The Energon Pub

I have learned so much about this anime in the past 12 hours, and wow, given what Sabr and Emerje said about the Director, this is no way a coincidence

And now it's been shown that this show is also paying homage to the Brave series - https://twitter.com/knight_runner_/status/1051311813705383936?s=19

LE0KING wrote:At first I was like "come on guys you're just reaching" but the cyber planet key sealed it. I went back and looked closer and noticed the cliffjumper headlights in the shoes and the cut in the 8 and am totally on board with this.

For some reason this makes me incredibly happy. I especially love the strafe lapels.

Pretty much the same sentiment. I thought it was reaching until the piles of evidence. Still as a huge fan of all the Ultraman series (which is actively referred to), and Transformers, I never would have noticed as I'm not really into Shattered Glass.

I'm actually old enough to remember watching the original Ultraman on US TV in the early 80's. I also watched SSSS when I was in college (disappointed that it was an awful adaptation like Power Rangers, I much would have preferred just an English dub of Gridman).

I was kind of disappointed a few years back that Gridman was ignored When Ultraman Zero got his own team of revamped TPC Ultra-Like heroes. But this series has started out well. Two episodes in, and am thoroughly enjoying it.

Toho should really take a good long look at TPC. They both know how to do showa era style live action shows in modern times, AND give us a really fun anime adaptation as well.

Even more references found, this time for Blizzard video games:

So, while SSSS Gridman is getting a lot of play in the main Transformers forum for its more plentiful and overt references, I'm also geeking out a bit because someone on Trigger's staff might also be a bit of a Blizzard fan.

In this screenshot specifically, we get numerous references to Heroes of the Storm. The most prominent vinyl kaiju figurine seen here is obviously Pajamathur (a "cute" version of Starcraft II's Abathur), the one-eyed creature in multiple iterations. But there's also a Zagara (Starcraft II/Heroes of the Storm, right shelf), a couple of Stitches (Warcraft III/World of Warcraft Abomination zombie), a lone Dehaka peeking into the frame (HotS character design, Starcraft II character), and bits and pieces of various Butcherlisks (Zerg-themed reskin of Diablo III's Butcher demon).

More references have arisen:

This week, there's a Youtube group where all 4 members (along with the group) are named after toy companies that have made Macross toys. And how does this relate to Transformers? They're all Jetfires.



Spoiler
Also, the boys that die in the episode are named after the toy companies that went out of business. That is the nerdiest a dark joke I've ever seen in a TV show.

That is dark... Man a lot of love is going into this show!

myanime002 wrote:Don't know whether anybody notice previously, the "SG Megatron" young lady, her name is Rikka Takarada. For the individuals who viewed Toys That Made Us ought to recall: Takara was right off the bat well known for their Rikka-chan doll line.

Thing is, the way the names of Rikka Takarada and the doll you mention are spelled and spoken aren't the same.

Rikka Takarada's name is rendered in Kanji as 宝多 六花 (Takarada Rikka). The 六花 (Rikka) part when written out in Hiragana form would be as りっか (Rikka).

The name of the doll, Licca-chan, when written in its original Japanese form is リカちゃん (Rika-chan). Or as her full name is Licca Kayama, that would be written as 香山リカ (Kayama Rika). Either way, her given name of "Licca" is rendered in both forms as neither in Kanji nor in Hiragana but in the foreign-word alphabet Katakana as リカ (Rika). And if one were to write her name in Hiragana form, it would then be as りか (Rika).

As a result, we have りっか (Rikka) for the Gridman character and りか (Rika) for the doll. Both are spelled differently and are spoken differently as well. "Rika" is pretty straightforward "ree-kah", while "Rikka" is more distinct in how there's a brief pause between the two syllables and an extra emphasis place on the beginning of the second syllable, sort of like "ree-'Kah".

It's a subtle difference to us, yes, but a notable enough one in Japanese to make them unalike in the native tongue of the country from which both originate.

O hai G1 Ironhide-colored vans - https://twitter.com/portarmy/status/1058906676542095360




Plus more - https://twitter.com/Protoman/status/1058808024146489344

Those were the only references in the episode? I somehow caught all three since they were so obvious. I really thought there would be some other better hidden references like in the other episodes. Rikka's bikini and some of the shorts seemed like they were supposed to be something, but maybe that was just me. Akane does ask Yuta if he's "transforming" in the dub, not sure if that was an intentional reference or not.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Those were the only references in the episode? I somehow caught all three since they were so obvious. I really thought there would be some other better hidden references like in the other episodes. Rikka's bikini and some of the shorts seemed like they were supposed to be something, but maybe that was just me. Akane does ask Yuta if he's "transforming" in the dub, not sure if that was an intentional reference or not.

Emerje

This is being simuldubed? Does that mean funi are handling it?

