SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 10

SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 10

Disappearing Act

I’m not sure if I liked SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 10 or not. It had a lot of good parts, to be sure. But at the same time, I feel like we wrapped up some character arcs in pretty mundane ways. There’s probably going to be more with Gauma’s backstory, but I’m not so sure about the others.

Before we get into all of that, though, let’s take a look at the Kaiju from this episode. This was a pretty interesting Kaiju since its ability was more in-depth than any others we’ve previously seen. It “disappears” people (and buildings), leaving behind nothing more than a shadow.

But, more than that, the people who get disappeared by the Kaiju are sent into their past where they have to confront some negative part of it. And on top of all that, it also seems to be able to move very quickly and I think I also saw it warp at one point (maybe not).

Yume's "shadow" from the anime series SSSS.Dynazenon
Yume’s “shadow”

According to the Eugenicists, this isn’t a normal Kaiju. This one is somehow special. Obviously, we could say that what makes it special is its unique ability. But what caused a special Kaiju like this to appear? Kaiju are born out of people’s emotions. So what led to this particular Kaiju?

I don’t think any of the Kaiju so far have had abilities relating to the feelings of the people they were born from. Maybe they were, but the only Kaiju and human pair we know of is Goldburn and Chise. And I don’t think Goldburn’s shrinking ability has to do with Chise’s emotions.

Perhaps the special Kaiju was born out of the combined past regrets of the Team Dynazenon members. But again, we have no proof that this is the case.

A Glimpse Into the Past

The best part of the episode was when we got to see the pasts of Yume, Koyomi, and Gauma. Would anyone disagree with that? I don’t think so. Let’s briefly go through their backstories in that order.

Yume’s flashback revolves around her sister’s death, because what else would it be about? This time around, she follows her sister on the day she died in an attempt to stop her (Yomogi helped too). And through this flashback, Yume learns that her sister’s death really was an accident.

As I’ll discuss more in the next section, this is my least favorite thing about the episode. The series has been building up the mystery of Kano’s death, and then it gets resolved suddenly without any real payoff.

Yume as a child from the anime series SSSS.Dynazenon
Yume as a child

Koyomi’s flashback was much better than Yume’s, in my opinion. His was basically an alternate history. Instead of running away when his high school crush showed him a bag full of money in an abandoned building, this time he goes along with her and takes it.

In the end, they lose all the money anyway. But it was a nice way to show us (and Koyomi) what could have been. Unfortunately for him, Yomogi pulls him back into reality before he can see how the rest of his life would have panned out.

With Gauma, we see that the reason he betrayed his comrades was that they decided to fight against their country. The country betrayed the Eugenicists, the Eugenicists betrayed the country in return, and Gauma betrayed the other Eugenicists by siding with the princess (and therefore the country).

The Mystery of Kano Minami

Let’s take a look at how the mystery of Kano Minami’s death played out. For weeks now, we’ve been getting bits of information, some of them conflicting, about what happened. Most of that information doesn’t matter in the end.

I tend not to have a problem with mystery series making use of Occam’s Razor (the simplest solution is often correct). Monogatari does this frequently. But falling back on the simplest solution isn’t satisfying when it nullifies most of the evidence and information that was gathered leading up to the reveal.

The fact that Kano’s death wasn’t a suicide isn’t an issue. But the rumors about it being a suicide and the whole thing with Kano being bullied in the chorus club got shut down in a matter of seconds. As soon as Yume learned it wasn’t suicide, the fact that Kano was bullied no longer mattered.

Kano Minami from the anime series SSSS.Dynazenon
Kano Minami

I know I said that I liked Koyomi’s flashback more than Yume’s. But I was still disappointed that the two weren’t linked in some way. They didn’t have to be. But it would have made it more interesting. I mean, the bag full of money could have hinted at a more sinister reason behind Kano’s death.

Now, whether or not the money would have been the cause of her death doesn’t matter. I just think that was a great opportunity to tie everything together. Instead, both Kano’s death and Koyomi’s past regrets were wrapped up quickly and without any real mystery.

We even got Gridknights backstory and that didn’t tie into any of the others. Well, by backstory I mean we saw that Gridknight is actually the Kaiju boy from SSSS.Gridman. I’m sure some of you remembered that, but I had forgotten about him completely.

At the end of the day, I just would have liked something, anything, to make Kano’s death more interesting. The conclusion that “it was just an accident; nothing to see here” was so boring.

Conclusion

What do you think of SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 10? Why do you think this special Kaiju appeared? Whose flashback did you enjoy the most? And what are your thoughts on the simplicity of Kano’s death? Are you satisfied with that conclusion? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 11 is available now.

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