah. Oh yeah. He's definitely the one with the most great time. One of the greatest entrances an anime character has ever made. I knew it was coming and it still got me. I knew it was coming and just

29:27 walking through the door, not even resisting. His swords get caught in the door. Oh, I'm going down. Total face plant. My hands are still in my pocket. He is my favorite of the squad of weirdos. I think also what amazes me is that this is a really interesting character to cast Eve Sinclair as because there's something about the way Ian plays him that sounds I'm not going to say alien, but okay, stick with me on this one. There's something about the way Ian plays Caliber that reminds me of like a Tarzan. I don't know. I was just

30:13 going to say it just kind of gives me very dopey midweights band energy. It's a little out of type for what I'm thinking of when I think Anan Sinclair big loud yo ho ho laughs. Yeah. I mean it's definitely played his share of like grungy uh middle-aged dudes before, but this is kind of a little bit more subdued than that. We know he can do it. One one thing that's a challenge with this character, which I picked up on in my research, is that Caliber in the original language is played with a stutter. And that's hard to get across in animation, especially with lip flapping. Oh yeah, that's got to be tricky as hell to dub stutters, especially cuz Japanese Star you do on syllables, right? If some of it comes off a little unnatural in some of those scenes, that's what they're the

30:58 challenge that they're trying to overcome there. I just think there's something charming about this guy in that he is kind of like a strange feral man, but every time he jumps into action, it is some of the best physical comedy in all of Grid Man. He's introduced as he just gives up and falls through the doorway. But like, oh no, there's a kaiju just rockets straight through. He doesn't move like a human. He's kind of always hunched over and throws his limbs around. Yeah. My favorite parts are always whenever he's walking into you school and and either no one notices him or teaches us kind of like, "What's up with this weird guy?" I think it's a good bit like, "Don't worry, nobody can see him. It's fine."

31:46 Sir, what are you bringing onto our school premises? Rule of Threes. No, my favorite is just we have to go into action. He flies in through the window. He lands on the desk, but too much momentum, so he doesn't land straight on the desk. The desk comes with him. That's so [ __ ] funny. It's a good bit. It's a good bit. But also, surprisingly, Caliber, despite being this like strange, quiet guy, has a lot of heart. Like, he's doing all these pep talks where he's he's trying to be there for Ra. He's trying to be there for UT. He's trying to ease their worries and their insecurities. And he effectively

32:32 becomes like the mentor figure to Auntie as the show goes on. Being the one who's most willing to like, hey, you are a person. You have a heart. You should be better than this. You can be better than this. What What's the opposite of introspective? He's very sensitive to the uh what's going on in other people's minds. I think you're thinking of like being an empath. I would never claim to be an empath. Uh but [ __ ] hell. But uh yeah, I think that's what allows him a lot of the times to be so successful at being a mentor. He doesn't have social skills, but he's able to cut through a lot of the [ __ ] And he's here. He's not here to fight. He's going

33:20 to run off again in a second. let me get his phone number before he goes just so we can uh stay in contact. We can have him in case something happens. He's got the sense of like let me get his number, but also he's got like these great faces where everybody's like why why the hell did you do that? And he's just proud of himself. He's just I also love that he's genuinely really proud of how far Auntie has come and his reaction is just like I don't know how to describe it. It's like a drunken the very the very late game spoiler of Antie is joining the hero team and they have this awkward moment between him and Caliber and then Caliber just lets out this ugly snicker, this ugly laugh. It's

34:05 not fullbodied. It's just it's like a snore snicker. It's like all in the throat and the nose. It's like and it's like oh that's so weird and so unexpected from the weird awkward guy and when you want to get someone to make that noise you get Ian Sinclair. I feel like this must have been a challenging role for Ian because Ian is like a character you use when you need to go big or go home. And Caliber is like a uniquely sedued character with a good heart. That's just kind of weird. I could tell Cliff believed in him enough. I know he could pull this off. I can tell this must have been challenging for him, but the effort shows. Yeah, the the