ZeroWolf wrote:

Emerje wrote:Those were the only references in the episode? I somehow caught all three since they were so obvious. I really thought there would be some other better hidden references like in the other episodes. Rikka's bikini and some of the shorts seemed like they were supposed to be something, but maybe that was just me. Akane does ask Yuta if he's "transforming" in the dub, not sure if that was an intentional reference or not.

Emerje

This is being simuldubed? Does that mean funi are handling it?

Not only that, but the person doing the dub voice of the main villain is doing a Tim Curry impression in homage to Curry having been the voice of Kilokahn back in Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.

Sabrblade wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:

Emerje wrote:Those were the only references in the episode? I somehow caught all three since they were so obvious. I really thought there would be some other better hidden references like in the other episodes. Rikka's bikini and some of the shorts seemed like they were supposed to be something, but maybe that was just me. Akane does ask Yuta if he's "transforming" in the dub, not sure if that was an intentional reference or not.

Emerje

This is being simuldubed? Does that mean funi are handling it?

Not only that, but the person doing the dub voice of the main villain is doing a Tim Curry impression in homage to Curry having been the voice of Kilokahn back in Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.

I need to see this

I think this is all of the Transformers visual references in SSSS Gridman through episode 5. I just wanted to clean up some of the images, some I redid, some I cleaned up, and some I'm just pasting unaltered. Due to limitations I think this will be 3 posts. There's quite a few here that haven't been posted yet so enjoy!

Part 1











Emerje

Part 2











Emerje

Part 3








Is that all of the Transformers visual references?

Emerje

I'm just amazed at the amount of references in this, of a toyline from Bandai's rival no less.

It warms my heart to see other people who love Shattered Glass like I do, especially ones that make TV shows

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:It warms my heart to see other people who love Shattered Glass like I do, especially ones that make TV shows

In a country that never even officially got the Shattered Glass toys and fiction (barring one shared exclusive set), no less.

Hasbro, and by extension Takara Tomy, retained the rights to Shattered Glass right? Hasbro has released Heatwave and Rodimus Unicronus at retail so they must. Akira Amemiya should pitch a SG series, some animated shorts from Studio Trigger and a line of repaints of recent figures. Think along the lines of what they did with Transformers Go!, but without an excess of unused molds to play with.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Hasbro, and by extension Takara Tomy, retained the rights to Shattered Glass right? Hasbro has released Heatwave and Rodimus Unicronus at retail so they must. Akira Amemiya should pitch a SG series, some animated shorts from Studio Trigger and a line of repaints of recent figures. Think along the lines of what they did with Transformers Go!, but without an excess of unused molds to play with.

Emerje

Hasbro does retain the rights to FunPub's fiction and character likenesses (on that note, Hero Mashers Heatwave was probably an accident, the Rescue Bots one was probably intended), sharing with TakaraTomy if Blaster is any indication.

If there was any doubt that Trigger needs to make a Transformers anime, this should wipe it clean. You wonderful, wonderful nerds, Trigger.

myanime002 wrote:Don't know whether anybody notice previously, the "SG Megatron" young lady, her name is Rikka Takarada. For the individuals who viewed Toys That Made Us ought to recall: Takara was right off the bat well known for their Rikka-chan doll line.

totally agree with you. I read that in other forums as well. Rika was the one helping Yuta with his amnesia too for those of you who don't know

davidpratt wrote:

myanime002 wrote:Don't know whether anybody notice previously, the "SG Megatron" young lady, her name is Rikka Takarada. For the individuals who viewed Toys That Made Us ought to recall: Takara was right off the bat well known for their Rikka-chan doll line.

totally agree with you. I read that in other forums as well. Rika was the one helping Yuta with his amnesia too for those of you who don't know

Except, as I explained before, it's not the same name as the doll.

I'm surprised at how short this series was (only 12 episodes). In times past most anime and even live action Toku series run for 26 (half-year) or 52 (a full year), or some number close to that. Is Japan following the North American trend of shortening everything....?

(Except NA is going form 22 minute to single 11 minute episodes, Japan is just significantly shortening their series overall...).

Still...it was an interesting ending, loved the classic Gridman look, and theme-song, just wish there was more to it.

o.supreme wrote:I'm surprised at how short this series was (only 12 episodes). In times past most anime and even live action Toku series run for 26 (half-year) or 52 (a full year), or some number close to that. Is Japan following the North American trend of shortening everything....?

(Except NA is going form 22 minute to single 11 minute episodes, Japan is just significantly shortening their series overall...).

Mini-series are becoming more in-style over there along with half-year and full-year long series. This series just happened to fall into the mini-series category. But don't worry, there's still plenty of half-year and full-year shows over there too. Those formats probably aren't going away anytime soon.