SSSS.Dynazenon – 6-7

I guess Dynazenon is still airing, huh? Not only that, it’s connected itself to SSSS.Gridman in explicit fashion, with two of that show’s half-kaiju characters appearing as older versions of themselves. Anti and Anosillus II brought new life to the show, I felt, breaking up the Team Dynazenon vs Kaiju Eugenicists stalemate that had formed over the course of several weeks. This series is still operating at a high level, visually speaking, but the story has been in need of new blood, and now it’s got two fresh sources. They even wore spiffy black suits, a la the Neon Genesis Junior High Students from Gridman, indicating that they’ve pledged themselves to the cause of interdimensional justice. I don’t plan to go over all of Anti and Anosillus’s dialogue with a fine-tooth comb and extrapolate Dynazenon’s conclusion (I’d need knowledge of the toku series for that), but there was enough written between the lines to assume that the Hyper Agent himself will appear at some point. I’m already looking forward to it, as the human drama has started to wear on me in spots.

I’m thinking specifically of Koyomi’s quest for female companionship, or whatever you want to call his drinking sessions with Inamoto. The link between them was interesting at first, since they share a blurry high school history, but we’ve passed the halfway point and that connection isn’t much clearer than it was at the start. Everything exclusive to the present, such as Inamoto’s husband showing up to Assert Dominance, seems like water weight compared to the actual purpose of their scenes together (namely, the eventual reveal of what she discovered in the past). The wedge that formed between Yomogi and Yume wasn’t great either, since the show felt it necessary to set things off with a flash of jealousy. On the whole, the blueprint for episode 6 was too easy to reverse engineer: distract and demotivate the Dynazenon pilots so they’ll need to be bailed out by Gridknight at the end. The writers hit their target, but it felt like they walked right up and stabbed it with an arrow rather than firing from across the archery range.

By contrast, episode 7 handled Yume and Yomogi’s reconciliation with an expert-level shot. By taking its hand off the Go button, Dynazenon gave the two teenagers time to dance around each other for a while before their allowing their vulnerabilities to take center stage. I can’t say I was moved by Yomogi’s tears during their seaside chat, but I surely appreciate the direction of the scene. That kind of crying is rare in anime – understated, sympathetic, and giving way to a quiet resolution rather than a dramatic display of willpower. Yume’s naturally soft-spoken personality was a perfect compliment for the comfort she offered him, as well. It occurs to me that she’s being hit the hardest by these ugly pieces of digital evidence (which point to her sister’s possible suicide), and yet she’s able to put on a strong face for people like Yomogi. You might view Yume’s disengagement two weeks ago as a slip of that mask, but that was just a blip on the show’s emotional radar – a total loss of composure may be coming down the pipe for her, depending on where her investigation leads.

Both of these episodes also homed in on Mujina, formerly the least driven member of the Eugenicist crew, now an ally to the hotheaded Onija. Her fleeting interest in Koyomi was among the least essential parts of this doubleheader, but her philosophical alignment with the show’s most aggressive villain may pay narrative dividends down the road. It’s extremely unlikely that the Eugenicists are our final bosses, so to speak – they’re too individualistic to form a united front in the endgame. Sizumu cares far more about the proliferation of kaiju than he does about controlling them for his own ends. Onija is the opposite, and seems to have won Mujina to his side, at least for now. Juuga is the only remaining fence-sitter, thanks to his working assumption that Dynazenon is a kaiju, which it may very well be. Anti and Anosillus II are kaiju, after all (though they weren’t created by a human will), so it seems they can take many forms. This series is enjoying that uncertain territory for now, but soon it’ll have to clarify things – the alignment of its villains, the nature of its mechs, and everything else under its digital sun.