Sonny Boy

SunlitSonata

Whenever you browse a seasonal chart, it’s inevitable the majority of shows will be adaptations. Manga, light novel, visual novel, video game, music CDs, etc. It’s just less of a hassle for studios to tackle media proven successful elsewhere, and these works often provide a very clear path to follow as far as where their stories are headed or what key moments should be highlighted for the maximum oomph. Anime originals don’t have that same expected trajectory. They’re closer to western cartoons, in that they mainly get made because their creator attained clout within the industry and then was given the space by a studio to bring their new original animated concepts to life. This creative looseness can be a strength, avoiding publications that have specific molds they want to be filled for successful products, but it can just as often be an excuse to create something that wouldn’t easily find an audience within pre-established work. That often felt like the case when watching Sonny Boy. A show with loosely defined structure, loose animation tricks, and a loose core in trying to hit the target audience. You see this immediately from the first episode. Main character Nagara lies on his back staring at the ceiling, downbeat and dejected, approached by a girl with a similarly moody disposition. Focus quickly shifts to other characters in their own groups. A total of 36 characters are stated to exist within the show’s school, and, apropos of nothing, everyone has some sort of superpower. Every dynamic is suggested to be re-established. No music plays the entire episode; the sky is often pitch black, or evenly split between blank blue and cloudy. A jarring CGI carousel appears in the middle of a gym auditorium. Main characters are suggested to exist, but their screentime is balanced out with several others arguing over some sort of dominance. It’s overwhelming for a start, but created distinctly as Episode 1, not chapters that fill in for an Episode 1. This serves as an easy way to stand out and an early indication of Shingo Natsume’s talent with using animation to create a distinct feel. As the remaining episodes go on though, any actual intentions Sonny Boy might have become harder and harder to define. Characters hop between places in separate worlds practically instantaneously. Scenes are placed in non-chronological chunks. Infighting is shown, and then gives way for more existential comprehension of what it means to evolve and live where you are. Entire sections of exposition are stated to present subjects invisible in the moment. Some characters will have focus for entire episodes and then be discarded from relevance. Growth will be suggested through dialogue, but all the introspection is reserved for the show’s main mystery. Amidst all of these very particular choices, the main takeaway I had was that amongst every character with some sort of grab bag superpower, two of them serve as hypothetical prophets, able to broaden new horizons and topple the domain of multiple worlds. One of them uses this power in service of trying to solve the mystery, and the other is tempted to use the power by a walking pair of boobs that serves a similar purpose to the snake in the story of Adam and Eve. This is the most consistent plotline I could find among the show’s roughly 4 hours of runtime, because the show likes to do something new every episode, yet ardently refuses to provide an anchor for the audience to take in the info before switching to another scene. The sense I get from Sonny Boy’s plot is that it WANTS to be a coming-of-age story. The world beyond highschool could be mysterious, unknowing, and in constant flux with deadly situations making headlines every day in real life now. Sonny Boy’s main characters are primarily near the end of high school, and the show uses their powers to represent some form of change they will or have undergone. One character’s power is deliberately ironic relative to their anxiousness at what life actually has in store for them. One episode ties the thread between school and concentration camp in a similar but more subdued vein to Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Twice amidst all the exposition, it’s paraphrased that having the opportunity to decide your own future, and not have it manipulated by others, is the best way to hope to make it through life. I understand the intention for that demographic, but as I currently see Sonny Boy, much of the characterization is too loose and confusingly dolled out for any growth to be truly meaningful. Take Nagata himself, the main character. At the start, he feels downbeat and dejected, content to lie on his ass while staring at the ceiling. He continues to be confused and depressed as the show trudges on, but the whole time I was wondering….why? What happened to make this character be so dour at the start of the story, which was conveniently left out? Midway through, it’s said that something happened to his mother, that may have caused him to kill a bird, but that doesn’t really explain anything. His main role in the show itself is to ask about their situation, complain about being used, be unable to use his power properly, or convey more exposition. His loose personality suggests he might be an audience insert character, but he doesn’t feel like he’s there to clarify anything. Even his growth feels inconsistent. Halfway through he gets incredibly enthusiastic about certain subjects, but it feels less like earned character development and more like he had to act a certain way to propel a certain episodic narrative. If this were a show like Tatami Galaxy, Nagata would feel like the centerpiece of everything, to ground events in a way the audience can understand and emphasize with his goals and ambitions in a limited cast, but the show opts to hot potato the screentime focus among several characters. Mizuho is similar, being described as “having a moody personality and refusing to interact with others,” and shouldering the blame for a problem affecting the group, but before too long, she’s fawning over cute animals and talking about the plot in a significantly more chipper way. Once again, it’s hard to see what aspect of teenage life she’s meant to specifically relate toward when her characterization feels more in service of plot than anything else. Characters like Cub seem fairly important at first but gradually fade from relevance. One character is basically a background character with a power given major relevance as an excuse for why they were shoved in scenes at random. Another character comes from a completely different context and has an entire episode narrating portions of their backstory, and is…..probably the most rounded one in the show because of that extensive focus. The “false prophet” loses any of their own motivation in favor of taking naps in the busty temptress’s chest. Rajdhani is probably the show’s best character, the most committed to solving the mystery angle and a fun presence in general; the dub version even has him voiced by someone with Indian heritage, but he still mainly exists as smart guy^tm The point I’m trying to make is, given the inconsistent handling of the characters and loose definition of what constitutes character development, I think the target audience would find it difficult to connect to any of these characters in an impactful way after the show concludes. The expected prompt from the shows’ most ardent supporters would be: “You completely missed these tiny moments all adding up. It’s deep, actually, the characters don’t have obvious growth because they aren’t obvious archetypes! Look at all these metaphors you’re ignoring!” Yes, this is a show where a lot of context is very blink or you’ll miss it. Every episode is more or less its own story with a distinct message. You never know what you’re gonna get and I don’t intend to spoil that here. It can be pretty fun trying to break the individual messages of episodes, but a lot of these focusing choices, which I know exist the way they are because of Sonny Boy’s anime-original status, are easy to be overshadowed by the influx of lore, as well as Natsume’s visual direction. Sonny Boy’s at least a show that’s easy to appreciate on a stylistic level. Eguchi Hisashi, who hasn’t designed anime characters since the turn of the millennium, created a very distinctly designed cast in spite of their similarities from the head down. The way characters’ faces look avoids following the lazy expectation for modern anime art direction. Most episodes have some sort of impressive visual flex, like Episode 2 with the atmosphere established by the paper-looking blue fire, though particularly Episode 5 and Episode 8 for their specific style of animation and shading when distinguishing the mental realms. The mental twisting of many dimensions of pattered color is a particular animation highlight whenever it comes up, the bus flying through it in Episode 9 like it were The Magic School Bus’s serious YA adaptation. It does tend to shortcut with several static shots of faceless characters, but it has an especially unique choice for background characters in them being shaded like the type of “anime minimalist wallpaper” you can easily find on Google Images. There’s this scrapbook uncanniness to some of the scenes while avoiding the scrunched-up outlines often seen on characters out of focus, adding to the many wallpaper worthy shots appearing throughout. At times the visual direction could be dull when not much was happening on screen, when it just hard cut between cast members starring into the screen trying to comprehend the tangle of plot with music missing, but it feels like that freedom of design is what Shingo Natsume saw with this entire series. This might sound negative, and as far as personal investment in the choices made with the runtime that exists, it is, but I implore you to check out this show if you think its distinctiveness appeals to you. What I’ve been saying about how loose and overambitious the writing feels in light of the visual pizazz is something that only could’ve come from an anime original, a longtime animator writing a script for the first time with that rawness and passion radiating forward at the extent of understanding how to meet the audience halfway. That freedom is worth cherishing. I’m grateful that shows like Sonny Boy are allowed to exist. I appreciate the light hints that the show leaves for people to ponder well after an episode ends. But in its current state, I believe the looseness of its execution precludes me from coming out as infatuated as Natsume wants me to be.

ThirtyThree

There seems to be a problem with a lot of these "psychological" and "mystery" shows where it looks as if they're trying a bit too hard to make themselves look smart by going overboard with all the symbolism and mystery and shit that it all just seems too confusing and almost nonsensical where you would need to fully analyze everything, watch for every single small detail in hopes of trying to make sense out of whatever the fuck you're seeing and try to get a meaning. Sometimes you can piece everything together and it all makes sense! Sometimes it's just all a bunch of random horseshit that doesn't really mean anything. Sonny Boy started off simple enough - a bunch of kids getting stranded in some weird ass dimension and no one seems to know how or why. Some of them found themselves with incredible powers, even bending space and reality itself. Just a very simple story of "what happens when you put all these different people together in a confined space with some of them suddenly gaining powers" much like the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. With our quiet MC who seems to have closed himself off of everyone else and seemingly lost the will to live, learning to appreciate life and make friends, growing out of his own box much like a coming-of-age story. Sounds simple enough, great premise. We even got the appointed leader going crazy with his newfound power and position and starts abusing it and the other students rebelling. Pretty straightforward so far but soon enough it descends into the weird madness that Sonny Boy is. After the first few episodes, things get *real* weird. They travel to various dimensions with various rules and their own oddities. We found out that there's other groups of students with their own society. Some of them have been here for thousands of years, and there's all sorts of time travel fuckery. I'm sure people with more time and way smarter than me should be able to (try to) figure out what's going on. For the average viewer, watching Sonny Boy might seem like watching a bunch of random nonsense where you can't understand anything. I know I understood almost nothing. But *despite* that, I actually found the show extremely entertaining. I'm able to sit through 20 mins of whatever the fuck is going on, and think to myself "that was entertaining." Why? I'm not sure if I can tell myself. Perhaps it's the visuals. The show looks very pretty and all the weird parts are still very entertaining to look at. Perhaps it's the "chill" nature of the show. Watching it just makes me feel relaxed and it just has a very chill atmosphere to it. The coming-of-age story of our MC did seem well done. He's really grown as a person if you compare it to what he was at the start. As for everything else, I can't say much. Sometimes shows like this end where everything makes sense once you have all the pieces laid out before you. Sometimes it's all just nonsense pretending to be something smart but none of it makes sense. And sometimes there's no real intended meaning but there's enough in there to at least give you something to think about and maybe make a meaning for yourself. Maybe none of it really means anything and it *is* indeed all just pretentious bullshit but if *you* can get something out of it, at the end of the day, isn't that what really matters? If you watch this, I'm sure you that you will at least get *something* out of it, whatever that may be...

wilkaoo

At first, it all begins when teenagers from a class travel to a dark and empty world filled only by their school, while totally ignorant of their situation. After a short time, they begin to organize themselves socially and establish power relations among themselves, but our protagonists refuse to participate in this, why? Nagara shows himself to be an extremely passive person, following what is ordered and what will cost him the least effort to accomplish, but this characteristic ends up being confronted when Nozomi, the only character who does not wear the white uniform of her school, begins to interact with him, because just like Nagara she does not consider herself part of the large group that was forming but for a completely different reason: Nozomi is a free spirit who prioritizes fulfilling her desires rather than conforming to collective need, such a personality is what will guide the development of Nagara, our protagonist and observer. As for the plot of Sonny Boy, which is extremely fantastical and surreal, there is a clear division of its story into two parts. The first focuses on the previously described organization that the students have made among themselves and their goals, some wishing to blindly follow the one who stands out and leads them, while others just wish to go home, this results in an exploration of the universe where, as the plot progresses, we learn that the students are not bound to a specific world, but to a set of infinite interconnected worlds which contain individual rules that must be followed to the letter or are just a feature for the world to function, some of these rules are insane, some are fun and some make a direct analogy to our society. Such a universe underscores Sonny Boy's undeniably strong points, which are its direction and animation, through several unique, beautifully crafted worlds, with some more like the earth we know, others more abstract and insane. However, after a certain plot twist in the middle of the anime, we have the second part of its plot that focuses entirely on its protagonists, which for me was the true brilliance of this work. I admit that I definitely could not extract everything that was presented to me by this anime in this sequence, but following the individual conflict of these characters (direct consequences of the power relations between the students as a whole) was spectacular. The animation of their faces in their respective emotional catharsis, the dubbing, the use of animation as a media medium...Everything was intense, emotional and extremely striking. I decided not to expand on this because I believe it should be seen and reflected upon by each of us. Sonny Boy is the anime of the year and was extremely authorial, from this I am interested in following all the new anime directed by Shingo Natsume. Without a doubt he has established himself as an industry standout after doing such exquisite work.

TyrantRush

Although a review these are mainly my direct thoughts on the show as it Just ended, so don't go in expecting a very comprehensive review anyways I hope you can see what I saw in the anime What an Incredible show, it might have been confusing but I think I've been able to find my own meaning through all this confusion Apart from the very unique and honestly very smart storytelling everything else this anime does is perfect, it had amazing visuals which most of the time was just a whole lotta nothing just a bunch of abstract art but they managed to communicate the setting very incredibly, don't get me started on the soundtrack from the new songs every week(kinda sad they aren't available on worldwide Spotify yet) to the amazing ending, especially the version from the last episode, everything about it was perfect and fit so well. I ABSOLUTELY ADORE the characters, maybe its because i found myself relating to them so much or because I've seen and interacted with similar people my whole, but regardless they felt so realistic to even with such a weird concept, which is kinda funny, i don't know who wrote this but they so intelligently communicated all the characters core ideas through out every episode so beautifully, and still managed to make it so we didn't understand shit cause of the confusion lol. Honestly the ending although amazing was very painful to watch, and the ending song sung with such pain communicates that incredibly, this show has managed to become something I've loved so dearly over the past few weeks, I'm not sure how others think of it but I can confidently say its one of the best anime I've watched and definitely the best Original one. The ending also leaves a lot of things open to interpretation, which is to be expected from such a series, it allows you to come up with you own answers which is something I love about such open ended shows, cause it lets my personal experience be my own, I don't want to go into what I think are the answer cause I think that's part of the fun, and honestly even without knowing them its a very satisfying ending, unless you're a hardcore shipper it might bite you in your ass then I would like to mention some of the negatives of the show though, although i didn't see them as such i can most definitely see others having a problem with those, firstly this anime is not for everyone if you want a very linear plot than is easy to understand you might not get much from that front but don't worry cause you can definitely get enjoyment from the Incredible Ost and visuals, the start might be slow especially if you're binging it and don't know what the hell is going on but do not worry cause as soon as you hit episode 5 and the story starts to unravel you start seeing the best parts of the show, but that's not to say the first few episodes weren't amazing. anyways this is the most I've typed about an anime(deservedly), so I'm gonna end it here, I hope everyone finds the same enjoyment as I did from it, cause no matter what youre into there's always something in it for you oh and also STAN NOZOMI!!

