so when is hasbro gonna make an sg cliffjumper toy

...But do you have a read on the story significance of the Assist Weapons being the AOE Dinobots? I feel like that's like the Hard Mode of SSSS.Gridman Transformers symbolism. :p

The lack of an SG Cliffjumper figure is the only time in history that Hasbro has left money on the table by not doing a repaint of a smaller mold.

The Assist Weapons are like the SG AOE Dinobots -- inverted, in that they actually transform.

My dumb joke was based on the idea that "SG" Cliffjumper was no different than just like, the "standard" one. Is that not the case?

Honestly, the only TF reference I noticed in the designs was Namiko having a Cyber Key/Force Chip from the Cybertron/Galaxy Force toyline as a hair decoration. In retrospect, Hass’s face mask should have screamed at me, but she didn’t make any statements on her superiority compared to others’ inferiority.

The initial premise for the Shattered Glass stories followed a normal Cliffjumper from a normal universe who winds up in that weird alternate reality, but part of the idea is that there was an actual Shattered Glass Cliffjumper with some other, probably lamer color scheme, who bit the dust before the story even begins. So there *is* an SG Cliffjumper, but he's also not the most prominent Cliffjumper in the SG continuity, which hopefully doesn't sound too confusing!

(If it's any consolation, I got what you meant with the joke.)

Sorry to miss the joke! Here's a third-party company's take on SG Cliffjumper, if that matters:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ssss/sgcliff.jpg

SSSS.DYNAZENON EPISODE 7 - “WHAT’S OUR REASON FOR COMING TOGETHER?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon07a.png

It’s the big full-episode debut of Gridknight! The return of Anti/Knight! The return of Music Note/Second!

So, of course, let’s talk about other stuff first.

I really enjoyed how the resolution to the team’s dysfunction from last episode was resolved not by some grandiose speech, or multi-person dedication to a shared vision of justice, or death’s-door vow from an injured teammate, or whatever you’d normally get from a toku show that’s doing a Team Needs Repair arc, but just through, like, spending time together. It reinforces that people’s natural state is to find harmony with one another, and that disharmony is resolved through letting our inner compassion and default humanity bubble up to the surface. All the shit that inflicted the team with Climactic Tension last time out is still there, but it’s easily overcome by empathy, by listening, by acceptance, and by proximity. They’re just sharing their pain with each other, in the hopes that it gets easier to carry as a group. It doesn’t need to be talked about, really, because the bonds between these characters – specifically Chise/Koyomi and Yume/Yomogi – are stronger than the things within them that crave isolation and negativity. They inherently want to be there for each other, and given enough time, they will be.

Which is also sort of the story between the Gridknight Alliance and Team Dynazenon! We kick things off with the natural Heroic Rivalry vibe, because a) Knight’s in this story, and that’s his equilibrium, and b) Dynazenon kind of don’t make a good showing for themselves from last time? Dynazenon is injured, discombobulated, and Gauma’s at his most aggressively Gauma, so, yeah, I would probably also sneer down my nose at how ill-equipped these kids are for battling kaiju. But, at the end, Knight can’t help but respect anyone who refuses to give up, or who wants to improve, so they team up for a big ol’ battle against the resurgent and warm (?!) Kaiju Eugenicists, demolishing the two-in-one kaiju with synchronized attacks, like you’d expect.

That whole kaiju plot was, weirdly, just what I expected? It’s like a speed-run of the Gridman/Anti stuff from Gridman, and it was maybe the part of this episode I was least into. I like Knight here – older and chiller but still basically a stand-offish prick – but his side of things felt like a stamp of Toku Action approval that genuinely doesn’t mean that much to me, when little things like Yomogi crying over Yume’s story, because he cares about Yume, and Yume cares about Kano, so now Yomogi cares about Kano… man, that’s what I’m here for. A tough frenemy who supports you in battle is fun, but a close friend who shares your trauma in the middle of the night is better. I’m glad this episode could have both, for the people who approach these shows differently, but I know which part meant more to me.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon07b.png

There's this thing I say about Super Sentai shows (I probably said it in Die's Go-Busters thread even?) , where I know I'm *really* into one of them when the super cool Sixth Ranger kinda guy shows up and instead of being all over that like I normally would be, I'm more actively upset about some random dude coming in as though the established group dynamic wasn't exciting enough as is.

