I originally wached Gridman when it aired weekly and thought it was a good show, but nothing spectacular. Fast forward a few years later and we have Dynazenon, the new entry in the same universe. It sadly came out when I was still experiencing a massive anime burnout and wasn't watching anything but now finally all this time later, I got around to watching it and I'm very glad for that.
Without going into spoilers, Dynazenon's story is very similar to Gridman's; bad guys make Kaijus cause chaos, good guys are there to solve the problems with the titular guardians. But believe me when I say, that's just scratching the surface and the series has a lot more depth than that.
I love how the show just feels off and what I mean by that is that everything that's happening is so nonchalant from the world's inhabitants' POV even though things like Kaiju attacks are not only destroying the surroundings but also claiming a lot of lives. Characters are also quick to accept everything that's happening, even things that are completely new and seemingly impossible to them. One could say these things are bad writing but I would disagree. They made the show feel eerie in a great way among other things.
Much like Gridman, the series is chock full of references to other entries of the franchise (including the tokusatsu TV show) and small, minor details that most people (including myself) would easily miss but a lot of them really add to the lore and or are otherwise important. Now like I said I'm not all that perceptive sadly but luckily for me, there are a lot of people around in discussion threads for the episodes that post really eye-opening theories and discoveries that made every episode feel more meaningful.
One of my main criticisms for the show however is that while I do appreciate all the callbacks/parallels etc. to Gridman, sometimes the show feels a bit too much the same. And the worst part of this is the monster of the week feel that is there for most of the runtime but luckily they still put a lot of other interesting things in every episode so the battles are not even the main focus often.
Now for the main thing that elevated Dynazenon to me compared to Gridman are the characters. I didn't hate Gridman's characters by any means but compared to the main group here, it's pretty much night and day when it comes to personalities and even character development. Since the series is less focused on explaining how the world works and the Kaiju spectacles, they had a chance to put way more time into the characters which in my opinion worked really well in the show's favor.
Another thing that I enjoyed in both shows is the direction. We have a lot of amazing camera angles and shots that add to the great feel of the show. Sometimes it even made for some good symbolism if you paid enough attention. The direction for the music also worked well. We have a wide array from anywhere between great silent scenes to hype action pieces.
There's not much big negative things I can say about the show. I won't rate it higher so far because there's still some questions I have left and I have yet to watch Gridman Universe but after completing this I have high hopes moving forward.
