A Kaiju is Born

Alright, let’s get the obligatory “there was no review of Episode 7 last week” out of the way. I watched Episode 7, but there were no reviews last week and I’m not going to review it now. I may reference it in this review, though (or I may not).

Anyway, SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 8 was a pretty average episode. And I think a large portion of why that’s the case is that the Kaiju featured in this episode wasn’t anything special. Yes, there were other possibly important aspects of the episode. But if the Kaiju isn’t exciting, the episode probably won’t be either.

While this Kaiju did go on a rampage eventually, it didn’t do so with any kind of special ability. Its ability was simply to paint multi-colored splotches on things. So when it came time to fight it, the fight wasn’t all that interesting.

The only really interesting things about this Kaiju are that it started off as a baby and that Yomogi was able to connect with it in the same way the Kaiju Eugenicists do. However, Yomogi wasn’t able to actually control it, and he killed it in the end.

What I think is more interesting from this episode than the Kaiju was the little bit of Koyomi’s backstory that we got. Over the past few episodes, we’ve been getting small pieces of his backstory and connection to the girl he knew in high school.

Previously, I assumed the bag they found in the abandoned building belonged to Yume’s older sister. I still think that’s the case. But now that we know the bag was full of cash, it makes her death seem more likely to have been murder than suicide.

Gridknight x Dyna Soldier

Something you may have noticed in this episode is that Gridknight and Dyna Soldier were able to “combine.” They didn’t actually combine in the same way that the various pieces of Dynazenon can. But, Dyna Soldier resonated with Gridknight and became a weapon for it.

Why is this significant? Well, it might mean that Dynazenon and Gridknight are the same type of thing. I don’t really know what they are. I don’t feel like they’re Kaiju, but they’re connected to Kaiju in some way. And the fact that they resonate with each other implies they have the same origin.

It might seem kind of obvious that Dynazenon and Gridknight would have the same origin since they’re both used to defeat Kaiju. But, that’s not necessarily the case. Dynazenon is a combining mech with five pilots while Gridknight is a humanoid mech-thing that might actually be its pilot.

If you’ve been paying close attention, Knight never says that he’s the pilot of Gridknight (and neither does his assistant). They say that Knight is Gridknight. So rather than piloting it, he might actually transform into it.

I actually don’t remember what the deal with Gridman was. Did Gridman have a pilot, or did the main character turn into Gridman in a way? I know that Gridman had its own sentience. But I feel like it fused with the protagonist to fight or something.

Anyway, going back to Dynazenon, is it new information that the person who gave Dynazenon to Gauma is a princess? We knew it was a woman, but I think the princess part might be new. Is it going to end up being the Kaiju girl from Gridman? Is she a princess?

Yume x Yomogi

Let’s talk about Yume and Yomogi. Obviously, these two are going to end up together. At this point, I’d be shocked if by the end of the series it wasn’t at least heavily implied that the two of them were dating. And while I know a lot of people don’t like romance subplots, I don’t mind this one.

In fact, I think the whole love triangle between Koyomi, his high school crush, and Chise is way more forced than anything going on between Yume and Yomogi. With Yume and Yomogi, we’ve seen their relationship develop over the course of the series.

Well, when I say that we’ve seen their relationship develop, what I really mean is that we’ve seen how Yume feels about Yomogi change throughout the series. From the start, Yomogi seemed to always be interested in Yume. I think he’s just interested in any girl who looks in his direction.

At the beginning of the series, Yume wasn’t really interested in Yomogi. To her, he was just another person she could stand up after asking him to wait for her somewhere. But now that he’s become involved in the investigation into her sister’s death, things are different.

I think I’ve also finally figured out why Yume always asks people (guys) to meet up with her somewhere before ultimately ghosting them. To me, this seems like she’s almost replicating what happened with her sister. Wasn’t her sister supposed to come right back home and then never showed up?

I don’t think that this is Yume having some weird abandonment obsession, though. There must be a better reason for it, right? Like, since she observes the person she ghosted from a distance, maybe she wants to see how other people react to being abandoned?

Conclusion

What do you think about SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 8? Did you like the Kaiju featured in this episode? Do you think that Knight actually turns into Gridknight? And what are your thoughts on Yume’s and Yomogi’s relationship? 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 9 is available.

