Review of SSSS.Dynazenon

Before you watch: SSSS. Dynazenon is basically a sequel to SSSS. Gridman, so I'd watch that first. Both are basically sequels to Gridman: The Hyper Agent, which I also recommend watching even before SSSS. Gridman. Though, if you find that you aren't interested in 39 episodes of a live-action kid's show with machine translation (I still think it's good!), episodes directly relevant to Dynazenon are 18 and 22. I’d watch Episode 1 for context though. Dynazenon also has voice dramas that you’re meant to play between each episode. While they aren’t necessary, they’re fun and I recommend seeking them out! While Gridman was the one fightingkaiju in SSSS.Gridman, Dynazenon is instead about its main characters that pilot their own pieces of a giant mech. Kaiju are still the name of the game here. But instead of being hand-crafted like in Gridman, kaiju are created and presented in a different, meaningful way that I liked. While SSSS.Gridman beefed up the fights since Hyper Agent, SSSS.Dynazenon takes its fights even further beyond. It's especially nice that the characters train often.

Even with bombastic fights punctuating each episode, the anime is still character-focused. But this time it's about each of the main characters' trauma. The problem is that Yume’s takes up a disproportionate amount of plot. And while it's compelling, I don't think it's interesting enough to warrant the sheer amount of time it takes up. The one with the second-most screen time, Koyomi, wasn’t that interesting. The rest barely get any focus. One of those remainders’ uses a Hyper Agent episode as a crux (that I enjoyed a lot), so that's why I think it's important to watch.

Like SSSS.Gridman's characters, Dynazenon's were very fun on a granular level but didn't feel like much overall. The exception is Gauma, who's just stellar all-around. The antagonists are unfortunately pretty one-note and harp on the same ideas a lot, which is a shame. The aforementioned voice dramas of fun little character interactions between each episode help flesh out the characters a bit more (even if they don’t do as good of a job as SSSS.Gridman’s).

While I think Dynazenon spends a lot of time on certain characters' backstories in a way that doesn't pay off, the fun of the characters bouncing off of each other and the quality of the fights are so good that it's not too hard to look past it. In a way, it's the antithesis of SSSS.Gridman's interesting mystery/antagonist (and relevance to the source material) at the cost of the main characters, making the two almost balance out in my mind.