It's extra impressive to me that Dynazenon managed to elicit similar feelings from me with the reintroduction of Literally My Favorite Dude from the last show. I wasn't necessarily happy to see that cliffhanger ending, but like I said earlier, I also trusted Dynazenon by this point. And sure enough, I think him and the elements that came with him were used pretty effectively here to support a story that is still 100% about the characters that were already keeping me coming back every week. The balance of it all feels about right. It's fanservice-y fun to see Gridknight, but the actual plot is basically just the main cast having a sleepover together? Which is exactly the kind of thing I love about this show, for a bunch of different reasons?

So we get our introductions to Knoght and Nidaime, adult incarnations of Anti and Kaiju Girl. You’d think this would clear up some confusion over continuity wih the previous show, but I’m not sure it does.

I’ve mentioned Gridknight Fight as a thing that happened around this time, and having seen it, the way they work Nidaime in wihout having to permanently associate a face actress with the role is to shoot her scant appearances so that her face is obfuscated at all times.

Bullbind is the same monster as last time, so that saves me time with the regular feature.

Yeah, Knight and Music Note don't take over the story, which they absolutely could have for both narrative reasons (Dynazenon mostly can't get their shit together, and Gauma bristles at an offer of outside help) and meta reasons (returning fan-favorite). The episode keeps them as a kind of vote of confidence, with the team winning them over by being as insular and neurotic as ever. Good use of special guest stars!

(I say "special guest stars", which is how this episode treats them, but them and Gridknight are in the title sequence now, so I look forward to seeing how they'll integrate with the cast long-term.)

I gotta say, I have zero interest in litigating or speculating on how Dynazenon and Gridman overlap. Two different shows in my mind, despite me treating them in this thread like they're part of one continuity. (In my defense, I thought they were when I was planning this thread out? Maybe they still will be!) If things become more overtly tied together, that's fine. But I haven't spent a minute of this show wondering if the woman Gauma's referring to is, like, Akane. This show's doing its own thing narratively, and that's kind of all I care about right now.

Okay, I absolutely need someone to hyper-analyze this moment for me.

https://i.imgur.com/dHnYU0C.png

"Real Kaiju Users don't need to sleep."

That line has driven me totally crazy ever since I first heard it. The best I could think to guess is that maybe Shizumu is just being cheeky in the original Japanese? But if so then holy cow did the English dub not portray that in its voice direction like, at all. Dude sounded completely serious when he said it, and ever since my response has basically been "What? Why?" And to this day I've yet to get any sort of direct answer.

My read on it in the scene is that he's kind of shitting on Juuga for not being as committed to the project as the other three are. Sizumu came up with the plan for harnessing the kaiju, while Mujina and Onija are working 'round the clock to power it up; meanwhile Juuga's just sort of overseeing things, and I feel like Sizumu's not appreciating that?

Speaking of Gridknight, I wonder in hindsight if the decision to keep the visor aesthetic from Anti's kaiju form + being the no.2 hero of the show + the decision to give Knight a business suit as his civilian attire was all collectively a nod to Dan Moroboshi/Ultraseven specifically from the 2010s ULTRAMAN manga which received a 3d anime adaptation on Netflix not too long ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9biy7TWtM_o

Androzani84 Watches Gridknight Fight, Part 1

Full disclosure, I have no permission to be doing this here, but I felt I’d keep this thread alive during the breaks between posts with something that’s probably not on the docket to watch, since the only subs for it are in Italian (I myself am watching with hose subs turned off, meaning I had to watch on my computer, hence the low quality of these screenshots.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0k9OxxX...jpg&name=small

Like the old Ultra Fight series this miniseries homages, this is filmed entirely on location in a quarry, with no attempt to make the fighters look like giants (meaning that this is one huge quarry), and there’s a guy doing wrestling style announcements that describe everything that happens (in this case, Hiroshi Kamiya, the voice of Juuga in Dynazenon proper).