34:54 center of the character is very heroic in a subdued way. Uh yeah, Caliber is a guy of few words, but he really manages to make that work. He's basically the heart of the team. I I think he does a really good job of getting that across. Uh uh even if I little caliber tends to talk in most situations. I think the stutter thing you mentioned is interesting because I guess now that I like because I guess now if I really think over his performances it's not necessarily a stutter but caliber be kind of like pausing over his words a bit. Maybe that was the time to replicate that. And if that was the case I I think that works pretty well. Like a star kind of shows like a lack of confidence but it's more so that he's holding himself back a little bit. Not trying to butt in. trying to give the teenagers space for the most part I I

35:41 think would be my interpretation and then the it broadly goes away towards the end of the show so he's integrated with the group and doesn't need to do that anymore. I just think Caliber is neat. Okay, how do I describe this? Samurai Caliber is like a very specific, tired, messy, scraggly adult man that a bunch of lesbians would be hyperfixated on. I see where your your mind is. I I was going to say that he is a samurai for a reason because this is kind of the wise wandering samurai type of archetype. Maybe it's the suit. He feels like he would be in Yakuza. Oh, okay. You know what? I do

36:27 actually see now that you And I think we're I think we're meeting on these ideas. We are meeting on these ideas that he could be kind of like a wandering vagabond and a Yakuza, but also just kind of like a weird guy that meets. Is he Kiru? Not quite a Kiru, but there is some overlap. I would say I would say they are kind of like some really awkward people. one one of the other 40-year-olds in the group. Mhm. But no, yeah, Ian Sinclair and all the other totally not junior high students were fantastic and very much a welcome addition to the series indeed. And uh speaking of welcome additions, time to move on and talk about the villains of this show. So, uh,

37:13 we've got Kane Shinjjo, Alexis Garib, and Auntie. A Kane Shinjjo is for all intents and purposes simultaneously the show's villain and the actual protagonist. She's a popular classmate of Hibiki and the others who pretends to be friendly and outgoing, but is secretly antisocial and responsible for creating all the kaiju they fight as well as the world they've been living in. You know, all those people that think the world centers around them, akade Shinjjo is quite literally the center of the world. Uh yeah, Kade is basically the one who created the world they live in and has been trying to reach it to her liking by uh basically getting rid of everyone she doesn't like. And uh helping her with that is

37:59 Alexa Scarab who is a mysterious alien who aids Akane in creating Kaiu and was actually drawn to Aane in her world because he feeds on emptiness and wants to feast on Aes as much as possible. And uh this is a bit of a fun fact I found just like going over the yard book. Uh, apparently according to Akira Yamia, he wanted Alexa character to come off as an older boyfriend who pers the apparently an he gave to the Japanese actor and I can kind of see it, but that's Oh, that is a unique. I have never considered that as like a toxic sugar daddy, but the longer I sit on it, the worse it gets because it makes sense. It really

38:45 does. I don't like these implications. I don't like the implications of the toxic sugar daddy. But you know what? Sometimes you need to stew in it a little that sometimes there's a lot of [ __ ] up relationships out there that probably aren't good for you. And then uh lastly, we have Antie, who's a Kaiju created by Akane who can copy Grin Man's powers and sees himself as his rival, who has basically devoted his entire existence to destroying him. Okay, I don't know a lot of Toku. I don't know a lot of Senti, but I do know exactly the role that Auntie is supposed to fill. He is literally called Auntie. He is antie because he will evolve into anti-hero.

