The Nosebleed Section: A Comparative Look at the Nosebleed Scenes in SSSS.Dynazenon and Gridman Universe

In anime, a character’s nose bleeding has a very specific meaning. It signifies that a character is horny. A character will see someone who is attractive or in a state of undress and their nose will start gushing with blood. In an interview by Hanako Montgomery of Vice, anime historian Nobuyuki Tsugata stated that “In order to express a character’s inner feelings, anime must use physical symbols. So nosebleeds are an exaggeration of that excitement. It’s also comical, and easier for children to understand”. (Montgomery, 2021). The practice exists as visual shorthand for arousal while having a comedic effect. I am not particularly interested in why or how the nosebleed became a convention for sexual arousal. I am interested in how that convention is used by SSSS.Dynazenon and Gridman Universe to explain character motivation in the two scenes and beyond. The first is a scene in Gridman Universe where Hibiki gets hit with a volleyball, and the second is in SSSS.Dynazenon when Yomogi is attempting to break into the past of a character.The difference in the context of these scenes illustrate the differences in character between the two protagonists of the SSSS series, Hibiki and Yomogi.  This essay will contain spoilers for both works as well as the show SSSS.Gridman.

To set up the scene in Gridman Universe, it is important to note that the audience knows from a previous show in the series, SSSS.Gridman, that Rikka and Hibiki grew quite close during the events of that work, and that at the end, Hibiki lost his memory of the events of the show. The beginning of Gridman Universe sets up that Hibiki has feelings for Rikka and he is attempting to ask her on a date. During this time he also hears a rumour that Rikka is going out with a university aged person. This leads into the scene I wish to discuss. It is a volleyball rally at school and as such most of the school is in attendance. We begin with a shot of Hibiki looking sad until he notices something. The movie cuts to a shot of RIkka standing with her volleyball teammates in a way that makes it clear we are viewing this shot from the eyes of Hibiki. He watches her with infatuation while recalling the rumours he heard of her already having a boyfriend. Itt cuts back to a close up of Hibiki’s face looking dejected. Then we cut to a rogue volleyball flying through the air before returning to Hibiki much as before. He utters the words, “A boyfriend”, before being slammed in the face with a volleyball. The movie then cuts to a series of shots with people looking concerned for Hibiki, including Rikka, before cutting back to Hibiki to him getting up and revealing his nose is bleeding.

This scene tells us two things about Hibiki. First, he is horny when he thinks about Rikka. The symbol of horny, a nosebleed, is present. While that nosebleed occurred in a much more tasteful way than anime used to be, the symbol still has meaning and significance. Second, the type of attraction Hibiki has is possessive. He is gloomy not because he is scared Rikka will turn him down but because he is worried that she is already claimed by another more accomplished man. When looking at her he does not remark on how cool she is or her skills at volleyball but instead on her status towards another man. He does not view Rikka for who she is but rather as an accessory for him to have.

The scene from SSSS.Dynazenon take place in a very different context. Rather than being nearly the first part, it is in episode 10 of a 12 episode series. The set up is that there is a kaiju vanishing people from the world and trapping them in pivotal moments from their past. Yomogi is the only one who makes it to entering the kaiju and is thus able to save his friends. He sees Gauma, one of those friends before being transported to a moment off his own past. Here he sees Dyna Soldier and remarks that he is looking for Yume, one of his disappeared friends. He asks  Dyna Soldier to show him the way and the screen cracks and sends him to view Yume’s past. He makes attempts to break into Yume’s past with no apparent success despite brushing himself in his attempts and begins to despair. Yume continues through her past and Yomogi briefly takes time away to look at the pasts of his other comrades but as he returns to watching Yume, he hears that Yume’s sister is leaving for singing practice. This brings his attention to the fact that this is the day Yume’s sister will die. This brings him renewed vigor as he attempts to break into Yume’s past, we hear his thoughts say, “Minami [Yume] we’ve got to stop your sister! Otherwise…” and “why can’t I reach you?! At this rate–!” as well as “At this rate, Minami will be sad! And !...” before he screams “I… can’t stand that!” before the screen shatters. Throughout this, Yomogi is throwing himself at the television barrier blocking him to the point of physically damaging himself, including crucially, making his nose gush blood.

This scene tells us a lot about Yomogi’s relationship to Yume. He is sexually attracted to her. He is not willing to do grave damage to himself for his other comrades including, Gauma, who was sent to the day he first dies. The amount of blood that pours out of Yomogi’s nose is much closer to that of the typical anime blood gushing moment such as Soul Eater episode one’s nose bleed gags, indicating his deep attraction. Yet his attraction to Yume is much different than Hibiki’s attraction to Rikka. It is not possessive. The thing that causes his nose to bleed is him attempting to save Yume from the deep and profound sadness of losing her older sister, especially since Yume’s relationship with her sister is rocky at the time. Yomogi cares about Yume as a person and views her as such. Yes he is attracted to her but it's to her whole personage. Until this point he was blocked off from Yume by the television screen, it took until Yomogi accepted and stated that he cares for Yume as a whole person that the wall between them breaks down.