AnimeDweeb

~~~ This review is **spoiler-free**, **Tl;Dr** below. ~~~ *** ~~~ #An anime-original piece by Studio [MADHOUSE](https://anilist.co/studio/11/MADHOUSE), *Sonny Boy* looks anything but conventional. webm(https://i.imgur.com/LxdNzmG.mp4) ~~~ Having set the gold standard for action *sakuga* with [*One Punch Man* S1](https://anilist.co/anime/21087/One-Punch-Man/), Creator [Shingo Natsume](https://anilist.co/staff/118928/Shingo-Natsume) is arguably one of the most well-trusted talents in the industry today. So here we are presented with something completely out of left field: an original series, written and directed by Natsume himself. Creative freedom is naturally to be expected, yet *Sonny* blows any and every expectation out of the water regardless. Photorealistic visuals are ditched entirely in exchange for the abstract. The unrefined and sometimes unidentifiable visual aesthetic feels less "Madhouse" and more reminiscent of [Science SARU](https://anilist.co/studio/6145/Science-SARU), no doubt due to Natsume's experience with storyboarding under the tutelage of [Masaaki Yuasa](https://anilist.co/staff/100068/Masaaki-Yuasa). The community isn't exactly raving over the animation cuts the same way that viewers hyped up OPM back in 2015. That being said, the free-flowing animation and imagery *Sonny* manages to conjure up makes for brilliant eye-candy. Sound design adds to the odd ambiance, with a restraint that sneaks up on you during pivotal sequences. It's a weird yet refreshing approach to presentation, and an art style befitting of this cryptic show. Believe me, things are only gonna get a lot more strange from here on out. ~~~ #*Sonny* leaves both audience and cast stranded, in search of answers. webm(https://i.imgur.com/JBBHTyZ.mp4) ~~~ An unexpected incident sends a Japanese high school adrift in an alternate dimension known only as "This World". No one knows how they got there, nor how to get out. "This World's" inhabitants consist only of the students stripped from the real world. There is no adult in sight. In the familiar hallways of their school campus, some people begin developing all sorts of unexplained psychic powers. Such supernatural phenomena govern "This World", as well as the many other worlds within this unknown universe. Featuring cross-dimensional space travel, mysterious pocket dimensions, spontaneous clones, physics-breaking landscapes and a chimpanzee baseball tournament; *Sonny* 's strangeness is imaginative and awesome to take in. Our ragtag classrooms of kids are tasked with making sense of this unfamiliar environment, all while doing all they can to make it back to the one World that matters: Home. Amidst the chaos and disarray is Nagara, the titular Sonny Boy. A withdrawn teenager with no powers, Sonny's got a long way to go in this new, unwanted life. ~~~ #*Sonny* 's not sophisticated just for the hell of it. webm(https://i.imgur.com/nb4XmsD.mp4) ~~~ While weird and wild, there is a certain method to *Sonny* 's madness. Released from the constraints of a real world, *Sonny* gives a fresh take on real-life concepts through vivid imagery and allegory. Allusions to [*Robinson Crusoe*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe) may have you believe that this is a story about basic human survival, but *Sonny* soon reveals itself to be more akin to a sci-fi [*Lord of the Flies*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies). The portrayal of groupthink is heavily present throughout the series, as the teens latch onto beliefs and narratives in order to make sense of "This World". The introduction of random psychic powers for a chosen few also results in a discussion on class identity. Elite powers that distort space and reality are possessed by the strong and fawned over by the weak. The uncanny nature of certain abilities are seen as likely methods of returning to Earth, motivating followers to hail the strong as Messiah-like figures. Conversely, students who were blessed in their past life but not in "This World" have to cope with being valued less by peers. Finally, those who happen to be outcasts in both lives find themselves further shut-out from society. Both groupthink and class hierarchy are a few of the ways *Sonny* tackles the topic of social perceptions. How we see ourselves, how others see us, and how we want others to see us. The ways in which we influence others to side with us, in order to gain control in a crazy, crazy world. The stories we tell in order to quell our fears and insecurities. The ideals we cling onto, even as the rest of the world mocks our naïve beliefs. The reasons why we choose to help and hurt those around us. *Sonny* 's certainly a strange show, but not without rhyme nor reason. Rather, the mysteries surrounding This World are designed to take advantage of its creative setting to reflect the chaos and uncertainty of real life. *Sonny* is as much about This World as it is our own. ~~~ #*Sonny* 's episodes are packed with an astonishing amount of themes, concepts and insights. webm(https://i.imgur.com/i9QxYM8.mp4) ~~~ Instead of a huge arc, the series is made up of individual vignettes, where continuity between episodes hardly matters. Each instalment hits like cold water to the face, reigniting the disorientation *Sonny* has been known for since its premiere. But while we may start (and admittedly end) each episode wondering what the hell is going on, *Sonny* manages to impart a series of thoughtful discussions and insights with every subsequent chapter. The series doesn't shy away from thorough scrutiny of personal belief systems, science, religion and authoritarianism. Compelling themes include insecurity, manipulation, war, destiny, and regret, among other things. These broad ideas are tied together with some truly mind-bending sci-fi writing. Natsume's brilliant manipulation of space, alternate dimensions and time gives an immense sense of scale and awe to the many metaphors at play. Even if it's tough to articulate precise meaning behind *Sonny* 's imaginative endeavors, at least a handful of the series' spectacles are bound to leave you in awe. Watching this social commentary is made all the more fascinating thanks to the psychic society: the strong-willed optimist Nozomi, the spoiled but supportive Mizuho, the freakishly intelligent Rajdhani, the sullen superhuman that is Asakaze, and the shrewd pragmatist Hoshi; all of whom are doing their best to get by. And then we have Nagara himself, whose role is key to fully appreciating this fantastic story. ~~~ webm(https://i.imgur.com/YOZLreD.mp4) ~~~ Alright, I think I have a ton of explaining to do. Sure, I've thrown around big fancy terms like "social commentary" and whatnot. But how would you like for me to *prove* to you that these crazy episodes actually make sense? ~~~ #Without further ado, here is a brief, non-exhaustive, episode-by-episode analysis of *Sonny* : ~~~ ~~~ ~! Episode 1 is all about the ways in which people respond to crisis. We're abruptly dropped into a weird situation where a school is suspended in limbo, experiencing the shock the students must have felt when the Drift took place off-screen. Different characters and cliques all react differently to what happened, whilst we take stock of the situation through character introductions. It's crazy to see just how quickly individuals go from tampering with the fabric of reality itself to winding up with a broom in their hand as part of a cleaning roster. Great power comes with great responsibilities, and the superhuman students are quickly kept in check within a rigid social hierarchy. Discontent, envy and manipulation ensues, as factions clash over power in this new World. The show muses over how this ideal of collectivism struggles under the weight of selfish goals, as the world around these kids literally comes apart around them. Not even autocratic leaders with the sweet taste of kingship can escape the omniscient Rules, but there is a way out. *Sonny* seems to argue that the solution to this reality is to throw caution to the wind and run free. Embracing whimsy and pure freedom lacks logical sense, but may just be crazy enough to escape the world itself. The school finds themselves adrift on an island in Episode 2. This World (2.0) is governed by equivalent exchange, yet inhabited by pupils who attempt to scam the system. Mizuho has the ability to conjure up objects out of thin air. It's magic, but no universe can allow the creation of something out of nothing. This World is correcting this flaw, unbeknownst to the school. Students concerned with material gain are finding their belongings vanishing in entropy and mysterious blue flames. People want their things back, but possessions aren't the only form of power our cast craves. Nagara's neutral observation about Mizuho is rounded off as truth, causing everyone to turn their backs on Mizuho. It's advantageous to control the narrative. After all, history is written by the victors, and Hoshi is a proven winner. He won back during the student elections, when he rigged the votes so that Pony would win. He bested Mizuho when she attempted to uncover the truth, and he appears to be in the people's good graces once more by standing up to an innocent villain. Things don't go according to plan though. Power attained at the expense of others isn't magic, someone else has to pay for the gains. Perhaps then the real magic lies in stepping out of your comfort zone, even if the grass isn't greener. Life for Nagara would be a whole lot easier without having to deal with dying animals. But just because selfish abandonment occurs doesn't justify future selfish acts. It's in Nagara's act of selflessness that stops the world from burning around him, adding value to this strange World. Episode 3 draws the curtains on society's outcasts. As social beings by nature, we all need each other. Being alone spells disaster, yet seems inevitable for some. "Maybe the world would be better off without me." It's a destructive line of thinking which can never account for the limitless potential you could provide in the future. Asakase, the dude who flies around for fun, resorts to putting others down in order to compensate for his failed contributions to Rajdhani's research. Mizuho is the other side of the same coin, a magician who wants to be perceived outside of her powerful abilities. Only through reinforcing strengths and covering for individual weaknesses can we get things done. But the ability to accept help and encouragement comes from within. The light finger dude had the right idea by giving himself an A-List power ranking. Finding value in yourself is the real superpower. Also, this episode gives us the first look at a Power Holdover, a concept I feel was poorly explained within the show. *Sonny* describes it as "conquering" a world, although there isn't really an opponent to these strange encounters. Basically by solving God's puzzles and learning morals, the students receive McGuffins that possibly are a tangible stand-in for knowledge. Episode 4 has monke. Hehe, monke funni. Fr tho, the episode is all about standing for personal convictions. Baseball died because the umpire stood by the rules. Once the perfect game was achieved unethically, there was nothing else to achieve. Standing for what is right is beautiful, and gave Nagara the motivation to swing. Ace and his European (?) gf mention something really interesting about "not being appreciated in This World." This goes back to the idea of how unrealistic perceptions can let us down. Whereas Ep 3 was all about how we perceive ourselves, Ep 4 inverses it and briefly touches on how others perceive us. It must suck to be Ace, star of the baseball team in his past life, and the dude with the lamest superpower in this present one. I'd be pissed too if the only trait I had was being able to drink all liquids. The value others see in us can vary based on the circumstances we're in, and it can be painful to deal with the change in expectations. Another undesirable outcome is that of people having unrealistic expectations of you. Nagara didn't ask for his power, nor did he want others calling him a "Savior." But alas, that's life. And it's better to live (and occasionally fail) than to do nothing in fear of failure. Otherwise, we might find ourselves trapped behind the curtain… It's tough to pin down exactly what Episode 5 is addressing here. The most likely target would be religion, since Aki Sensei calls to the authority of God. Alternatively, you could claim the episode is about politics, internet culture or even science. In short, this episode deals with belief systems, and what groups of people deem is right or wrong. These affiliations and cliques exist because none of us knows what the answers are. When the students decide to stand by Aki and against Nagara, it's because they found her argument to be more compelling. No one knows for certain if she's right, but the students certainly believe in Nagara less than they do in Aki. I can't exactly blame the students for siding against MC with the information they were given, because challenging the status quo is what creates progress, and the school has been stranded on the island far longer than they would like. Doubt and innovation can lead to brand new discoveries. Sometimes, the answers don't lie in accepting what other people think, but standing up for yourself can be scary. Nagara would rather be a scapegoat for a crime he didn't commit than risk causing a greater divide among the students. Episode 6 is all about destiny. The film reels and video editing give a brand new hope for the students. Not everyone is on-board; Hoshi still feels bound by his spiritual connection with God. Oh yeah, and God's just the principal. Nothing important, it's just the way it is. Anyways, the cinema quantum-reality displacement device (a term I just made up) gives our cast the tools to create their own story. The film reel rolling like a spool of thread can be likened to Greek mythology, namely the Sisters of Fate. And that iconography hints at the conclusion of this episode. The school board a 6-sided Ark, and set off for a literal roll of the dice. Unfortunately, fate worked against them, and Nagara lost out on the 50/50. For context, Nagara is revealed to have created This World through his power, and Mizuho was in part responsible for the duplication of her entire school. This is what God refers to when he mentions that they're copies, and this theory is proven at the end of Episode 10, when it is revealed that copies Mizuho orders with her power are immortal. To top it all off, Nozomi stops seeing the Light. Heartwrenching stuff. Episode 7 deals with submission and the resistance to change. After being captured by a coalition of other permutations of the school throughout time, Nagara finds himself in the Tower of Babel. Like its namesake in the Bible, Babel represents the hubris of man as a fruitless attempt to reach God, and is made even more pointless since the tower is building down towards the ground. It's clearly a false ideal world, and one that Nagara sees through instantly. But the people of Babel have lost all hope, submitting to even the slightest semblance of purpose in life. Change is the answer, which sees Nagara turn the world on his head and leave scot-free. (Hi, props for reading this far. As much as I'd like to keep going, my goofy ass has a paper to work on as soon as I'm done with this review. I think my point has already been made, so I'll do one more breakdown and call it there.) A highlight of the series, Episode 8 is a story about regret. It is unclear whether Yamabiko had a power similar to Nagara's and projected a whole new World for Kodama's crew to find, or if Kodama was a figment of his imagination. Either conclusion is grim. The codependency developed between Yamabiko and Kodama takes over his life, to the point where he manifests a dog, which is a statement both derogatory for humans and a sign of subservient companionship. However, refusing to make his own decisions caused the death of the entire town. His battle with regret was one that lasted several thousands of years, which particularly stung for me. War was introduced in this episode, and was shown as an outcast who was never accepted nor understood for who he was. He reappears in Ep 10, no longer flaunting his KDA badges. !~ ~~~ Why keep these details hidden? Simply put, I don't think they're essential to *Sonny* 's core message. Plus, I kinda bit off more than I could chew as a demonstration. I'm more than sure that I've missed out on at least a couple of esoteric insights. Even the stuff that I did "decipher" are guesses at best; I'm pretty sure I got a ton of the sci-fi plot devices wrong. The show's design leaves itself open to interpretation, and I've seen amazing fan theories for the details *Sonny* refuses to say out loud. But even though dissecting *Sonny* 's indirect storytelling is a major source of enjoyment for me, the same can't be said for viewers who prefer a more passive engagement with their Japanese cartoons. Thankfully, I believe that audiences don't need to work too hard in order to appreciate this series, because none of what I've mentioned within the tags really matters much in the grand scheme of things. The way these metaphors are presented will confuse any viewer, but your understanding of these ideas will not largely determine whether or not you enjoy the show. If anything, there's a case to be made for the lack of explanation actually enhancing how certain scenes play out, such as the jaw-dropping mid-season finale in Ep 6. Plus, there are plenty of individual scenes carried by brilliant execution alone, thanks to an all-round solid OST and unique visual direction. Most importantly, in contrast with the vague modern allegory discussed thus far, the heart of this show is out in the open, and poignantly so. Let's talk more about the Sonny Boy himself. ~~~ #*Sonny* follows Nagara's uplifting journey of self-acceptance. img100%(https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/jHRPAlopomYu4beLg8Do4H6xfAp.jpg) ~~~ Set to the backdrop of existential dread and socio-political unrest, Nagara's coming-of-age tale brings much-needed relatability and optimism to the series. In this manner, *Sonny* avoids turning into a nihilist counter-culture dystopia, and instead blossoms into a story of a teen finding his place in the world. Nagara enters This World alone and in low spirits. The peak of his youth sees him lying on the floor, as time quietly passes by. Sonny's never understood the world beyond his ceiling view, and his youth has grinded to an uneventful halt. But Sonny's gonna meet friends, and slowly open up to their kindness. Sonny's gonna accept that even in a world with great thinkers and superhuman idols, he has value. Sonny's gonna believe the positive affirmation of his worth by those around him. Sonny's gonna understand that he has responsibilities - things that only he can achieve, and things he should no longer run away from. Sonny's gonna grow. Sonny's gonna grow up real fast, and learn all kinds of things. He's gonna travel the world (or should I say "universe"), and meet all kinds of communities. Sonny's gonna observe what it's like to live bound by submission, manipulation, isolation, rhetoric, envy, vengeance, and regret. Sonny's gonna reject those convenient ways of life, and find meaning elsewhere. He's gonna change his habits of running away, seize the moment and move forward. He's gonna repay the kindness he received whenever his friends start to lose hope. Sonny's gonna hold his treasured memories tight to his chest, even amidst grief and setbacks in life. Finally, Sonny's gonna take all that he's learned and *run*. And maybe, just maybe, Sonny's gonna change this world. ~~~ #*Sonny* 's barrier to entry is about as sky-high as its ambitions. webm(https://i.imgur.com/otCPNV6.mp4) ~~~ I don't want to be mistaken for a gatekeeper here; if anything, this review is my attempt at begging readers to give *Sonny* a fair shot. But this written description of my time with *Sonny* doesn't really matter as much as whether or not you can make a personal connection with this series. People not resonating with *Sonny* seems to be a common case, given the number of times I've seen community comments along the lines of "I don't get it" or "Should I pick the show back up?" And I absolutely agree that *Sonny* is confusing, sometimes to its own detriment. The series frequently jumps back and forth between backstories, without any clear indication that any flashback has occurred. Unknown stretches of time elapse between episodes or even entire scenes, which certainly caused plenty of head-scratching for weekly viewers. Further frustrating is *Sonny* 's abject refusal to explain details that it deems is unimportant. Stuff can be so surreal to the point of leaving behind only a single reaction: "*Huh?* " The pseudo-science exposited in certain occasions are bound by the language barrier, justifying the fear of details getting lost in translation. And phrases that do make it in can appear cryptic and vague. All this added guesswork demands that audiences stay on their toes, while they may already be struggling to keep up with several of the series' esoteric metaphors. Even if *Sonny* 's confusion is intentional, that doesn't make it significantly less annoying. There is merit to shows that make stakes easily understood or take the time to explain what's going on, because at least it can consistently be appreciated on some level. Because this series doesn't lend itself to casual viewing, all bets are off. I simply can't guarantee that you will appreciate Sonny to the extent that fans and myself have. Furthermore, the recent letdown of *[Wonder Egg Priority](https://anilist.co/anime/124845/Wonder-Egg-Priority/)'s* conclusion probably had a part in dooming the reception of a similarly-esoteric anime-original, even if the two shows don't share many similarities aside from this comparison. Look, all I'm asking is that you give the series a chance, while knowing that there is some hidden subtext worth exploring. Probably the most disheartening reaction I've seen towards this intellectual bundle of joy is that of people disregarding *Sonny* as some *Lord of the Flies* ripoff devoid of substance, failing to recognize how this series manages to turn a somber dystopian premise into an optimistic allegory for growth and self-acceptance. I respect viewers who wish nothing more than easygoing entertainment from their anime, but *Sonny* is well-worth the extra effort. There is an order to *Sonny* 's compelling chaos, and I urge anyone interested to take up the challenge and step out of their comfort zone. Out of all the anime in 2021, no single show rewards attention, reflection, discourse or creative interpretations as much as *Sonny*. At the end of the day, I can't attest to fully understanding this show. But *Sonny* taught me that it's OK to not know everything. The series' subject matter is dense and difficult to parse through. Yet *Sonny* eludes explanation and ignites imagination, all while somehow making perfect sense. Evocative animation, powerful climaxes and an uplifting story culminate for a unique experience fit for the visual medium. It was... fun. I don't understand *Sonny Boy*. But I sure as hell am gonna keep trying to. *** ~~~ #**Tl;Dr**: img100%(https://64.media.tumblr.com/1436c882ec4e71b58950158a3b8d2942/70ed218d93790e26-89/s540x810/b91cf92a908f8a6876866c2b77f26d40043f2789.gifv) ~~~ At the core of quite possibly the strangest show this year, lies a coming-of-age tale. *Sonny Boy* revolves around finding purpose in an unfamiliar world. Social commentary marks *Sonny* 's attempts at trying to understand the world our characters inhabit. Confusion within the series is rarely cynical, since *Sonny* keeps its head high through telling the story of Nagara's growth into manhood. Shingo Natsume's direction and script make the project truly his own, resulting in some of the most brilliantly executed moments of anime this year. The complex manner in which its ideas are communicated can be daunting to reckon with. But with the animation medium being pushed to its absolute limits, viewers might find that giving this experimental series a chance may prove worthwhile. **9/10**~ *** ~~~ img100%(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/893222299262664704/unknown.png) ~~~ *[Castaways, we are castaways](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ulJu4cne6Y)...* Thanks so much for getting lost with me through this pretentious wall of text. I only hope the journey was well worth it in the end. Before I use my "Escape", you know I gotta plug! If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other [reviews](https://anilist.co/user/AnimeDweeb/reviews) for seasons past and present. I also frequently post writeups under my list updates, so definitely take a peek if you'd like to see me mald over anime as they hit the airwaves. Peace~

planetJane

img880(https://magicplanetanimedesign.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/kqc3wte.jpg?w=984) --------- ~~~All of my reviews contain __spoilers __for the reviewed material. This is your only warning.~~~ --------

Abstract art faces an inherent double standard. It must both earn its right to be non-literal in the first place, and is expected to eventually “make sense” to its audience. It’s an impossible task, to convey truths through symbolic language alone but to do so so clearly that it cannot be accused of pretension. ___Sonny Boy___ has only just ended, so it is hard to say where, eventually, it will fall, in the public consciousness. Some abstract anime are eventually acclaimed as classics, others are derided as nonsense. Either way, the series stands as one of the most compelling of the year. Enough so that simply saying such can feel rote–or even worse, dogmatic. But sometimes the reason so many people think something is interesting is simply because it genuinely is. Sonny Boy stands as a rare moment where a truly out-there piece of art has managed to capture the imagination of the public at large. Even by itself, that is a huge achievement. img880(https://i.imgur.com/kLLBKnm.jpg) On a production level alone, Sonny Boy speaks for itself. Its character designs lean more realistic than most modern TV anime, making it immediately stand out, with characters being distinguished by face shapes and so on. Its backgrounds are painterly and convey, as needed, a sense of surreality or depict vivid, natural landscapes. Accompanying all this is a bold, sharp directorial approach that knows precisely when to fully cut loose, scored by a well-curated soundtrack of synthesizer pieces, indie rock, and, sometimes, dead silence. To some point, mentioning these things at all feels like box-ticking. It is obvious from watching even any few random minutes of the series that it looks and sounds fantastic. So the big question is not one of production then, it’s one of theme. What is Sonny Boy *about?* img880(https://i.imgur.com/ZcpFDCp.jpg) In a very real sense; nothing less than our lost generation. Sonny Boy centers on a classroom of high schoolers sent, per their own words, “adrift.” References to The Drifting Classroom and Robinson Crusoe abound. The nature of the anomaly that shifts our cast from the mundanity of modern Japan into the chaotic randomness that is the Matroyshka Doll worlds-within-worlds land they end up in is never explained and is not really the point. Nor is the nature of the superpowers they get (no quirky name here, they’re just called “powers”) examined either. Sonny Boy is an exploration of what young people would do, given all the time in the universe to do it, and of the social systems that shape them into who they are. img880(https://i.imgur.com/JCdwYyL.jpg) Our ostensible main character is Nagara, a somewhat unassertive and otherwise unremarkable young man. But much of the cast get put under the microscope, always to interesting effect. Take for example Mizuho, whose principled nature clashes with the remnants of the student council. An entire early episode revolves around her unwillingness to apologize for a wrong she didn’t commit, and for this part of the series, Sonny Boy seems like it may conclude that any group of people, isolated and given enough time, will reinvent the worst aspects of the society they originally come from. But, Sonny Boy abandons this comparatively straightforward, political strain of thought early on. (Consequently, there is a certain crowd who will be displeased that the show is not an effective handbook for revolution. So it goes.) As it marches through its twelve episodes, the series becomes increasingly big-picture and existential. Political themes give way to religious ones, which finally give way to the philosophical. So whatever one might think of Sonny Boy, they absolutely cannot fault it for lack of ambition. img880(https://i.imgur.com/u7EJfxq.jpg) Because our generation (Millennials, and, increasingly as they reach majority, “Gen Z” as well) is often derided as overgrown children rather than real adults, Sonny Boy earns its right to use an all-teen cast in this scenario even more than most would, given that it is us–the literally immature, and the spiritually immature–at whom Sonny Boy is directed. It feels deliberate that the only adults in the series are respectively an imposter playing at an authority they don’t truly possess (Ms. Aki) and someone so far removed and incomprehensible to the rest of the cast that they may as well be divinity (the Principal). img880(https://i.imgur.com/u2sMZS2.jpg) In this sense, Sonny Boy is that old metaphor, a ball of confusion. If it’s sometimes hard to tell quite what’s going on, well, it’s even harder to tell what’s going on in real life. I would say “especially when you’re young”, but it’s easy to argue that part of Sonny Boy‘s core thesis is that, in the grand scheme of things, we’re *all* young. That, of course, could still feel to some like a cop-out. One might want to know what all of this is building up to. And while the series certainly settles well into a role, in its midpoint, as a mint for surreal parables of the modern age, anyone wanting a broader, singular “point” might feel a little left in the cold. img880(https://i.imgur.com/u9hIRYd.jpg) If there is an overall message, it is what the character Rajdhani states in the penultimate episode and Nagara finally internalizes in the finale. The world–all worlds–are chaos in motion, “an endless exercise in vain effort”, as Rajdhani puts it. But in this seeming meaninglessness, there is beauty. img880(https://i.imgur.com/PQ7qi7F.png) img880(https://i.imgur.com/58SxgRS.png) Call Sonny Boy, then, a treatise on optimistic nihilism. Life is, and then it isn’t. It is a hectic, meaningless thing, to hear Sonny Boy tell it. The other side of that, of course, is that that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The final words of the series, spoken by Nagara, are “Our lives are only beginning. What lies ahead will take just a little bit longer.” It’s a simple, almost prayer-like coda to a series that is otherwise anything but. Yet, a truth is a truth. Like some of its peers that have aired this year and in the recent past, all Sonny Boy asks of us is to take care of one another and do our best. All we can do is make the most of what we have, and all we have is ourselves and each other.

