June 2021 marked the end of the second anime series that had taken place in the Gridman world, known as SSSS.DYNAZENON, but it did not mark the end of the franchise entirely. A not-so-subtle hint would be left as the anime finished out the last episode. In the final scene, the screen would fade out into black before white text appeared on the screen, alluding to what would be the next installment to the series: “Next Gridman Universe GridmanxDynazenon.” However, until recently, many viewers and fans of the series were unsure of how long a wait they would have to endure. There were many speculations as to whether or not this would be an anime series, a movie, or a game. However, fans only had to wait a year! As of June 26th 2022, all rumors were laid to rest and many answers were given.
Both Studio Trigger and Tsuburaya Productions have recently unveiled that 2023 will be the release of “Gridman Universe”, a full-length feature anime that will bring together both the characters from SSSS.GRIDMAN and SSSS.Dynazenon. There is still no specific date that is listed for the film and there have been zero details given about what sort of plot viewers can expect to be taken on. For the most part, a majority of what has been released is the names of cast and crew members that will be returning from the original two series for the movie. There are a lot of big names that will be returning!
The film will bring together many voice actors who were original members for the Gridman or Dynazenon casts, including Hikaru Midorikawa as Gridman, Yūya Hirose as Yūta Hibiki, Yume Myamoto as Rikka Takarada, Sōma Saitō as Shō Utsumi, Junya Enoki as Yomogi Asanaka, Shion Wakayama as Yume Minami, Yuichiro Umehara as Koyomi Yamanaka, Chika Anzai as Chise Asukagawa.
However, they are not the only talent returning to help make this film possible as director Akira Amemiya will be returning as well. You may remember Akira Amemiya had many roles in the original two series as he directed, storyboarded, and animated on them. Other notable crew members from the two series who are returning are Character Designer Masaru Sakamoto, Scriptwriter Keiichi Hasegawa, and Composer Shiro Sagisu.
There may still be a plethora of inquiries to wonder about, but it’s nice to know that the teaser given at the end of Dynazenon turned out to be more than just some text on a screen. Hopefully, more information will be disclosed about the project very soon.
