Last episode didn’t share what happened to the Kaiju Eugenicists though it was safe to say that they were restored after the monster of the week got destroyed. Sure enough, we see them perfectly okay in the penultimate episode. To their chagrin, the Kaiju Eugenicists conclude that they’ve run out of kaiju. I still find that notion weird but the villains do bring up a good point. The last kaiju manifested people’s memories so you’d think that trigger a lot of strong emotions and therefore spawn in a bunch more kaiju. Since that didn’t happen, it’s safe to say that the supply has been exhausted.
Since they’ve effectively lost the war against Dynazenon, the Kaiju Eugenicists disband. Hilariously, Onija decides to go around the city killing people. The dude couldn’t make it any less vague that murder was indeed part of his team’s plan. What’s even funnier is that Onija immediately gets arrested on his first attempt at manslaughter. No wonder he resorted to kaiju. Juuga approaches Gauma, presumably to reconcile with him or bid farewell, though this does not go well. Honestly, that seems like a miscalculation on Juuga’s part. His team caused a lot of damage and hurt a lot of people. There’s no way Gauma would ever look past that. Mujina has the most confusing aftermath. She runs into Koyomi and tells him that she despises him. I’m assuming she says that because both of them didn’t stick out much in their respective teams and yet Koyomi managed to step up to the plate and help his team win time and time again. That makes sense though I feel this exchange would be more meaningful if these two interacted beyond a couple scenes in Episode 6.
The good guys also begin to go their separate ways. Koyomi decides to look for a job, however the odds may be against him (I’m assuming he doesn’t write “mech pilot” in his resume). Chise attempts to go back to school. Knight and the Second prepare to depart for another world and they inform Chise and they’ll be taking Goldburn with them. I suppose it’s for the best that all the irregular kaiju vanish from the world. The emotional weight of this development does feel a bit undercooked. I mean, Goldburn was introduced two episodes ago so not a lot of time was given for me to grow attached to its relationship with Chise.
Yomogi and Yume definitely have the most compelling aftermath. The two visit the Asanaka family grave. Yume paying her respects to Kano for the first time ever, showing that she has completely come to terms with her sister’s death. After that, Yomogi confesses his feelings to Yume. The timing here is so perfect. Yume is no longer preoccupied with her interpersonal drama. In a weird way, the team splitting up gives Yomogi an edge as it allows him to tell Yume that even if the gang is drifting apart, he still wants to by her side. I really hope Yume reciprocate Yomogi’s feelings. These two have been a really charming couple and they’ve definitely made more progress than Yuta and Rikka ever did. Making them official would be a great way to end this plot thread.
Before Yume can give her answer however, Sizumu suddenly appears and attacks her and Yomogi. Gauma and the Gridknight Alliance arrive in the nick of time to protect them. Judging by Sizumu’s hostility, it’s safe to say that hanging out with Yomogi and Yume didn’t sway his beliefs all that much. As for why he attacks them, I’m guessing he wants to use their feelings towards one another as a catalyst to create a new kaiju. Assuming that is his intent, I’m not sure Sizumu bothers to attempt this as he quickly reveals to everyone that he has a kaiju inside his body and he proceeds to transform into it.
I kind of get making Sizumu the monster of the week. When you consider the structure of SSSS.GRIDMAN, this development can be seen as a parallel to Alexis turning Akane into a kaiju. That said, Sizumu’s transformation is a big stretch. When did Sizumu find this kaiju? How did he know he could store it inside his own body? How can even he store it? If he can do this, can the other Kaiju Users do this as well? If so, why didn’t Sizumu tell his teammates about this? I could chalk all of this up to the power of kaiju but that wouldn’t necessarily detract from how sloppily this all seems to add up. More importantly, this scene doesn’t have the same weight as GRIDMAN‘s version. I suppose it’s fitting for Sizumu to turn into a literal monster but with Akane, the transformation was her comeuppance for all the terrible things she did and it made her realize all of that as well. Here, Sizumu just transforms because he’s one of the bad guys and the show needs to do one more fight before wrapping it up. It’s nowhere near as interesting as it was in GRIDMAN.
On the subject of structural parallels, I did think myself that someone might have a death flag on them, much like Yuta did during the last three episodes of GRIDMAN. No one pulled out a box cutter this time around but we do see a flag raised for DYNAZENON‘s own redhead. Since Gauma lacks most of his Kaiju User abilities, his body is completely human and it won’t last for very long. This wasn’t really foreshadowed in the previous episodes so it feels extremely convenient that Gauma is kicking the bucket now. Still, this does raise the stakes up a bit. Having a kaiju is enough trouble but the team has to also contend with Gauma clinging onto to dear life. Can he stay alive long enough to join the fight? Can the team save him in time? It’s hard to tell right now.
Oh and I guess, Gauma is a mummy? Earlier in the episode, Yume and Yomogi learn about a mummy that came to life and disappeared. Given its age and disappearance, Yomogi speculates that Gauma is the mummy. I looked it up and the mummy is apparently a minor character in Gridman in the Hyper Agent. Having not seen the original show, I can’t say if this is a good callback or not. I will however say that from the perspective an outsider, this sounds like one hell of a deep cut.
Watch SSSS.DYNAZENON on Crunchyroll and Funimation
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