------------ ~~~**Notes & Disclaimers** Usage of Anilist's review feature does not constitute endorsement for Anilist as a platform, the Anilist community or any individual member thereof, or any of Anilist's policies or rules. All views expressed are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text is owned by me. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.~~~

Lenlo

~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sonny-Boy-Poster.png)~~~ Let's start this by just ripping the band aid off: *Sonny Boy* is a disappointment. Both created and directed by the acclaimed [Shingo Natsume](https://anilist.co/staff/118928/Shingo-Natsume) of *[Space Dandy](https://anilist.co/anime/20057/Space-Dandy/)*, among others, fame and animated by [Studio Madhouse](https://anilist.co/studio/11/MADHOUSE), *Sonny Boy* was well equipped to become the darling of the Summer Season. And early on its run, it appeared to be just that! Intriguing plots and characters were introduced, the world began to expand, it was engaging! But then it kept expanding. Questions kept being asked and no answers were given. Time and space became figments of our imagination and *Sonny Boy* itself seemed to forget that it was supposed to be telling a story. The whole thing quickly transformed from "Abstract exploration of growing up" to "Meandering arthouse with no idea what it wants to say". At least, that's my take on it. The purpose of this review is to explain how I got there. So lets jump in. **Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for *Sonny Boy*. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents**. ~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sonny-Boy-2.7-e1627018156364.jpg)~~~ # __~~~Visuals~~~__ First up lets talk about something positive, something that is arguably the best part of *Sonny Boy*: The visuals. I have *a lot* to say about the narrative, characters and structure of the show. But one thing I, nor anyone else, can dispute is that *Sonny Boy* looks gorgeous. I would go so far to say that, visually, it's the best looking show of the Summer 2021 season. The character designs by [Hisashi Eguchi](https://anilist.co/staff/113237/Hisashi-Eguchi) and [Norifumi Kigai](https://anilist.co/staff/120333/Norifumi-Kugai) are simple with low line counts and forgo any complex shading. But this allows [Satoshi Hashimoto](https://anilist.co/staff/135988/Satoshi-Hashimoto) to spend less time worrying about the individual characters and more focusing on the overall scene and how the colors all work together. Additionally these designs allow the animators more freedom with their work. They aren't tied down to complex models or lines, instead prioritizing movement and personality without sacrificing much in the way of accuracy. Of course with *Sonny Boy's* almost arthouse nature I doubt accuracy was all that big a concern. *Sonny Boy* routinely plays with, or outright disregards, things like perspective and space. [I'm talking about two characters having a conversation only to rotate the camera and reveal what we thought was the wall or ceiling is actually the floor.](https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/a4e495053e42f23a7a0e2605ac75dcfb.mp4) [Or overlapping objects and then using that overlap to either merge, split or duplicate them.](https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/a5004d5edba405a36a52232b202f4561.mp4) Even zooming out to show that a scene was thought was happening in one place is actually taking place in another. These all make for an incredibly interesting and engaging visual ride. And it doesn't stop there! *Sonny Boy* does so much, tries so many things, that it would be disingenuous to pretend I could explain it properly in a few paragraphs. Suffice to say if there is any reason at all to watch *Sonny Boy* it would be the visuals. It isn't perfect, often this kind of creativity butts heads with the narrative and we see that here as well. Many of the more creative or interesting shots, while beautiful, make it difficult to parse what is actually happening on screen. And if you ask me striking that balance between innovative and serviceable, of being creative and properly communicating with the viewer, is just as important as the visuals themselves. And this is something that *Sonny Boy* routinely fails at. Though how much of this is the fault of the visuals and how much the nonsensical story is something we still need to discuss. ~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sonny-Boy-10.9.jpg)~~~ #~~~__Narrative__~~~ Oh the narrative. This is where I'm going to get the most hate. This is normally where I would give a synopsis of the show, maybe talk about the setup, the payoffs and where it goes. But that's kind of the issue with *Sonny Boy*. It doesn't go anywhere, it doesn't payoff anything. To put it simply: *Sonny Boy's* story and characters are absolutely atrocious. I mean legitimately terrible, like the writers had no idea what they wanted to do. It might as well not even exist for how relevant it is to what is happening on screen! It's like Shingo Natsume had a lot he wanted to say, so much that he couldn't fit it into a single anime, and then he went and did it anyway. Like he had no one there to tell him "No, stop, this is to much pull back". At it's core *Sonny Boy* is a coming of age story for Nagara and his class. It's about growing up in an uncertain world and finding your place in it. Exploring different communities, meeting new people both good and bad, and literally exploring the "universe" AKA the world around you. It does this in two halves: The first half is a more linear and straightforward story of the whole class while the second is effectively a series of vignettes, smaller stories that are independent of each other but meant to connect back to a larger narrative. As far as ideas go, this is great! I love coming of age stories and anthology series can be good fun! But where *Sonny Boy* falls short, and by short I mean face plants into the dirt, is in linking these stories into something greater. Hint: It doesn't. After the halfway point *Sonny Boy* begins to go wild. Every episode introduces a new idea, new information, new characters, new plot threads. It tries to explore ideas like war, governing, loss, *the unfullfiling existence of a Salaryman in a corporate hellscape designed to trap everyone in slave labor*. You know... regular stuff. And some of these are pretty good! I actually really enjoyed the Salaryman story, it was my favorite episode of the show, and the others had good ideas of their own. But the issue is that once an episode is over, *Sonny Boy* no longer cares about it or its message. The threads become abandoned, the characters forgotten, the "story" moving ever forward to the "next idea". And that's *Sonny Boy's* biggest problem for me. It never finishes or fleshes out anything. It's content to throw them on the screen and say "Think about it". Some may say that this is intentional, that this is the point. That *Sonny Boy* is only introducing ideas for the viewer to think about and come to their own conclusions. But nothing *Sonny Boy* tries to talk about goes beyond Philosophy 101. They can't! Because *Sonny Boy* doesn't spend enough time on any of them to really flesh them out beyond that point. As an example: Midway through the show half the class leaves for what is, effectively, the military. They go through boot camp, get medals and ranks and eventually end their service. This is a good idea! However we only get glimpses of this throughout the show. We never explore what their time was like, we never get to experience the writers opinion on the subject or get asked uncomfortable questions about the military industrial complex. We are simply shown... that it exists. And that's boring. Of course the problems don't stop there. *Sonny Boy* asks more questions than it ever answers. Who or what is the Principle? Mrs. Aki? What happened to Hoshi, Cap, etc? Some may say that we aren't supposed to know. That the answers to these questions aren't the point. To that I say "Maybe to you". But for me, and many others, *Sonny Boy's* refusal to even attempt to tell a proper story is frustrating and makes for an ultimately unpleasant experience. Chekhov's Gun, foreshadowing, red herring, etc. These things exist for a reason. And claiming "Avant Garde" is not a defense for failing to use even the most rudimentary of story telling techniques. I just wish that someone was there to tell Natsume "Slow down". Because as it is *Sonny Boy* is an inconsiderate mess for anyone but the most dedicate of fans to figure out. ~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Sonny-Boy-4.9.jpg)~~~ #~~~__Characters__~~~ This brings me to the characters who have been left adrift at sea with no story to actually work through. Where does that leave them? In a bad place I'm afraid. *Sonny Boy* does very little with its characters. Or should I say it does very little that is *satisfying* with them. Asakaze, Hoshi, Nagara, Nozomi, each of them have their stories. They have one-off episodes that focus on them of course. But like the rest of the story these are generally abandoned as the narrative continues its unending march towards new ideas. Rather than finishing any of these characters in a satisfactory way *Sonny Boy* is instead constantly introducing new ones every week. Giving us mediocre episodic character bits that are supposed to in some way reflect on our leads but rarely actually does so. The one exception to this for me would be Mizuho. Mizuho is the only character who I think gets an actual arc. The rest are either like Nagara, in that their "arc" largely happens offscreen or in abstract terms, or like Raj, who doesn't have an arc at all. She starts the story a selfish, spoilt brat who must be taken care of by others. But as *Sonny Boy* progresses we see that change. Her relationship with her cats shifts, she begins to be the one taking care of them, etc etc. Compare that to Nagara who starts and ends the story as a wet blanket who puts the breaks on any scene he is in. Like... there's no kind way to put this: I didn't care about or become invested in a single member of *Sonny Boy's* cast. And that's damning to a show like this. There's so much more I could say about *Sonny Boy's* cast. That most of them are a detriment to the story, never giving only taking. That the show itself doesn't seem to care about them. How Raj apparently had a far more interesting journey on the side that I would much rather have watched but we never got to. But to go on for paragraphs pointing out every issue with ever half-baked character in this show would just make this a rant so I'm going to cut it off with this: A character drama that cannot get it's viewers invested in its characters has failed at the most basic level. And that's what *Sonny Boy* has done. None of the big reveals or twists, none of the backstories, not a single thing moved an emotion in me beyond "Why am I watching this". And that's not ok. ~~~youtube(https://youtu.be/WpSFluMQ_ME)~~~ #~~~__OST/Sound Design__~~~ Finally this brings me back to something positive, the audio and OST portion of our chat. The music at least, worked on by more people and groups than I can list, is good. The freedom allowed to *Sonny Boy* may have cursed its narrative but it has allowed something great here. There is just so much... *variety* in *Sonny Boy's* music that I can't help but be impressed. From the adventurous and active ["Summer Storm"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpSFluMQ_ME&t=250s) to the haunting yet elegant ["Judgement"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpSFluMQ_ME&t=3938s). The smooth drums and flute of ["Soft Oversight"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpSFluMQ_ME&t=2142s) to what is almost psychedelia in ["Let There Be Light Again"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpSFluMQ_ME&t=913s). There are even songs that change genre's mid-track like ["Tune from Diamond"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpSFluMQ_ME&t=443s) or the 10 minute epic that is ["Yamabiko's Theme"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpSFluMQ_ME&t=1310s). Seriously just give it a listen. For all that I have, and will continue to, slam the narrative I can't help but recognize this OST as a good one. Meanwhile the VA and sound design in *Sonny Boy* is nothing to scoff at either. Of course I'm no sound engineer so I can't appreciate the finer points of the work. But what I can say is that throughout the series I was never taken out of the moment by how it sounded. Part of this is no doubt due to the abstract and unique nature of *Sonny Boy* as a show. There aren't many sounds that would be out of place in such a wild premise. However the fact remains, whether it be the soft-spoken nature of many of the characters, the roaring of a fire or the otherworldly stillness of war *Sonny Boy* always managed to find just the right sound to fill the space. And for all that I've ripped into it above I can at least give credit where it's due. ~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sonny-Boy-10.6.jpg)~~~ #~~~__But its "Art"__~~~ And with that we are done with the review proper leaving only this final, personal, section to go. This has absolutely nothing to do with the score or any one section of the show. This is entirely me ranting about my experience with *Sonny Boy* without regard for spoilers, propriety or anything else. It has absolutely no bearing on the final score. If that's all you care about, feel free to skip! But if you want into my head space for a bit read on! ~!So yeah... What the hell is this show? I've seen many people call it "art", "avant garde" or "abstract". Arguing everything from "You can't judge art" to "You're not supposed to get it" and "You're just not smart enough". And yet no matter the analysis I read or watch, no matter how many discussions I sit through, none of them change one thing: I didn't enjoy *Sonny Boy*. It failed at the most basic of tasks for a series. It failed to properly communicate with the viewer. I don't care what ideas you have, you could write the greatest philosophical treatise known to man, solve all of our problems in 100 pages or less. But if you write the whole thing in Wingdings and no one can read or understand it... did you actually write anything of value? I would say no, you did not. Thats the crux of the issue for me with *Sonny Boy*. That the you convey an idea is just as important as the idea itself. And *Sonny Boy* gave 0 consideration to that. It was content to spout philosophy at its viewer without rime or reason, without a care in the world for if people watching caught it. Like the scribblings of a madman, it wrote on the walls like it was the only one that mattered. And you know what? If Shingo Natsume enjoyed it, if he is happy with his work, then good on him. If he is satisfied with what he has created then nothing I say can or should change that. But don't expect me or anyone else to care. I'm not saying that series have to spell things out. Leaving nothing up to the viewer at all can be just as bad although for different reasons. But there's a sweet spot there between "Dry and dull" and "Ravings of a lunatic". There is a balance you must strike. One where you introduce the audience to the ideas. Where you convey your own feelings without demanding the audience think the same way you do. And in doing so you prompt them to think about their own answers to those ideas. If half of your audience can't even understand the idea your trying to convey... what are you doing? Do you want this to be some esoteric work where everyone has their own understanding of what it means, fighting over the one truth? Or do you want to actually connect with them in any kind of meaningful way? Of course there is another half to this argument: That your story must be interesting and engaging. The sad truth is that if you want people to stick with and watch with their full attention all the way through, the story you are telling has to stand up on its own merits. Independent of whatever philosophy you are trying to peddle. If your story fails at that most basic of tasks, then no one is going to watch it. If they wanted dry pseudo-philosophy they would have just read a textbook or scrolled through Wikipedia. And this is the other part where I think *Sonny Boy* failed. It never bothered to create a story to go along with the ideas it wanted to convey. Instead it just lazily slapped something on top and called it a day. And that's not something I can forgive.!~ ~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sonny-Boy-2.1-e1627018237639.jpg)~~~ #~~~__Conclusion__~~~ All in all I can't help but view *Sonny Boy* as a disappointment. I had a lot of hope going into it, I thought that the premise was great and the visuals fascinating. But as *Sonny Boy* went on and on and on... I realized it was never going to do anything. That none of the threads would ever come back together. That it had no intention of telling an actual, complete story and was more interested in rambling away through a bunch of vignettes. If that's your thing, go to town! There are a lot of reasons to enjoy *Sonny Boy*. But if you're like me and you like something... substantive out of your anime? Steer clear. Because *Sonny Boy* will leave you unfulfilled and wishing you had spent your time watching something with a bit more meat on its bones.