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0k9OxyX...jpg&name=small

The fight in this part is between Gridknight and Dynazenon, both played by the suits used for their public appearances. And while Knight pulls off looking good in live action quite well, Dynazenon suffers from the lack of budget to use his various guns (not even the Don’t-Know-The-Name Beam) and the fact that since Tsuburaya have less experience making humanoid toy based mecha costumes than Bandai, his hands are in permanent “karate chop action mode” and he’s stuck weakly swinging them to simulate fighting.

But enough griping, let’s look at something this mini does better than its inspiration.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0k9OxyX...jpg&name=small

Specifically, we get the illusion of scale thanks to the presence of Nidaime, who is played by an uncredited actress always filmed at angles her full face can never be seen and the VA from the anime can be dubbed over. And reiterating my point that the narrator won’t shut the hell up, he repeats her rating of the apparent training fight 1 second after she says it (I sadly don’t know enough to say anything other than that it was positive feedback).

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0k9OxyX...jpg&name=small

And pulling from the modern Ultra Galaxy Fight series, there is a thin plot connecting the episodes, as Alexis Kerib makes his appearance. While I applaud them for giving him the Cyberman mouth to indicate him vocalising, the divide between the rubber head and regular looking cape is very distracting.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0k9ULWW...jpg&name=small

Knight rushes in to fight him, leaving Dynazenon just standing there (and that’s actually the last time we see the whole robot in this mini). And someone realised that there needed to be some stakes here, so Knight looks to Nidaime for support.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0k9ULRX...jpg&name=small

Coming to the conclusion that Kerib has kidnapped her, Knight engages him in battle… and despite being in his non-action form, Kerib still whoops his ass, ending the first part.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G0k9ULaX...jpg&name=small

I’d cover the rest, since these are only 3 minutes each, but part three has some spoilers for episodes of Dynazenon not covered here, so I’m doing it in segments. To be continued… when I think of doing the next one.

This is all very cool! Thank you both for keeping things active while I've had a weirdly busy last few days! Lemme go watch Episode 8 real quick...

SSSS.DYNAZENON EPISODE 8 - “WHAT IS THIS WAVERING EMOTION?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon08a.png

There’s so much vacillation and uncertainty in Dynazenon generally – it’s a cast of introverted teens, aimless adults, and several literal Millennials who are team-building their way to property damage – but maybe never more so than in this episode. There’s a failed kaiju who just basically exists, and a cast of characters who need to figure out how far they’ll go for each other.

(First, to get this out of the way: I love how Sizumu gets the K.E. out of the way for this one? He’s all about people challenging their limits, and the K.E. can’t do anything with this episode’s kaiju, so he creates a Eugenicists’ Day Out subplot to keep his teammates occupied so that Yomogi can go on a little emotional journey. Sizumu cares about plots that illuminate our heroes!)

It’s a rambling, elliptical story, and if it’s a gear down from the last two-parter’s all-in look at the team’s bonds, it at least puts Yomogi more in the driver’s seat than some previous episodes. Here, he’s finding an emotional connection with a kaiju at exactly the point where he can’t seem to make an emotional connection with Yume, and that allows him a little bit of distance from the normal arc of these things, where an indifferent creature worthy of observation becomes a rampaging creature worthy of elimination. There’s no one really propelling this story – again, the K.E. are bowling, which is amazing – so there’s nothing putting too much pressure on the plot to steer away from Yomogi’s hilarious lack of affect, and his relentlessly open-ended sentences.

I joke about Yomogi being kind of comedically opaque, which can for sure not work for every viewer, but I like how minor and sweet his little plot is with Yume and the kaiju here. Yomogi can’t really talk to Yume in a way that anyone outside of 10th Grade would recognize as “communication”, but he can choose to push past his uncertainty in order to protect her, and that’s maybe more valuable than things like heartwarming speeches, or direct sentences, or verbally communicating your thoughts to a person outside of your own head. (I kid! But he’s kind of Peak Yomogi here, for better or worse.) There’s a tragedy to the destruction of the kaiju, making for a nicely melancholy denouement, but it means that Yomogi’s actions were decisive and considered, which is a kind of character growth for the kid. It wasn’t an easy choice, but he made it for Yume, and he’ll have to carry the weight of it from now on.

