The spring 2021 anime season has officially started, and for the next few weeks, I’ll be super busy watching tons of shows, looking for the best anime series to introduce to you here. One I’m happy to say I liked immediately was SSSS.Dynazenon, the successor series to the stand-out hit SSSS.Gridman from 2018. How does the new series hold up? Keep reading to find out!
SSSS.Dynazenon is an Enjoyable Kaiju Anime with Deliciously Weird Characters
SSSS.Gridman was a smart series that blended the traditional tokusatsu monster-of-the-week model popularized by Godzilla special effects creator Eiji Tsuburaya in his Ultraman series with modern anime, creating stories and characters that were compelling to modern fans. While the “Heisei Ultraman” revival was a success inside Japan, the concept of giant live-action heroes battling kaiju every week was in need of an update if the kinds of stories Tsuburaya Productions wanted to tell were going to find a wider audience. Happily, they joined with animation studio Trigger to create the perfect blend of monster battles and anime!
Recommended post: my review of the SSSS.Gridman anime is here.
As a fan of Gridman, I’m looking for certain specific elements to be present in SSSS.Dynazenon, which include
- We naturally need fascinating and slightly quirky characters who pique our interest early on.
- We want to know how the writers are going to convert the somewhat predictable concept of “monster-of-the-week” into a more compelling story framework, as Gridman did with flying colors.
- While I understand that CGI must be used for the monster battle scenes, we’d like improvements to make it look as natural as possible within the setting of traditional hand-drawn animation.
- We expect all anime to have outstanding voice acting, but considering how extra-awesome Gridman’s performances were, the seiyu bar is set very high for Dynazenon.
- If we can get more girls with sexy thighs and butts, that’s good too. Gridman wasn’t nicknamed “ASS.ASS.ASS.ASS Gridman” for nothing!
Did I get what I wanted in the first episode of Dynazenon? So far, so good!
Let’s Meet the Characters!
Yomogi Asanaka. The hero of our story, a first-year student at Fujiyokidai High School. One day he meets an odd man named Gauma who claims to be a “kaiju user.” The man is starving, so Yomogi gives him his leftover lunch, earning Gauma’s eternal gratitude.
Gauma. An enigmatic and mysterious man who claims to be able to control giant monsters. He’s definitely got a Kamino vibe going, which is to be expected as this anime is directed by Gurren Lagann animator Akira Amemiya, who also worked on Kill la Kill and Darling in the Franxx.
Yume Minami. A mysterious girl from Yomogi’s class with a penchant for sitting in tall, dangerous places while staring into space, and for not keeping promises to meet boys later at the agreed-upon time. Her sister Kano died suddenly a year ago, and Yume finds a mysterious pair of linked metal pieces in her sister’s room.
Chise and Koyomi. An energetic spitfire of a girl, Chise lives with her senpai (who’s also her cousin), Koyomi. When the news reports that objects have begun mysteriously floating into the sky for no reason, she drags poor Koyomi out to investigate.
The reason for the strange disturbances is that the city is about to be attacked by a huge monster, and the characters have all been called to one place for an important purpose: to get inside a giant robot called Dynazenon and pilot it, destroying the invading monster and protecting the city. It’s monster clobberin’ time!
Are you watching #SSSSDYNAZENON? It’s the successor to #SSSSGRIDMAN, and it’s tons of fun! Here’s the robot/transformation scene from episode 1.#dynazenon #gridman pic.twitter.com/OvsaTIBLck
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) April 7, 2021
Gridman was essentially an animated update to Tsuburaya’s 1993’s live-action Gridman the Hyper Agent, Dynazenon is a totally original work, though taking many cues from the Voltron-esque giant robot boom of the past. Can our new heroes pilot Dynazenon successfully and fight back the kaiju threat to the city? Tune in to find out!
Thanks for reading this overview of the new SSSS.Dynazenon anime. What other shows should we introduce here? Post below, or tell us on Twitter!
Life is too short to use tiny boob mouse pads that don’t recreate the softness and feel of a real pair of oppai. We’ve added stock of great new full-sized mousepads from our partner Softgarage, though be warned as these are preorder products that will only be available to order for a few weeks. Browse all our anime mousepads here!