Santt

~~~__Considerações iniciais__~~~ ~~~Essa _review_ é desprovida de _spoilers_, mas sempre recomendo assistirem ao anime em questão antes de lerem o texto.~~~ ~~~(Tempo de leitura: 6 minutos)~~~ ----- ~~~__Sinopse / Introdução__~~~ ~~~Uma escola inteira junto com todos os alunos que nela estavam presentes foram, misteriosamente, transportados para dimensões desconhecidas. Ao chegarem em tais dimensões, os alunos receberam poderes que diferem de um para outro. Com o objetivo de sobreviver nas adversidades impostas pelas dimensões, os alunos também tentam descobrir o motivo de estarem ali e de como sair de lá.~~~ ----- __~~~Enredo~~~__ ~~~Muito possivelmente você que está lendo isso já imaginou a escola inteira indo parar em outro mundo, não é mesmo? E quem nunca pensou em parar o tempo na sala de aula, hein? (rsrsrs). Digo isso porque também tive pensamentos assim enquanto estava no ensino fundamental e médio. Enfim, "Sonny Boy" veio com essa ideia que, como está na sinopse, os estudantes de uma escola são jogados em outras dimensões, dando a eles poderes e fazendo com que sobrevivam e que encontrem o motivo de estarem lá e a forma de saírem. Parece uma ideia simples pensada por alguém que está no 9º ano do ensino fundamental, mas "Sonny Boy" complicou isso de formas impensáveis por aqueles que apenas se interessaram pelo anime por causa da sinopse que remete a uma fantasia que vários já imaginaram. Fundamentalmente, o anime tem esse objetivo, mas com o decorrer dos episódios, as coisas apresentadas por ele ficam bem complicadas. Vou direto ao ponto, ao meu ver, "Sonny Boy" incrementa sua narrativa principal com elementos relacionados a discursões sobre diversos assuntos que são relevantes para a sociedade do mundo real. Por exemplo, um caso que lembro bem é do episódio onde há uma discursão sobre macacos e beisebol, onde ao meu ver, para evitar _spoilers_, é algo que pode ser associado a alguém que vai contra um sistema. Esse não é o único caso que a obra faz discursões sobre assuntos relacionados a sociedade, todos os outros episódios remetem a algo assim. Porém, o anime não é tão objetivo quanto eu vir aqui e falar minha compreensão sobre tal episódio. As coisas são muito sutis e cheia de entrelinhas, o que faz o telespectador se perder qual o objetivo de tantos diálogos. Grande parte para as coisas serem tão complexas não está só nos diálogos, mas também pela forma como a direção visual colabora com as vagas ideias impostas. E aqui chegamos a outro ponto importante sobre as discursões do anime, que como ele próprio fala, os "Este Mundo". As dimensões, ou os "Este Mundo", a qual os personagens são transportados possuem diversas características, fazendo com que as peculiaridades dos "Este Mundo" sejam usadas como um artifício do assunto abordado nos episódios. Então, sempre que há uma discursão sobre os demasiados temas, as dimensões meio que complementam de alguma forma na abordagem, fazendo com que suas peculiaridades, como por exemplo um precipício sem fim, seja uma referencia e dê alusão aos assuntos a serem tratados. Outro ponto importante são os poderes que os personagens adquirem. Além de também serem artifícios usados principalmente para dar alusão a certos temas, ao meu ver, os poderes estão mais relacionados com o desenvolver dos personagens. ----- ~~~~~~__Personagens__~~~~~~ Por ser uma obra que envolve escola e com isso vários estudantes, é normal de se pensar que estarão presentes diversos personagens, e é exatamente disso que se trata. Em obras assim, lidar com uma gama de personagens é um tanto quanto difícil, mas "Sonny Boy" entrega um resultado bem positivo, já que aqui os personagens introduzidos são bem apresentados, seja por uma pequena participação ou algo mais longo. O anime se centra mais em certos personagens, principalmente no protagonista. Dependendo do episódio e o tema abordado, outros personagens vão receber um pouco mais de atenção. Digo que dependendo dos episódios porque também vai depender do tema a ser tratado, já que certos personagens junto a suas personalidades e poderes também são usados para incorporar as discussões. Então, meio que desenvolver certo individuo também tem relação com tais temas. Mas certamente, o personagem principal, Nagara, é o centro das atenções. Ele é o segundo ponto mais importante da obra junto a narrativa social presente no enredo. Os eventos decorrentes da história influenciam ele. Digo isso porque, com o passar dos episódios, as coisas vão se encaixando, e dá para se ter uma noção de que fundamentalmente essa também é uma história sobre o ser do Nagara. Portanto, acredito que os personagens sejam bem aproveitados aqui. Em certos episódios, quando não é necessários terem relação com o tema principal, eles são mais esquecidos, e isso se mantem em alguns outros episódios. Os principais estão sempre mais interligados e envolvidos com o tema central.~~~ ----- ~~~__Animação / Produção __~~~ ~~~Dirigido pela grandiosíssimo Shingo Natsume (que também é o criador original do anime) e produzido no estúdio MADHOUSE, "Sonny Boy" esbanja uma boa produção visual. O anime tem um estilo um tanto quanto peculiar, e que se encaixou bem com a atmosfera da obra. Além dos momentos bem animados, acredito que o ponto mais forte nesse quesito seja a forma como se é utilizado os ângulos de câmera. São ângulos bem providos de criatividade e que se encaixam perfeitamente no contexto da cena. A forma criativa de como a produção lidou com as gigantes peculiaridades das dimensões também é algo a serem bem vistas. Quanto a trilha sonora... bem, não tenho muito o que falar, já que o anime é 95% do tempo sem quaisquer tipo de melodia, sendo desses 5%, 3% vem da música dos finais dos episódios. Essa carência de trilha sonora pode estar relacionada a forma narrativa do anime. Então, não há muito o que falar, apenas que ela é usada aqui e ali, e quando se é usado, são boas faixas. ~~~ ----- ~~~__Conclusão __~~~ ~~~Concluindo, "Sonny Boy" é complexo. Cheio de diálogos e utilizando de diversos artifícios visuais, o anime sempre entra em discursões sobre temas bem importantes para a sociedade atual e até mesmo temas que podem vir a ser discutidos no futuro, junto com o "descobrimento" do protagonista. A forma como a narrativa lida com isso é extremamente vaga e cheia de sacadas que, para muitos, muitas vezes não se dá para entender por completo. Muitas vezes, eu mesmo não fiquei tão fissurado para tentar entender qual era a discursão de tal episódio, e também há as discursões em que prestei mais atenção, mas não entendi por completo. A junção desses elementos de difícil encaixe acaba por fazer a experiência de um individuo cair muito, como é o meu caso. Reconheço todas as ideias que a obra tentou impor sobre as discursões geradas, mas muitas das vezes elas me deixaram desinteressado e bem entediado. Essa questão vai muito de pessoa para pessoa, por isso deixo aqui minha opinião: se você estiver disposto a se adentrar a uma narrativa lenta e cheio de quebra-cabeça, "Sonny Boy" é perfeito para você. Agora para aqueles que foram assistir achando que veriam a galera lutar, aqui não é um bom lugar.~~~ ----- ~~~__Considerações finais__~~~ ~~~Obrigado por ler até aqui. Sinta-se à vontade para comentar qualquer coisa referente a essa review, seja positiva ou negativa, sou muito aberto quanto a isso. Para comentar, irei fazer um post aqui no AniList falando dessa review em específico.~~~

BeatleJews

~~~img500(https://atamashi.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/sonnyboyyy-1024x683.png)~~~ __~~~A VARIETY OF SPOILERS WILL BE DISCUSSED IN THIS REVIEW, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.~~~__ --------- Trying to make sense out this show is quite frankly one of the most intense challenges to my intellect I have ever received from any anime, movie or whatever work of art. However, there’s a certain charm to this show that keeps dragging me in like an angler fish luring its next prey into the depths of the ocean. Sonny Boy is a show that ever since it started airing has been compared to other works of literature, namely The Lord of the Flies, taking in consideration how the apparently simple premise of a group of people in isolation paves the way to a game of survival in which the union of forces seems like the only way out of the predicament. I can see why people would make this assumption and expect the show to develop a certain way until the very end. However, these same people are in for a trip involving deep sociological, philosophical and, hell, even religious themes brushed upon on this 12 episode long show, that, if it had strived for a more mainstream audience maybe wouldn’t have garnered as much interest from me as from many others that keep finding themselves intrigued with Sonny Boy. I would be lying if I said that I understand every single detail about the logic and rules that are thrown at our faces on almost every episode. To be honest, I find that this constant inclusion of cryptic and dense “lore” in addition to an already intricate train of events can work to the detriment of the show. Being a show so avant-garde, trying to make sense of the singular events and how are interconnected to make it a cohesive whole in the mind of the audience is a task that can be next to impossible. But then again, maybe the whole point of the show is not to try and make sense of this world of chaos our characters find themselves adrift in. All this said, I’d like to maybe point out the larger themes that stick out to me and the ones that drive the whole narrative of the show in my opinion. Please note that all of these statements I’m about to make are nothing but opinions and conjectures aimed at making sense of this absolute mindfuck. I do not pretend to make a review stating what this show is trying to convey objectively speaking, these are only my opinions and you are free to agree with them or not. ~~~__THE PREMISE:__~~~ The show starts with the already established premise of the students of a highschool being sent adrift into a world, at first glance devoid of any sense and logic. Right from the get go, we get to see how all the students are quick to organize themselves and select among them a leader that will lead them through the crisis and work towards the ultimate goal of returning to reality. All this said makes it sound like quite the democratic process, but in reality it goes more along the lines of the members of the student council simply organizing a group and more or less forcing everyone else to work and collaborate under them. It's also important to mention that some lucky few of these students have been granted equally absurd, complex and sometimes straight up broken powers through which they can either assert dominance or provide assistance in sustaining the order that has been imposed by the members of the student council. Hoshi which is the mastermind behind this system is one of the lucky few, being granted the power to listen to voice of god. Right from the get go we see how all of the students find themselves either resisting the newly established hierarchy or, as is mostly the case, passively cooperating with it. Among those students there’s our protagonist, Nagara, your typical antisocial highschooler who tries to live a life as unremarkable as is his character design, I’ll get back to this later. In stark contrast to Nagara’s outsider personality we have Mizuho’s more stronger-willed character and Nozomi’s optimistic outlook no matter the circumstances. And it’s precisely these 3 that have the biggest differences with Hoshi’s new status quo. We are also introduced to the curious and wise info-dump character Rajdani; but don’t let my description of him make you think he’s just that. He’s the biggest MVP in the entire show and no one should tell me otherwise. Moving on in the events of the show (or during the rest of the first half for that matter) we keep observing the development of the theme of social hierarchy and how to the rule of the majority tends to treat all the outcasts, and people that decide to go against the current. Sonny Boy doesn’t even shy away from treating this whole dynamic of social order and adapt it to the world of religion. You may remember that I said Hoshi has the power to listen to the voice of god; and gives foundation to his leadership almost exclusively on this fact, assuring the rest of the students that as long as they follow his lead, they will be kept safe. It would be safe to say that Hoshi is playing the role of a Messiah that is working towards the salvation of his people. Sonny Boy more or less keeps this thematic train going during most of the first half of the show. We can see how with some differences among them, they are trying their best to get out of their situation and finally return to their home, reality, _their world_. However, we can also see the deepening gap between the real objectives of this two factions. As in: basically all of the students versus Nagara, Mizuho, Nozomi and Rajdani. Episode 6 brings this entire situation to a head when Nagara and company finally “find” a feasible way to return to their world much to the amusement of the rest of the students led by Hoshi. Hoshi, playing the role of messiah that he is, tries to convince Nagara and the rest, that resisting what has already being written was futile and it was a better to just let themselves be guided by their fate. Nagara, with the support of his friends defends his plan by saying that passively playing along just because the future is already set in stone was no reason to stop trying to make a change; that is, to appeal to the roll of the dice that is the concept of fate/destiny. This mid-season finale brings to the table some major plot twists about the true nature of our cast being sent adrift, lest we forget, with the accustomed metaphorical screenwriting. The second of half of this show is where most of the audience, including myself, start scratching our heads bald; and with good reason. This second half can only be described as more artistically personal, with many self-condensed vignettes, through the use of religious references like the Tower of Babel, the philosophical concept of the duality of human consciousness and lastly the chaotic nature of life. I am aware that all these big words can even pass off as pretentious or “too deep for you”, and, to a certain extent; they are. However, this is the part where the subjective tastes of the viewer come into play. I personally find the narrative of these entire show to be a breath of fresh air to the anime industry, even though I can understand why people will find this anime to be a senseless mashup of avant-garde trash. But I digress. Skipping a little ahead to the final episodes of the show, I think I could make up what could perhaps be one of the core messages of the show: The concept of life never has and never will have an implicit meaning or value to it, the role of giving it a meaning, a purpose to our lives, and, by extension, our chaotic world; depends exclusively on the individual. Rajdani as the MVP and class-A chad that he is puts this very succinctly on episode 11 just before Nagara along with Mizuho are about to return to their world. The way I came to this conclusion and the reason I think this major theme ties in nicely to the rest of the show goes as follows: Nagara is the focal point to this, as he clearly is a character that lacks a “north” in his life, walking along lacking a purpose, a road to follow. We can see how deep down he feels anxiety about this fact, but at the same time not doing a single thing to break through. This feeling of despair and apathy is what metaphorically speaking sets him adrift, in a world ruled by the nonsensical. This is the part where the sociological themes of the first half start making sense, at least to me. You see, a major part of how societies work comes from giving each individual member a reason to be, a goal to strife for. Nevertheless, the issue with this, as the show tries to explain, especially in the Tower of Babel episode, is that people who are desperate to have a purpose in life will probably just resign themselves to work for a meaningless cause not caring about this fact, justifying their decisions by saying that its “either this or being completely lost”. I think my point is further proven when after it is revealed through the Principal that the students cannot return to their world. Many of them simply give up on their goal and yield to their so called fate and continue traversing through worlds _per sæcula sæculorum_. Moreover, leaving Nagara, Nozomi and Mizuho to do as they please. Before I start talking about more technical aspects of the show (as they deserve an equal amount of praise as everything else mentioned earlier), I’d like lastly bring to the table, one of Rajdani’s conversations with Mizuho in episode 11. I am talking about the one where he describes a world inhabited only by its master, the appearance of that world, Rajdani said; was heavily affected by how the master’s memories interpreted it. This apparently solitary world eventually changes drastically when Rajdani sees the figure of a woman he could only asume was the master’s girlfriend. This girl was depicted with a stunning beauty. Rajdani then proceeds to use one of his mcguffins, to see through the clouded interpretation of the master’s memories and look at the girl for how she was in reality. Turns out, she wasn’t as pretty as the memories would make you believe, the same could be applied to all the world surrounding our storyteller. Rajdani concludes this story by telling Mizuho that the master had let himself be fooled by a faulty interpretation of reality, in fact; he went as far as to say that the master had rejected the reality of his eyes after his girlfriend confronted him on the same issue. This story, in my opinion, goes to prove the end result of people who don’t want to accept the true nature of our world; and instead, prefer to get lost in a world of fantasy that suits our prejudices. __~~~CHARACTERS, VISUALS, SOUND DESIGN, etc…~~~__ This show is carried by a lot of things, and all the things mentioned in the title above are on top of that list. I loved how Sonny Boy hardly plays into any stereotypes and tropes that we are all but used to at this point in the anime industry. ~~~__CHARACTERS:__~~~ In my opinion, they look and behave pretty much as any other highschooler would behave in real life. Their dialogues come off as natural and appropriate for the level of maturity they should have. My favorite characters were Nagara, Nozomi, Mizuho and Rajdani. Nagara, being the protagonist is a character who’s goals develop thanks to his interactions with his friends. Mizuho, even though on the surface seems to be a straight-forward no-nonsense person, deep down she is someone that desperately needs to be taken care of, and funnily enough also has a clear determination to protect those she considers dear, case in point, being her cats. Lastly, Nozomi is quite literally Nagara’s compass to find himself and get back on his feet when his problems both internal and external start beating him to the ground. I also want to make the honorable mention of Yamabiko, the character who the traces some very curious parallels with Nagara’s taking in consideration how in his backstory episode he had silently allowed metaphorically speaking, the world around him to crumble thanks to his apathy and lack of decisiveness when it was most needed. img(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fzzmlpNsvFQ/YQ1VnLEXhEI/AAAAAAAACco/Ck3ZHmjXz2EAJkNypoqShfRzbcSzvvXigCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/Screenshot%2B%2528187%2529.png) IMG(https://i.gyazo.com/d4c993e9064d51d8208ed212919ee4e8.gif) ~~~__VISUALS:__~~~ Sonny Boy is quite possibly the most aesthetically pleasing anime of year; Madhouse has proved itself once more why they have always been one of the most acclaimed animation studios in the industry. With character designs coming from the hand of Hisashi Eguchi (Perfect Blue, Roujin Z), they all have a vintage, realistc and simple yet appealing appearance that characterizes Eguchi’s other works. The animation department did nothing less than a miracle with the straight up painting-like shots, that would make any surrealist painter blush out of admiration. Later on in the show, this aspect is even more prevalent as the show itself takes a turn down philosophy alley and the visual style and direction work in conjunction as a means to represent the metaphorical significance of some scenes. ~~~img(https://animeiroiro.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/sonny-boy-ep-08-capa.jpg) img(https://i.gyazo.com/80214a0c1054ba4392ac1ff126ae5de5.png) img(https://i.gyazo.com/8aa14f42a3adcfe0d1a669ef81cda10a.gif) ~~~ __~~~SOUND DESIGN:~~~__ Sonny Boy was a show that had a very sober catalogue in the soundtrack department, probably to not let the music distract the viewer from the crazy stuff that happened every second. But, __BY GOD__, did it deliver when we had music. Most of the time the music was relegated to play in conjunction with the visual storytelling and let the viewer be absorbed by the atmosphere. The ending was also a Bop. 10/10. ~~~__CONCLUSIONS:__~~~ Time to wrap up, what could possibly my longest review to date. I just want to conclude by saying that Sonny Boy is not a show that lets itself be judged at face value. This show demands quite the attention span from the viewer and even then, it is not guaranteed that one will come out at the other end with the complete picture. As I pointed out before in this review, the extremely metaphorical and symbolical nature of its narrative made this show perhaps a little too difficult to follow. As of the date of writing of this review I have rewatched this show once before the emission of the last episode in hopes of catching up on some details, and I did catch on some minor things but maybe not enough to feel like I have finally “cracked the code” so to speak. With all its quirks and weirdness, Sonny Boy is undeniably one of the most unique shows that have come out in recent years; Its handling of some very deep psychological and philosophical themes in concert with one of the best animation and musical works I’ve seen in my life are executed remarkably. Nothing describes more the final message of this show in my opinion than what develops between Nagara and Nozomi once they first meet in the real world; even though they had made each other the promise of becoming friends, once reality sets in, and Nagara tries to reach out to her she just treats him in a manner so casual that comes off as extremely anticlimactic to both our protagonist and to the audience. But Nagara now knows better; they may have been friends while being adrift; but reality isn’t as forgiving, the randomness of life has played a trick on him. Perhaps it is time for him to start walking towards the light once again. ~~~img(https://i.gyazo.com/6371c1978f9e447cdfb172cf53a6c23c.png)~~~

osmak66

# __Sonny Boy__ Ngl it was a bit confusing to follow at the start, but sticking through the episodes - while savouring the visuals and music - really makes seeing the ending worth it all. Enjoy the ride this show has to offer :D Also u really cant go wrong with an anime that's got Mr Kenjirou Tsuda's voice, doggo's probably got the best side story of the show. __I'm going to do my best to not give out any spoilers UwU: __ The anime touches upon a lot aspects that people usually go through, of course in some cases they are a bit exaggerated, but in essence you can really relate to what's going on in the show. Whether its people turning on one another, how society deals with certain individuals, or even how small actions in your own eyes, can hold greater meaning to someone else. With a typical 12 episode anime you do feel at the start that it is a bit rushed, if you blink at the wrong moment you might miss something important. But don't mind that, because in the very end the story concludes in a very concise, easy to follow, (in my opinion the most important thing --->) and realistic manner. img220(https://i.imgur.com/wDcVFyp.jpeg) img220(https://i.imgur.com/Q3dygDL.jpeg) Some of the character relations that develop during the show honestly don't make too much sense to, but I believe this is just because of the nature of Japanese culture (I might be also just living in my own bubble). But at the very least I appreciate how the relationships are evolving throughout the show, there isn't a simple bad person or good person, it really goes a lot deeper than that. Each individual has their ideals, which you learn about, and has their own "reference point" in life that can give you a hint at why they are acting a certain way - or perceiving certain things. I've personally learnt to be more conscious about my actions when dealing with others, this anime really shows how not giving the time of day to an individual can have some serious domino effects, such as going on the weirdest trip of your life ;) I might be completely talking nonsense __uwu__ ~~and trying to fill the minimum character count of the review~~, but never the less I really think you should at least give this show a shot, and try to see it through :D This show is a visual masterpiece, accompanied by some simple but befitting songs, that really take you on the best trip of your life. The way the typical outro song of the episodes is adapted at the end of the show, it really sends home the emotional message that the show is trying to give out to the audience. img220(https://i.imgur.com/r3vnytp.jpeg) img220(https://i.imgur.com/cofIwEu.jpeg) ><3 A lot of life lessons to learn from this show <3

Nocchi