39:34 Very much so. Who's ever heard of a six ranger? He is the six ranger. An evil ranger. What could possibly happen here? He's the cooler, darker, edgier version of the protagonist. So, even if you don't know Toku, you know Shadow the Hedgehog. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. So, uh, getting into who plays these characters. Uh, for Aane, we have Lindsy Sadel. Uh, for Lux Curb, we have Barry Yando and for Auntie, we have Stefan Fu. Uh, Lindsy Sadel has played as characters as Maya Fay, the Ace Attorney anime, is ano in the Quincllets and Proa and Chainsaw Man. Barry Andel has placed his characters as Zara and Gar the animation. William T Spears and Black

40:20 Butler and Yoki and Formal Alchemist. and Stephan Fu is placed as characters as Noah Art Beast in the case study vanas. We are Wacky and Given and Chin in Kingdom season 3. Good call out with um Barry Andel's Guru character because that's the initial vibe to Or if I'm remembering right, is he even a character? He's just the ring. I mean, the ring is a character. He has a sentience. I mean there are two things that kind of come to mind with the Lexus Caribone for this. Uh first of all in terms of like the design of Lexus Caribbean this is basically just inferno. Like literally it's so funny how much it is also just the villain from grid man.

41:05 It's just the toku villain again. I kind of adore. What are your origins? Akira Amma. Oh right. Inferno Cop. He did space patrol Lulico which just had another inferno cop. And not only does he have another inferno cop, he also has Ra's mom wearing Midari's like eyeball earring. The alien with three eyes and they gave her an eyeball for an That's I love that. I love that so much. Yes, we go into other places to talk about it. Apparently in Japanese Rico's mom is in fact played by by so uh of course of course she of course it's a trigger show. They have to fit her in somewhere. It's in her contract.

41:51 There are people that like working with the same people and they like getting these people in somewhere and are like okay of course we're going to oh Mayumi Sheen Tommy. We love that my Tommy in this house. And this is the era where Trigger's pumping out a lot of shows in a row. Like Lulu Co was just before this. Little Witch Academia was probably just after this. We've had all the stuff that was in Lulu. Trigger's got another short in the Japan anime expo called Death and Violent Sex. Sex and Violence with mock speed. I forgot about sex and violence with mock speed. It is exactly what it says on the tin. This team loves to work together. This

42:37 team loves to work together and they love the call backs to all this weird [ __ ] and they're a bunch of [ __ ] nerds. There's so much, right? Like they're calling back to their own stuff and they're calling back to the old Gridman stuff. You asked me before to uh look into the Transformers stuff and it's just pages and pages of forum posts. I I will give you one and you will have to find the rest on your own. Aane Shinjjo's character design is based on shattered glass Optimus Prime directly from the comics, directly from the toys. If you look at Amamma's desk, it's just a bunch of these toys that made their way into character designs. It's a cool design, too. So, guess what?

43:22 Space Patrol Lulico. They weren't able to get uh Relle Hegger back from the Little Witch Academia dub in Space Patrol Lulico. But guess who played her in the Lulico dub? Anastasia Muno, who's also Ra's mom because Clifford gives a damn. Yeah, they they knew exactly what they were doing there. Uh yeah, that's good. But going into the second thing David West is Carib and Edward Barendo was doing this is definitely and and like I know it's not always great to compare an actor to another actor but like this this feels very Tim Curry. It's warranted in this case because Clifford gives a damn. And would you like to know who plays the Alexis Cariff

44:08 analog in the Super Samurai Squad? It's [ __ ] Tim Curry. It's [ __ ] Tim Curry. Their entire budget went to hiring Tim Curry. The entire budget of Super Samurai Cyber Squad went to Tim Curry. That's delightful. That's delicious. Oh my god. Delicious as all of the [ __ ] ham Barry is eating. Oh my god. If I had to describe it, the word fppish comes to mind when I think of Barry Yandell as Alexis. Regal, holier than thou ham. He is a horrifying being. He is otherworldly. Even in a strange world, he feels wrong next to Aane interacting with these

