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Funimation Licenses SSSS.Gridman Anime for Fall Streaming
posted on by Karen Ressler
Anime News Network's coverage of Anime Expo 2018 is sponsored by Yen Press.
Funimation announced at its Anime Expo panel on Friday that it has licensed Studio Trigger and Tsuburaya Productions' SSSS.Gridman anime series and will premiere it on its FunimationNow streaming service this fall, and it will have an English dub. In addition, the company confirmed that it will continue its stream of Tokyo Ghoul:re with the second season this October.
SSSS.Gridman will premiere in Japan this fall. Anime Expo will host the anime's world premiere on Friday evening.
The cast includes: (Note: Name romanizations are not official.)
- Yūya Hirose as Yūta Hibiki
- Hikaru Midorikawa as Gridman
- Sōma Saitō as Shō Utsumi
- Yume Miyamoto as Rokka Takarada
- Reina Ueda as Akane Shinjō
Akira Amemiya (Inferno Cop, Ninja Slayer, earlier 2015 "Denkō Chōjin Gridman boy invent great hero" short) is directing this collaboration between the anime Studio Trigger and Tsuburaya Productions — the creator of the Ultraman franchise and the original 1993-1994 live-action tokusatsu (special-effects) series Denkō Chōjin Gridman. In addition, Keiichi Hasegawa (Rage of Bahamut Genesis, 009-1: The End of the Beginning, Zoids) is writing the scripts, and Tsuburaya Productions' Masayuki Gotou (Baton, recent Ultraman franchise installments) is designing the Gridman. Masaru Sakamoto is the character designer. Pony Canyon is producing the music.
OxT (Masayoshi Ōishi and Tom-H@ck) will perform the anime's opening theme song "UNION." Maaya Uchida will perform the anime's ending theme song "youthful beautiful."
At last year's Anime Expo in July, Trigger revealed the new anime's title as Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad Gridman, and emphasized that the anime will have an original story not directly related to the earlier live-action series.
The original live-action Denkō Chōjin Gridman debuted in 1993, 12 years after Tsuburaya Productions' last major live-action tokusatsu television series, Ultraman 1980. The story is set in the "Computer World" where war is waging in computers. Three middle-school boys support the hero Gridman in his battles through their personal computers.
Sources: Funimation's Anime Expo panel (Bamboo Dong), Email correspondence with Funimation
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