# Sonny Boy: Surrealism Lost in Itself [Spoiler-Free Review] Sonny Boy is drama, mystery, sci-fi anime in the summer 2021 catalog produced by studio Mad House with a surreal and abstract premise that is incredibly immersive. img220(https://images-geeknative-com.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/19013445/sonny-boy-poster.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&w=697&ssl=1&is-pending-load=1) The series begins as a survivorship struggle that intensifies into an internal conflict before evolving into a general battle of one's self determining their meaning of life as being able to return to their original world becomes increasingly more difficult to do. It premieres a large and intriguing cast of students with diverse and unique supernatural abilities that dictate natural phenomena itself (i.e. the ability to instantly change one's setting from the world they reside in to another world, or to create replicas of objects that exist in their original world), rather than act as part of natural phenomena (i.e the ability to manipulate elements, universal forces, or matter). The surreal experiences the students undergo as they continuingly influence the sporadically changing reality around them provoke the viewer's curiosity as it becomes clear that everything, including the laws of the universe and concept itself, can be altered. img220(https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sonny-Boy-02-28.jpg) A compelling story concept equipped with a creative, raw animation and an absent soundtrack that can drive the feeling of being lost and isolated along with the experience of determining one's meaning of life, Sonny Boy has the capacity to unveil itself as the best anime of summer 2021. However, following the airing of the series, many flaws that drastically hinder the story from being cohesive and impactful arise. img220(https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/ll8YvMWNMi5xDkP4V9Mt755zy3M.jpg) The first flaw that quickly develops is the characterization. Something that frequently appears in animes with large casts is the lack of characterization. Especially for animes with a season of only twelve episodes, many series lack adequate characterization as often times, because of the story direction, the characterization of the cast is cherry-picked to compensate for the limited screen-time. Consequently, a majority of the cast for a series feel irrelevant to the plot, insignificant to the impact of the writing, and even downright boring. The main characters in Sonny Boy receive interesting, adequate characterization in the start of the series as the plot builds up with its story direction, but quickly after the first four episodes, it becomes obvious that the main characters other than Nagara, Nozomi, and Mizuho have very loose characterization, especially the side characters, who are negligible and matter only to remind the constantly forgettable understanding that the cast drifted from their original world as a group rather than a select few. img220(https://i0.wp.com/anitrendz.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Sonny-Boy-KV-Cropped.jpg?w=1522&ssl=1) The second flaw that builds up throughout the series is the overambitious surrealism. With the highly ambiguous surrealism that Sonny Boy begins with, it builds up to the point where, following the shift in plot due to a plot twist, the surrealism becomes largely confusing, and at its worst, nonsensical. All the phenomena shown after that point undermines the feel of the surrealism introduced in the beginning of the series, especially as the plot twist vaguely introduces three new characters, which widens the scope of the story from trying to return home to existentialism itself. As a result, all the mind-blowing surrealism demonstrated at the start of the series up until the plot twist weakens in impact as the series continues, until it loses all impact, making the seemingly-living reality around the cast feel as a simple, poorly made virtual reality. With the story direction that the plot attempts to follow after the plot twist, the surreal phenomena becomes entirely unnecessary to the plot and the cast's abilities, making things happening for the sake of them happening. img220(https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Sonny-Boy-07-31.jpg) The third flaw that arises in Sonny Boy, as an unintended consequence of the progressively hindered writing throughout the series, is the animation and absent soundtrack. With the plot direction and unimpactful, many times boring writing in later episodes, the animation, of especially interesting surrealism, comes across as bland. Along with the absent soundtrack, many later episodes feel like nothing is really happening as there is no soundtrack to drive any of the lackluster drama. img220(https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sonny-Boy-02-20.jpg) To end this review, Sonny Boy starts off as a thought-provoking, riveting series with writing that can surpass the boundaries of its premise, but with a mostly insufficient, boring cast and weak emotional impact due to extremely inadequate characterization, confusing, nonsensical, and incoherent plot development due to overambitious surrealism, and creative, raw animation and absent soundtrack that unintentionally deepen how boring the series rather than how interesting it is due to its writing. If you're someone like me, who enjoys completing anime, even if I did not enjoy much or at all the series, then the beginning of Sonny Boy will have you on the edge of your seat. If you're someone who only enjoys watching the good parts of an anime, or drops anime after not enjoying the series for a majority of its season, then I'd recommend watching episodes 1 - 3, episode 6, and episode 12. What rose as the potential anime of the season, and even anime of the year, ended up falling to a disappointing anime where I thought more about what the series could have done better than what the series did good. I score Sonny Boy with a 5/10 img220(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.609262b41604ec509cbcd80e314d3edc?rik=4qh9TptTlIFq9Q&riu=http%3a%2f%2fwebbiesworld.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2021%2f07%2fdsdfsfgdsf.gif&ehk=cszuSjwo5tAFR8YFfXDNitvTsc9tfX6OR%2fOoJbI3kz4%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)

ZNote

__SPOILER-FREE!__ At the start of my [_Vision of Escaflowne_](https://youtu.be/vVgg7neoS8o) review, I talked briefly about how ideally, one would not have to worry about constraints upon their work, be it from budgetary issues, an undertrained staff, tight deadlines, or any other reason one could come up with. Especially in the anime industry, where so much content is produced that animators, writers, and others find themselves so frequently pushed to the brink, a show coming along that breaks free of those things is too rare an opportunity. So, when the opportunity DOES present itself, it will, on some level, gain attention. _Sonny Boy_ was perhaps the most-unique work within the Summer 2021 anime season. The series’ director, Matsume Shingo, was effectively given full creative control over the work. He wrote it, was able to choose his own staff, and was essentially given near-complete creative freedom. Such a privilege comes with its own risks, of course. Falling in love with your own passion project that it runs away with itself, or that it becomes increasingly incoherent as it goes on are classic problems. Unique also does not automatically translate to good. But when an opportunity like Sonny Boy appears, one must hold their breath and pray. ____ A group of students and their school have been transported from their world to another world where there is seemingly nothing there but a black void. Among these students are the quiet and closed-off Nagara, the unusual and spirited Nozomi, and others. Within this new world, the students begin manifesting mysterious powers of all sorts, some of which include the ability to bend reality. As time passes by and tensions build higher and higher, the students begin working to not only figure out what precisely led to them being transported to this bizarre world, but also to hunt for a means to find their way back. _Sonny Boy’s_ uniqueness becomes apparent right away in regards to its presentation. Usual character models that we have come to recognize over the course of the last several years are replaced. Plain colors both for the skin, hair, and wardrobe would ordinarily be unappealing to the eye, but the entire visual aesthetic works to make the characters appear as fish out of water, both in the world they’ve found themselves in and to us, the audience watching them. Contrasting that are times where the lighting and surrealism come to life. Whether it be with dazzling splashes of color or using a stark black background, one can sense a palpable creativity etched into nearly every frame. The nuance generated from the imagery alone can reach truly arresting levels. Worth also mentioning is the soundtrack, or what would be more accurate to say is the absence of one. Familiar storytelling devices like background music are left behind. Instead, sound is mostly restricted just to voice actors and actresses delivering their lines, as well as ambient noises. The series loves using silence to portray itself, which is a trait that I honestly wish more shows would use. By doing this, _Sonny Boy_ appears to emphasize not only the unfamiliar territory the characters find themselves in, but also to emphasize just how alone they are. Perfectly-mundane, everyday things like characters walking come across as more intense since the overall sound-palette is so sparse. Therefore, when music does play at those select few moments, it grabs your attention. What further grabs one’s attention is that _Sonny Boy’s_ physical universe is more expansive than one would initially assume. We do not see only one singular world that the characters find themselves in, but several worlds that they travel through, and each with their own particular set of rules. This further contributes to the expansiveness of the show’s thematic universe as well. While mob mentality is one of the earlier themes in the series, _Sonny Boy_ branches off into numerous other metaphysical and sociological territories. Each episode of the show usually tackles a theme as it pertains to one of the characters or the group as a whole. For instance, Nagara begins the series as a reserved individual, not really speaking up unless he is given instruction, is pestered, or there is something required of him. Especially since he doesn’t appear to manifest any powers, unlike nearly all of his peers, he becomes an early target of ostracization, with only Nozomi and a few others allowing him in their circle, and even then there’s a question of just how much he wants having them around. As the show progresses onward, Nagara, through the various experiences he and his fellow classmates endure in their world-surfing, gradually begins his process of self-actualization. His growth accompanies the many themes of the series such as leaps of faith, belief in nonsense, and the existential question of growing up and coming into the world, even if Nagara does not embody them specifically. Those are indeed many themes, but they come with a narrative cost. After spending some time tackling a theme, the conclusion of each episode effectively says, “That theme is over, so let’s move on to the next one.” Though it means that _Sonny Boy’s_ overall reach of material is vast and could pull anything from existentialism to any other philosophical branch you could imagine, it means that the journey from episode to episode is a little confused. Even if one were to argue that the overall plot is not essential to the show’s ultimate substance, it is still a show that is trying to tell a narrative, and I must confess that around the halfway point, my attention started to waver. Ordinarily, a show keeping me guessing would be a point of interest, but the show’s charting of unknown territory came across more as winging it rather than having a stable rudder. That wasn’t always the impression I was getting with each episode, as there are threads that one can follow across all twelve episodes to give a sense of grounding. It does indeed build to something, but the rudderless impression was more-present than I would have liked. Part of that impression was not only from being perplexed at where the series was going, but also because I wanted more from what the material gave. I’ve had to read a slew of philosophy and sociology for graduate school from Kierkegaard to others like Sartre, Kant, Hegel, and others. As such, the themes _Sonny Boy_ touches upon may serve as a decent introduction to what the idea is presenting, but stops before it can really be explored further. As these ideas make their presence known, the writing is sometimes presented in such a way that it feels more like characters giving speeches rather than conversation, so during the course of an episode, one person is often designated as the “lecturer” and everyone else is listening. There isn’t quite enough give-and-take to make the ideas hit the level of engagement that they’re after, and therefore, they run the risk of going on for far too long or being too dry. It’s not a question of whether I agree with the episode’s dense musing, but rather HOW the dense material is mused. The fourth episode of the series has one character, Cap, telling a story about baseball-playing monkeys (it makes sense in context…kind of). Even though baseball is my favorite sport, the story and the theme it tried exploring went on for so long that it marks one of the few times ever in my anime-watching life that I had to actually stop an episode, gather my energy, and press onward. This relentless pursuit of explaining the ideas also comes at the price of the side characters being underdeveloped. For all intents and purposes, _Sonny Boy_ mostly revolves around three-to-four characters, but there’s an entire roster of side characters from the school that sadly do not develop too much beyond setting up the first few episodes. Other characters are introduced later on in the series, and even for the characters that do come back later, some of their resolutions are rather hastily handled. Quick explanations as to things that happened off-screen are given rather than taking some time showing us. In a bid to explore as much philosophical space as possible, the show occasionally stumbles in delivering its other storytelling conventions. It’s one case where I think “less is more” might have actually behooved the series from a thematic standpoint. Any one of these themes could be enough for an entire series, but tackling so many, while wildly and admirably ambitious, comes a little close to making the cup runneth over. That said though, the finale that had been built up to did manage to pull it off well, with the show’s best demonstration of its aesthetic and thematic exploration. It ended strongly enough to somewhat justify a languished middle. ______ _Sonny Boy_ touches upon numerous metaphysical and sociological topics unapologetically, using the generous sandbox it has been given. The individual episodes and their topics, unfortunately, cannot quite fully make use of the riches that lie therein, as the show attempts to address so many things that few of them come across as realized to their full potential. Its aesthetic presentation and sheer creativity were dizzyingly-fascinating, but the actual journey to get to the end left me feeling colder and more malnourished than I think the show was going for. If this is your first time being exposed either to this kind of storytelling or thematic ideas, I can easily see this series becoming a favorite for someone. I don’t think I can bring myself to say that I like this series, but it’s too unique to not be given an honest chance. Matsume Shingo and his team made a genuinely-ambitious, full-fledged trip into the unusual, unshackled by the common restrictions a show faces. If nothing else, it should be celebrated for that. Despite my feelings being quite mixed on this series, I’m ultimately going to lean more towards the series’ favor.

Aurel0

This review will be divided into two parts, in the first I will give general opinions without spoilers, in the second I will make a more in-depth analysis of the series with spoilers attached. That said, let's get started, enjoy! ____ # Start Sonny boy is an original series written and directed by the brilliant mind of Shingo Natsume and produced by studio Madhouse, which despite the bad phase it has been going through for almost a decade now, continues to churn out products worthy of the name. So what exactly is Sonny boy? Attaching labels to this series is really complicated.Sonny boy is not just a diamond, it's THE diamond, a pride of Japanese animation, a product that will certainly not be easily forgotten by the public, for better or for worse. Yes, because here we are talking about a unique series, fresh, clear and out of the box, an experience that in this field is rare to say the least. # story An entire junior high school class, together with the school building, finds itself in a new, lost world, where most of them will have special powers. At the beginning there is an anarchy without laws within the environment, then, a small group feels the need to create a system that can weigh and balance the situation ... and this is the simple premise, the series will then take a fantastic development, which will touch all kinds of situations and issues - politics in all its facets, religion, human existence - placed on several levels - from society to the individual - . One of the greatest strengths of this series is precisely how it uses its particular context to its advantage without constraints by expanding on multiple contexts and themes, thus offering an incredible existential journey to us viewers. This, however, will also make the series more complex and heavy to follow, the latter will then also burden the lazy ones by releasing a low dose of explanation, leaving more room for free interpretation of the events. # Drift as a medium Fundamentally, however, Sonny boy does have a central genre to focus on; it is a coming of age, the personal story of gradual development in its purest state. But its execution and, as mentioned before, its particular context, differentiate it from the average product in its genre, elevating it on a pedestal, in my opinion. The themes addressed by this series are myriad. I find in these the strength of Sonny boy. Each episode has its own moral and logic, in fact some of them can also be seen individually. # Characters Here I don't want to dwell too much, also because talking about them in depth without making spoilers would be difficult. Certainly the strong point of the anime is not its characters, but even here the work behind them is no less. We speak especially for the protagonists, which in addition to being very human, empathetic and really well characterized, will undergo an evolution from dizzying. # Visual and sound compartment And here too, they have confirmed their quality. The series, despite its rather low budget, manages to maintain its eccentricity even in this respect. Shingo, with his dynamic direction peppered with superlative and imaginative close-ups and settings, makes the experience even more immersive. The art style winks at the past and the result is truly enjoyable, as well as perfectly suited to the type of story. The soundtrack is also commendable if not perfect, which in addition to being very apt, are inserted (or not inserted!) in an exemplary manner, especially in the final episodes. youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSDdRxAEdcs) >Having said that, for those of you who will stop here, I highly recommend that you catch up on this animation gem, you would only be doing yourself a favour. ____ # setting It may not seem like it, but Sonny boy, contrary to what many people claim, leaves very little to chance. I find that the way in which the average spectator has been placed has been wrong from the start, without having been able to contextualise it properly and compromising the very understanding of the work. we find ourselves before a context that has no constraints, a new universe that we spectators do not know at all. It is necessary to start with an empty mind, without making comparisons, in order to enjoy the experience to the fullest and to take in more accurately the information that the work leaves us on this fascinating drift that is built from scratch. # Central theme This is basically a coming of age. Nagara (15 years old, the age at which a person begins to shape himself, to grow up, to come into contact with the world of adults) is an apathetic eighth-grader with obvious family problems who is undecided about which school path to take. He is the classic teenager with no initiative, who always takes the easy way out, that is to escape from problems (in short, gold to reflect himself in the story, after all we all have been or still are teenagers). His power is coincidentally escapism, and he will be one of the causes that triggered this drift, but let's go in order. Mizuho, 15 years old as well, an emotional and a bit spoilt girl who will be marked by one event in particular. The first great disappointment due to the corrupt cynicism of the adult world.She discovers that there had been sabotage (due to Hoshi's influence) of the votes for the school representative elections. She also has the same problem of making her voice heard but in a more moderate manner, managing at least to do so under an anonymous account. She will however be discovered (again by Hoshi) thanks to the powerful contacts she has, and after various threats, they have the professor with whom she had a (one can guess) very intimate relationship fired. A real emotional shock that will make her even more closed in on herself. The cat wants to protect her at all costs, he doesn't think she's ready for the world of grown-ups yet. The series tells us that certain subjects already possessed powers before the drift, but only within the school. The only ones whose powers we have confirmation of before are only 2, that is the main characters of this series: Nagara and Mizuho (there would be also Hoshi but I wouldn't consider him a power, more a simple interpreter of 'god'). What do they have in common? They both don't feel at ease in the school environment and have difficulties in relating to each other. And it is the two of them who are responsible for the drift: the cats have created the copies, while Nagara has created the context,but all of this was done by accident. As the headmaster says, it happened because it had to happen, there is no real why. And as chance would have it, they will always be the ones to close the circle, returning to the original world, also thanks to Nozomi's essence/idealism represented by a compass. In fact, it is she who encouraged Nagara to return to the original world. Nagara himself confirms this: "because this is the light that Nozomi saw", since only drifting, for Nagara, Nozomi has been a compass. The ending approaches what is hailed as perfection. The characters will go on to live their lives as normal, after all, they have only just begun.... >The messages to analyse present from this series are just too many; therefore, I will just expound on what I preferred. # Monkey fans Sport, a form of entertainment to distract man from his boredom. It can bring minorities closer together and acceptance, a real weapon against racism, but it can also breed hatred. BlueMonkey, thanks to his talent, goes from being an outcast to the idol of the whole audience. On the other side of the coin, a referee (the most controversial and hated figure in this context) firm in his convictions, was even killed by the public, for a mistake in the evaluation that does not even exist. The parallelism between man and monkey is brilliant, the message is cruel but realistic. The first question that sport demands is respect, and the series reminds us of this beautifully. ____ ``That's it, I hope you enjoyed my review. Goodbye!``

