[DreamSword]

GUESS WHAT'S FINALLY GETTING DUBBED!?

Oh man guys, I finally get to join the Dynazenon discussion! Expect the thread to be active again for a few weeks, and sorry for anyone who was hoping that something else would get covered.

But yeah, let's do this!

Episode 1: What is a Kaiju User?

...

My excitement might've been a bit premature!

Alright, so, not to sound harsh but like... I kinda got next to nothing out of this episode? Like yeah, I get it, it's only the first episode, but hear me out.

To me it felt like an episode that was very much doing its best to emulate the style of the first episode of SSSS.Gridman, but didn't have any of the substance to back it up.

They're definitely hitting alot of the same beats; A lack of music, the beats of an everyday life, a protagonist(or atleast who I'm assuming is the protagonist) who stumbles upon something kaiju related, and a blasting action sequence at the end with the theme song blaring in the background.

But what makes Gridman's' example work me is that is had a very clear direction it was going in. A very focused air of mystery to compliment its atmosphere and minimalist approach that dominated the majority of the episode, as well staying focused on only a couple of characters at first in order to give something to immediately attach to.

But here? It's almost like the opposite? Like, the best example I could think up is like, imagine if you'd never even so much as heard of Monopoly before, and a friend of yours asks you to play it with them. You ask them about it, and then rather than tell you like, anything, they open up the box, dump all the player pieces on the table and simply say "choose one." That's it, and proceeds to just kinda stare at you until you do.

Heck, even when it comes to the Kaiju battle at the end, the first season managed to really impress with its callback to real life Toku, whereas the one at the end of this episode is just kind of a standard anime giant robot battle by sheer comparison.

Again, I get it, this is the very first episode, so I imagine that things are gonna get development, but I found it hard to see anything in it other than "here are the characters in this story and they exist." So I guess with that in mind, I'll spend the rest of this post talking about my initial impressions of said characters, what little we're given?

First up is Yomogi, the blue-haired guy we're immediately introduced to and whom appears to be the main character. I gotta say, I really dig his fashion sense(I basically dress like that all the time in real life), but besides that, I think he might be the character that I have the best first impression of. Though I will say that I find his English voice kinda weird. Maybe it's just me, but it definitely isn't the sort of voice I had imagined in my head when I first saw his character design. I'm sure it'll grow on me though.

Also, it's a small scene, but man, him refusing to accept money from his mother's' boytoy? Lemme tell ya, that was huge to me; Having done so myself, and I really hope that his story goes more into that aspect of his character. Though, given the type of show the first season was, I also wouldn't be surprised if it went nowhere near it.

Next up is Yume, of whom I probably have the worst impression of right off the bat(which is probably no surprise to anyone who's read my coverage of Gridman). It's probably a plot point that she looks almost exact like Rikka from the first season, and I think the same voice actress too? I just hope that she doesn't end up as another Akane, which, to give some credit, I don't think she will, given that atleast this time the show is being very upfront about her own mental health issues. Still, her purposely preying on other's' sense of empathy kinda isn't cool!

This leads us to Gauma, who is self-proclaimed "Kaiju User." I did like how he stood up for Yomogi and chewed Yume out for her behavior, though I suppose the biggest thing his character brought me this episode was the hint that this might be a different world from the one seen in Gridman, considering no one in this town seems to have heard of Kaiju before, or at the very least doesn't think that they're real.

Last up is Koyomi, who is a shut in and has a cousin that gets him into trouble alot. And uh... that's kinda all we get. He exists, I guess.

And that's about all I got. Overall, the episode felt like you were just presented with the board without any clear idea of what the end goal is. I'm sorry if me making a direct comparison seems unfair, but I really do think that Gridman had the much better executed introductory episode. Still, it's not like I'm writing the entire show off or anything like that, and I'm interested in seeing where things will go from here.