This was a very interesting turn of events for SSSS.Dynazenon, containing some twists which were pretty heavily telegraphed and others which were a little more surprising.  The question of how the series was going to frame the final battle – and there pretty much had to be one – was an interesting unknown.  I figured Shizumu had to be integral but I didn’t see things playing out exactly as they did here.  By this point in SSSS.Gridman we pretty well knew Akane was the top boss, and were just in the process of finding out why.  But she dominated the narrative in a way Shizimu has not with Dynazenon.

For a good while there it looked like we were in full wind-down mode.  Yomogi-kun conquering the wayback machine seemed to have wiped out all the kaiju seeds, in the process eliminating the need for Dynazenon – not to mention Gridknight.  That leaves a big hole in everybody’s lives, each of them dealing with them in their own way.  Koyomi actually decides to get a job, which leaves Chise in stunned disbelief.  She takes the cue and goes back to school, or at least tries to – but that’s not as easy as it sounds (and it doesn’t even sound easy). The Eugenicists seem to admit defeat, Onija declaring his intent to fight on (“I’ll just kill people myself”).

Chise gets hit with a double-whammy here, as Anti and Anoshiras prepare to take their leave, and tell her that Goldburn needs to go with them.  Chise can see the logic of it – Goldburn doesn’t belong in a kaiju-free world – but emotionally it’s not so easy.  As for the main couple in all but name, Yume asks Yomogi to join her in visiting her sister’s grave – and in order to do so he breaks a dinner date with his mom and her boyfriend.

It’s interesting to see this storyline seemingly resolved two eps before the end.  Yume has clearly come to terms with what happened, and just as clearly wants Yomogi at her side.  The graveyard scene is an interesting one, especially for me the part where the kids are talking about the frustrations of parents.  Yomogi’s angst has been kind of a cipher for the first ten episodes, and it really is as straightforward as it seemed – he’s got a very normal first world teen problem that really pales in comparison to what Yume is dealing with.  His mom may be getting remarried, and he’s unhappy about it.  And he even admits the boyfriend isn’t a bad guy.  Maybe saying it out loud to the woman he loves will be the key to realizing he’s actually pretty lucky all things considered.

Gauma was pretty obviously in bad shape last week and that mark on his body has been growing for a while, so it certainly wasn’t a shock to find out he was dying.  He never really should have been alive at all, but the thing is that if he can’t meet the princess anyway, this whole experience seems kind of hollow from his perspective.  There’s certainly no question he was much needed to fight the Kaiju Eugenicists, but was that the only reason he was brought back?  The sense of Gauma as a tragic figure has been growing for a whole now, but these latest developments truly cast him in a sad light.

I’m glad the kids seem to be appreciating Gauma for the bro he is at this late hour, at least.  And he certainly has one more role to fulfill here, protecting Yume and Yomogi from an attack he suspects is coming from Shizumu.  That Shizumu was unlike the other Eugenicists was never in doubt, but now we know why – he actually had a kaiju inside him.  Anti clearly suspected too, as he stuck around long enough for Shizumu to show his true colors.  So now the final battle has more or less been joined – though I wonder about the role of the other Eugenicists.  Onija aside I’m not sure they’ll be keen to support Shizumu here, as he was deceiving them as much as anyone else, and he seems to have raised the carnage level to a striking degree…