[Kamen Rider Die]

SSSS.DYNAZENON EPISODE 4 - “WHAT IS THIS THUMPING HEART?”



Just a perfectly ridiculous episode of Dynazenon, where the bits of longform storytelling – the burgeoning friendship of Yume and Yomogi, the demystification of the Kaiju Eugenicists, and Koyomi’s reconnection with Yomogi’s boss – are just the springboards for non-stop humor and relentless absurdity.

My absolute favorite joke in this episode, and kind of the prime example of how fun this episode is with how it’s still managing to talk about things like unintended and unavoidable consequences for how we treat each other (even a goofy episode of this show is still incredibly smart!), is… there’s that little declaration the team does when they combine, and they shout COMBINE DRAGON DYNAZENON, but this time Yomogi coughs at the end, because he has a cold. It’s such a dumb little touch, but I had to pause the episode from laughing. There’s a mundanity to how this show approaches piloting an otherdimensional giant robot, and it’s endlessly entertaining.

I kind of don’t even know what else to say about this one, other than that it was incredibly funny, and I laughed a lot? Almost all I can do is list the comedic scenes that peppered this episode, like Gauma dropping everything to try and fight Sizumu at the school, and losing because he can’t stop announcing his move before he does it; or Chise pointing out that Koyomi can’t need a day off because he already has every day off; or the way Chise pilots Dyna Soldier to run without moving its arms; or the little scared body language the animators give Dyna Soldier when Chise’s piloting it; or anything Chise does in this episode, spotlight episode for that kid, we need more Chise in Dynazenon.

Again, it’s all still in service to things like plots – Yomogi trying to figure out his crush on Yume – or themes – the ways we affect each other without even realizing it, so we need to be more conscious of our goals and motivations – but all of that is so completely beside the point, which is that this one was hilarious. I don’t care about what else it was doing, despite it doing those things well, because I couldn’t stop laughing watching it. The end!!!