[DreamSword]

Episode 9: What are these Overlapping Emotions?

I think Dynazenon's' best friend right now is the mere fact that I've been more focused on watching Kamen Rider Decade over the past month, of which I have been disliking far more.

Like, as much as I ragged on Imperfect as a song earlier on in this watch, it was such a relief to hear it again after having heard nothing but Journey Through the Decade over the past month. A song of which is tied to what might be my least liked Kamen Rider opening to date.

That said, I'm not entirely sure on if my feelings towards this episode would have been all that different otherwise, because I rather liked this one! The episode tries to tie everything together with Yume at the end, thus implying her to be the intended main focus, but to me the real star of this show was Chise and her new friend, Goldburn.

Don't get me wrong, while I am glad that Yume's' arc got a step forward, if this episode had been about nothing but Chise and her feelings of being an outsider, I would've probably loved this all the more. The atmosphere gets built up right away at the start with the nightmare Chise is shown having, and the episode actually manages to have a good balance with some(for once) simple, yet solid comedic moments.

Yume might've gotten the most focus here, but Chise's' story was far more engaging.

I also really liked how she, to put it bluntly, told Yume to get over herself at the end, and that there's more at stake in this entire thing than just Yume and her feelings. Chise's' importance to Yume getting out of her funk also does good in highlighting how valued Chise is to the group, even as a mere "supporter" which S4 Gridman also did with Sho(though there I felt it was done a bit better). Of all the episodes so far, I feel like this one might be the one to do the whole "bridging distances" theme the best.

I also appreciated how Goldburn came to be: A literal manifestation of Chise's' feelings, and as such responded to her desires and emotions. She wanted to have friends, so Goldberg is born her friend. She wanted to save Yume, so it saved Yume. And of course in the end, she wanted to be a full member of the Dynazenon crew, so Goldburn becomes their shield. Chise's' emotions both literally and figuratively reach out and connect to the entire group with this episodes. Which of course, because this is a Super Robot show, results in what I'm assuming is Dynazenon's' final form.

Yeah, the fight at the end, while not anything super special, does at the very least highlight everyone coming together as a group. The new combination for Dynazenon is over the top and gaudy, but it really seems like that was the intended effect, so I give it a pass. I got a chuckle at how the Cannon is literally attached just by Knight gripping onto it though.

Speaking of Knight, he yet again delivers onto us one of the best moments that this show has had.

Knight playing with a sparkler is way funnier than it has any right to be.

So yeah, overall, I really dug this one. If we're not counting Knight, then this episode made Chise my favorite character for of everyone so far. Not what I expected!

Also, total side note at the end here because I couldn't think of a way to fit it in naturally to the rest of the post. The SimulDub actually missed a very blatant callback to SSSS.Gridman in this episode. It's obvious that at one point Yomogi is meant to be repeating Yuta's' signature line from the previous season, that being:

"This is something only I can do. Something I must do!"

But instead the dub has him say:

"If there's something only I can do, then I gotta do it!"

Hopefully it gets fixed in the finalized dub.