Way back in Spring 2021, I had planned on covering SSSS.Dynazenon, the successor to SSSS.Gridman, in episode reviews. I did actually watch this first episode and I had a draft of this respective blog post but for whatever reason, the whole endeavor fizzled out. I’ve mulled over retroactively covering Dynazenon since then but with the newly released Gridman Universe movie, I figured why not catch up and open the door to covering the movie as well (which should release in Japan on disc or digitally in a couple of months).
It’s kind of interesting to see Studio Trigger return to an IP. Most of their productions are one and deal deals. I suppose returning to the now so-called Gridman Universe had more to do with Tsuburaya Productions, the company that created and owns the rights to Gridman, than it does with Trigger. Even so, I imagine Trigger was more than willing to be involved. Trigger is a lot of things but they do strike as a studio that follows the beat of their own drum. If there is any Trigger show that deserves a continuation, it’s certainly Gridman. The original series has its fair share of problems. I think it fares better in the beginning than it does at the end and some developments in the story stick out to me as odd. Even so, I still consider SSSS.Gridman to be one of Trigger’s better shows. The story does have its moments and the direction and action is quite good. It’s good enough that I’m not baffled at it having a sequel.
Let’s unpack the show’s title. As you can tell from its name, SSSS.Dynazenon is not a direct sequel to SSSS.Gridman. It is part of the shared Gridman Universe though none of the characters from SSSS.Gridman, including Gridman himself, are anywhere to be found (at least for the time being). I would say this is set in the same exact world as SSSS.Gridman but given the implications that the show takes place in cyberspace, that might not be the case. Regarding what exactly Dynazenon is, I believe the original Gridman the Hyper Agent had a mech called Dyna Dragon. That did not appear in SSSS.Gridman so I’m guessing Dyanzenon is either a homage or what that mech ultimately became after Gridman the Hyper Agent. There is another mech called God Zenon though its components are alluded to in SSSS.Gridman so I think it’s just a namesake for Dynazenon. Funnily enough, the show reveals what the “SSSS” part stands for from the get go. In this case, it’s “Scarred Souls Shine like Stars”. I guess now that we know the “SSSS” meanings something, there’s no point in making it a 12 episode mystery like with “Special Signature to Save a Soul”.
The first episode of SSSS.Dynazenon introduces us to the show’s heroes. Yomogi Asanaka (Junya Enoki), a regular high school student, meeting and helping a mysterious man named Gauma (Daiki Hamano). The next day, he gets asked out on a date by Yume Minami (Shion Wakyama), a classmate of his who has a bizarre habit of ditching her dates. Parallel to all of this, we see a NEET named Koyomi Yamanaka (Yuchiro Umehara) chilling in his bedroom with his cousin Chise Asukagawa (Chika Anzai).
The main cast does remind me of SSSS.Gridman‘s. Yomogi seems to be the everyman protagonist much like Yuta. Yume is a reserved girl much like Rikka. Koyomi (Yuichiro Umehara) substitutes Utsumi as the nerd (albeit in a much worse living situation) while Chise (Chika Anzai) banters with him in a similar fashion to that of Utsumi and Borr. Gauma is mysterious and homeless, kind of like the Neon Genesis Junior High Students. Some of the characters’ introductions are also pretty similar such as Yume singing during her first appearance and Yomogi handing a very familiar hot dog sandwich thing to Gauma. It’s concerning but this is the first episode so I’ll take these impressions with a grain of salt. I will say that there are a couple of interesting deviations teased in the premiere. Yomogi doesn’t have amnesia and there appears to be something going on with his family so he’s less of a blank slate compared to Yuta. There’s also the peculiar implication that Yume lost her older sister a few years prior to the start of the story and that somehow factors into her habit of ditching her dates.
As previously mentioned, Yume asks Yomogi out and just like with each other date, she ditches him. Gauma catches Yume red-handed and chews her out. Yomogi overhears the two, resulting in a very awkward encounter with Yume. Before he and Yume can talk things out, a kaiju appears in the city, making this first date one for the ages. Earlier in the episode, Gauma curiously calls himself a “Kaiju User”, which is a new term for this canon. We’ll have to learn what a Kaiju User does later as Gauma notes his abilities aren’t working on the monster of the week. To compensate this apparent setback, Gauma summons the titular Dynazenon mech instead.
Unlike Gridman, who is a singular entity that only needs one host, Dynazenon is made of different components that requires a crew so it abducts Yomogi, Yume, and a nearby Koyomi to act as Gauma’s co-pilots. I might prefer this arrangement over the one SSSS.Gridman. I like the Gridman Alliance just fine but I can’t deny that Yuta is the only one in the trio who actually fights and Utsumi and Rikka watches the action from a distance. Having most of the main heroes pilot Dyanzenon could make them more involved in the action.
As for the action itself, it’s entertaining as always. I don’t know if I mentioned it before in the SSSS.Gridman posts but I love how the music is often reserved for the action. It not only sells the more down to earth moments in the show, it also makes fight scenes such as this more engaging. I also must admit that Dyanzenon has a really slick design, especially when it transforms into its alternate Dyna Rex form. That alt is a dragon! What’s not to love about that? I am curious how power ups will work in this series. It seems that Dynazenon is in a more complete state than Gridman. Either that or it’s more versatile. I can’t think of what the show can add onto it to keep the later fights interesting. Again, dragon alt form. How do you even top that?
Watch SSSS.Dynazenon on Crunchyroll and Funimation
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