COMING SOON Subscribe: iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, RSS
SSSS.Dynazenon 08 What Is This Wavering Emotion? May 21, 2021
Writer: Keiichi Hasegawa
Director: Rei Owada
Knight and The Second come back to find the Dynazenon Four-and-a-half dealing with a tiny kaiju that Sizumu didn’t want to bother with. The Kaiju Eugenycists have a day off, full of fun activities, while the kiaju escapes from Gauma and starts growing bigger. While the Dynazenon crew and the Gridknight Alliance search for the Kaiju, Yomogi and Knight talk about the nature of kaiju. Something happens to Yomogi when they find the kaiju and he tries to control it like a Kaiju-user instead of just killing it.
Static
‐The moral clarity Knight has about destroying kaiju is upsetting. Are they going to properly deal with this issue? I had no issue with it in SSSS.Gridman, but the framing here changes everything.
Sizzle
-Gridknight using Dynasoldier as a rifle was dope! Even though I felt weird about them killing that kaiju, it looked really cool.
Soul
-Knight asked Yomogi to let him use him in the fight against the kaiju, in orde to kill it more effectively. Kaiu Users, particularly the Kaiju Eugenicists use kaiju as weapons to kill all humans. Yomogi had to choose to fire while Gridknight was wielding him as a weapon. I wonder if kaiju operate under the same mechanism. Are they just doing what comes naturally or choosing under the guidance of the kaiju users? In a way, is Gauma putting the other Dynazenon pilots in the same situation where he is pointing them as weapons and forcing them to act?
Speculation
-Chise is getting her own Dyna Dragon Mech
-The fact that the seed in Yomogi’s mind and the seed that Chise picked up in the first episode were shown to have grown and changed after Yomogi connected with the kaiju is foreshadowing of the kaiju that will be born from the Dynazenon Four-and-a-half. Maybe it will even be the great dragon growing with Chise because she resents being a fifth wheel.
Debate
If kaiju are born from people, have hearts, and can be good or evil, what makes them so different from people? Why is it ok to just kill them at some point?
Here is the context for this question. Ready for those SSSS.Gridman spoilers? If not, go mainline it and comeback. It’ll be worth the trip. Believe me.
Spoiler
Spoiler
Spoiler
Spoiler
Dam
Great show, right? Anyway.
Knight and The Second are from SSSS.Gridman. Keichi Hasegawa is the head writer for both of these series in the Gridman Universe. Knight is “Anti” and The Second is that groovy music-loving exposition hobo that talked to Hibiki on the train: Anosillus the 2nd. The answers the question of what she is the second of. Anyway, the two of them are kaiju with hearts and yet Knight openly advocates for the killing of Kaiju without hesitation, once they cross a certain threshold. The Second implicitly goes along with that because she has been supporting him all this time. It seems like it has been a few years since we have seen them. Why is that ok? Should people be killed if they cross that same threshold?
Rating
4/5
Anywhere is fine as long as you have the right mindset. At the beginning of the episode, Minami and Yomogi were uncomfortable together. They had just gotten bad news and when Yomogi tried to reach out to her and she pulled away. The end was capped off by a mirror of that scene where he is aloof and she reaches out to him. There is a warmth and joy in the ending scene because something has changed within each of them. They are the same people, but their minds and hearts are changing. Additionally, the Kaiju Eugenycists were off having a fun day together and they didn’t effect the plot of the epiosde. They were still a unit, they were still the same people, but they were taking a day off from their typical work. They allowed themselves to be in the moment and enjoy the creations of the humanity they wish to destroy.
That line caught my attention in the beginning of the episode and its repetition at the end, really hooked me. It got me thinking about the following short verse of poetry.
“Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.”
― Richard Lovelace, To Althea, from Prison
This episode raised a lot of questions of identity and roles. Over this series, the heroes and villains have been purposely placed in opposite roles and have questioned their motivations and actions. The lines have been getting fuzzed and I am enjoying the exercise in something close to character study that is happening here. Koyomi was about to vandalize someone’s property for no good reason, then he supported letting the kaiju live because it had done no harm. Further, he put himself in danger to stop Gauma from mindlessly causing damage to the city and insisted in luring the kaiju away to mitigate harm. There is a lot of nuanced treatment of these people and their decisions and I really dig that.
LINKS
Official SSSS.Dynazenon Site – LINK
SSSS.Dynazenon Wiki – LINK
Brand Echs Video Player
Check out my coverage of The Rise of Ultraman and The Trials of Ultraman.
Visit my RedBubble store for some designs I have made. I am working on making a whole series of Comic stuff that I think you’ll like.
MJ Muñoz 