The Team Torn Apart

SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 6 was a fairly disappointing episode overall. The featured Kaiju had a neat design and Mujika had a decent amount of screen time. Those were the only two parts that I actually liked. Everything else was pretty boring.

Now that we’ve made it to the halfway point of the series, the Dynazenon team is fracturing. Of course it is. Why wouldn’t this series include that trope? At this point, I don’t even see it as character development. We know what’s going to happen.

Later on, they’re all going to make up, be friends again, and save the day with Dynazenon and their reinvigorated power of friendship. But, of course, before that happens, they’re going to almost be defeated because they can’t seem to work together.

As for why the members of the Dynazenon team are drifting apart, they all have their own reasons. Chise is jealous of Koyomi’s married girlfriend. Koyomi is jealous of his married girlfriend’s husband. Yume is jealous of Yomogi getting attention from other girls. And Yomogi just doesn’t know what’s going on.

Interestingly, there also appears to be a connection between Koyomi and Yume’s dead sister. Originally, I thought that maybe Koyomi’s married girlfriend was one of her bullies. However, that seems to not be the case. Instead, I think the two of them came across Yume’s sister’s belongings in an abandoned building.

Since Yume’s sister was apparently leading a double-life, that abandoned building may have actually been where she died. Perhaps she met up with her boyfriend there, something happened, she died, and he dumped her body in the river.

That would be an interesting way to bring Koyomi’s and Yume’s stories together. Koyomi could show Yume where her sister’s belongings were found, and that in turn may give Yume a clue as to what happened.

Mujina is the Best Kaiju Eugenicist

If I was to rank the four Kaiju Eugenicists, Mujina would be first, followed by Shizumu, Juuga, and Onija, in that order. Onija is just the angry guy. He doesn’t have a personality outside of that, and it’s the full extent of his character for now. He’s easily the worst for me.

Juuga has potential. He’s clearly the leader of the group, but he’s also the one who we’ve seen the least of. In the future, once he gets more development, I could see him being a decent character. But for now, he’s just the “leader character.”

Shizumu is a good character. Obviously, I guess aside from Onija who’s easy to read, Shizumu was the first Eugenicist to get developed. That automatically makes him better than someone like Juuga. But, I also like how Shizumu plays both sides to an extent.

And now, on to Mujina. Before this episode, I probably would have placed Mujina on par with Juuga. She barely had any screen time and had absolutely no development. But she’s also the only female member of the group, so she gets bonus points for that.

I think what I like about Mujina is that, like Shizumu, she’s a pretty normal person. However, at the same time, she’s also one of those “hollow shell” characters who’s seeking a purpose. That’s not always a good character trope, but I do think it can be done well.

And with Mujina, I think it’s been done well so far. Despite lacking something that she can call her purpose, Mujina isn’t idle. In fact, we see her take the initiative when she steals Koyomi’s portion of Dynazenon. I like that she’s not necessarily waiting around for her purpose to come to her.

(Not) Gridman Appears

At the end of the episode, a new mech that isn’t Dynazenon shows up. It’s also not Gridman. However, it has much more in common with Grandman than it does with Dynazenon. It seems more like an autonomous or single-pilot mech.

I feel like that same mech did show up in SSSS.Gridman. But I don’t really remember a lot about the Gridman series. I think this mech may have shown up towards the end and fought alongside Gridman or something. And if that’s the case, does it mean Gridman is going to make an appearance soon?

Something tells me that Gridman isn’t going to be making an appearance in Dynazenon. I think it’s much more likely that some supporting characters are what bridge the two series. For example, this unknown mech or the Kaiju girl being in both.

I guess I’ve also been assuming that this unknown mech is going to be fighting on Dynazenon’s side. But since I don’t actually remember what role it played in Gridman, if any at all, I can’t say for sure that’s going to be the case.

It seems unlikely that it would side with the Kaiju Eugenicists. However, it may end up being a third party that’s not allied with either Dynazenon or the Kaiju. Perhaps its goal is to destroy both of them and then return to the “grid world” or wherever Gridman was from.

Gauma is a Kaiju user, and it’s been implied that this is why he can control Dynazenon. So if that means that Dynazenon is a Kaiju, I could definitely see this new mech attempting to destroy it even though it fights against other Kaiju.

Conclusion

What do you think of SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 6? Was it as bad as I made it out to be? Which Kaiju Eugenicist is your favorite so far? And why do you think this new mech appeared? Let me know your thoughts 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.