Why is there a difference between these two protagonists and their nosebleeds? Firstly, they are both in very different stages of their relationship with the girls they are attracted to. While Hibiki was close and part of a team with Rikka, he forgets all about it. He is essentially back to square two for their relationship where the trust and rapport they built up is not quite gone but certainly less than used to be. He is more likely to view Rikka from a possessive lens because he doesn't know her well enough. He thinks she is someone to go out with university students and Rikka rightfully calls him out on that wrong assumption, she is not like that. Whereas Yomogi has spent 9 previous episodes getting to know and trust Yume. They have fought together, and more crucially, Yomogi has been by Yume’s side as she investigates the death of her sister.

This difference can be seen in how the two react to meeting the girls after their nose bleeds. Hibiki is getting out of the nurses office when Rikka walks by and checks in on him. Hibiki puts on a different deeper voice and states “There was no need to make such a fuss” and then says he’ll help her out with her play and then asks her out on a date, in his regular voice. These are not the actions of someone who is sure of themself and their relationship with another person. He is performing, playing at being something he is not, not knowing that Rikka likes him for him. Yomogi is different, after he makes his declaration of not being able to stand Yume being sad, he gains the power to break the television and smashes into Yume’s past. He falls over into it and Yume rushes over to help him as he is clearly hurt, Yume embraces him to hold him up. His nose still bloodied, he looks forward with determination and states “Let’s go stop your sister!”. The two rush to Yume’s sister and Yume makes a declaration and begins to have a heartfelt conversation with her sister. She asks Yomogi to give her more time and Yomogi agrees and goes to save the rest of the Dynazenon crew after saying “ We’ll all be waiting for you”. Despite being held by someone he is sexually attracted to, his immediate thought is on saving that person from grief, he wastes no time, does not enjoy the tender contact at all. He cares for Yume in a way that he would forgo his own personal satisfaction to help her. There is a clear trust and care in their relationship Hibiki and Rikka lack.

There is another reason for this difference between the two protagonists, their relationship to maleness. In Gridman Universe, Hibiki is a typical male teenager, he is not quite sure what masculinity means or how to perform it in a non-harmful way. We see in the original SSSS.Gridman, Hibiki’s family, are often away on business and he is alone much of the time. He has no one to guide him in what being a man means. This causes a problem as Hibiki lives in a patriarchal society, what he learns of masculinity is not a positive one but instead one that harms women. This is why he views Rikka as an object to be acquired rather than a person to be respected and loved. He has no one in his life to steer him anywhere differently. He deepens his voice and acts cool and like nothing is wrong when Rikka comes up to him and sees if he is okay because he thinks that is what is expected of him as a man, despite how that affects Rikka. Yomogi is different, while he is not particularly comfortable in his masculinity, it is for an entirely different reason. Yomogi may not realize it yet, but he is transgender. In the first episode of SSS.Dynazenon, we see Yomogi walking to school with his mixed gender group of friends. He is clearly more comfortable speaking with his girl friends than the guys. He puts up with teasing from them while he seems just cordial with the male friends in his group. He is also quite close to his female coworker at work, who also teases him as well. He is less comfortable with men as can be seen by his relationship with Gauma and Koyomi, the men of team Dynazenon. He is cordial with Koyomi but makes no real attempt to get to know him on a deeper level, they are team mates but not really friends. Gauma he is friendly with but in a different way than he is with the women in his life, he is more skeptical of Gauma than the girls. He behaves as if he is one of the girls with women, whereas he has some distance from men. The way Yomogi looks at Yume is also different from the way Hibiki looks at Rikka. Yomogi is attracted to Yume ye, however there is something deeper there as well. He looks at her with a look that says, “I want to be like her”. When we see Yume through Yomogi’s eyes, the frame is often covered with a slight pink haze, as if signalling the confusing tangle of emotions that say “I want to be with you and be you”. Transgender sapphics will be familiar with this tangle. Yomogi’s attraction to Yume is different because he does not like her in a male way that Hibiki likes Rikka. Yomogi likes Yume in the way a woman who is attracted to women would.

The nosebleed scenes in the SSSS. series provide looks into the protagonists and allow a broader look at how each of them relate to women and masculinity. Hibiki is a teenage boy who views the girl he likes through a possessive lens without truly caring about her as a person. He does this because he does not have a role model to teach him how to be a man in a nondestructive way. Yomogi as a person is much different, while he does not know it, he is trans and as such is much closer, or is, one of the girls and as such cares for the woman he likes in a fundamentally different way. He sees her as a person and cares for her as such. He does not need someone to teach him masculinity because he is not a man.