SSSS.Dynazenon

One day after school, first-year high school student Yomogi Asanaka comes across a starving man under a bridge. Introducing himself as Gauma, the strange drifter informs Yomogi that he is a "kaiju user," a person who deals with the "kaiju"—monsters who bring harm to the city and its citizens.

The following evening, Yomogi runs into Gauma and his classmate Yume Minami. Simultaneously, a kaiju appears in a populated area of the city. Due to Gauma's lack of experience controlling the kaiju, he brings out a mysterious object from a glowing pouch, summoning a giant robot known as Dynazenon. Requiring the cooperation of four people, the mecha drags Gauma, Yomogi, Minami, and Koyomi Yamanaka—an unemployed man who was wandering on the street—into its cockpit.

Their encounter with the kaiju marks the beginning of their entanglement with kaiju eugenicists—kaiju users who manipulate kaiju with ill intent—and their efforts toward bringing out the full potential of Dynazenon.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Minami, Yume Main

Wakayama, Shion Japanese

Asanaka, Yomogi Main

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Gauma Main

Hamano, Daiki Japanese

Asukagawa, Chise Main

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Yamanaka, Koyomi Main

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Mujina Supporting

Suwa, Ayaka Japanese

Anti Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Kaijuu Shoujo Anosillus (2-daime) Supporting

Takahashi, Karin Japanese

Shizumu Supporting

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Juuga Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Kamei, Hiroshi Producer

Itou, Hirofumi Producer

Reviews

Mar 9, 2024

Teramol

Recommended

First of all DO NOT watch SSSS.Dynazenon until you have watched SSSS.Gridman!

I originally wached Gridman when it aired weekly and thought it was a good show, but nothing spectacular. Fast forward a few years later and we have Dynazenon, the new entry in the same universe. It sadly came out when I was still experiencing a massive anime burnout and wasn't watching anything but now finally all this time later, I got around to watching it and I'm very glad for that.

Without going into spoilers, Dynazenon's story is very similar to Gridman's; bad guys make Kaijus cause chaos, good guys are there to solve the ... problems with the titular guardians. But believe me when I say, that's just scratching the surface and the series has a lot more depth than that.

I love how the show just feels off and what I mean by that is that everything that's happening is so nonchalant from the world's inhabitants' POV even though things like Kaiju attacks are not only destroying the surroundings but also claiming a lot of lives. Characters are also quick to accept everything that's happening, even things that are completely new and seemingly impossible to them. One could say these things are bad writing but I would disagree. They made the show feel eerie in a great way among other things.

Much like Gridman, the series is chock full of references to other entries of the franchise (including the tokusatsu TV show) and small, minor details that most people (including myself) would easily miss but a lot of them really add to the lore and or are otherwise important. Now like I said I'm not all that perceptive sadly but luckily for me, there are a lot of people around in discussion threads for the episodes that post really eye-opening theories and discoveries that made every episode feel more meaningful.

One of my main criticisms for the show however is that while I do appreciate all the callbacks/parallels etc. to Gridman, sometimes the show feels a bit too much the same. And the worst part of this is the monster of the week feel that is there for most of the runtime but luckily they still put a lot of other interesting things in every episode so the battles are not even the main focus often.

Now for the main thing that elevated Dynazenon to me compared to Gridman are the characters. I didn't hate Gridman's characters by any means but compared to the main group here, it's pretty much night and day when it comes to personalities and even character development. Since the series is less focused on explaining how the world works and the Kaiju spectacles, they had a chance to put way more time into the characters which in my opinion worked really well in the show's favor.

Another thing that I enjoyed in both shows is the direction. We have a lot of amazing camera angles and shots that add to the great feel of the show. Sometimes it even made for some good symbolism if you paid enough attention. The direction for the music also worked well. We have a wide array from anywhere between great silent scenes to hype action pieces.

There's not much big negative things I can say about the show. I won't rate it higher so far because there's still some questions I have left and I have yet to watch Gridman Universe but after completing this I have high hopes moving forward.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Teramol (20)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Sep 1, 2023

Tablekun

Mixed Feelings

SSSS.Dynazenon is a slight improvement from SSSS.Gridman, but that's not saying much. Gone is the dramatic antagonist of Gridman, and instead the series revolves around 2 groups, with some overlap between Gauma, and the faction of baddies. It fails to give much back story, and largely the story is rather stupid. This is more of a friendship story line, with very bland characters. All that being said, the animation is better in this series compared to SSSS.Gridman. So, it ends up being barely watchable.