There’s no review of Episode 7. My review of Episode 8 is available.

A Fun Day at the Waterpark

I guess Episode 5 is SSSS.Dynazenon’s version of that SSSS.Gridman episode where they went on a trip into the mountains. Both were the swimsuit episodes of their respective series. Was Akko in this episode? She was in the Gridman one.

As you might expect from the obligatory swimsuit episode, it wasn’t actually all that good. Dare I say, this was the worst episode of Dynazenon so far. In my mind, this episode failed for three main reasons.

First, there’s no ecchi, which defeats the purpose of a swimsuit episode. Second, a lot of the episode was just stills that were panned over. And third, nothing important happened in the episode — not that too many important developments have happened in any episode so far.

Unironically, the best part of the episode was the scene of Yomogi standing there and watching Yume eat a churro. I don’t know how long this went on, but it lasted way longer than it needed to. And that’s what made it a good scene. I’d watch Yume eat a churro for hours.

While the vast majority of the episode didn’t matter, there were two new pieces of information sprinkled in. The first was a bit more detail regarding the death of Yume’s sister, which I’ll discuss in the next section.

The second was that Chise covers her left arm for some reason. Originally, I thought her forearm sleeves were for style. But it now seems more likely that the one on her left arm is covering something — most likely scars. This is probably related to why she never goes to school.

I’m sure we’ll learn what’s up with Chise later on, but I doubt it will be some important plot point.

The Accident

Up until this episode, all we knew about how Yume’s sister died is that it was “an accident.” Originally, I assumed that perhaps she fell from the building Yume is sitting on top of when Yomogi first sees her at the start of the series. But, that seems to not be the case.

Then, I thought that maybe it was a traffic accident. This is because we learned that it happened when Yume’s sister went to the store or something for their mother. Being struck by a car would probably be the most likely scenario given the circumstances.

But again, that seems to not be the case. We’ve now learned that water was involved, at least to some extent. We still don’t know how she died, but Yume’s sister was found face down in the water under a small bridge.

Despite the fact that she was found in the water, I don’t believe she drowned. It would have been pretty difficult for her to drown there unless someone else had forcibly held her underwater. But, that also brings up the question of whether or not she actually died where she was found.

Again, I’m going to say she didn’t. My guess is that this is just where her body ended up. Either the water brought her there, or someone else did. So far, there hasn’t been any mention of a “someone else,” but I still think it’s possible someone was involved.

It’s hard for me to see how she would have ended up that way by accident unless she was trying to walk on the railing of the bridge. And at the end of this episode, we learn that rumors say it may have been suicide. But that seems just as unlikely to me.

I’m looking forward to this mystery being solved, though.

Two-Faced Kaiju

At first, I didn’t really think this week’s Kaiju was all that interesting. After all, its ability seems to simply be that it can melt objects. Compared to the other Kaiju we’ve seen in the series so far, that’s not all that special, to be honest.

However, after we got to see everything the Kaiju in this episode could do, I was actually a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of it. What made this Kaiju interesting to me was that it had two different personalities.

The primary personality was the one that can melt objects. It was a blob-like Kaiju with large, pillar-like legs underneath it. I quite liked this design once we actually got to see it running. It was like a two-legged elephant.

The second personality showed itself when the Kaiju was flipped upside down. This one didn’t exhibit the melting ability. Instead, it was very physically aggressive. It had a large mouth with which it attacked Dynazenon directly.

Now, while neither of these Kaiju personalities are all that interesting on their own, what made this Kaiju cool was that it had both. And I kind of liked that we wouldn’t have learned of the other personality if the Kaiju hadn’t been toppled.

Unfortunately, nothing interesting was done with this Kaiju‘s split personality once it was revealed. It’s not like that reveal led to a fight in which the Kaiju was dynamically changing its stance based on what was best at the moment. It just kind of existed in one form unless flipped to the other.

Really, I wish more was done with all of the Kaiju. Even the ones before this that had more interesting abilities were defeated rather quickly.

Conclusion

What do you think of SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 5? Did you like this obligatory swimsuit episode? What do you think really happened to Yume’s older sister? And how do you feel about the Kaiju almost seeming like afterthoughts? 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, Key Mochi~, and Rob for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika, Senpai, and Kouhai tiers respectively this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

The Transfer Student

SSSS.Dynazenon is my least favorite episode of the series so far. I was hoping that each episode would be better than the one that came before. But that’s clearly not what happened this week. Though, to be fair, most of the episode was on par with the others, which is to say, average.

