[Androzani84]

So yeah, Dynazenon. I remember that the majority of Tokunation watching at the time preferred it to Gridman, but I definitely preferred the latter since it didn’t leave me consistently confused (hilariously enough, history repeated itself months later with mainline Ultra instalments, but that’s another story).

For this show the director and production crew set themselves three rules.

1. They could only use an adaptation of Dyna Dragon and its components Dyna Fighter and King Jet (or as they were known in Syber Squad the one time they were shown as separate components, Jamb and Torb).

2. They weren’t allowed to reuse any of Gridman’s cast.

3. They had to go with an entirely original plot and jokes. The only thing this show has connecting it to Gridman right now are some recycled storyboards (which in this episode, consists of a shot of the classroom’s name).

And in terms of casting, there’s two actors with a major Toku role in this episode.

Daiki Hamano (Gauma) was later the voice of the Donbrothers equipment (except for Don Dragoku’s equipment).

Gakuto Kajiwara (one of Yomogi’s friends) was later the voice of Ultraman Decker’s equipment (except for the bad guy’s one toy)

There’s also a bit of a mini MCU reunion, since Hamano voices Sam Wilson in the Disney+ shows, while Jun’ya Enoki (Yomogi) is the voice of Peter Parker.

And in this season, there are three notable things.

1. The monsters are all named for terms related to psychology, fitting with the theme of trauma and the Shattered Souls Shine like Stars motto. In this case, Shalbandes is named for Augustine Charpentier, a French physicist who studied the size-weight illusion.

2. There are only two pieces on the entire sound track. The orchestral choir as Dynazenon combines and this song, played at different pitches and with different instrumentals based on the pacing of the fight.

And 3…