The Final Battle

The final episode of SSSS.Dynazenon wasn’t really what I expected. We didn’t see Gauma meet the princess, Chise’s backstory wasn’t fleshed out, and it was never connected to SSSS.Gridman other than through Gridknight’s appearance.

But, just because it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be doesn’t mean it was a bad episode. Overall, this was probably one of the stronger episodes. I thought the visuals were good, the music was great, and the story still wrapped up well even if it didn’t wrap up everything possible.

My biggest complaint about the episode is a relatively minor one. It’s that, seemingly suddenly, the Kaiju Eugenicists were all about killing humans. I believe that earlier they said they wanted to make a world for Kaiju.

You could argue that making a world for Kaiju and destroying humanity are the same thing. But, it’s not as if we ever saw them directly attempting to kill humans before. That’s their explicit goal in this final episode, which felt like a pretty big shift.

While I don’t really mind that we didn’t get some epilogue scene of Gauma after his death, I do wish we got something about the other Eugenicists. I don’t really feel like we got closure there. Gauma defeated his old comrades, but did they learn a lesson? Do they have regrets?

I don’t believe Shizumu or Onija said anything to the Dynazenon Team in the episode. Mujina said she blamed Koyomi and Juuga said he looked up to Gauma. I guess Mujina did question whether their defeat was for the best at the end. But even so, I would have liked to see something more from them.

Team Dynazenon, Assemble!

The best part of the episode was the battle between the Dynazenon Team (and Gridknight and Goldburn) and the Kaiju controlled by all four Eugenicists. This was definitely the best fight of the season as well, which is to be expected since it’s the finale.

While the visuals of this fight were certainly good, there’s more to it than just that. The progression and storyline of the fight were great too. That’s not something you usually think about with most fights. But, every great fight has a story that it tells.

Throughout the series, what have the fights looked like? Generally, it was the Dynazenon team working together to defeat a single Kaiju and its user. You can think of this as the power of teamwork overcoming the solo antagonist.

At the start of the fight in this episode, however, the roles were reversed. Gridknight was fighting on his own against a team of Eugenicists working together by controlling a single Kaiju. And because he was on his own, Gridknight was getting beaten.

It’s only once the Dynazenon Team and Goldburn assemble that the fight starts to go in the other direction. And, another cool way this fight told a story was through how the various members of the good side combined with each other.

Maybe you didn’t notice this, but all of the combinations we saw in this episode were in the reverse order of how they were introduced in the series. The fight started with them all combined, shifted into just the pieces of Dynazenon combined, and ended with Dyna Soldier and Dyna Wing combined.

Typically, you would think that as the fight progresses, more and more powerful forms, combinations, and attacks would be used. But, this fight did the opposite and took us back through all the previous fights of the series.

End of the Kaiju

With the defeat of the final Kaiju featured in this episode, the potential age of Kaiju has been stopped. There won’t be any more Kaiju appearing in this world, the Eugenicists have all died once again, and Knight, Second, and Goldburn returned to the Grid World.

Despite there being a fairly lengthy epilogue, I was surprised that we didn’t get more to do with the fact that the Kaiju are gone for good. And, this kind of ties into how there wasn’t really a connection between SSSS.Gridman and this series.

When Knight, Second, and Goldburn went to the Grid World, that would have been a good time to add a bit more context for how the two series are related. Instead, all we really got from it was that this series takes place in a different world from SSSS.Gridman.

Simply throwing in the fact that Knight and Second travel between worlds to defeat Kaiju kind of removes all connection between the series. It’s effectively saying that the two are separate and Knight’s character is just a crossover.

None of the other characters from SSSS.Gridman made an appearance — including Gridman himself or even the Kaiju girl. And, it didn’t even have a similar ending in which someone waves up in the real world to imply that everything happened in another dream world.

If this episode of SSSS.Dynazenon ended with a scene like that, I think I would have been more satisfied. It would have let me know that yes, these series have something in common aside from a single character; they’re connected on a deeper level.

Also, I know this isn’t related, but Chise has a Goldburn tattoo now? Was Goldburn’s appearance based on the tattoo? Or did Chise modify the tattoo to be Goldburn? I would have liked a bit more about her.

Conclusion

What do you think of SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 12? Was this a good conclusion to the series? Do you think there’s going to be a third SSSS installment? And what was your favorite part of the episode? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of SSSS.Dynazenon as a whole is available now.