This week, we got a little bit more information about the Kaiju Eugenicists. First, it was confirmed that the Eugenicists aren’t the ones who create the Kaiju. We already knew this since we see them finding Kaiju in the wild. But, the protagonists didn’t know that yet.

Next, it was stated that what the Eugenicists are doing is giving purpose to the Kaiju. It’s unclear exactly what the point of this is, though. What does making the Kaiju go on rampages throughout the city actually accomplish? Is causing a bit of destruction and being defeated enough of a purpose?

Anyway, all of this information is given to Yomogi and Yume by Shizumu, one of the Eugenicists who transfers into their school. The fact that Shizumu casually transfers to their school and talks to them like they aren’t fighting against each other is a bit odd, though.

I know that the Eugenicists are currently seeing if they can bring Yomogi, Yume, Koyomi, and potentially Chise, over to their side. But it’s still strange that, multiple times now, the Eugenicists have talked to Yomogi like it’s normal.

My guess is that this is all leading to the Eugenicists not really being “evil” and instead teaming up with Yomogi and the gang by the end of the series. There’s probably some bigger enemy out there. But for now, them being all friendly kind of lessens the suspense.

Hologram Kaiju

The reason I think this episode is worse than the previous episodes is specifically because of the Kaiju featured in it. I’m going to call this one the Hologram Kaiju because its ability seems to turn three-dimensional objects into two-dimensional holograms.

Now, at first, that seems like a pretty neat ability for a kaiju to have. Even the Eugenicists comment on how it’s very “Kaiju-like” in how it apparently shifts things between dimensions. There’s a lot of cool stuff that can be done with an ability like that.

Unfortunately, the Kaiju doesn’t do anything cool with its ability. We see that it’s flattened a few cars and buildings, but its ability is really a non-factor during the fight between Dynazenon and itself. And because of that, this was the least interesting of all the Kaiju fights.

I was expecting the Kaiju to mess things up by turning one of the Dynazenon parts into a hologram or something. Perhaps one of them would have to be flattened in order to take down the Kaiju for some reason — that could have been unique.

But, no. The Kaiju doesn’t flatten anyone. And worse, its hologram ability doesn’t actually play a role in the fight at all. With the previous two Kaiju, our heroes had to figure out a way to nullify their abilities before being able to defeat them. Not this time.

This time, the only problem that our heroes have to overcome within the battle is that Yomogi isn’t there because he has a cold. That’s easily fixed simply by picking Yomogi up and throwing him into the Dyna Soldier anyway. So, yeah, not exactly the most engaging Kaiju fight.

Chise Finally has a Purpose

For the past two weeks, I’ve been questioning what Chise’s role in the series is. Until now, she’s just been the cute middle school student. I don’t necessarily have an issue with there being a random cute middle school student, but I wanted her to have a purpose beyond that — like Eugenicists want for the Kaiju.

Well, Chise finally has a real role in the series. She’s the backup Dynazenon pilot. When Yomogi is absent due to his cold, Chise takes over as the pilot of the Dyna Soldier. She’s not very successful, but in her defense, it was her first time piloting it.

There is one small problem with Chise being the backup Dynazenon pilot, though. And that problem is that a backup being needed probably isn’t very likely to happen again. Well, I say that, but Yume is the one with a cold now. So maybe Chise will stand in for her next.

I guess even if Chise doesn’t actually stand in for someone again in this series, at least being considered the designated backup means she’s part of the team. Otherwise, she’s just a truant middle schooler who hangs around with them.

There must be a reason that Chise’s the backup. Perhaps this means that someone else is going to leave the group for some reason? Chise does say that she wants to be like Koyomi, so maybe she replaces him? I doubt he would leave, though.

To me, the most likely person to leave the group would be Gauma. Obviously, Gauma isn’t going to just abandon the others. But maybe he gets captured or corrupted in some way. Or, maybe he and the other Eugenicists move on and he leaves his piece of Dynazenon to Chise.

Conclusion

What do you think of SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 4? Was this episode better or worse than the previous three? Where would you rank this week’s Kaiju against the others? And, do you think anything is going to come of Chise being the Dynazenon backup pilot? 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 5 is available.