All of that said, this was still a goofy-ass episode of Dynazenon, with its now-standard balance of ridiculous nonsense (the kaiju capture scene, completely dumb in the best way) and well-observed mumblecore drama. It leaves itself open to interpretation, which I appreciate, even if this lingering question is driving me insane: why were Yomogi and Yume wearing their school backpacks on a Sunday?!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon08b.png

This is an episode of this show I think about a lot. Not just because of that beautiful bookend that allowed Die to cheekily glue the screencaps together in a way that might trick someone into thinking both are from one scene instead of two (which is key to the beauty of it!), but because of the huge range of emotional tones between those mirrored conversations.

Toku plots about monsters who don't fit the normal weekly antagonist role quite right are generally favorites of mine, and I like how this one starts so relaxed before eventually escalating into something very intense, all connected by a vague sense of melancholic listlessness that sort of shrouds that whole side of the plot. There are plenty of fun and goofy moments in there, but a lot of them come from the show's actual villains taking a day off, making their side of things the one that's easier to feel cozy watching, which is itself another thing that's sort of backwards and not quite right if you let yourself stop to think about it too hard. I guess that's it, really? I like how the episode itself lets the viewer empathize with Yomogi by kind of baking the same messiness of the feelings he has throughout this one right into the actual viewing experience. Lots of questions, but very few clear answers.

I know, like why are the school kids wearing their backpacks on a Sunday?!?!

...they probably had stuff they wanted to carry?

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT FOR THE THREAD: Please list as many things as possible that Yomogi and Yume could've had in their backpacks on a weekend, when they were investigating the potential creep from Kano's past, knowing that their Dyna Stuff and phones would easily fit in their pockets.

Portable charger, some snacks, and probably their usual school stuff that they forgot to take out. :lolol

The only part of this episode I really cared about was that bit with Koyomi at the beginning. It didn't exactly go anywhere, but it was still a nice moment with him and his struggling emotions.

Hey, maybe that's it! Both of them are actually swamped with schoolwork at all times and they always carry those backpacks around because they're constantly chipping away at it offscreen. :p

So in keeping with the theme of the characters being designed to look like actual suits, this week’s Kaiju is designed to look like whoever drew it didn’t consider a) the available materials to realise it and b) that someone would have to wear it, given the arms are too small for human arms to fit in. In real life, it was an amalgam of several things that the director hater, all blended together to try and create something cute. Its name Zaiohn derives from Robert Zanjonc, the psychologist who discovered the “mere exposure effect”, which is where someone comes up with an incorrect opinion of something just by looking at it.

And this episode’s other big thing is the Dynamic Cannon, DynaSoldier’s alternate mode. It’s a homage to the Dragon Cannon, the alternate transformation of Gridman’s DynaFighter, which was supposed to be a regular mid-season upgrade for Gridman (and a final form weapon for his combination with King Jet), but the prop proved too bulky to see more uses than its debut (meaning the only role DynaFighter played in the rest of the show was he head of DynaDragon). Obviously, being an anime, they’re not bound by those limitations.

Yume needs a backpack-sized battery, based on how often she's on her phone in this episode, so maybe!

I don't completely know where it's going (which is neither bad nor unusual for this show), but I also like how he's clearly feeling conflicted about a girl he likes who maybe continuously takes advantage of him.

God knows that Gauma's training and Yume's investigation are both huge, semi-unpredictable time sinks -- to say nothing of Kaiju battles -- so it really would make sense for the two kids to just get a little homework done around the edges whenever possible.

Wait, this is an ANIME?!