Animation 8/10
- Simple art most of the way but ramps up with the mecha animation.
Sound 7/10
- ... Pretty good mecha sound design, Good ED.
Story 3/10
- It's stale and almost nonexistent, again, it's a friendship anime with mechs.
Characters 5/10
- Bland, the dynamics between all of them is fine, it's not completely stale.
Enjoyment 6/10
- I didn't hate it by the end, it is what it is, an SSSS show that's half baked.

I think it's better than SSSS.Gridman, so if you've watched that, you might want to try this out, if you got the time to spend on mid.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Tablekun (98)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Aug 21, 2021

ThatAnimeSnobRE

Not Recommended

Some time ago, when an anime called Gridman came out every sellout was hyping it as something worth checking out. Long pretentious essay videos were made about directing, cinematography, thriller-like atmosphere, and a very deep message at the finale. By the end of the season very few gave a damn, because the show was more preoccupied with zooming the camera on the girls’ thighs than telling a decent plot. Fast forward to Dynazenon, the second season, where nobody was hyping it. It lost most of its potential audience during the first season, and seeing how the pretentious sellouts couldn’t milk it for all it’s worth ... they moved to pretending other shows were deep.

The most obvious reason is because giant monster shows haven’t been trending in decades. Now it’s all about harem isekai and videogame-like fantasy worlds. Even for old-school anime fans like me, the action of the SSSS moniker wasn’t elaborate or even lasts enough to have an impact. The sellouts kept talking about the aesthetic of having the monsters moving like people with rubber suits being the thing that makes the show to stand out from all the others, but, really, who gives a damn about that? It doesn’t make the action cool and it sure as heck doesn’t add realism to the physics or gravity to the situations.

Dynazenon was more like a teen drama than a kaiju series, as every character spent most of his time in dealing with every day psychological problems that with saving the world. And even then it wasn’t doing an amazing job, since the tone of the series was very somber for the type of plot it was going for. The people in the setting didn’t give a damn about giant monsters attacking and destroying entire city blocks every week. The heroes were not trying to capture the bad guys behind the monster attacks even though they were in front of them all the time. And the bad guys were not serious about their objectives either, as they constantly found enough free time to go have fun at places with the very humans they hated so much.

As a result, nothing in this show has much of an impact on the viewer. The action is too short, nobody is worried regarding the monster attacks that kill thousands of people every week, both good guys and bad guys are slacking around to the most part, and in general the anime is not committed to what it’s going for. There are many interesting themes regarding the social pressure and alienation young people are facing in contemporary societies, but the plot doesn’t go beyond mentioning them and then letting them not matter in the background.

There are also several plot twists that are supposed to change the way you view the setting and certain characters, but because of the carefree way they are handled, they don’t feel nearly as significant as they should. Half of the series comes off as slice of nothing happens, so when the other half comes up and you are supposed to care, you don’t. If the characters don’t care or they don’t take what they are doing seriously, then why should the viewer give a damn?

Thus we get another example for why modern anime are crap. They don’t have the guts to be serious or depressing despite constantly tackling serious and depressing issues. Retro anime weren’t afraid to be all that, they knew what they were and kept true to it. A school drama would be a school drama and an action mecha would be an action mecha. Dynazenon is all over the place because it tries to be a jack of all trades and ends up being a master of none.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ThatAnimeSnobRE (188)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Tenemos que hablar de Felipe

by KirilovKatsura

46 Entries · 1 Restacks

Mecha Anime That Aren't Gundam

by FanofAction

43 Entries · 8 Restacks

A Taste Of Everything New You Missed From 2021 Anime

by Theannoy3rd1

44 Entries · 4 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for May

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for May Week 1: May 3 - 9 Anime Releases 2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu (2.43: Seiin High Sch...read more

May 4, 2022 4:32 AM by Aiimee | Discuss (3 comments)

'SSSS.Gridman x Dynazenon' Crossover Film Announced

Tsuburaya Productions announced a feature-length film as part of the Gridman shared media project at the company's Tsuburaya Convention 2021 event on Monday. Th...read more

Dec 13, 2021 8:47 AM by Aiimee | Discuss (12 comments)

	Why did Yume break promises? Yeeto - Sep 3, 2021	4 replies	by vegeta8639 »» Oct 25, 2:15 AM
	Is there romance in this anime? RathoneL - Jun 26, 2021	3 replies	by vegeta8639 »» Oct 25, 2:14 AM
	Poll: SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jun 18, 2021	121 replies	by gannoncannon55 »» Feb 25, 11:53 PM
	Poll: SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jun 4, 2021	106 replies	by gannoncannon55 »» Feb 25, 11:06 PM
	Poll: SSSS.Dynazenon Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - May 28, 2021	63 replies	by gannoncannon55 »» Feb 25, 10:41 PM