44:54 other characters. He feels wrong when he walks into a Chinese restaurant in the most threateningly casual intimidation scene I've seen. It was like something out of a [ __ ] Tarantino movie where it's like, I'm God and I know you're grin man. All right, let's go get Chinese food. And yes, we're going to go to Chinese food of the place of the girl I killed. Hey, Alexis. Oh, how are you doing, Akad? Don't worry, kids. I'll pay. The toxic sugar daddy thing is sticking with me now, and I hate how that works. No, it you're now you are now imagining in the Tim Curry voice, "Don't worry, kitten. Daddy's got this

45:40 on his credit card." That's upsetting. It does bring me to my point that the Tim Curry comparisons are not unfounded. It feels like other Tim Curry characters. Like he is enjoying the the goings on the entire time and hitting people with them on occasion. Everything is going his way. And if it's not going his way, he's very subtle about pushing it in his way. He's very levelheaded, even keeled. He doesn't raise his voice ever. And when he wants to get under your skin, he's real good at it. He will poke and prod in just the right way. Say the real subtle like, "Oh, you poor little. Isn't that awful?" Aane, I know you can do better. Yeah, I

46:26 know. kind of at the same comparisons and they are the N and they are warranted. But one aspect of Barry Yendo's performance that really is good is just like how good he is at playing the enabler to Aane extremely just very subtly pushing her to decide to kind of become more destructive and therefore kind of do what he wants. There's just something tragic, but like Alexis is like, "Oh, I'm having the greatest time of my life." And [ __ ] unbelievable charisma. Like, he he bounces off perfectly with Lindsay as a Kane. But I kind of love the [ __ ] up cosmic chemistry he has when he's interacting with UT in that uncomfortable scene. Yeah. What one line in particular that sticks out in my mind because Clifford

47:12 gives a damn and this is a pull from the original series is you pathetic little meat thing is a insult he would pull out often in Super Samurai Squad. Oh, that's incredible. And they saved it for the finale and it hits. You can feel the venom. Also, can we talk about how [ __ ] sick that final fight is? Like I understand like there's some great drama here, but oh my god, that final fight is so [ __ ] sick when they pull out the OG look. They pull out the baby dawn dawn. Baby dawn don baby dan. Oh, it's so sick. And like Barry's really going at it too in that final fight, too. Hot damn. Yeah, I really can't imagine

47:58 another actor in his position. FPish, diabolical, manipulative. Fantastic job to Barry and Dell for playing this toxic sugar daddy enabling his Discord kitten. Yeah. And then uh on the opposite end of Fish, we have Stefan Fu with Auntie who is just very just so much just so much rage. It's it's it's beautiful. You want to know who I'm genuinely surprised has gotten as big as he has in the past seven years? Steven Foo has that man's doing really well for himself lately. And you know what? We love that for him. Yeah, I I got to think that this is one of the first things I heard him in. This must be one of the first things. Like I can tell

48:43 like Steven was like still figuring it out. And I got to say, Cliff and him definitely worked on this one because Auntie is gruff, strange little creature. He is a creature before he becomes a person. I love how visceral and distinct his eating from the garbage wall noises are. Oh, sorry. Did you think I meant like when he was a kaiju? No. No. The most visceral impressive acting is when he's eating that trash from the garbage practically eating that metal tray and he's like, "You want something?" Yeah. Complete feral child. Uh, man, I just realized I I know he said that there aren't any abusive dads in this show, but uh yeah, but if you

49:30 think about like auntie and cottage relationship, it's like uh that's that's abusive parenting. Just throwing things at his head the entire time. He does kind of just want his mother to acknowledge him. And at He doesn't give up on her. He knows her better than he knows himself. He's not giving up on her. That is the interesting part. He is very onetrack minded for 90% of the show. I must kill Gridman. Where is Gridman? I will kill Grid Man. Killing this human. That's Gridman. Wait, no, that's not Gridman. No, I will only fight Gridman. I have conflicting emotions. Find Gridman. Kill Gridman. Grid Man gone. Think about Grid Man. Grid Man back. Gridman die. Think about

