[DreamSword]

SSSS.Dynazenon Compilation Movie

Normally I wouldn't've bothered watching this.

It's no secret that I wasn't exactly a huge fan of the original SSSS.Dynazenon. I didn't find the show unbearable, but it just wasn't for me.

So why bother watching the compilation movie version of it? Well, one of my biggest gripes with the original was how, despite it only being 12 episodes, there was a ton of meandering going on in terms of its pacing.

Thus my logic was that perhaps a movie that condenses everything down to two hours might help with the show picking up speed. And hey, if done right, maybe I'd come out of it with a bit of a higher opinion of the story, if nothing else? Afterall, there were aspects of Dynazenon that I did like.

But um, here's a question: Is there anyone who watched the anime that literally only cared about the romance between Yomogi and Yume? Because I sure as heck didn't. Infact, it was one of the things that made watching the show a bit of a drag for me. But hey, if you loved them as a couple, then boy are you in luck because this movie is practically about that and nothing but.

I'm not kidding by the way. 90% of the movie is basically just a supercut of every scene that Yomogi and Yume have together, to the point that what little of an arc that Yomogi had is almost entirely gone, and any and all scenes concerning the other characters are reduced to only the most absolutely necessary plot important ones. I'm not kidding when I say that Koyomi might as well not even be in the movie, as almost the entirety of his screen time from the show is cut.

The result is a very weird double-edged sword when it comes to comparing the movie to the show that it's based on. Like, yes, technically, the pacing is better for the movie overall, especially if all you care about is the romance. On the other hand, in terms of the flow of the plot, a ton of context is cut without any new transition scenes made to help things along. As a result, alot of events just sort of happen suddenly with very little reason. And that's not even getting into what little character work Dynazenon had in the first place getting reduced even more.

To be honest, I in the end really can't say which is the "better" of the two. The best advice I can give to anyone debating over the show or the movie, is that if the first couple of episodes of the anime aren't doing anything for you, then watching the movie is overall fine. But I feel like anyone who absolutely adored the original anime should be rather upset with how this movie turned out unless literally all they cared about was Yume(and by extension her romance). As a Compilation movie, specifically, this is pretty lackluster. But as a movie by itself without prior context? It's fine, I guess.

Did this make me like the show any more as a result? Not really. Infact if anything it made me dislike it slightly more because I was reminded of certain bits that don't really fit with the overall narrative in my eyes. And as someone who saw the original show beforehand, the movie sort of felt like a waste of time.

But hey, they did remove that agonizingly slow churro scene, so that inherently makes the movie alot more bearable. 10/10 film for that alone I guess.