SSSS.Dynazenon

Nekus Jun 18, 2021

5

SSSS.Dynazenon is Simply a Sloppy Spiritless Show With SSSS.Gridman being one of my all time favorites shows, I was as hyped as one could possibly be for Dynazenon. Even if they are just in the same universe and not really sequels thanks to the fact that they are made by the same people I was expecting to get something of the same quality, and I ended up being sorely disappointed. Story & Themes…?The story completely lacks direction. Backstory that we get in episode 8 feels like it should have been in episode 2, plot points that were seemingly dropped pop up out of nowhere and the “characters arcs” are so vague that I’m not even sure why half of them happened.  While the show kept winking and hinting about something more… it ended up just being a “big robot punches big monster show”. And hey, I can still love that. But I don’t appreciate them trying to make it look like more. Entire dialogues towards the end of the show would with no context seem like the characters are discussing the core themes of the show, and yet half the stuff they mention is being brought up for the first time. The problem is not that it lacks a message, but that it pretends to have a message but doesn't. It all just felt disingenuous.  The most emotional aspect ended up being the heroes dealing with their personal life struggles, as is often the case in these types of shows. The unfortunate thing is that they never managed to fully connect the action and the drama. Half of the characters not only solved their life issues with no help from their fellow protagonists but also in ways that were independent from the rest of the story. The fact that they solved their problems (and how) was… incidental to the plot. Speaking of characters... CharactersNobody in this show seems to give much of a fuck. I’m not joking. The protagonists (sans one) all fight the Kaiju just because they happened to get involved accidentally one day. The antagonists are not exactly sure what is going on and just follow the Kaiju’s lead. And the population of the city is unnaturally passive to the Kaiju’s destruction.  Everyone seems to just drift through the events and just accept them passively. A relevant example is how the two high schoolers react after one of their early battles.Are they happy they won? Nope. Sad about the destruction of the city and the undoubtedly thousands dead? Nah they don’t even think about that.Mentally exhausted by piloting a giant mecha? Nah they are fine really. They just go “Oh no look at the time! we are going to be late for school.” And walk away. I’m not saying everyone needs to be mentally scarred for life like in Evangelion but I just wished anyone… cared. If the characters don’t, it’s hard for me to. Production valuesThe pleasing art style combined with impeccable shot direction makes this show have a lot of screenshot worthy scenes in the Slice of Life moments. Sadly, the animation is often not up to par. After episode 3 there is a clear production drop and many scenes are unnaturally still (or shot from very far away), where the show is clearly trying to buy time with its limited animation. The CGI used in the fights is above average and the mecha and kaijus models are very well done. Said CG fights can be a little floaty to some but I still enjoyed them. The OST is great.. when it’s used. Half the show completely lacks BGM and while in the early parts I appreciated that for the mood it created after a while, it often ended up feeling like they just forgot to play it. I also feel like it made some scenes unintentionally eerie.  Still, all the action scenes have the music perfectly complementing the fight and it’s vital to the excitement of some of the best scenes in the show. Overall, this was just a big disappointment. If you are just looking for a big robot to fight big monsters and some characters with dope designs then sure give it a shot. If you are looking for anything meaningful or remarkable, look somewhere else.

ThatAnimeSnob Aug 21, 2021

4.5

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.

BlackCatLef Jun 25, 2021

4.7

3S review no.38 (short, simple and salty/sweet/spicy) Man I had my hopes up for this one, I just need my dose of big cool looking robots, like when was the last time we got something old school becoming modern and amazing? Guren laggan maybe? Anyway this show let me down, there is nothing exciting about this, not a single part of it. Story is whatever, like storywise they really get the old school feeling on point, the completely old school randomness that is. Stuff happen just to happen, enemies appearing out of nowhere, allies appearing out of nowhere, fighting, then calling it a day until later. A guy got revived from 5000 tears ago, had a wooden statue with him, the statue became a giant robot, the robot then chose the main cast as its users, then kaijus started appearing threatening the city, then you get this other group that controls kaijus (and also got revived from the same age as the other guy and their objective is to change the world using kaijus and by change they mean to destroy humanity), then these other guys that transform into robots and help the main cast (that no one knows or wonders where did they come from), everything is very random and lighthearted. We see the protagonists having fun in the water-slides along with enemies (by the way why Minari is wearing a fucking stripper’s string in that episode is beyond me), not much is taken seriously in this show, in return you can’t take the show seriously either. There is supposed to be a bigger story behind the monster of the day format, but its boring, uninteresting and awfully paced. Unlike the story. characters aren’t utter crap, they are not great or anything but at least there is some effort behind them. There is romance between male and female lead, they are trying to learn stuff about her sister’s death/suicide, you kind of want to learn more about Gauma’s past, the neet guy tries to develop a bit and we get to peek at everyone’s past at some point. All of these don’t make them interesting or unforgettable but at least it’s something, better than nothing. Animation, this is what was supposed to be what the show is all about, giant cool robots having awesome fights with cool giant kaijuus. But the show is so inconsistent. Sometimes the animation is great, sometimes its 2D and its beautiful, sometimes its 3D and its nice, sometime it’s 3D and its crap and sometimes its 2D and its crap. Some of the kaijuus have great deisgns while some of them are really lame. The transformations and combinations are great and the best part of the show, but then again after they transform or combine the fighting that follows is completely lame and boring. Also as the show progresses their combinations just become stronger and stronger, it is not like Getter robo where one combination is more well suited in a type of fight than the other so they adopt to the situation, it’s just a power up and every new combination makes the previous combinations redundant and the fights just a stat check. There hasn’t been a fight in this show with even the slightest use of strategy or even tactics, now, how does a 2021 mecha fighting show has less thought out fights than 70s typical monster of the day mecha show is beyond me. Or it just goes to show how great Go Nagai and the other old folks were. Sound is surprisingly so the shows strongest point. Music is great, even amazing at some points, made by a competent seasoned composer that have made some top notch music at times. Opening is good and the ending is nice as well. Voice acting is also very nice. So, is it worth a watch? No, unfortunately it isn’t, you should check out though some the mechas and their transformations/combinations, they are great but they are not enough to make the show worth watching. It is sloppy and inconsistent, from the story, storytelling and pace up to the animation, random, unexciting and forgettable. It’s a good thing though that at least someone is trying a decent modern take on old school robots vs kaijuus, the result wasn’t great unfortunately, but keep trying people, you’ll get there, I wanna believe that we will get another NGE or guren laggan level show eventually. *Also, we get a show with combining robots without a fat dude? Whats wrong with this world? Like what is next, power rangers without a black guy??