50:16 Grid Man. He's learning there is a gray color to the black and white world he was born into. But also, I really do love his development, and I adore the fact that like he's actively trying to help Akane and not reject her. It's a very subtle and then a very sudden switch on his turn. I have a reason for being. My reason is grid man entirely. And then you see him act on things that are not that. Reaching out to Aane. I'm going to use the word acting as her shield. Acting as her knight. Acting as her knight. Gives her his scarf at one point. Gives her an umbrella at one point because she's, you know, she's cold. She's a human being. She needs help. He knows

51:02 she would hate for him to be a white knight. So she's like, "I will not be your white knight. I will be your dark knight. I will be your grid knight." Yeah, it is interesting that he cannot reject Acon in the ways that some other characters are loyal to her. He does stay loyal in a more familial way. Like I see them as brother and sister. I'll say this. If you as [ __ ] up as it is to discuss the abusive relationship, as you're saying, Carob is kind of like an abusive dad to auntie, it's almost like he's trying to help his own mom get out of a bad relationship. Yeah, by the end there. Certainly, I could see right through you, Aane.

51:49 Like he's he's good at being a feral violent creature, but also he's got the cool hero moments and like over the course of like a whole season, he grows up into a real developed character and as we see becomes a much more prominent character. He spends all those fights copying Grid Man's ability and then he accidentally copied his having a heart. Yeah, I really like his development and the way he grows from being that angry little feral child into becoming a bit more thoughtful. But even so, I really do just love him as a little angry feral child just so has just so many good screams and reactions like whenever he just really wants to fight Grin Man. It's part of the thing that I was going to mention with the NGE high middle

52:35 schoolers as well. When they are in battle mode, the vibe does shift. He becomes less gruff and more quippy, more battle ready. Oh, it's Hugan. You know it. Yeah, I do appreciate after a certain point he's really just kind of more of a nuisance than anything else. He's just kind of there. It's like, "Oh, hey, Auntie. We thought you were dead. Pull up a chair." The vibe and the confidence changes a lot when there is when they are transformed, when they've henched up and become huge. So, it sells more of that bombast. The real good clincher on that arc is you're late grid man. uh from from him as knight. Like I'm really kind of impressed at what Steven Fu manages to do with what seems like a pretty standard simple character and really fleshes him out in a big way.

53:23 So none of us want to be the one to break it. All right, who's going to do it? Uh yeah, Joe. Yeah, I think this is still probably my favorite Lucy title performance. Oh, this is the best Litzies Iel performance of herb tire career bar [ __ ] none. Oh my god. I've got the Neroid in front of me. I am also two for two for shows that with Nendos that we've done. So, one of the interesting things that was like pointed out to me on the uh Grid Man Alliance feature thing was that Lindsay Sidell, she came from a film background, which film is a lot more subtle. It's a lot more realism. It's a lot more like natural aesthetic and performance when

54:09 you're trying to capture that. Anime probably goes a lot better with theater acting because it's loud, it's expressive, it's resonating out through the entire stage. Loud, hot, fiery emotion. So actually this does seem like it is a good fit for somebody with a film background when you got a lot of complicated bitterfilled subtle emotions that Aane has to go as she's going through it. Yeah. And I think the thing I really appreciate about it is that like that on the surface Lindsay is doing kind of a very stereotypical very cutesy voice and that is definitely kind of the vibe a Kane wants to give off in public but there's just something quite not right about it. something that feels just a little bit

54:55 artificial. And I really do appreciate the way the way Lindsay gives that off. And as we learn more about Akane and how much of that is a front, it just kind of it's it's just really beautiful to behold. It really adds so much to the performance. It's genuinely incredible. There is so much of Aane that comes through every single time she is on screen. She is larger than life. She is sweet. She is pretty. She is popular. And that is all according to design. She has effectively designed herself, her world to be everything it could be. Everybody loves her. Everybody wants to be her friend. Anybody that causes