Back to Normal

The vast majority of SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 11 was extremely boring. It felt like they were concluding the series in this episode just so that the next and final episode could have a big fight and not have to worry about wrapping things up.

Sure, that’s probably better than having the big battle this week and then nothing interesting next week. But the better option would have been to just make both episodes interesting. A story can be wrapped up without doing a slow episode in which nothing happens.

Did we need to focus on the “where are they now?” aspect as much as we did in this episode? I don’t really think we gained anything from it. Rather than 17 minutes of that, we could have had maybe 5 and wouldn’t have missed anything important.

I know there’s still likely going to be some development/wrap-up in the next episode. So it’s not as if this episode wrapped up everything and next week is going to be all action. How do I know this? Because we still have some unresolved plot lines.

For example, Gauma’s character arc isn’t done yet. As for the other four, Yomogi never really had a character arc, Yume’s is done, Koyomi’s might be done, and Chise’s isn’t done. For Koyomi, I don’t necessarily think his arc needs a “true” ending — what we got in this episode was fine enough.

However, I’m not convinced that Chise’s story is going to receive a satisfying ending. In the one episode that focused on her, we saw that she was an outcast at school and may even have a large tattoo on her arm. Is that stuff going to be explained? I doubt it. I think we’ll just see her finally return to school.

Gauma and the Princess

Do you think Gauma and the princess are going to be reunited? Last week, I would have said yes. This week, I’m not so sure. I think we’ll get some type of closure regarding their reunification. But that may come after Gauma’s death.

I don’t see Gauma still being alive in this world by the end of the series. As we saw in this episode, because he’s not linked to a Kaiju, his body is deteriorating. I guess he could be linked to Goldburn. But since he’s from 5,000 years ago, I think it makes sense for him and the Eugenicists to simply die in the end.

If that does happen, we’ll probably see him reunite with the princess afterward. Or maybe there will just be a scene of Yomogi and Yume saying they hope he was reunited with her. I don’t think she needs to also have been revived.

There was also that strange part about a 5,000-year-old mirror that disappeared from a museum. Were they saying that Gauma came out of the mirror, that he stole the mirror, or that he was the mirror? It wasn’t exactly clear, but I could see any of those being correct.

A Kaiju‘s power was also mentioned during that part. So did the Kaiju send him through the mirror? Is it responsible for the mirror’s disappearance? Or did it turn him into the mirror for 5,000 years? For now, I’m going to guess the third option.

But, I also do want to remind you that SSSS.Gridman ended with someone in the real world waking up, implying the events of the anime were all a dream. Could the events of SSSS.Dynazenon be a dream too? Is it the princess’ dream?

Instance Domination

I have to say that I wasn’t expecting Shizumu to be the final villain — if he even is the final one. There’s always the possibility that another villain will show up out of nowhere. This is a Trigger anime, after all; you can’t rule something like that out.

Shizumu seemed like the kind of character who would help the Dynazenon team in the final battle, not oppose them. So, with that in mind, another, secret final boss showing up makes sense. Then, Shizumu can swap sides to fight in the final, final battle.

The thing about the Eugenicists is that I wouldn’t really call any of them evil. Yes, Shizumu’s attack at the end of this episode wasn’t good. But throughout the whole series, we’ve seen the Eugenicists respecting the Dynazenon team as equals who just have different values.

Shizumu was friends with Yomogi and Yume. Mujina had a connection with Koyomi. And even Juuga was on good terms with Koyomi. For any of them to be the big villain of the series seems a bit odd considering that they weren’t ever depicted as being that.

But, let’s talk about Shizumu’s Kaiju that was hiding inside of his body. I don’t think this is a new Kaiju. And by that, I mean I think it’s been inside of his body from the start — or at least pretty early on. In fact, this may be the Kaiju that revived the Eugenicists and Gauma.

I’m not really confident in that theory, though. What seems more likely to me is that this is a Kaiju spawn, much like how Goldburn originated, that was dormant inside of Shizumu. And the reason it’s awakened now is through Shizumu’s repeated contact with Yomogi and Yume.

Remember, he said that he knew it was a good idea to stick around them and that they gave him some good emotions or something along those lines. I do think he truly became their friend. But I also think his original intention was to feed their emotions to the Kaiju by proxy.

Conclusion

What do you think about SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 11? Do you think we’ll get more of Chise’s backstory in the final episode? Do you think Gauma will be reunited with the princess? And are you expecting another final villain to appear? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 12 is available now.