Krankastel

This year was full of surprises for me, including ones that let to triumphs and joys, wake-up slaps and re-examination of attitudes. If I count summarize 2021 in two words, it would be “rebirth” and “maturing”. Sometimes, both require pain, sacrifices and quite some reality checks. They can be a product of interpersonal conflict, existential or survival stress, but either way may lead one to explore the most underdeveloped and shunned aspects of their personality and lifestyle. All in all, though I believe it is always for the best that we embrace change as the natural state of things, for being too persistent to positive illusions and ideas that don’t serve us anymore can make life more stressing than what it can already be. --- ~~~ __[1.How does Sonny Boy come into this?]__ ~~~ For one, its presentation is a surprise on its own. An unorthodox and bold approach that is more reminiscent of literature, as well as some 00s adult anime, such as Texhnolyze and Lain. But that aside, it explores topics such as existence from a philosophical point of view, intolerance and dogma, anarchy and authority, man-nature relationship. ~~~ Let’s elaborate further. ~~~ --- ~~~ __[2. An introduction on the story…]__ ~~~ The story starts as described: in a school that has been transported and isolated to another dimension, with several students suddenly gaining superpowers and the school descending into anarchy. No need to write more on plot, it is best experienced. I will note this though: do not be misguided by the mystery genre to believe that SB is a whodunit or a mystery narrative with explicit answers to each and every enigmatic situation or circumstance. It is neither. --- ~~~ __[3. Continuing with details on its approach…]__ ~~~ It should be emphasized that a significant part of the plot is composed of allegories, not unlike works of Kunihiko Ikuhara. Those draw inspiration from various ideas from branches of social science (such as political science) and literary works (e.g. Robinson Crusoe). By no means is one required to have read them to understand where the anime comes from, but it is imperative for one to march with the mindset of paying more attention on why something is shown rather than what is shown, i.e. on subtext. Expecting too explicit answers will only lead to disappointment and frustration. ~~~ img(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/91/5b/9c/915b9caf8628bf383864ad95b2ffc270.jpg) ~~~ I will not dig too deep in thematic exploration, but will note first of all that is highly iconoclastic, bringing into questions many aspects of human experience and society, such as religion. It is also a fundamentally nihilistic anime, but one that turns out to be oddly empowering and positive. Rather than depressing and bleak, it turns out to be cathartic, didactic yet bittersweet. To elaborate a bit on the statement, let us take the assertion of moral nihilism, which is that nothing is intrinsically moral or immoral. Though many would assume that a person that espouses such a belief tends to be unscrupulous and even sociopathic, the thing is, such a belief could be used in a beneficial and productive way for mankind in general. ~~~ img(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/da/d9/f3/dad9f37127547ea42dc729abb8b6974f.jpg) ~~~ Realizing the total subjectivity of our values can make us more understanding towards the big picture, more compassionate towards individuals that would otherwise be brushed off as "Others", and can also help us realise how our lifespan and potential is wasted away in favor of collectively building Towers of Babel. --- ~~~ __[4. A few details on audiovisuals…]__ ~~~ Sonny Boy is unusually beautiful, and harmonious in direction. Characters look as if rotoscoped (not sure if they are indeed), with mostly natural expressions, builds and movements. Scene transitions never get abrupt, the pacing is slow but smooth (and quite comforting, especially if after having watched a more fast-paced show) and animation is fluid. There are some art shifts throughout the show, and quite some cinematic shots (including some with nice “denpa”). ~~~ img(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ba/01/5b/ba015b2df51dbb6a5d36dd5c51e025b4.jpg) ~~~ Many backgrounds surprised me much, as they reminded me of some 70s style anime, such as Future Boy Conan, or canvas paintings, not unlike initiatives taken by quite some other experimental anime (e.g. Texhnolyze) to include panels inspired by works of real-life painters. Sound does not falter behind, and in fact it could be the true glue of this show. Rather than loading scenes with overwhelming noise, a great deal of Sonny Boy has no music (outside key moments), which I found to be a refreshing change and helped me with interpreting and paying attention to the show without being distracted by too many sensory stimuli. --- ~~~ __[5. Last but not least, a few parting words…]__ ~~~ I am getting increasingly fond of this show as days pass. The ending was among the most oddly cathartic if bittersweet experiences I had in a while. ~~~ img(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/97/ba/17/97ba173a6b394849f2659c1fdc75869b.jpg) ~~~ It also made me happy to see that creators dare to tread into the less-walked paths of animation, to deliver something that could face scrutiny and alienate a fair part of its audience, but it will definitely change some others for years to come. I am not sure I totally espouse its beliefs, perhaps outside moral nihilism, but I can totally state it appealed to both my intellectual and emotional sides, both the more detached and the more compassionate ones. I look forward for more such works, and can only hope that at least a few of whoever decided to read my review is inspired enough to try, and perhaps to appreciate this unique seasonal. ~~~ Hope you enjoyed my review! ~~~

saulgoodman

#~~~__6, 8, 9__~~~ Those values referring to the scores after my first watch, a week of post-contemplation and a rewatch. I'm a fickle guy. Rather, I adore the experimental and avant-garde yet sit clueless at times. And that's fine. The uncanniness, the zaniness and the madness; *Sonny Boy* has been an experience. #~~~__Spoilers ahead. Skip to the end for short, spoiler-free review.__~~~ ___

img620(https://i.imgur.com/lHLAwSD.gif) ___ #~~~__“We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?”__~~~ Shingo Natsume and the writers were hotboxing in MADHOUSE's planning room, I can't compromise on this opinion. Ditching the orthodox in many senses from the very get-go, the first episode, the first *minute*, is a horse cock whiplash. Voided of background music and flush transitions; the fever dream only grows by the second. But it doesn't get any more queer than the plot context, rather, the *lack* of it. With severely scarce flashbacks and musings, the viewers are left to scour scraps of information, lest they leave it all up to imagination. In a very *Lord of the Flies*; [*The Drifting Classroom*](https://anilist.co/manga/30970/The-Drifting-Classroom/) perhaps more fittingly; fashion, a group of juvenile middle-schoolers are dazed and confused when teleported to "This World". Some scraping for a way home, others somewhat indifferent to the situation. The difference lying in their possession and efficiency of their awoken supernatural powers. Physical prowess, intellectual fortitude, social success; now psychic abilities determine the standings of a class-turned-civilization in the daunting, uncharted world. Chaos, in many respects, ensue, but no greater than the voyeuristic one experienced by the viewers. ___ img620(https://i.imgur.com/3LArcbi.gif) ___ #~~~__Superlative? Superfluous?__~~~ *Sonny Boy* exhibits a calm, calculating personality juxtaposing its unhinged sprees, shrills and thrills. That is, the show doesn't exist in a vacuum of Shingo jerking himself off with inexplicable nothings. Thoughtfulness and maturity prevail. A lack of background music often accentuates silence as a virtue in character-centric scenes or reveal a cathartic math-rock instrumental towards an episode's end. A minimalist, realist art-style not-so-different from [Kyne](https://tokion.jp/en/2021/04/16/artist-kyne-unique-artistic-style/)'s force you to rely on the dialogue and interpersonal instead of animated expressions to see what the characters are thinking. Production-wise alone, the otherwise eccentricities are beautifully shaped, but I was never worried about that with [Shingo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km2OPUctni4) in the first place. But narratively? Thematically? As much as *Sonny Boy* loves to shroud itself with various supernatural subplots, it's social and philosophical pondering at heart. The central plot being a group of kids exploring an unknown world and getting back home with a dash of supernatural powers, it's not so strange that concepts like hive-mind, class division, pseudo-religion and the works are present, right? The prevalence of these supernatural powers isn't so much *Saitama vs Boros [1080p] [60 fps]* fights or the inventive abilities themselves, but how they change others' perceptions about someone, or self-perception. An apish Cap grows drunk on his mistaken ability to penalize others at his whim. An arrogant Asakaze grows even moreso, albeit with insecurity, and others confirm his right to do so. Social and self-perceptions change in "This World", and so does their common sense and rationale. ___ webm(https://i.imgur.com/Wivogmw.mp4) ___ #~~~__He didn't help the bird__~~~ The basis of *Sonny Boy* is its chaotic narrative. More like an anthological work than a linear story, the show tugs back and forth between central plot relevance, thematic ambiguity or somewhere in between. Yeah, it's an episodic mess. However, the various subplots presented and forgotten by the next episode are just as important as the central plot because of their thematic weight. Foretelling small narratives bearing hopelessness, lonesomeness, death, emotional insecurity, the collection of themes, symbolism, imagery, *feelings* is the frontrunner of the show. These kids are kids and this is their experience. The peculiarities of the unknown are insignificant to their adaptability, or lack thereof, to them. While the episodic nature and thematic focus of Sonny Boy deters details and consistent lore, it paradoxically creates world building. Not so much in the context of exposition, but in how it contributes to the nihilism. Whichever corner of "This World" Nagara and Co. end up in, there's some sort of tribulation forsaking them, their beliefs or their common sense. Rendering them meaningless. "This World" is a scary place not because of how big it is, but what we don't know about it or ourselves. As much as I'm tempted to discuss the *Eva-Sonny Boy* cross-comparisons, I'll cut to the chase and agree with one similarity. Optimism in Nihilism. His grand entrance laid sprawled on a classroom floor staring at the ceiling, indifferent, unbothered and unmotivated. Nagara is as monotone as the necktie and dress shirt pressed on his body. Others have changed, better or worse, in "This World" and its consequences, but Nagara remains the same. The loner, the guy who killed the bird. The one who sent everyone to "This World". Though, could I quote "It's me vs. The World" in spite of Nozomi and Co. joining his ranks? Though, does *nakama* power prevail through the accusations, distrust, hostility, insecurities, apathy? Ultimately, it's Nagara's story. I *will* quote one prevalent line. I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away. The Nagara who couldn't defend himself against animal murder accusations, against Nozomi's harsh truth about himself. Yeah, he's still the same. He runs away from the class' and Aki-sensei's accusations, but before his legs give out, something else changed. The world changed. The episodic cesspool that is *Sonny Boy* is Nagara's growth period. He sees, meets, experiences, feels new things. Shackled under guilt of his crime, an underground mine (read as Tower of Babylon) appears before him. Not everything is meaningless. Not all hope is lost. Where there's light at the end of the tunnel, there's *something* to do. And that means no more running away. If the world can change, for better or worse, so can Nagara. ___ webm(https://i.imgur.com/gs2ZrP7.mp4) ___ #~~~__A rainy day__~~~ And it turns for worse. The Sun's gone. She's gone. She's here, but she's gone. The world he returned to is monotone compared to his vivid *volte-face* from the last few episodes. Summer is here but there's nothing to be happy about. School, a shitty part-time job and a friend who ignores you, was the tunnel's subtle illumination a trick of the eyes? Was it all meaningless, after all? #~~~___He helped the bird___~~~ The world he returned to is the same as ever. It's going to beat down on him like the rain. But he can talk to her. He can get up from the floor. He can stop running away. He can help the bird. There's hope yet in this world ["This World"]. ___ img620(https://i.imgur.com/iMlwbgQ.jpg) img620(https://i.imgur.com/KfDLsrH.jpg) ___ #~~~__Conclusion__~~~ *Sonny Boy* is Shingo Natsume's weird test tube baby. Weird in every sense. Depicting social commentary and philosophical grub aggressively shelved inside a free-flowing episodic narrative, it's harder to digest than swallow the various subplots with differing intentions. Despite these numerous subplots, the characters are the crux of this beautiful mess. With the minimalist character designs, you'll work hard to analyze them from their monologues and interactions. Under the stress of the central plot, these juvenile characters undergo their own series of changes that go beyond the original premise. Ambient music and silence befit *Sonny Boy*'s subtle nature, making it out to be a hypnotizing experience on top of its psychedelic visuals. *Sonny Boy* demonstrates merit in creative-thinking, perhaps one of the best in that regard. Still, I get it. *Sonny Boy* is a *serious* mindfuck. No shit why I spent a week thinking about it after watching it and then rewatching it. I act as if I understand Shingo's vision to the minute detail, but never actually expand on it deeply. Because I, or Shingo for this matter, can't tell *you* what *Sonny Boy* is. However genuine or perverse, there's no denying that *Sonny Boy* is trying to say something. You don't have to understand everything. You don't have to like it, either. But I did, a hell of a lot.

SpiritChaser

Sonny Boy is a series that if you ask someone to interpret it for you, you will get a different answer every time. It has incredible re-watch value and cemented itself as my own personal anime of the year and among my most favorite of all time. It is not hard to understand what it is trying to show on the surface, as it outright tells you what it is trying to express in each episode. All the viewers had to do was pay a little bit of attention; something that is rare, and do little bit of thinking; something that is even rarer. Called pretentious and nonsensical, I can't accept that as the series was outright telling the viewers what it wanted to say. It is the viewers fault simply for not paying attention. As I look at the so called criticism of this series, which it can have just as everything else, I can't help but notice that the people talking the worst about this don't watch anything else like it. People are generally hostile to what is different; people are generally close minded when it comes to engaging media. Have an open mind. In the end, there will always be someone that will love or hate a series. Consensus is public opinion but public opinion has been wrong before. The characterization is extremely detailed to the extent that the way the characters wear their clothes tells you about them. The staff zoom in to their live reactions, and use body language and facial expression to great effect. The backgrounds, if looked at closely, also reveal more about the characters and story. The art is beautiful and flows with a feeling of naturality most of the time. The music is phenomenal, and it was a pleasure to hear Toe and Sunset Rollercoaster's songs play during my favorite two parts in the series. In analyzing Sonny Boy, the viewers are analyzing the absurd. What the viewers make the mistake of doing is that they wanted an answer for everything which is impossible in this series. This isn't something that spoon-feeds the viewers like other media. Sonny Boy's mystery to it's craft is that it incorporates the mysteries and uncertainties of life into it's plot and visual storytelling. The writers put out the messages they wanted, and left the rest to the imagination. Thus, sometimes the viewers are helpless and their interpretations are left only to the uncertain and mysterious; such is life. If you say "I don't know," you are correct. The story involves a a reoccurring event of classroom drifting. An entire class is given random supernatural powers; sometimes powerful ones and sometimes not so powerful ones. Some of the powers have to do with the insecurities of the power holder. As the students begin to realize this and start experimenting, their powers clash together somewhat subconsciously, and they are sent to the This Worlds; different realities full of worlds with unique rules and visuals. Left stranded with uncertainty about being able to go back, the students begin to form factions as some try to assume command, some look for a way to get back, and while others try to escape or follow their own paths. As some of them venture out, they see that in some worlds the kids have become hopelessly mindless societies, and in others some of the kids have existed for so long that they lost their sanity. It is a beautiful journey to try and return to the source; while pouring out meaningful lessons about life. The kids are forced to grow up and find resolve in this hopeless situation. (post-review spoilers and analysis starts here) Of all the characters, Hoshi is one of the more fascinating. The director said that he was supposed to be portrayed sort of like a politician. The devilish end of his arc is very fitting with that. Hoshi is the only one that knew this was going to happen, but decided to remain because of his savior complex. God, who just loves having fun, was telling Hoshi many things in the beginning to promote this complex of his. Sometimes when Hoshi speaks it's in God's voice to show that he is not being himself but is being somewhat manipulated by God though he himself is trying to do the same thing. His power is making a prayer position that allows him to insert images into people's heads, but eventually the kids get tired of him, his powers, and his ideas. According to Hoshi, there is no way out and they are doomed to stay and make the best of it. He encourages the kids to stay as a friendly team and wants to save them all. His downfall soon begins as he begins to realize that he cannot be the savior he wants to. Even God turns around and discourages him, telling him that nobody asked to be saved and that his mission to do this was pointless. Broken and discouraged, you can begin to see the downfall of his character which leads eventually to his descent into madness. Rajdhani, after travelling for 2,000 years, brings back to Nagara and Mizuho the unfortunate tale of the end of Hoshi. He went against God, and began torturous experiments in a struggle to create death. He managed to create a form of it and triggered a mass suicide with the students that followed him, beginning with himself. He saved them, so to speak. Rajdahani himself is one of the best characters in recent anime and my favorite one in Sonny Boy. Incredibly smart, but written in a way to not make him feel too smart, he carries positive energy as he tries to analyze the This Worlds and creates great inventions. He assures the kids that a way back will be figured out. His fascination with science and experimenting helps the cast eventually find a way back. Unfortunately for him, his desire to wander the This World's and carry out more scientific research while meeting new people makes him unable to go back as he did this for 2,000 years. The viewers can see that his sanity is slowly slipping away as he forgets how to act human more and more. Because time flows differently in different This Worlds, and everyone is in stasis in the This Worlds, he'd die coming back since he'd automatically age 2,000 years. But to him, someone who loves to learn and do scientific research, perhaps it was his own personal heaven to stay there and follow his passion for eternity. He'd eventually become a forest, literally. Mizuho is my second favorite character. Her power is to cause a form of immortality that came about of her intense desire for no one to die. Brutally honest but laid back, she becomes one of the few who stayed with Nagara and struggled for a way back until they finally achieved it. Though she can be harsh in her honesty, it's to help people and force them to hear what they need to hear. She'll often show her soft side to her closest friends, and direct hostility to her enemies. As she cried with the desire to go back home, I realized I felt that this character is very precious, and always rooted for her and hoped she'd make it. Thanks to her cats, she is able to live the luxurious life she never had such as endless good food and a castle all for herself and her pets. But as much as she spoiled herself and acted carefree and smug, you can see in her face during the running scene with Nagara, the marvel, that inside, she was a scared child, desperately wanting to go home and uncertain of what will happen to her and her friends. Her cats, that helped cause the drift, all have powers involving bringing goods back from the other world and copying them. Sakura, the white cat, assumes an overprotective role for Mizuho's own good. All of the cats watched her grow since she was very little, and because of old age, they don't have much time left themselves. The drift kept them together, but ultimately, and as painful as it was for Sakura, she had to learn to let go and say goodbye to her "child," as all mothers eventually have to do as part of being a parent Nozomi is a stranger in a strange land as a transfer student, who then gets placed in an even stranger land. Her smile and influence are the bright light that helped Nagara grow as a person. There are many cuts to her eyes, as she is very observant and came to realize a lot about the cast during the time she was there. Towards the end, her optimism fades while trying to come to terms with the fact that she died in the other world between the drifting, leaving only her, the copy, uncertain of what will happen. As Toe's song began to play, I couldn't help but feel sad for Asakaze's depressed and hopeless stare. It's revealed in the world post-drift that he really was a good and kind person. But as God is having fun and trying to meddle, Aki, a student with the power to take on the form of other people, is sent in to corrupt him. Asakaze is very insecure about himself, and Aki's physical and emotional trickery corrupted him. He got full of himself and developed a God complex. But God still wasn't done with him yet and had Aki make him create a form of death in the This World. After being rejected by Nozomi, he let her die instead of saving her. He looked confused and wondered why he didn't do it, but it's because he is the type of person that may think to do something but end up acting out differently. God would make fun of him at that moment and say that Asakaze doesn't know how to really look into his heart as a result, and mocks him that he sure has benefitted from his powers. Left alone in the middle of the this Worlds warping and spinning all around him, having lost everyone and left in the void isolated for the never ending eternity to come, it was truly a tragic end. As corrupted as he got, I developed a soft spot for him in the end. As Nagara and Mizuho begin getting tired and falling behind while running to the light, Asakaze reached out with his hand and I believe sacrificed himself by turning into birds and clearing the path to freedom for them. His moment of redemption, I suppose. Sonny Boy as a whole changed my life and really showed me just how great anime still can be. Unfortunately, it will be misunderstood and hidden in the corner from of the treatment it got; a fate that happens to a lot of classics.

