Well, Yume recovered from her cold between episodes so I guess we won’t see Chise covering for her. Admittedly, I don’t know if anyone has the aptitude for a Dynazenon piece other than their own so I probably shouldn’t guessed in the first place. Anyway, it seems that after a single day of training, Chise has gotten the hang of Dyna Soldier. Yomogi might want to look out. I am curious how these two will share this robot. The show definitely needs Chise to do so something but at the same time, they can’t afford to make Yomogi take Chise’s place as the benchwarmer. At the very least, the show is able to treat have some comedy out of the shared ownership, what with Chise impulsively hopping onto Dyna Soldier with Yomogi during this episode’s fight scene.
During training, Chise wonders if Dyna Soldier can merge with Dyna Striker, prompting Yomogi and Koyomi to test it out. The two mechs do result in a new combination, Dyna Soldier Striker Combine, though it has the massive disadvantage of being top-heavy, due to its larger arms. This pretty much means it has a very small window to fight, which the show demonstrates at one point during the fight scene. It kind of feels like a reversal of Heracles Combine Max Gridman, which was able to fight just fine with giant forearms. I wonder if Dyna Diver could combine with these two to balance out the weight problem though I guess at the point, they might as well throw in Dyna Wing and form the complete Dynazenon.
Later that day, Koyomi meets up with Inamoto. I forgot to mention this in the Episode 3 review but apparently, Inamoto once vandalized a window in her school and Koyomi witnessed this but chose to keep it a secret. I’m not entirely sure what bearing this has on the plot. Inamoto seems to have matured over the years so I don’t know if this part of the past really matters in the present. Another strange moment is Koyomi wondering why Inamoto wants to hang out with him when she’s married. Admittedly, Koyomi barely interacts with people and he hasn’t seen Inamoto in years but I don’t know if that’s weird for a married woman to spend time with another person.
The second act of the episode, has the team heading to a water park, thanks to Chise winning some tickets in an event. That way, SSSS.Dynazenon can fulfill its swimsuit fanservice quota. Actually, the timing is a little on the nose as SSSS.Gridman also busted out the swimsuits in its fifth episode. As silly as this sounds, that made me realize that this show has been hitting similar beats around the same time as its predecessor. We get confirmation of who the bad guys are in Episode 2, Yomogi becoming aware of his feelings towards Yume as well as the bad guys investigating the good guys in Episode 4, and now this. Watch the next episode makes a deep cut to Gridman the Hyper Agent or have a human-like kaiju show up. Then, there really is a pattern.
Funnily enough, Yume invites Sizumu to join the trip to the water park. The rest of the Kaiju Eugenicists later show up to pick up Sizumu though Mujina wants to stay at the park and she very much returns to it after Dynazenon defeats the monster of the week. The dynamic between the good and bad guys is really baffling to me. About the only ones who are actually antagonizing the other side are Gauma and Onija. Mind you, the beef these two have with their enemies is really funny, especially when it devolves into slapstick, but it is weird that they’re the only ones behaving like this. Everyone else is so chill about each other. I thought this episode might generate some tension when it has Sizumu take control of the kaiju. That could put him more at odds with Yomogi and Yume. However, him using the kaiju doesn’t really amount to anything.
About the only thing that’s possibly more awkward than Sizumu’s inclusion is Yume’s. Yume did consent to going to the trip though in hindsight, going to the water park is a bit of a risk as some of the water-based activities triggers memories of Kano’s death (which in turn, suggests that Yume is the one who found her sister’s body). As if that isn’t enough to upset her, the show drops a really dark twist when Yume contacts Urita and the latter points her towards the former vice president of the Chorus Club. The alumnus reveals that it’s been rumored that Kano didn’t die in an accident but instead committed suicide. That really puts what we know about Kano on its head. Yume said before that she doesn’t remember her sister being cheerful and I think we have now have some idea how she could exhibit both traits if this tidbit is anything to believe. Also, given how sensitive of a topic suicide is, especially in Japan, cutting right as the alumnus mentions suicide is a pretty tact way for the show to drop this.
I’m really curious if this tidbit will connect to Yume’s speculation on kaiju in Episode 3. Like, I’m afraid the truth of her sister’s death might convince her to look into kaiju. To go along with my point, there’s an interesting bit of lore dropped in earlier in the episode where Sizumu says that kaiju are attracted to certain emotions. Out of anyone in this show, Yume certainly feels strongly about something so more and more, I think the show will somehow connect her to the kaiju.
Watch SSSS.Dynazenon on Crunchyroll and Funimation