[Kamen Rider Die]

SSSS.DYNAZENON EPISODE 11 - “WHAT WISH CAN’T COME TRUE?”



It’s a melancholy aftermath to Episode 10, where our cast of heroes largely looks to an uncertain future with a mixture of hope and trepidation, as our ostensible villains confront an aimless future with anger and ennui. Also, a giant monster and a giant robot show up briefly at the end!

This one was kind of a mixed bag for me, despite being a staunch advocate for this show’s laconic rhythms and heavy emphasis on the minutiae of relationships. It’s a little hard to invest in a concept like How Will The Cast Move Forward After Defeating Their Foes And Saving The World when there are a whole two episodes left, and not even a show that spends a delightful amount of frames on Yume enjoying a poolside churro is going to just sprawl out into a two-episode epilogue of Koyomi getting his resume updated. Clearly, we are in for some actual toku action and storytelling.

Said toku action and storytelling naturally revolved around Gauma and the Kaiju Eugenicists, as 1) everyone else pretty much processed their way through their traumatic obstacles last time out, give or take some final steps; and 2) Gauma’s backstory is still kind of thin on details, and his present is the only possibility that could provide a suitably epic framework in which to conclude this season. (Again, Koyomi’s potential job interviews are a little low-key, even for this show.) Gauma’s princess is maybe still out there somewhere, and Dynazenon’s arrival is a bit of a question mark. Gauma’s what this show is betting on for its conclusion, for better or worse.

I didn’t love that part of this episode? It’s fine, in its mixture of stakes (Gauma’s revival as a human has him on death’s door) and legible drama (Sizumu has been slowly evolving into a more coherent threat, and he’s diametrically opposed to Gauma), but we’re still slowly doling out little bits and pieces of Gauma, and I just can’t see him as clearly as the other cast members, which is frustrating to say in the penultimate episode of the season. I enjoy Gauma’s energy, and I like how he plays off of the other characters, but I don’t get him, in a fundamental way. I don’t feel emotionally invested in his foggy past, or his prophetic present, or his anger, or his sacrifice. With him, I feel like I’m watching a show, instead of being sucked into a story.

Like, I was a thousand percent more invested in Chise’s story of going back to school, and having to process saying goodbye to Goldburn. It’s such an intriguing and unique way of looking at self-improvement – wondering if there’s something valuable in the person you’ve just grown out of, and if the ways you coped with trauma still have use as you’ve theoretically outgrown them. It’s this episode’s metaphorical exploration of how we keep our troubled past as a testament to our strength, instead of shrugging it off as poor choices and psychological damage. The friendships these characters made were a way to pull them out of dark places, but that doesn’t mean they stop needing that support; we are never fixed, even as we keep working on ourselves, which is kind of beautiful. Chise doesn’t not need Goldburn just because she’s able to move on from her past, anymore than Yume doesn’t need Yomogi, or Gauma doesn’t need the team, or all of the rest. Seeing all of that through the lens of a kid incorporating all of herself into a quest for a happy future was way more my speed than a deteriorating mummy (?) struggling to rally against a 5000-year old monster rancher.

But, as always, maybe not how everyone else is seeing this show! I think the Gauma scenes are looped-in on this episode’s discussion of what we do with the parts of ourselves we’ve outgrown, or don’t need as keenly, but I like it better when it comes from a little girl trying to reclaim herself from fear, or two teens making a go of it when they spent years disconnecting from things, or a young man asking himself what his strengths are, like a resume was the judgment of the gods. For as slow as this episode might’ve been, I love it the most when it’s willing to indulge itself.