SSSS.DYNAZENON EPISODE 9 - “WHAT ARE THESE OVERLAPPING EMOTIONS?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon09a.png

I like a show that meets me where my interests are, especially because I often feel like I’m watching these shows… not wrong, exactly, but definitely outside of the intended usage. So to get an episode that not only features Chise so prominently, but to also explicitly state that the point of the team is to look out for each other emotionally first, and to defeat kaiju second? That’s an incredibly kind gesture, and it makes me feel less alone.

Which is sort of the whole thing for this episode! Being grateful for what you have in your group of friends, and letting them be a shield for you when things get tough, or catch you when you fall. (Goldburn makes those last two nicely literal, to drive the point home.) Chise’s been on the outside plenty in her life, and it’s sort of killing her to be the most vestigial and overlooked member of the Dynazenon team. (To the other teammates, not to me. I would never overlook the best character on the show!) To have Yume casually disregard Chise’s intervention as none of Chise’s business, when Chise is both a friend and a teammate, is the last straw for a girl who’s been trying to put a sunny face to her frustration and neglect. Worse, it’s Yume thinking she’s alone and isolated when that couldn’t be further from the truth – Yomogi rushes back to save her when Gauma points out that she might be in real emotional trouble – and it’s frustrating to Chise to have Yume not see the strength she can draw on from her friends, and the ways that her strength has changed people like Yomogi for the better. Chise is the semi-ridiculous voice of the audience, begging Yume to see that she’s got people in her life that will not let her turn out like Kano, and that that sort of end for her isn’t inevitable.

The rest of the episode paves a nice road to get to that Yume/Chise scene, and an exciting battle in the aftermath, but it’s not really where my mind is at. I really loved the Chise/Goldburn stuff, because it’s a goofy Magical Pet story that speaks to Chise’s unaddressed tragic back story, and her need to be seen (that dream sequence!!!) when no one really makes time for her. And I liked the open-ended Futaba interrogation, where he’s clearly avoiding his own culpability because he’d rather view himself in the present than grapple with his actions in the past; the inverse of Yume’s struggle here. I wish I had anything of substance to say about the big new robot configuration, but if you’ve read more than three sentences of anything I’ve ever posted on TokuNation, you know that it just sort of washed over me without much more than basic endorphins being released by an elaborate transformation and the theme song’s mid-episode redeployment.

But that scene in the middle, where the girl who wants to be seen has to save the girl who wants to vanish? That’s the stuff for me, and I’m glad it was the stuff for the production team as well.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon09b.png

Not so fun fact; FUNimation made Simuldub viewers wait an entire month for this episode.

And so we get the second half of our add-on set. Just as Gridknight is an obvious retool of Gridman and DynaStriker retools Battle Tracto Max, Goldburn combines the pegs from Sky Vitor, the shield hook from Caliber’s shield component and the helmet from Buster Borr to complete the look of our King Gridman homage, Kaiser Gridknight.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6C1FFiKT...vGsKT43JW5RLZ-

My two cents? It would look good were it not for the energy cape and the hands sticking of the shoulders. And considering this ends up recycling most of Dynazenon’s combining mechanics, I think I prefer Powered Xenon/Full Powered Gridman.

And in terms of Kaiju names, while the episode makes up a band to justify Goldburn’s name in universe, out of universe, the name references Lewis Goldberg, who devised the 5 point personality model, while our villainous Kaiju’s name Gibzorg derives from James Gibson, whose studies concerned the perception of curved lines.

I was never more impressed with Dynazenon's subs than with this line. 「あんた、贅沢なんだよ] is the kind of incredibly specific word choice in Japanese that'll make a sentence hit the viewer lit a truck, and I think the translation accomplishes the same impact in English, because it was smart enough to not just translate the individual words.

I think it'd be easy to argue that line from Chise is kind of the whole show in a nutshell, really. It's a story about all these characters who are haunted by all the things they don't have and can't have, and here that finally gets flipped on its head by having it be pointed out how thinking that way can make you miss all the things you do have, and everything you might still be able to have.