55:40 problems can be gotten rid of. It's perfect until the mask starts to slip. Yeah. There those moments where the mask starts to slip that are really great. It's like uh you know the first moment where we get ticked off to something not being quite right with a Kane when we Oh, it's the volleyball on the [ __ ] hot dog where you feel like hey oops sorry pregnant pause. Yeah. Oh, they're [ __ ] Yeah, there's that one. There's a whole thing where they're like going to the mixer and then like afterwards, you know, she's like, "Oh, you know, I have to go home. It's my curfew." Right. I just got to see her like pressing that that elevator button like like I that sticks with me. It's like sorry, we'll see you later. This sucks. Yeah, it's the bit right

56:26 there. This sucks. Like the venom in her voice. Also, the What the hell is wrong with these old dudes? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That real under your breath, the turning of the switch, the Oh god, I got to get out here and kill these guys. I can't wait to kill these [ __ ] I also kind of love how much the camera loves Akane going insane. Like I love how she bumps into her teacher. It's like, "Oops, sorry about that." Walks away as you get that fisheye lens stare of hers. I was like, "Oh." Oh, yeah. On that note, I know I know it's always kind of a little bit of a touchy subject whenever you're talking about fan service and how it's kind of, you know, musing media and whether and whether or not it's really necessary,

57:11 but I think it is kind of interesting in the case of this show and the way they use it with a Kane because when you remember that this is a character that kind of views herself as a center of the universe, I think the way in which they kind of choose to frame that makes that kind of interesting. What if the camera loves me? What if the camera clings to me? I feel there is some meta commentary that one can be made about the camera literally following her in the swimsuit as she is on a mountain of garbage. They knew what they were doing. Environmental storytelling is everything that is a Kane Shinjjo's bedroom. It's all glass cases of kaiju memorabilia.

57:58 It's mountains of trash. You cannot see any of the floor. Her glasses are cracked. Her cell phone is cracked. Her monitor's cracked. Everything is cracking. Well, yeah, cuz she keeps throwing [ __ ] around. She keeps throwing [ __ ] around, but she's ready to crack at any moment. Anything not going her way, she'll she would be punching a wall or destroying property. Yeah, they they are absolutely aware of what they are doing with the fan service. Does tone down later. It does tone down later. But also, this is not a kill a kill situation where I have to say, is there a point or is it just horny? The answer is both. The answer it is has a point and it is also horny. I don't know where

58:44 this rep I Yes. And a joke one time and I become the feat guy. I don't know how this happened. I I I main jury in Street Fighter 6. Aane in this show is not helping the allegations. I Yeah, the show knows what they're doing. I also think that Lindsay is trying at times to be seductive, especially towards Utah. I am a mere man of flesh. It's extremely effective. She does it towards Uti as well, too. One one line that has stuck with me since I've seen this show is this pillow smells like heebiki. Oh god. She lays down on his bed. She's come to his house, to his domain to either get him

59:31 to join her or declare war. One or the other. Take it or leave it kind of offer. And she wants him to join. Why don't you join me? You'd have a lot of fun with a gut. lays down on the bed, starts hugging the pillow and and Oh, it's and caressing it. You can't read it any other way. No, she is attempting seduction on pretty much everybody in the Grid Man Alliance at one point or another. That includes Uta, that includes Utimi. And yes, that definitely includes Ra. Oh, absolutely. Which I kind of adored this theory actually when it was brought up by uh Cliff and Brandon in the uh interviews. Akane Shenjo as she exists in this world, she has effectively created

1:00:17 herself to be the alpha and the omega manic pixie dream girl. The perfect beloved by everyone. Everybody loves her. She is cute. She is definitely a virgin, but she's smoking hot and she loves all your interests. She loves all your nerd things. And also, she's hot. Look at how adorable she is. Look at how amazing she is. Everybody loves me. I love me. I'm great. I'm perfect. Why do I hate myself? A little bit of that uh virgin horror dynamic in there. You know, the the circles that she travels in cuz she is sincerely obsessed with Kaiju. That is a sincere interest that she has and you will get exposed to