AmyTalksAnime

This analysis is enormous. __You have been warned.__ The world is confusing. No one knows how to properly navigate it. You’ll get a grasp on it eventually and there might be people to help you out, but one day you might also drift apart. That’s a very sad notion, but it also one that reminds us of one thing: what we lived has value, those memories of old are meaningful and our connections to other people will continue to shape us long after those relations are over. Sonny Boy is not subtle in its commentary about getting lost in the world and society. The characters are all transported to a world in which their school is the whole extent of said world. Everything beyond it is pitch black; you can reach for it, but you don’t know what you’ll be getting yourself into. Inside, teenagers try to make it into a functional society, but are obviously all lacking in resources and life experience to do so. Some people are more talented or stronger than others, and that is enough for social bubbles to emerge. I’m sure most of us can relate to the notion that we are getting left behind, that other people are finding their careers, finding what they are good at, have a decent idea of what their life will be like once they step out of school or even already have a future guaranteed, but we — or I — always feel like the outcast. As someone who spent their whole teen days knowing the only path I could pursue in life was the path of art — which ultimately led me to turn to literature —, I can highly relate to coming of age stories and the anxiety of stepping into adulthood. I can barely manage adulthood even after having been an adult for supposedly four years and “getting ready” — you eventually learn that school is not as good of a leeway into working life as you were led to expect — for it for many more years, so I can see a lot of myself in these character’s emotions, struggles and decisions. Nagara is the closest thing to a stand-in for the audience in this show, but has enough of a personality that he does not come out as simply self-insert material. Being an introvert does not mean you don’t have a personality, it just means yours doesn’t come out as much, especially in such a confusing age and place where opening yourself up to others is hard when you don’t know how they will react and harder still when you might not even understand why you feel the way you feel. Nagara’s character is used to talk about others' expectations in a very direct way in a couple of episodes, as well as the importance of social connections, while the “speaking up for yourself'' part is also shared mainly with Mizuho. I am surprised to see Mizuho not being revealed as a transgender character later in the series, since she is reading Stop!! Hibari-kun! In her first appearance, a 1981 manga about a transgender girl going through school who also turns out to be the daughter of a yakuza, but as it turns out, I simply hadn’t realized that Hisashi Eguchi, the character designer for Sonny Boy, is the author and artist of Hibari-kun. Mizuho is by far the easiest character for me to relate to because of this, because of her relation to cats — I have more than twenty of them, it has gotten out of control, someone please help —, because I would have loved to look similar to her through my teenage days — having come out as a transgender girl myself after over a decade of suffering with gender dysphoria — and because she is just very entertaining to watch on screen. I also love her voice; Yuuki Aoi sounds like she is very close to the microphone when speaking just like how all the other characters are doing, which couples with the anime’s more simplistic art style dedicated to giving each character more distinct facial features instead of just telling everyone apart from their hair color, these being techniques that invite a lot more intimacy from the audience and drags them closer to the characters and, by extension, the themes. Having said that, something about Yuuki Aoi’s voice just entices me. I believe she communicates Mizuho’s melancholic and occasionally smug personality with impressive effectiveness. Of course, the character’s don’t stand in school for long. The first episode’s arc is a very self-contained one about rules, authority and the dangers of it, in which losing said authority leads a kid to hit another one with a baseball bat in the head. Power is a dangerous thing, it messes with our morals, it makes us scared of risking it and can be used both for good and for evil, even by the same person. Give someone too much power and it’s a matter of time and circumstance until you get yourself a war. I believe the first episode was presented this way with airing conditions in mind. Sonny Boy overall lands itself incredibly well on the style of episodic storytelling with a narrative and thematic throughline to glue it all together, honestly one of the best I have seen yet in that department. Making a first episode that presents the audience with a simple premise in a restricted environment is a great way to ease the viewer into the story. That structure gets quickly expanded upon as Nozomi takes a leap of faith towards the unknown world, and all the students now find themselves on a new island and with the information that there are many “This Worlds”. All weird places that no one understands exactly, all connected in some fashion that they are still to uncover, and all of it can be conquered by the kids’ specific powers — talents, as they are thematically shown to be — and give them different rewards that they then have to learn how to use. It is not hard to see what that means: its plot significance is one of adding flavor and mystery to the world to better mark the student’s progress as they peel off the mechanics of these worlds little by little, but its thematic significance is one of putting your talents and skills to use and being rewarded for your work. However, that is just the first episode and there are eleven more to go. Yes, I’ll be going through this commenting “briefly” about what stood out to me in every episode, which I never do, but this anime is an exception and it deserves it. Full on spoilers from now on, you have been warned. Each episode deals with a couple of different themes but there are always one or two clearly main ones. The series is more interested in discussing these themes in its surreal world than properly grounding every facet of the worldbuilding, which is totally unnecessary once you are shining so many lights on the relevance of the themes above everything else. Yes, the anime has a lot of small little mechanics the characters need to understand about each world, but these mechanisms are generally intrinsically tied to the theme of each world, so don’t expect the type of worldbuilding we are used to seeing. It is not important that we know everything about the island, how far apart things are and where everything is being built, it is more important that we understand how the characters react to their environment and how they communicate — or attempt to — through said world. Episode two, for instance, leads to the canonical creation of cryptocurrency by everyone’s dearest Rajdhani, but really the important aspect of it is commenting on how a society gets formed à la Lord of the Flies. There are other elements to this episode, such as Mizuho having to speak for herself as I commented earlier, the fact that value is attached to things by our own decisions and how this value can be altered through the means in which these things are obtained, but episode two is still primarily about introducing Mizuho’s character and her struggles with being a kid who wants to be more than just a kid. I particularly love the fact that at no point does the plot judge Mizuho for having a crush on her teacher. That sort of stuff happens. She can’t be blamed for developing feelings for a figure she sees as a guiding light in a twisted world. We are very clearly led to understand that she decided to wear a ring not because she was in an actual relationship with him, but because she saw that as a stating of her own maturity. Other characters later bring attention more than once to Mizuho’s emotional dependency, it used to be put at least partially on her teacher, but because of the blackmailing she suffered and the circumstances of being stranded, that then turned exclusively to her cats. And I ask again: can she be blamed for it? No, she can’t, and I appreciate the writing for being self-aware enough to understand that and respect her character instead of turning this into what could have been a generic villainization of teen sexuality. Please note that I am only talking about her emotional dependency and her having a crush on her teacher, I am not saying that actually being involved in a romantical and or sexual relationship with a teacher is ethical, especially considering that Mizuho is sixteen years old. One of the great things that fantastical elements in a story allows is the literalization of metaphors. Episode three does this by using a rule that makes recluse people totally isolated within a pocket dimension of endless black curtains, all connected to each other through gaps in these curtains, meaning there is a way for them to communicate with each other. In this dimension they are all doing what they want to be doing: one guy is livestreaming Pacman, there is one buff dude that only wants to work out and a girl that is sewing multiple stuffed toys… you get the idea. Society isolates people and that should be a given in any system created by humans. There is simply too much idiosyncrasies in our relations and personalities and it would be goddam boring if everyone was the same. Of course it can get to a point where it is detrimental to the isolated person, but that begins as a way to cope with our inability to communicate with people we feel we should be able to communicate with — because everyone else does, apparently — and our interests and passions not being well-seen or simply really hard to turn into a living. Who wouldn’t like to live in a world in which subsistence is a given and we can do whatever we want and repeat our hobbies for as long as we can stand them because we enjoy it? Some aspects of Sonny Boy’s multiple worlds can maybe be related to the concept of a noosphere: a state of evolution defined by our consciousness, mental activities and interactions with other people, it is both above and ahead of the geosphere and the biosphere and envisions a world in which Earth is essentially a super-organism and there is a layer of consciousness and information enveloping it all. I am not claiming to be an expert on the matter and maybe the creators weren’t even trying to pursue this idea in particular — seen in the fact that they like mentioning Robinson Crusoe, so you could expect then to mention the noosphere —, but the many This Worlds in the story are described as playing with consciousness and the mind. Also, in a noosphere humans would be united enough to be able to deal with global problems and Earth can self-regulate itself, which these Worlds do by their own set of rules. I’m sorry if anyone has studied this and if I said something wrong about it. Going back to episode three, it keeps pulling the thread of commenting about isolation with things such as no one noticing these people’s disappearance except those in direct interaction with then and these people might not even go looking for the missing ones, which is certainly how most people I know describe the feeling of being depressed and the notion that no one understands them. It also has some very direct commentary about our capitalist society through reflecting on the fact that the blue flames of the island take everything away from you that you haven’t paid for and with Mizuho complaining about people wanting to be friends with her power — what she can do —, instead of with herself — who she is. It is not a particularly complex exploration of the individual's relation with capitalism and their worth in it, but at least it is something. This episode also turns Nagara and Mizuho into a duo, which is something we are going to see a lot more of through the remaining episodes. You get the drill: they fail to communicate, fight, then manage to properly communicate — which goes hand in hand with the episode’s theme of isolation caused by an inability to communicate — and solve the issue together, yadda yadda, we have seen that before. It is executed competently and makes sense within the story, but Sonny Boy is not a non-stop flow of impressive big ideas and unexpected twists and turns leading to their incredible solution, it is that just most of the time. Episode four then comments more directly about how talent can distance people. That is a recurring theme through the whole show, but in this episode we see a story about an ape who wanted to play baseball, but could not because of the physical liability of only having one arm, but that did not stop him from loving the sport and ending up as an arbiter, however he was seen as the common person, relegated to a background position while other, more talented and successful people shine in the spotlights, leading him to be killed by an enraged crowd for standing up to his sense of justice. Before that all the apes were indistinguishable, having to stand out on the basis of their prowess, while some people are like the blue ape, clearly different and talented enough to steal everyone’s attention and moments to shine, which leads him to forget his origin as the target of prejudice and causing harm to another victim when the goal of being perfect becomes more important than enjoying the moment and the success he already has. Ace then goes on to say that the arbiter’s death was fair because there are common people who drown other’s talents — referring to his talent and Nagara causing him to lose an important game back when they played baseball —, but of course he is totally wrong in this. Loving something and having a competitive mindset about it can blind people sometimes and Ace does not realize this, while Nozomi, being by far the most conscious of her surroundings and constantly having insights about the other kids' psychology everytime the “camera” zooms in on her eyes, is the first one to call attention to the fact that the impressive ape in the whole story is the arbiter, for standing up for himself against everyone knowing that he would be seen as the enemy. I know most of what I just said is spelled out in the episode, but since I am committed to reviewing the whole show I have to mention these details, because Sonny Boy constantly builds upon the themes of the last episode in the next one instead of just going for unrelated yet interesting themes or repeating the same ones like I feel other shows I don’t resonate with very strongly often do. Nagara is also shown to not have enough control of his own power to determine where he wants to go. We find out that he can only travel to other This Worlds and not back to their original one. I believe Nagara to be the carrier of this power because he is just enough of a blank-slate to fit virtually anywhere while also not feeling like he belongs in any of them, having no clear goal in life and thus not wanting to go to any place in particular, drifting through whatever comes his way. Sure, he can bring other people with him, but it’s not as if he is going to any one place. We end this episode with the introduction of Aki-sensei, someone the kids recognize as being one of their teachers back in the real world. Aki-sensei immediately tells them that the fun and games have ended and that there is no way to go back to their original world. While a lot of what she says is put to the test later on, Aki turns out to be a figure of authority manipulating these kids and creating even more distinction between the groups, managing to bring every single person that would be willing to trust a figure who is supposed to know what she is doing while the other groups are made of the students that want to find that out for themselves. Her primary target for manipulation is Asakaze and everything that was needed for him to trust her was hearing that he was special, that he deserves special attention and that he has a special future. Again, this is dealing with the psychology of people receiving power and status, in this case especially by someone who he sees as having a better grasp on reality and thus making her words all the more meaningful. As soon as the sides are clearly divided conflicts start emerging faster and it doesn’t take long until we see three separate groups being formed. That is expected to happen whenever there is a society, especially when it starts to grow and people gravitate towards others similar to them and in whom they believe in. Aki-sensei is not right in her manipulations by any stretch, but her presence merely accelerates an ongoing process. The meaning of Aki-sensei in the story changes a bit once when we find out she is actually not Aki-sensei but another student playing as her, changing what was a figure of authority manipulating kids in vulnerable positions to being one of those kids, just as lost or even more lost than the others, pretending to be a figure of authority who understand the world better than they do and presenting it as necessity of maintaining the status quo while framing the other kids as potentially dangerous precisely because they are trying to lay change upon the world. Knowing all of this, it is no surprise what their actions later escalate into. One of the most interesting ideas the anime introduces is in episode six, where they find a world that is a giant cinema filled to the brim with records from Nagara’s perspective. It fits his character considering Nagara is used to spending his days as simply an observer that takes no action and the way the mechanics are played with are interesting. What if we edit the records? What if we play it backwards? It doesn’t really matter how much this amounts to, the questions are interesting enough by themselves. Not all changes made to the films actually happen, even if Nagara is present, this probably means that not everything done to the films will actually change his perception of reality. If it is something that he can’t imagine happening or doesn’t have enough suspension of disbelief to accept, then it likely doesn’t affect the real world. Yamabiko is a particularly interesting addition to the cast: a once student turned dog who has lived for five thousand years and finally gives us some answers, claiming that the reason the drifting happens is because their principal is God, explaining that only the school and students can get adrift and that it only happens with people from the same school they went to, no matter the time in which that happened. Though there is not much that can be said about Yamabiko and the themes revolving around his character before the episode dedicated to expanding on his background, he is still a fun and mysterious character that shares good synergy with Mizuho. He does, however, say that the kids from the current drifting still have time to go back. Our experiences through a structure like school and our teenage days shape us and once we step outside of it, we aren’t the same as when we first stepped in. Since the perception of reality is an important concept in this episode, then this means that if we changed, then the world itself changed, because our reality is simply how we see it. Nozomi, for instance, keeps talking about her compass and the light she believes will guide them home, but we don’t have to actually see that light to believe her. Yamabiko on the other hand simply can’t go back, because he has lost too much and been around for too long, to the point where he doesn’t even fit the actual real world he was used to. My favorite part of episode six is when Nozomi is talking about how she doesn’t want to walk down the safe paths people have told her about just to think “Ah, good going.” That’s not what life is for her. Nozomi is a very brave and insightful person and she wants to do what she wants to do, she is a free spirit that can appreciate the present more than all the other kids. She can get anxious and scared, but that is precisely why she does it. Nozomi wants to feel, wants to live and wants to take risks. Honestly I would like to be a little bit more like her, but I’m simply not brave enough. Hoshi’s White Knight Syndrome is also brought to the forefront in this episode. He knew the school was going to go adrift and that is why he went to school that day, because he wanted to help these people, but this is not presented as simply altruism. Hoshi had always been drawn as creepy and scheming if not necessarily evil, but as we also find out, this desire of him to help others does not exist because he actually wants to help them, but because he has a god complex and wants to be a savior. Meaning, he’s going about it the wrong way. Episode seven is my least favorite of the bunch simply because it was the first to come out as too heavy-handed to me. You see, a lot in fiction boils down to promises and payoffs. The ending of episode six and the entirety of episode seven gave me the impression that the series was going into another direction, having the newly discovered plot about castaways that have been adrift for longer wanting to punish Nagara for ruining their lives take a more prominent place in the story. Don’t take me wrong, I’d much rather this current story that the anime has, but it did gave me the feeling that that was the promise being made for the long run, that this was the direction it was taking and by the ending of episode seven I was expecting it to turn into something similar to “us against the government”, so finding out that was not the case was both a relief and a confusing moment. Even after watching the episode again to try and judge it in a different light already knowing how the story ends, my view on this hasn’t changed. This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate anything that episode seven does, of course. Sonny Boy frequently calls attention to Nagara’s personality and the need to speak up for himself, but it is never offensive about it. Koumaru reaches the conclusion that Nagara can’t be blamed for drifting them and Yamabiko notes that God gave him that power with the intention of it being used for the drifting, which also means he can’t be blamed for being who he is since that power is so rooted in his personality. He can get more out of life by forming connections with people, but we don’t need to scorn him for that until he learns his lesson. The world turned upside down is still a neat idea even if I don’t think it is used to as satisfying a conclusion as most of the other episodes do. It explores the idea of a stagnant society that makes its workers believe that they are changing it, no matter whether they believe it or even know what exactly they are supposedly doing, giving them a blind hope to help cope with their trapped situation. Since Sonny Boy constantly pulls threads from previous episodes it is pretty easy to relate this to Nozomi’s phrase of not wanting to walk down the safe path in life. All it takes for Nagara to flip the world upside down is to take a step away from the safe spot. I get the message, but I feel like it is slightly too simplistic. Sometimes this anime does not deliver in the themes department as well as I would have liked, but thankfully the strength of the main characters is enough for me to see that as just a minor nuisance. Episode eight, on the other hand, is among the amazing ones and it does a lot more for the characters and tone than any episode honestly even needs to in order to be satisfying. We jump from present to past as Yamabiko tells his sad story. In the present they are traveling along with Nagara, Mizuho and her cats, but the framing always keeps us close to the characters instead of zooming out to show the scenery, which is great to shorten the distance between audience and characters, hyperfocusing this episode in the people we are seeing and leaving the exploration of the world to the side for at least one episode. The muddier color design and music also helps a lot in keeping this episode tone-perfect all the way through. The reason why I find this episode to be genius is because of how Yamabiko’s story recontextualizes the characters of Nagara and Mizuho. Yamabiko was a shut-in who simply crawled his way through life just like Nagara, but to a much more intense degree that leads him to completely isolate himself, instead of trying but not managing to speak up like how we see Nagara often doing, leading to a point where Yamabiko reacts violently to try and scare people away. He also brings attention to Mizuho’s emotional dependency by increasing that to the point where he turns into a dog to follow the lead of someone he trusts more than even himself, and it is these two things combined that eventually leads to the ruin of the people around him and himself. Episode eight is primarily about ignoring