SSSS.Dynazenon is a sequel to SSSS.Gridman, at 12 episodes long. The anime starts off like a typical teenage drama. Yomogi is a high school student and there is a girl at school, Yume, who was developing a reputation for asking boys out, but then not appearing at the agreed time and place. Yume then asks Yomogi to meet her after school but of course she doesn’t turn up. You’re led to believe that there must be some sort of reason for her behavior. It’s an interesting mystery in and of itself but it isn’t the focus here, since this is a mecha and kaiju anime.
Yomogi also meets Gauma, who is a self-proclaimed kaiju user. When a kaiju appears to attack the town, Gauma enlists the help of Yomogi, Yumi, as well as another person who just happened to be there. They all become pilots of Dynazenon, a giant robot that can split into four components. They take down the kaiju and afterwards, the four form a group together to figure out how to pilot Dynazenon properly. Each of the four components can function independently and has various combinations.
The anime goes for a classic mecha theme with over-the-top combination stock sequences, a lot of yelling, and rousing music. It’s not a bad thing but can sometimes feel out of place. Like SSSS.Gridman, it can feel episodic and predictable as each episode will bound to have a kaiju of the week show up and the characters eventually fighting it off. The characters seem to have no regard for collateral damage, and these are populated areas too. They destroy buildings without a care and for such a huge random mecha to show up, the public sure isn’t making a big deal of it either.
There are a few subplots going on. The major one is that we learn that kaiju are summoned by a specific group known as the Kaiju Eugenicists. Then there are the more personal subplots such as Yomogi and Yume in their quest to resolve Yume’s problems. While there is the fourth Dynazenon user, Yamanaka, who is unemployed, meeting up with someone that he knows and had feelings for back in middle school. In these aspects, the anime can feel so normal. It can be quite jarring when the end of each episode will always result in a kaiju appearing and then a big battle.
With the amount of focus placed on the characters’ normal lives, the kaiju and Dynazenon aspect feels undercooked and superficial. Seemingly they’re just there to draw in the fans of the giant mecha and kaiju genre. You might expect the anime to try to touch upon how hard it must be to juggle between normal life and fighting the kaiju, but it only has a passing mention with no hard decisions or sacrifices to be made. That said, there is a surprise appearance in the middle of the season. It’s surprising because up until this point, we’ve only seen Dynazenon and its various forms. Then again, it does appear without too much explanation though.
As the season never gave us a deep and engaging story, it doesn’t give us a satisfactory ending either. It admirably resolves most of the plot points, from the kaiju users to each of the subplots of the characters. However, it is anticlimactic with how the anime approached it. It resolved everything without too much build up or fanfare and the characters then quickly move on. At least the ending has some sweet moments and feelgood vibes.
Overall, SSSS.Dynazenon is an average anime. The first time Dynazenon appeared and transformed was awesome. Every time after that, because the anime decided to use stock footage, it can feel shoehorned in. The anime felt like it was designed to capture the nostalgia of older shows, but it carried all their weaknesses as well. It does an admirable job of being both an episodic anime that you can jump in at any time, while also carrying some deeper plots that span across the whole season. Although as it tries to do both things, it doesn’t do a great job at either and the anime is forgettable as a result.