1:01:03 those types of things in media and you will emulate those. You will give your OC huge tits. Is this the part where we mentioned the director basically said, "Yo, if I was a girl, I'd be a K." The bit I caught was, "You need to never draw her sweating." That is not a thing that she does. She is not fallible in that way. I never noticed that. And that is a very interesting detail. So, the theory that I think Cliff brought up with this was a effectively made herself to be the perfect anime man. a pre a dream girl, but the real ADA is much closer to Ra. Yeah, the real Aane is none of those things. They were discussing the idea that like what if

1:01:50 the actual analoges for the people that are UT and RA? Okay. Okay. So, basically you're saying like real world A is RA. Real world A is RA. real world Aane cannot trust that, cannot believe that, cannot believe anybody can love the real her, does not think she is worth it. It's basically like doubt and imposttor syndrome and self-loathing where it's like, I know anybody, nobody could really be like that for me. What if I made the perfect girl like that for him? But Uta rejects that because no, I don't need the perfect woman. I want Gora. It is very

1:02:38 interesting you bring up that theory cuz like if you cuz like if you recall as to why UT was chosen to inhabit a grid man, it was implied it was specifically because Uta sat next to Ra. And uh if I guess if you think about why that would be important, it would make sense if Akane is at Sweet Ra. Especially because they also mentioned the IRL actor at the end of the show looks kind of like Ra and also has the keyboard, which the keyboard's in the junk shop. I was like, "Oh [ __ ] they're actually spinning." Oh, god damn it. Anyways, let the record show. Even though that is a decent theory that I am following, that does not discredit Akane and Ra Yuri because what is more Yuri than learning to love yourself? Just saying. Just saying.

1:03:23 Yeah, the the theory I was going off of is there had to have been some inciting incident and it seems to be related to this trinket that RA is toying with throughout the show. This bus pass or transit pass. There is some promise that is yet to be fulfilled. It seems like they were either uh middle school friends or a Kane had just move moved to the city and they just had a dumb falling out from what I'm inferring. Mhm. It's just now we're in an awkward spot. I don't know how to deal with this awkward spot. I need to invent a imaginary world where I am I can't escape this awkward situation. So, I can escape into this world and fix it there.

1:04:11 and things are still going wrong. So, she's like, "All right, doover time. Uh, let's hit episode 9. Let's try this all again. Let's h let's have a doo over with each of these people that rejected me even in my perfect world." I love it episode so much. That's one of the coolest episodes. The framing of everything. It's what if Ra loved me? What if Utabi loved me? What if I was going out with Heiki? What if everything was perfect? What if I was the exact ideal that they all wanted and everything was perfect? Yet at the end, they know it's not real because they know she's not being real with them. In in the dream world, Aane is a lot more flirty, which was another thing that was

1:04:56 keeping the illusion alive. And I love like her kind of falling apart cuz Grid Man's trying to wake up all three of them, but you also see very clearly her the her running past the train. Grid man's trying to wake her up in the real world, too. Yeah, she uh Grid Man exists on the periphery of vision in all those shots. You You think you see something, you turn your eyes, it's gone. Oh, it's so cool. In that shot that you're talking about there, there are shots from the real world like grid man superimposed on the real world. It's so cool. I love that so much. What do you do when when you are in these awkward social situations? You've got depression. You've got anxiety. You can't escape. Create a world where you

1:05:43 can't escape to. You can't escape there either. You have to you have to wake up. You have to confront your feelings. And you just got to put yourself back out there. If it's your fault, you apologize. You move on. You need to give yourself grace. You know, they were talking around Aane later in the show. And the idea that she had escaped the world of the gods and what that means exactly whether whether that makes Akane weak or sensitive, I think the show falls on the side of uh ah she's she's 16 dog. She's just a sensitive girl. Feels like there's a lot of life lessons to be gained from watching this show and advanced from a kid show that was just handing out morals at the cusp of the digital age. Yeah. No, straight up, I

