WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 6 of SSSS.Dynazenon, "What is This Pain?," now streaming on Funimation. It also contains discussion of suicide.
SSSS.Dynazenon created the perfect storm for a game-changing character appearance in Episode 6. The worlds of SSSS.Dynazenon and SSSS.Gridman clearly share a universe, but an immediate connection, other than in name alone, was unknown until now. "What Is This Pain?" radically changes all that.
Towards the end of the episode, the Dynazenon pilots are about to finally taste defeat against a powerful kaiju. Their emotions are confuddled, causing them to be out of sync with each other. But just before they’re crushed, a giant crashes into the battlefield. None of the characters appear to be familiar with the figure, but viewers of SSSS.Gridman will recognize the purple and orange color scheme. Most importantly, the surprise cameo confirms SSSS.Dynazenon to be a direct sequel to SSSS.Gridman.
Episode 6 rattles the emotions of nearly all of our heroes. It starts with Yume finding out her sister’s death is rumored to be a suicide, possibly as a result of being bullied but the evidence is unclear. While Yume has made a lot of progress opening up to her teammates, she begins to be more closed-off emotionally in the episode. When Yomogi asks her about her situation, for instance, she avoids answering. She doesn’t want to address her pain.
Of course, this has an effect on Yomogi. His obvious concern for her begins to eat away at his wellbeing when she rejects his help. To Yomogi, the feeling is similar to rejecting him. It's made worse when Yume expresses her desire to escape to Sizumu. Yomogi has always felt threatened and confused by Sizumu. Thus, he ponders the nature of their conversation and his relationship with Yume.
Meanwhile, Koyomi has his own troubles. He tries to make sense of his relationship with a childhood crush who recently re-entered his life. She may have led him on, which leads him into a drunken bonding experience with Mijuna, one of the Kaiju Eugenicists. He even loses Dyna Striker before retrieving it back from the Eugenicists with Gauma’s help. On top of this, his own ambition is continuously questioned.
The same episode features an interesting discussion amongst the Kaiju Eugenicists on their approach towards Dynazenon. The Eugenicists might make a serious effort to kill the pilots.
The discord provides a perfect time for the group to finally defeat Dynazenon once and for all. Mijuna and Onija both control an overwhelmingly powerful kaiju capable of manipulating gravity. The pilots, on the other hand, can’t even say their battle cry in unison. In the last seconds of the episode, all seems lost... until Gridknight enters the fight.
SSSS.Gridman watchers will remember Gridknight as Anti, a kaiju created by Akane. He was originally created to end Gridman and has a copy ability that allows him to learn from others. Anti also has his own scarred past as he was dubbed a failed creation by Akane herself -- he watched his creator go through tormenting pain. While on a journey to define himself, he teams up with Gridman to save Akane and becomes Gridknight.
The last time Anti was seen he did not leave with Gridman. Instead, he stayed behind in the world Akane built. SSSS.Dynazenon’s setting draws a lot of parallels to SSSS.Gridman’s -- locations look similar and director Akira Amemiya uses a lot of near-identical shot designs to further imply a connection. Anti’s appearance as Gridknight might suggest this could be the same world Akane made. However, the same laws do not apply. In SSSS.Gridman, the damage was repaired and anyone who died had their history altered. In SSSS.Dynazenon, the damage is permanent. While fans might be overjoyed at the development, the link between the two is apparent but not clearly defined yet.