SSSS.Dynazenon – 10-11

Looks like Dynazenon’s format-breaking episode arrived in its tenth week, rather than its ninth. “Which Memories Do You Regret?” was a challenging piece of work, much like Gridman’s “Dream,” and though I don’t think this season’s experiment went over quite as well as the previous one, the shake-up was appreciated. It wasn’t just the ‘kaiju of the week’ formula that received an adjustment, either. The character designs were noticeably looser – more angular in motion, yet rounder (and occasionally deformed) in close-up. “More with less” was the animation director’s mission statement for this one, as moments like Yomogi bursting through the barrier to Yume’s past were made hectic by limited frame counts, yet he still found time to slow down for a sisterly heart-to-heart in the second act. This assortment of styles put me in mind of the late Osamu Kobayashi, who surely would have enjoyed this episode for its aesthetic detours. That probably means a lot of other people didn’t like it, but hey, Dynazenon wasn’t built to be a crowd favorite.

Instead of unraveling a single person’s dream, episode 10 forced all of the major characters to relive their pasts, the meatiest of which was Yume’s. After Yomogi busted through her kaiju-manufactured delusion, she remained in the past, but gained the autonomy to confront her still-living sister. As a result, the haze surrounding Kano’s death was finally lifted, and it wasn’t suicide (or so Kano claimed) – but as Yume said during their reunion, “It makes no difference whether it’s suicide or an accident.” I really liked this line, because it pushed the mystery element of Kano’s fate to the side in favor of Yume’s grief. A lot of her detective work this season has been muted in tone, even reading like a vehicle for her relationship with Yomogi rather than a desperate desire to learn how her sister perished. That desperation was clear during the Minami sisters’ reunion, though, as voice actor Shion Wakayama finally unleashed Yume’s pent-up anger and misery during their confessional rooftop scene. I didn’t feel the intended catharsis here – truthfully, I’ve been fairly detached from the series during my viewings – but I liked a handful of the directorial decisions, especially the freeze frame on Kano as Yume was pulled back to reality.

A normal kaiju series would have used its flashback episode to answer the plot’s biggest question: the nature of Gauma and the Eugenicists’ relationship. What did Dynazenon do instead? It told us that they lived in the same country (not named), served the same princess (face not revealed), and that Gauma betrayed them (only the aftermath was shown). At least we got a vague sense of why it happened – the monarchy planned to exterminate all kaiju users, so the Eugenicists rebelled while Gauma stayed loyal – but damn, those two scenes were sorely disappointing. I suppose that, as with Yume’s flashback, you could make the argument that the facts of the characters’ histories are less important than their feelings. But even then, we saw so little of their partnership before the betrayal that I’ve got no reason to empathize with either party. If Dynazenon doesn’t spend a significant portion of its finale providing context for that aspect of its story (and it almost certainly won’t), I’ll be left scratching my head as to why the writing staff introduced this 5000 year time jump in the first place. I’m sure it has something to do with the tokusatsu series, but I’m not watching that shit.

Onto episode 11, then, which presented itself as a return to the status quo before merging onto End Boss Avenue. Sizumu turned out to be this season’s big villain, and a kaiju himself to boot, meaning he can still wreak havoc in a newly kaiju-free world. This isn’t the biggest curveball the show could have thrown, since we’re already acquainted with two human/kaiju hybrids in Anti and Anosillus, but its suddenness doesn’t feel as rewarding as Akane’s slow decent into despair from three years ago. I think we’re meant to assume that Sizumu’s involvement in Yomogi and Yume’s lives is what enabled his transformation, since they “helped him witness some wonderful emotions” (including Yomogi’s love confession). That’s a tough sell, though – Sizumu may have been both their classmate and their opponent in battle, but he played his cards so close to the vest that his sudden royal flush seemed too good to be true. If he’d shared more scenes with Team Dynazenon or done some on-screen scheming in the previous episode, I imagine the payoff of his transformation would have been significantly larger. We’ve still got the finale to go, which has already aired as of this writing – good grief, these writeups are lagging – so I’m hoping for a conclusion as strong as Gridman’s.