So, just as a starter, and I don't know how this theory gels with the overall symbolism of kaiju in Dynazenon specifically, but I feel like it's sort of significant with the whole outcast vibe of the main characters that the big ultimate combination of awesomeness in this show is made up of:

- a robot that looks like a kaiju
- a kaiju that looks like a hero
- just a straight up kaiju

I've never really put more thought into it than the vague notion I'm suggesting, and maybe the show's staff weren't thinking about it the same way at all, but I've always liked that about Kaiser Gridknight. Like, if any characters from the previous show were going to play a major recurring role in this one, it maybe had to be the two they chose, with everything else going on?

That super sucks! My condolences!

I don't love the cape, but I sort of completely love the hands sticking out of the shoulders? Seeing Gridknights tiny hand poking out of the combined robot's shoulder, just to grab the cannon, is pretty great.

It's a really beautiful scene for me, because while Chise gets upset at how dismissive Yume is of Chise's interest or of her own value, it never gets combative or accusatory. The volume on this scene always stays at Aching, from both sides, and it really drives home how difficult it can be to appreciate the things you have more than lament the things you don't, while still finding it within yourself to support the people you see falling. Sometimes literally!

You know, it's only just now dawning on me that this is sort of another way I have like a mirror universe version of DreamSword's experience with these shows? I stopped watching SSSS.Gridman weekly after episode 8, and then came back a month later to quickly plow through the last four episodes while the finale was still fresh.

But since that was ultimately a positive experience for me, and a decision that was entirely my own, of course for him it was just forcibly being jerked around by outside forces for... was there even a reason? Actually, wasn't that whole "simul"dub super late to begin with even though Gridman's wasn't? Because to have a delay that long on top of a delay -- especially if there was no explanation given -- is going beyond super sucks, and into the territory of like, like, Super Mega sucking.

No mentioning of how Kaiser Gridknight is Coronation Starscream? Dang. Also:

Yeah, basically. I won't lie, I didn't think too much of it at the time, but in hindsight? It really feels like FUNi just didn't have the same passion(for lack of a better word) for Dynazenon that they did for Gridman. And definitely not Universe(more on that later on in the thread). Which super sucks for alot of reasons; especially if you're literally anyone else other than me and was really digging everything the show had to offer.

Maybe some of that lack of care and effort rubbed off on me; who knows?

I guess I didn't connect the two designs because Kaiser Gridknight isn't immediately murdered? But they do share some similarities!

SSSS.DYNAZENON EPISODE 10 - “WHICH MEMORIES DO YOU REGRET?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon10a.png

In an episode that’s all about how a fascination or obsession with our past – the regrets, mostly, as the title indicates – can make us lose the grip on our present, and how that’s visualized through a kaiju literally vanishing the present, it's only right that we start this episode without our theme song and opening credit sequence.

I like that, as a choice to immediately destabilize an audience. This whole episode mimics the rhythms of Gridman Episode 9, where all of the hidden traumas of our cast (except Chise, sucks to be me) are brought to light through a kaiju’s special power. Almost everything about this episode is grounded, sure: Yomogi’s inability to tell his mom that he doesn’t want to have dinner with her new boyfriend; Koyomi wondering if things would’ve been better for him if he’d run off with his childhood girlfriend; Yume’s desire to better understand Kano. But it’s also all heightened in that dreamlike way – the animation is super exaggerated for most of this episode, eschewing the normal laconic energy of the cast for something far more evocative and melodramatic. Everything about this episode, from the very jump, is meant to unnerve you.

And what’s more unnerving than the questions of our past? While the modern-day mysteries of the kaiju and the plans of the Eugenicists would motivate most other shows, this one refuses to grapple with that plot, because none of its cast can fully engage with the present. They’re all wrapped up, constantly, in what they didn’t do, or didn’t say, or didn’t get, or couldn't keep. What’s great about this episode is the ways, both large and small, that it talks about how your past isn’t something you can every really resolve, like a mystery. It’s all gone, and you don’t get to turn it over more to look for real answers. All you can really do is make your peace with it, learn from it, and apply it to your present so that you don’t make the same mistakes again.