1:06:30 love this show cuz so much of this does so much with Akad Shinjjo as a character. It's incredible. It's It's still just as good, if not better, watching it. And I cannot believe we got away with doing an episode where we did not even have anything close to a full picture. We're like, "Oh, she's cool and kind of crazy." We didn't even have the dream episode when we did that episode. No, this is the main character. This is the main character and like this is why I'm glad I'm doing this recording again with you guys because there's so much to dig into. I adore Akad Shincho as a character. She's complex. She's cool. She's got a great design. And this is legitimately the best Lindsay Syidell performance I've ever heard. I gave her

1:07:15 a dubby all those years ago. I [ __ ] stand by it all these years later. This woman is a great goddamn actress. They got the perfect actress for a Kane Shenjo. Absolutely the best performance in dub bar none. Absolutely. And with that, we're going to finally move on to our final characters of the evening, the Gridman Alliance. Uh so we've got uh Utahimei uh Reika Takarada Shirutsi and of course Grid Man. Uta is a boy with amnesia who finds himself brought to the grid man and decides to help defend the city from Akane's Kaiju. Ra is a classmate of Hibiki who is close friends with Aane and finds herself getting wor into his battle against the

1:08:01 Kaiju. Usi is he became best friend with a crush on Akane and is also really the Kaiju and Ultram man. And grin man is a warrior known as a hyper agent who has come to Akane's world in order to fulfill his uh mysterious mission which turns out to be defeating the Kaiu and ultimately trying to save Akane from herself. They're all good kids. They're all doing their best through extraneous circumstances like amnesia and amnesia and being the best friends and maybe crush of the kid with amnesia. So uh playing Utah we have Brandon McInness playing Rico we have Jill Harris playing me we have Greg Aries and

1:08:49 playing grid bed we have Robert Mcllum. Brandon McGinness has played his characters as Trafi and Aquamacon Gary and Dr. Stone and so War and Mash Musles and Magic and Joe Harris has played his characters as Sula and Mercury and Mobile Mercury. And while Sa Black Clover and Uria and House Paradise Robert has played his characters as Got to Dragon Ball GT, Justice City and Zero and Shinobi Hakashu. Eric Greg is displayed as characters as G and Deadmond Wonderland Giri and Ericear and just because I felt like this one is extremely relevant to tonight's conversation. Um Ku Yamazaki and welcome to the NHK because he's basically just playing that character

1:09:35 again. God damn it. I don't know NHK, but he seems a little better off than that guy. Okay. Yeah, he's better adjusted than that guy, but it is basically just him kind of playing that archetype again. Uh no, actually, you know what? We should probably start with grid man first. I'll be honest, if there's one performance I did not give enough credit to the first go around, it was probably Robert McCollum as Gridman. It's not that I think he's a bad performance at all. It's just that ironically enough, Grid Man is a very simple character, but credit needs to be given to that simple character and also making it sound convincing at what that character does because you know what,

1:10:20 Grid Man is a superhero. Grid Man is noble. He is heroic. He is also marketable for all the good little boys and girls out there. And I think there is something very hard to do to sound like a noble, honorable hero that is going to sell me a cool toy. Yeah, but I think Robert does the whole cool animal hero thing really well. uh does a good job also kind of serving as not as much resource of wisdom as Caliber does, but also kind of uh helping to advise the kids in their own way while also kind of being a little unsure of things himself because uh like

1:11:07 Kimiki, he's also kind of suffering from a bit of media which uh yeah that makes sense once you want the same. The realization that the entire series is UT thinks he is UT but actually UT is Gridman inside of UT who forgot he was Gridman. So he's incomplete because when he dived into the Digiverse he kind of got his personality split a little bit. So, we

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