What is a Kaiju User? (怪獣使いって、なに？, Kaijū tsukai tte, nani?) is the first episode of SSSS.DYNAZENON.
Monster of the week: Shalbandes (シャルバンデス, Sharubandesu)
Synopsis[]
Yomogi promised to meet his classmate, Yume Minami, after his part-time job. However, at the appointed time, Gauma, a mysterious man claiming to be a Kaiju User whom Yomogi met the day before, showed up.[1]
Summary[]
In Fujiyokidai where its inhabitants are doing their business as usual, Yomogi Asanaka is hanging out with his friends by the river while Yume is seen being yelled at by someone. A mysterious figure spreads ominous looking pebbles throughout the city. Yomogi receives his paycheck and earns quite a salary from a part-time job. Gauma arrives to the city on foot and hears something.
On the next day, Yomogi and his friends are discussing what to do regarding the upcoming cultural festival that's supposedly to be held on the second week of October, despite it still being May. The banning of haunted houses was related to the rumors of a bullied student who committed suicide. They come across a lone aloof girl, Yume Minami, singing on top of the floodgate. His friends begin bringing up the rumor of her having a promise-breaking affliction, in which the skeptical Yomogi argued she might not be that bad. Yume herself is fully aware of her disrespectful habit and how it has alienated her from her peers, as pointed out by her best friend Mei. Chise Asukagawa and her cousin Koyomi Yamanaka are at their home. Chise reminds Koyomi that they're going to have to attend a memorial in the next week. Whereas Chise deliberately skipped the school that day, Koyomi appears to be a NEET.
After school, Yomogi parts ways from his friends and stumbles upon the starving Gauma, who apparently didn't think about bringing food with him. As soon as Yomogi shares his special dog with him, Gauma wastes no time and quickly devours the leftover lunch. Before he could sneak away, the famished man grabs him by the ankle to thank him and introduces himself, adding that he is a Kaiju User. Unsure with what he means, Yomogi opted not to think about it and flees, leaving Gauma who vows to repay his kindness.
Yomogi's mother takes him to dinner with Mr. Kamijo. Mr. Kamijo gifts Yomogi an money envelope as a start-of-school gift. Rejecting the gift, he instead left the envelope within a nearby donation box when his mother and Mr. Kamijo weren't looking. After a dinner with her family, Yume enters her deceased sister, Kano's room which had yet to be repurposed following the latter's abrupt passing. She finds a calendar with a particular date circled for a recital and two interlocking metal ankhs. Unknown to everyone, a strange phenomenon looms over the city where things begin to mysteriously float into the air, starting from an empty trash bin floating to the sky as if no longer being held by gravity. This intrigues Chise and she tries to tell her lazy cousin about it.
The next day, Yomogi tells his classmates about the strange encounter with Gauma. Gauma interrupts and calls out to Yomogi who runs away instead. Running away from the strange person, Yomogi encounters Yume by chance, and she asks him to meet her at 9:00 o'clock, after he gets off work. Before he could give a proper answer, Yomogi finds himself fleeing again as Gauma proves insistent to meet him, but nevertheless keeps the request in mind. Losing sight of Yomogi, Gauma asks Yume whether she happened to be Yomogi's friend, but she turns away, leaving him dumbfounded. With Yume's request in mind, Yomogi politely declines his boss's invitation to dinner. As the strange phenomenon at the city worsens, Chise drags her cousin to go out with her so they can better look at what's been recently happening.
Gauma finally catches up with Yomogi, who was waiting at the floodgate for Yume as per her request. Gauma asks him about what he is doing there and warns him about the rain. Correctly guessing that he's waiting for the girl from this morning, Gauma begins to press the indifferent Yomogi about it, even asking whether she happened to be his girlfriend. Having enough, the irritated Gauma grabs Yomogi's phone and is shocked that Yume is forty minutes late. This gives Gauma an idea to pay him back and assures Yomogi that he will find the girl for him. Gauma happens upon Yume, who was alone by herself at the bridge nearby, and tells her she was late. Further dismayed to see that Yume had no intention to fulfill a promise, he chews her out for lying to Yomogi. Yomogi walks over and confronts her, but all Yume could say is that something is indeed wrong with her.
Suddenly, chaos erupts as a giant kaiju rises the city, using its gravity powers to lay waste upon everything around it. Gauma makes a strange gesture at the beast to try to control it, to no avail. The device inside his pouch suddenly flashes brightly. He unveils the dragon statue within, and summons a giant robot that takes the three of them inside it with its massive hand. It soon claims Koyomi as its fourth pilot when he and Chise are seen nearby. As the bewildered Yomogi, Yume, and Koyomi find themselves within their respective cockpits inside, Gauma calmly advises that the robot requires four people to pilot it. It gives Gauma it's name, "Dynazenon". He takes Dynazenon's controller in his grasp. The robot takes off into the sky and towards the rampaging kaiju, leaving the still-bewildered Chise behind. Evading some energy beams, Dynazenon lands in front of the kaiju. Gauma recognizes the kaiju may be affiliated with a shady faction, and goes on the offensive, not wanting to let it cause more damage.
Dynazenon and the kaiju clash, with Gauma telling Yomogi to let him handle the fight, but admitting that it is indeed the first time he's piloted the mecha. The kaiju causes Dynazenon to levitate before dropping it back to the ground. It extends its head into a whip-sword to attack. While his co-pilots begin to panic, Gauma tells Dynazenon, "Please show us what you're made of". It splits apart and reconfigures into Dynarex. With its mighty jaws, Dynarex catches the kaiju's head then tosses it away. Dynarex then grabs the kaiju and flies it high into the sky before finishing it off with the Blazing Inferno Rex Roar, destroying the kaiju. While Gauma revels in their victory, Koyomi informs Chise that the fight is over. Yomogi stares at Yume recalling what she said earlier, realizing that she is emotionally troubled after all.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
- Yomogi Asanaka
- Awaki
- Ranka
- Nazumi
- Kaneshi
- Yume Minami
- Mysterious figure
- Inamoto
- Gauma
- Mei
- Chise Asukagawa
- Koyomi Yamanaka
- Mrs. Asanaka
- Mr. Kamijo
- Kano Minami
- Dynazenon
- Shalbandes
Gallery[]
.jpg "Yomogi (2).jpg (75 KB)")
.jpeg "Images (4).jpeg (10 KB)")
Voice Drama[]
- 1.1: Kashiwa-Guilty (カシワギルティ, Kashiwagiruti)[2]
- Yomogi's friends come up with an inside joke that he missed having gone to work the day before.
Trivia[]
- The episode's airdate, April 2, coincides with the debut of Dyna Dragon's episode debut (22nd episode) in Gridman the Hyper Agent on Tsuburaya's Youtube Channel earlier.
- Ippei Baba's favorite special hot dog makes an appearance as the food Yomogi shares with Gauma.
- Kazuki Komon's lucky charm from Ultraman Nexus made an appearance in the episode as one of plushies in the late Kano Minami's room just as it did as Sakiru Tonkawa's key plushie in episode 1 of SSSS.Gridman, cementing the allusion's presence as the bad omen in the franchise: Whereas the former case foreshadows Yume's psychological issues from Kano's passing, the latter foreshadows Sakiru's death at hands of Akane's Ghoulghilas.