Learn how SSSS.Dynazenon Director, Akira Amemiya, created the story with the female characters in mind.
Director Akira Amemiya admits that, while he wanted to create another combining robot anime, he is happy to hear that many enjoyed the character arcs of SSSS.Dynazenon. Yume and Chise are very important to the story. But the characters went through many changes before they were finalized.
Yume Minami
Initially, the only background the creators of SSSS.Dynazenon had going for Minami was “a girl who lost her sister”. And even then, they felt that a story arc of her trying to find the origins of her death would be hard to unravel. At the time Keiichi Hasegawa (the main writer) had an idea for Yomogi’s senior at his part-time job, Inamoto. That characterization was then applied to Minami’s character.
Although the main protagonist is Yomogi Asanaka, his role in Minami’s arc was minimal. Amemiya wanted the main heroine to find the conclusion to her own story because he felt that it would be wrong if it wasn’t.
Amemiya’s first visual of Minami was actually Kano’s design. But Amemiya and his team felt that the overall look was bland. They already knew that the heroine in SSSS.Dynazenon would be compared to Rikka and Akane so the Director applied aspects that he liked and didn’t like on the character. For example, the volume of her bangs. Although it’s not expressed in the series, he felt that her bangs were too thin and was disappointed that he could not show off her forehead more.
Chise Asukagawa
The initial plans for SSSS.Dynazenon was supposed to be a four versus four set-up, with the main characters fighting the Kaiju Eugenicsists. As for the character Chise, Amemiya admits that the only trait he had of her was “candy chewer.” She wasn’t supposed to add anything else to the team. That changed when Tsuyoshi Nonaka (main designer) finished a design for Goldburn. Amemiya then assigned the golden kaiju to Chise which led to some rewrites that would allow Chise to be more involved with the team.
The backstories of the other characters were written with a “not doing so well in life” theme going for them (except Yomogi). As for Chise, Amemiya wanted to create a character who just didn’t fit well in society. Although she does develop a bit, she still feels like she can’t attend school even in the finale.
A staff member from SSSS.Gridman admitted to Amemiya that the only disappointing thing about Akane’s design was that you couldn’t see her hair whorl because she always had a hoodie on. This led to Amemiya making sure that at least Chise’s hair showed that. As for her outfit, he first wanted to create a more loose-fitting attire but instead opted for one that shows her figure more. In addition to that, he wanted to add a punk-aspect to her look to contrast Yomogi and Minami’s school outfits.
Source: SSSS.Dynazenon and Gridman Heroine Archives (Artbook)
If you liked the article, consider following us on Twitter. All English translations are accredited to Ayaku staff members. Please do not repost without crediting and directly linking back to the original Ayaku article.