Still Not Sure What Chise Does

The third episode of SSSS.Dynazenon honestly doesn’t matter all that much. We get a bit of new information about Gauma and the Kaiju Eugenicists. But aside from that, it’s really just business as usual. A new kaiju shows up, and Dynazenon defeats it.

Last week, I touched on how Chise’s role in the series hadn’t yet been defined. And this week is no different. We’re three episodes into this series, and I still don’t know what the purpose of one of the main characters is. She must have a purpose beyond simply being the cute, younger girl.

In the previous episode, she at least tagged along during the kaiju fight — I think she was within the submarine part of Dynazenon with Gauma. However, this week she’s left at home during the fight. It’s not like she has anywhere better to be, so why didn’t she join Koyomi?

One thing we can be fairly certain about regarding Chise is that she’s romantically interested in her cousin Koyomi. If you just looked at the fact that she claims to want to be like him when she’s older and that she skips school to hang out with him, it could be argued that she simply looks up to him.

But in this episode, we saw that Koyomi is actually an old acquaintance (sort of) of Yomogi’s coworker. This is important because Chise is very interested in knowing if Koyomi has a crush on her, or even if he ever had a crush on her.

Again, you could argue that this is just Chise being nosy. However, considering that she claims whether or not Koyomi likes that other girl is important to her, it’s kind of easy to see why.

The Explosion Kaiju

I don’t think that this week’s kaiju is as interesting as the one we got last week. The design is pretty good, having some nice, bright colors, but its ability is a bit boring. This kaiju is able to make explosions happen “out of thin air.”

Based on how we saw the kaiju using its ability, it would seem that the explosions are actually the result of the spore-like substance the kaiju disperses out of its head. Before each group of explosions, it looked like the kaiju shot glitter into the air in all directions.

To me, this implies that the spores/glitter/whatever you want to call it was the source of the explosions. This explains how the kaiju was able to create so many explosions and how our heroes weren’t able to tell exactly where the explosions would happen.

The way the Dynazenon pilots defeated the kaiju this week was actually relatively similar to how they did it last week. In both cases, they first neutralized the kaiju’s special ability and then defeated it once that was out of the way.

This time around, neutralizing the kaiju’s ability involved taking the kaiju somewhere it couldn’t create explosions. Naturally, the vacuum of space is great for this because there’s no oxygen or other flammable gasses floating around.

Even in space, though, I believe Dynazenon’s weapons would still work. Unlike the kaiju’s explosion ability, the missiles and such at Dynazenon uses should include their own fuel source that would ignite upon impact.

I get that the scientific accuracy of a super robot series isn’t all that important. But it would have been a bit odd if, in reality, Dynazenon’s weapons also wouldn’t have worked in space, and yet they did in the anime while the kaiju’s didn’t.

Gauma and the Kaiju Eugenicists

The bit of new information we received in this episode was that, not only was Gauma a former comrade of the Kaiju Eugenicists, but he betrayed them 5,000 years ago. Around that same time, all of them died (we don’t know how), and they were only recently revived (again, we don’t know how).

That information doesn’t really matter all that much right now. Gauma’s connection to the Kaiju Eugenicists was already pretty well established without it being outright stated. And the inclusion of them all being from 5,000 years in the past means absolutely nothing at this point.

There is one other thing that may be important, though. That’s, of course, the fact that Gauma is searching for the woman who gave him Dynazenon. Was this woman his lover? I don’t know, but he seemed to be a bit bashful when mentioning her.

Without knowing anything else about this woman, I’m going to make a prediction. First, she’s not Gauma’s lover in any way and his bashfulness was just him being weird as usual. Second, the woman he’s searching for is the kaiju girl from SSSS.Gridman.

I don’t remember how important she ended up being in Gridman. But I think it would make sense for her to make an appearance in this series. In Gridman, there weren’t any other kaiju-people. But in Dynazenon, we have kaiju users, which may be somewhat similar.

Unfortunately, we don’t yet know exactly how Gridman and Dynazenon are connected. We know they take place in the same universe. However, as of yet, there’s really been no overlap or evidence to support that at all. A character appearing in both series would go a long way toward proving that.

Conclusion

What do you think of SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 3? Are you going to continue on with the series? Or have you fulfilled your three-episode rule obligation and are bowing out? And what do you think this woman Gauma is searching for is like? 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 4 is available.