We’ll talk about the bigger way that this episode did that, but I really want to talk about the small way first. Koyomi! He’s been mired in the way his childhood friend (I swear to god I have no idea what her name is anymore; Yomogi only ever calls her “Supervisor”, and she hasn’t shown up in a bunch of episodes) offered him a chance to run away with her, and he turned it down. So now, in the kaiju, he says yes to her, and runs away. But it doesn’t… it hasn’t fixed him. Not even because it isn’t real, but because he’s still trying to hold onto something that won’t last. She doesn’t really love him, and this isn’t really going to work, and it was all a childhood fling that he has to stop obsessing over. Like the money flying around, slipping through his fingers no matter how tightly he closes his grip, he’s got to let go of it and get on with his life.

The Yume/Kano stuff is the main way this episode talks about its themes, and for something the show’s been building up to since its first scene, I thought what we got was better than I could’ve hoped. We don’t really get a solution to the mystery of what happened to Kano, because it doesn’t really matter if it was an accident or a suicide – she’s dead, Yume will always miss her, and that’s it. (While Kano directly tells Yume she wasn’t going to kill herself, I think there’s more than enough grey area to think that she’s lying to her little sister.) Finding out what exactly happened that night is irrelevant, because the larger issue was that Kano felt isolated, and Yume regrets not finding a way to help her, but now realizes that she has to find some way forward from that, including leaning on the people around her in a way that Kano never did. The two ankhs can detach, and link back up; it’s not being trapped by your past or suffocated by memory, but being able to find help when you need it.

The Gauma stuff, for me, was sort of whatever. I like Gauma just fine, but the more fantastical mystery of his ancient past is honestly the least compelling part of this show, and at times it felt almost inappropriate to put it up against the other plots from this episode. It's more compelling for me to watch a story about Koyomi’s regret, or Yume’s anguish, or especially Yomogi’s heroic efforts to be there for his friends, even if he couldn’t do anything more than be there.

Because, really, that’s the most valuable thing we can ever do, you know? Just be there for each other. And you can only do that in the present.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon10b.png

All of the resolutions this episode brought forth felt way too simple and clean for me.

And I most certainly did not like how Yomogi was presented as the big heart that brings the group together when all this time it's been Gauma who's been the legs that the entire group stands on.

I'd've probably been alot more receptive if everyone found their own inner peace, but instead the peace of mind and solutions are just handed to them, either via Yomogi, or in the case of Yuma, being told by some version of her sister that all of the awful stuff didn't happen so don't worry about it.

It all just felt cheap, and just like with the equivalent episode of Gridman, this was my least liked episode of Dynazenon.

So fun bit of symbolism. Koyomi, whose trauma is that he was a coward who ran away, now has a scar on his ankle identical to the one Gauma, whose trauma is related to unrequited love, has on his face.

And our kaiju’s is named Garnix, after the Zeigarnik effect, a phenomenon where people will remember unfinished tasks more clearly.

Aside from that, this episode didn’t really stand out.

But, to me, the arc of Yomogi has been more about finding a way to express to people that he cares about them, which isn't really Gauma's story? (Quite the opposite! Gauma's been sort of evasive about his past, and just bravado-ing his way to getting the whole team to work in unison.) As important as it is for the other characters to let go of their regrets, Yomogi's regret is that he doesn't vocalize what he wants, so he sort of has to be the one to do it here for the narrative to work?

Sorry to hear that!

That seems like a strange distinction to even bother making, to me? Gauma's role in the series is certainly more rooted in outwardly fantastical elements than the other members of the team, but he still has a whole personal journey going on that itself encompasses regret, anguish, *and* heroic efforts to be there for people he cares about. On the surface, he's often presented as sort of a silly character whose exaggerated qualities contrast with everyone around him, but -- and I think this is what his particular flashbacks in this episode are meant to highlight -- he's ultimately carrying a lot of very serious baggage, the same as they all are.

Sure, he fits thematically here, but I just wasn't all that jazzed to see his story of monster destruction and violent battles against insurrectionists put up alongside the other three characters more grounded and relatable struggles. Not saying it doesn't fit in the episode, just saying I wasn't as much a fan of it when compared to the other three stories. Sorry if I phrased it badly!