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).

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.

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.

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.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 11 is available now.

Chise and Goldburn

I don’t remember how many weeks ago it was now, but at some point, there was the episode about Chise’s role in the group being that of the substitute. Well, now her role has been upgraded to that of a fully-fledged member.

However, Chise isn’t one of the Dynazenon pilots. Instead, she’s a Kaiju user who controls a gold, robotic, dragon-like Kaiju that she named Goldburn. And, like the Kaiju that appeared in Episode 8, Goldburn starts off as a baby Kaiju.

Well, it’s actually more correct to say that Goldburn started off as a seed a few episodes back. Over time, the seed grew roots and eventually turned into the baby Kaiju we’re introduced to at the start of the episode. I’m assuming all Kaiju grow in this same way.

Something interesting about Chise and Goldburn is that they appear to have a natural connection. Chise doesn’t need to use instance domination to control him. He automatically does what she says — likely because he grew by feeding off her emotions.

Also, for now, it’s a bit unclear how Chise and Goldburn are going to be involved in future battles. I understand if Chise’s the one directing him to fight. But when Goldburn combines with Dynazanon/Gridknight, Chise isn’t doing anything.

And, there’s one last thing I want to mention about Chise here. This was the first time we saw what her room looked like, and it was made very clear that Chise is interested in music. There were multiple instruments, headphones, and band posters.

I’m interested to see if Koyomi was involved in a band in any capacity in the past. That could explain why Chise looks up to him.

Getting Closer to the Truth

Now, we didn’t get too much new information about the death of Yume’s older sister in this episode. In fact, I think we technically got no new information on that front. But, it still did play a fairly significant role in the episode even if the information wasn’t necessarily new.

This time around, Yume and Yomogi meet with the ex-boyfriend of Yume’s sister. Futaba was her boyfriend at the time of her death but seems to have moved on since then. I don’t remember if it was stated how many years have passed. But he has a ring on, so I’m guessing he’s since gotten married.

Why I’m bringing this meeting up, though, is because I felt that Futaba was acting strangely during this meeting. Yes, he was the one who sought out Yomogi and Yume. However, I still think he has something that he’s hiding from them.

Three things made me suspicious of Futaba. First, his insistence on the death being an accident and not suicide. Second, his inability to make eye contact later in the conversation. And third, the way he played with the ring on his finger before suddenly leaving.

The first part about insisting that it was an accident and not suicide could be seen as not suspicious. However, to me, it came off as him trying to convince himself that her death was an accident. The fact that she wouldn’t have committed suicide was more of an afterthought.

My guess is that he was involved in her death. This would explain why he wants to convince himself it was an accident, why he avoided eye contact, and why he seemed to be fidgeting with his ring as a way to distract himself.

And, I think he met with Yume and Yomogi in an attempt to put it all behind him and move on. Was someone targeting him over all that money and she ended up dead instead?

Giant x Mecha x Kaiju

In most cases, I’m not really the biggest fan of the combining nature of super robots. I’m fine with it in a larger-than-life series like Gurren Lagann. But in Dynazenon, it’s not being done as a reference to the trope. It is the trope.

The reason I’m not a huge fan of combining mechs is that it removes the individuality of the components. I’m much more interested in seeing all of the various pieces of Dynazenon fighting together rather than them combining into Dynazenon.

Once everything is combined, battle strategy often suffers. There can still be strategy. But it’s much more bare-bones. It changes the dynamic of the fight from a team fight to a solo fight despite there still being a team residing within the combined mech.

Think about the combination in this episode and how it reduced the roles of the majority of people on the Dynazenon crew. Basically, they all just turned into power-ups for Gridknight — most of which didn’t actually matter in any way.

Gridknight was in control, Dyna Soldier became his weapon, and the other three parts of Dynazenon along with Goldburn were turned into armor that didn’t actually serve any purpose. I guess you could say Goldburn let the combined mech fly. But did that matter?

Combining can be a fun mechanic. But having every mech combine into one for every fight is pretty boring. Especially considering that once the combination happens, fights usually end after a powerful beam-type attack is fired off. What’s interesting about that?

Conclusion

What do you think of SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 9? Do you think the Kaiju Eugenicists are going to steal Goldburn from Chise at least temporarily? What are your theories regarding the death of Yume’s sister? And how do you feel about combining mechs? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 10 is available now.