your problems until it is too late. Yamabiko’s power gives him the ability of manifesting his mental state, this being the reason why he turned into a dog, but also being the reason why the epidemy hits Kodama and her friends. I don’t think it would be right to call these kids the new family Yamabiko has found, because his interactions happen almost exclusively with Kodama, being the pure guiding light — probably even motherly figure, since her power is called “M”, I know that might mean "Mend" or something, but we also know that Nagara has an issue with his mother who is herself a shut-in that doesn’t leave the house — so that he needs to go through life without thinking, leaving all his worries and objectives for someone else to decide. Thus, he is walking the “safe path” mentioned before, losing to stasis. The anime is clearly self-conscious about all of this, since not only do the personalities of these three characters relate in such a direct way, but also because we see Nagara saying he relates to it, while Mizuho starts the episode more playful and smuggy like we know her to be, but then gets quieter with every interlude to Yamabiko’s story. I have praised the anime for respecting its characters until now, but it is an even greater thing that it is willing to bring attention to how dangerous their paths can be. I agree with the message of following your own path and being yourself, but I am also not naive enough to pretend that all is well when it isn’t and, even taking in the fact that we all want to live our successful lives doing what we love, the world is not fair or simple enough to simply allow that to happen without any sort of friction. There are aspects of us that have to be fought against just like there are aspects of the world around us that we should fight against. Since I mentioned music and tone, I want to take a short while to talk about the production of Sonny Boy. The reason why this anime feels like so much of a breath of fresh air is because it is almost 100% pure 2D animation, with as little post-processing and CGI as is possible. I’m not saying there isn’t great animation out there, but it honestly boggles my mind when I see so many people sharing sakuga moments from anime like Fate or Demon Slayer where half the screen is drowning beneath post-processing, artificial light from above to make every frame feel epic and world-defining and tons of CGI even if it is great CGI. I don’t want to sound like an elitist, I can enjoy those things for what they are, I’m not saying that CGI and post-processing have no place in the industry nor am I saying that the shows mentioned here are poorly produced, but every now and then I want to watch something different instead of having the feeling that every anime that ever comes out is trying to do the same thing to various different levels of success. I am eternally grateful to the team behind Sonny Boy for deciding to go with this style of production because it fits the tone of the series so much better then if it was trying to be flashy in its presentation. Something else that I really like about the production is how the music is kept quiet. There are exceptions — especially in the last few episodes — for example in the more montage-like scenes, but generally the tracks are kept distant, while the character’s voices are kept closer, rarely having distractful lyrics, leaving the presentation and dialogue to pull most of the weight. What this also does is it keeps it from ever getting repetitive. Sometimes anime — especially more action-centered anime — will play the same tracks over and over again to the point where they run the risk of not being iconic and memorable, but also redundant and annoying. I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert in the matter, but Shouji Hata, the sound director for Sonny Boy, worked on a ton of really popular stuff, some that I even distinctly remember liking the soundtrack — such as Vinland Saga and Log Horizon —, so, if I can interpret the production this way, I also believe that a professional who has probably been working in the industry for longer than I have lived can do all of this intentionally. Now proceeding to episode nine, this is one I’m not so hot on either. The highlights are everything related to the cats, of course. I did not expect them to start turning into actual characters — even if very simple ones — and it adds an extra layer of charm and comedy to their interactions. I definitely enjoyed it more the second time through, knowing where the series ends and paying more attention to Asakaze’s and Nozomi’s interactions, but the overall plot and complexity of the themes just doesn’t hold up in my mind. Aki-not-sensei wants the power of the twins, but only one of them. Since they are both the same person, this means that she only needs a part of the person being manipulated, everything else can just be thrown away and does not add up to your value — this is interesting to think about if you remember that Aki keeps pretending like she is saving the world and reducing the values of individuals she doesn’t need and overestimating others to do her deeds. The twins are fighting over the fact that one of them has a single strand of hair more than the other. Clearly the point of this is that people overestimate the worth of some things only to pretend like they are better than others — and if these are the same people, then it can be seen as him not being able to deal with the fact he is not perfect by externalizing it into an enemy. Their power to reverse everything makes them forget the whole fight and they end up fighting eternally because you can’t simply go back, your experiences change you and nothing is accomplished by trying to go back to square one as if nothing had happened, he has to accept his own flaws and not try to reset everything to zero, but do things differently with the knowledge and experiences he gained on the way. Aki of course gets to him before he can realize any of this and the result is that by killing a part of himself, he kills the whole. Maybe I would enjoy this episode more if it had been done with a character we already knew. Sonny Boy focuses its characterization in the four main faces of the show while leaving other characters very superficial and using them almost exclusively to explore themes. While I don’t think you can criticize the fact that the secondary characters aren’t that fleshed out since this anime is trying to do twenty times more things than most anime are, I still felt like bringing a wholly new character for this episode ultimately hurt the effectiveness of the message more than it did any other episode. There are two characters in this show who try to mimic God: Asakaze and Hoshi. In episode 10, we see Asakaze being tricked yet again by Aki, who takes him to see the principal — God — who asks him to kill War, the character we met in Yamabiko’s flashback. Kossetsu — who we find out has the ability to read other people’s thoughts — convinces Nozomi to come along. Kossetsu loves Asakaze, but he loves Nozomi, so she wants Nozomi to help change him to a state where he might end up at her feet. Obviously, only tragedy could come from this. Asakaze was so obsessed with the concept of a great mission reserved to him that he allowed himself to be manipulated by Aki and ended up losing sight of everything that doesn’t relate to pursuing Nozomi. He confessed to her, but got rejected because she couldn’t respect him. Asakaze then says that he was probably obsessed over her because he felt like he could never be as strong as her. At this point he realizes he should let her go, and, after conquering the world “War”, he actually manages to create death when Nozomi falls off the cliff and into the nothingness at the bottom of war, not managing to save her because as it turns out, his power is spontaneously activated. He did not want Nozomi anymore, therefore he couldn't use his powers on her. Asakaze’s power was born out of his need to keep everything and everyone at his reach. God definitely knew this and tricked him along with Aki. The War we saw in Yamabiko’s past was still walking around, but the one we meet here is completely empty, falling to the bottom of a deep gorge yet never actually reaching it even though there is one; stagnant. Only Asakaze can bring him to the ground and his reward for that is a weapon. War is a manifestation, a world himself, and conquering him grants you with the power to kill. There is a chance he was even tricked by God as well, since he was killing people before Asakaze, but God of course never bothered with telling him that death is a phenomenon that can happen there under specific circumstances. Since we find out that the drift was caused by the combination of Nagara, the cats and Mizuho all using their power unwillingly; Nagara creating worlds, the cats copying the kids and Mizuho putting them all in stasis because she doesn’t want to see anyone die, then conquering the world “War” gave them a power that could go against Mizuho’s power. I like the way the world “War” is presented, as a hard to climb mountainous area that is then abruptly interrupted at the top by “a gorge that goes down forever, but the bottom is crimson.” The fall is the only thing you can expect after warring and whatever lies at the bottom of it is not going to be good. It stretches forever and is a wound delivered in the world itself. It might take time, but it will take its toll. There might be more to be said about the imagery of War in this episode, but honestly this is all I’ve got. Episodes eleven and twelve are a two parter to end this amazing ride. As you can expect to happen after Nozomi’s tragic end, the next episode is dedicated to mourning her loss and dealing with themes of grief and death. It is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. I had a slightly hard time breathing through the entire opening montage of Mizuho and Nagara honoring their friend and seeing how far their friendship has come. It hurt seeing both of them cry, it hurt seeing two people seeing their friends crying at their side at different moments of the episode without knowing what to do about it. And, above all, it hurt seeing Mizuho say goodbye to her cats. Essentially, coming to terms with mortality is a necessary step in order to be able to celebrate life. Years of trauma and emotional suppression rendered me completely incapable of crying out of emotion, so every story that gets me even close to it surprises me. Last time I “cried” was recently and there was but a single tear, I can’t even remember how many years it was since the last time that I actually cried my heart out, with sobbing and sniffing and stuff. Fiction is what helps me deal with this, and I’m goddamn grateful to Sonny Boy for being on the list of stories that got me close to crying. As my favorite author — Steven Erikson — once said, “Grief is not something you overcome, but something you get used to carrying the weight of.” I might be paraphrasing that, but you get the idea. We might not see Mizuho and Nagara for long enough after Nozomi’s death to see the full repercussions of this, but we know they are going to carry the weight of everything they lived in these two years adrift for the rest of their lives. After ten episodes commenting about how things are hard to change, we finally begin seeing some clearer changes in these last few episodes. It began with Nozomi’s death, but we also see how Yamabiko has now completely turned into a dog and doesn’t speak anymore. We see how Rajdhani’s gaze has changed and he reflects on the fact he is growing more apathetic with time. He tells us the story of a man who could not accept reality and would create images of his home and his girlfriend that were not accurate at all, trapping himself in the made-up ideal world of his mind, which relates to the relationship between Asakaze and Nozomi. Rajdhani also tells us the story of a student obsessed with the idea of creating “death”. Perhaps this can also be interpreted as a character trying to mimic God, since he is trying to create something that was previously impossible . First time through I was sure this was Hoshi, but it is very clearly War, my bad on that. We get the information that he conducted experiments in death and suicide and can assume that he got his badges from that. He created death by rendering his identity completely void, having no desires, no reactions, no emotions and no opinions. He created death by going against everything that defines a person, becoming a mere shape. As Rajdhani puts it, “Life is an endless exercise in vain effort. But it’s precisely because it’s meaningless that I think the brilliance of this moment in life is so precious. Because that one moment belongs to that person alone.” Ultimately, the message of Sonny Boy is wholly positive. It is realistic enough to recognize the worst parts of life and it does not pretend everything will go right simply because we want it to, but it also finds it important to remind us that, once again, everything we have lived up until that moment is what has shaped us and thus has value. We don’t have to change the world, we just have to find a place to belong in it. Nozomi’s will still lives on, her compass still points to the light, unwavering in its determination, and her mark in the world and in her friends will long outlive herself. And in episode twelve, we get the confirmation that Nozomi had always been right. The light had been there all along, she was the only one who could see it because she was the only one who's outlook on life matched what the story is trying to convey. It takes an astronomical effort to even get there because that is how much time they lost and enduring how much the world is going to strike you down is no easy thing. They only manage to do so with the combined efforts of Nagara, Mizuho, her cats, Rajdhani and Asakaze — handing them another compass, presumably the original one. But, even after getting to the light, there is this one beautiful scene where they are only able to capture the light by the efforts of Mizuho’s and Nagara’s hands. I always found it interesting that “light” was used for the analogy of the path in life. I mean, try to grasp a light like how Nozomi was doing. She could only reach it, but could never quite hold it, at least not alone. It is light, after all, and it will slip right between your fingers. The last episode gave me a twist in the stomach when it felt like Nagara and Mizuho weren’t going to talk, but thankfully it was just them having a hard time talking about it. We get to see glimpses of what their life is going to be from now on: Nagara getting a shitty job — yo that’s relatable, kind of —, Mizuho’s grandmother having passed away, Nozomi and Asakaze ending up in a relationship in a world in which they can respect each other. Well, now that I think about it, I don’t think anything that they do in this last episode proves that they are dating, but they are clearly in better terms than their copies that went adrift. If the copies are still adrift and those are the parts of them as people that conflicted with each other, then this original version is the one where things went better for them. In the past, Nagara ignored the dying bird. Now he cares about the birds that have lost their mother — you could say they are stranded just like the kids were —, but Nozomi had already thought about that and took the only surviving one with her, deciding to taking care of it until it is able to fly by itself, instead of trapping the bird and not allowing it go where it needs to go in life. This interaction shows us that Nozomi is still one step ahead, still striding forward in life and doing what she believes is right. She might not be exactly the same Nozomi we know, but her essence is still the same. Yet again, I wish I could be a little bit more like her. I am also pleased to see Nagara and Mizuho not turning into a couple. This would have come off as weird and even thematically inconsistent I would say. Since Nagara and Nozomi never ended as a couple, then him ending up with Mizuho would send the message that she was the second option, or maybe that he was looking for the wrong person in Nozomi. The point is, either of these options would have diminished the characters. If they ended up as a couple, then a short arc where they learn to respect each other and brings attention to the morality of Nagara being suddenly romantically attracted to her after finding out Nozomi is with Asakaze would have been completely necessary not to break their dynamic. Either way, I’m much more satisfied with their current friendship than I would have been if any of these characters ended up feeling like a trophy. I don’t think there’s much more to be said, at least not now. Sonny Boy is about and trying to say a lot of stuff, much more than most anime I watch are, and it accomplishes that in a shorter runtime than most do as well. I barely mind the fact that secondary characters are abandoned or that not every episode is tone-perfect. I didn’t expect it to be and neither does it have to. While I can obviously appreciate several different kinds of stories, my tastes are always changing and I am slowly becoming aware of some elements shared between most if not all of the stories that are connecting with me on a personal level in the past few years. While I would not dare to reduce this anime to a single theme after having said all of this, I just wanted to share one more idea: this story is about the loss of innocence, but it does not end there with a negative outlook on life, it takes the extra step of being about hope for the future and acceptance of our past; acceptance, not surrender. I’m pretty sure I have told someone that I wish I had watched this anime when I was eighteen or something, thinking that it would have been fundamental in forming my outlook on life — pretty sure it would have lead me to take on the nickname of Sonny Girl as well once I accepted my dysphoria, wait… I actually like how that sounds… — but I take that back. Stupid-ass eighteen years-old me would not have been able to appreciate it the way my current jaded one can. And that is fine, at least that is what Nozomi would try to teach me. I ended up having a lot more to say than expected while also feeling like there was a lot more to be explored. Oh, and also sorry for the heavy usage of em-dashes — I love these things.

AshenCant

The shortest summary I can give for how I feel about this is that they made me cry really hard to fucking math rock. My actual feelings, while not as fantastically deep as some other works, are slightly more nuanced. Sonny Boy’s greatest strength is its ability to maintain its paradoxical tones: free-form, boundary-pushing technical achievement to tell a narrative that is exceedingly universal and, bluntly, archetypical; nostalgic trappings making something perfectly representative of the Reiwa era. A soundscape, lacking an OP entirely, focused heavily on ambient sound gives way to multiple and varied insert songs. Its surrealist bent delights in teaching its cast the paradox and illogic of our boring world, and many of its episodic plots are self-defeating or just askew enough to draw questions towards its meaning, if it even has any. Each episode’s plot positions itself loudly in the foreground while having the cast quietly realize something about themselves or the people around them, often in ways that completely defeat the purpose of the “A” plot as delivered - with a personal favorite being the tenth episode, breaking one of the show’s rules with how it delivers exposition for heartwrenching payoff. The show picks up emotional heft massively with its last two episodes, but prior to this I feel its low-key approach to characterization and growth harms my attachment to its cast, rather than heightening it. Its universal coming-of-age beats, ensemble cast, and lunatic scope afford it little time to give meaningful time to the majority of the cast, with even characters given an episode to show themselves off being forgotten and ultimately one-note. This off-kilter character focus is sharpened with the tonal and narrative shift brought with the second half, where the series sets its sights on simply separate subjects; one entire wing of the cast disappears and, when brought back up, are almost unrecognizable. Part of my frustration with this show is my inability to tell whether my criticism is some grand thematic statement - in life, people drift and sometimes the stories you hear about them, no matter how grandly told, simply don’t live up to whatever you’d hoped. Its narrative structure reflects first discovering the rules of the game, then beginning your first steps into being a player - and, just as in life, disappointment is inevitable. Despite this, one respects the intertwining of realism with surrealism, both disappointing and dazzling in equal measure - both sides of that coin rarely make for a good traditional narrative, and Sonny Boy is unafraid to remind you of that. The grandest explorations of the inner and outer worlds ultimately can’t change much - that comes with a perspective that takes time to build - but, somehow, can’t be formed just with the passage of time. It’s committed to this theme, repeatedly saying it in every episode, and yet it still feels off. I really can’t overstate how much the music fucks, how much the (broadly applicable) themes affect me, and how much I cried in the last two episodes. It’s very near to an all-time favorite of mine. However, the same distance with which it respectfully treats its cast also separates me from really grooving with the show as a whole - it coheres satisfyingly, but its own maturation comes a little too late to be fully appreciated. Which is in keeping with the themes, I guess.

brandotendie

while it possesses on its surface all the density and intoxicating visual cadence of works like _Evangelion_, Sonny Boy's open-ended method of introducing concepts and characters and leaving nothing unresolved, as well its more cerebral approach to its thematic subtext as opposed to Eva's spiritual/emotional approach makes me think more of _Serial Experiments Lain_. the main reason being i came away from every episode and the show at large in a state of surrender. like _Lain_, all the themes and ideas of the show are presented almost purely in a visual barrage (whether it's through the aforementioned rhythm of its editing, the psychedelia of its ever-changing settings, or the playful compositions that never relent to draw the eye even during static conversations, it's a pure assault that numbs you), and even with my full attention there were times where the subtext or main theme was lost on me, yet the comprehension of what it was trying to say slipping my grasp didn't affect my fulfilment nor my enjoyment. in other words, _Lain_ and _Sonny Boy_ give a distinct sense of cerebral exploration of ideas by fully leaning into the strengths of the anime medium, conveying said ideas through the insane limitless possibilities of animation to make the experience feel almost purely experiential. it demands revisits because again, the thematic meat of the show engages you on an almost subconscious level, and when you realize you should stop trying to solve its opaque density as if it were a Rubik's cube, you're left to just get sucked in and experience it all. the beauty of _Sonny Boy_ is that pairing this approach with the intentional disregard to almost all arcs'/subplots' conclusions makes almost each revisit feel unique each time. every interpretation, assumption, conclusion you may reach may change, and sometimes you end an episode without any of them. it's a perfect reflection of the main GENERAL theme of the show, which wrestles with the illogical chaos of life coming out of adolescence. when prodded about this, director Natsume Shingo said: >"_Every subjective point of view, no matter what it is, has its own form of correctness. One of the themes of the story is the children who continue to resist the illogicality that is born from that subjectivity._" the work itself espouses that theme. you can look up video essays or reddit posts all over and every single episode will have different interpretations, and they're all valid! but during the experience itself it's hard not to just become transfixed as your mind tries to reconcile what your eyes are being assaulted with. Andrei Tarkovsky's quote about the "meaning" of his films comes to mind: >"_Everybody asks me what things mean in my films. This is terrible! An artist doesn't have to answer for his meanings. I don't think so deeply about my work - I don't know what my symbols may represent. What matters to me is that they arouse feelings, any feelings you like, based on whatever your inner response might be. If you look for a meaning, you'll miss everything that happens. Thinking during a film interferes with your experience of it. Take a watch into pieces, it doesn't work. Similarly with a work of art, there's no way it can be analyzed without destroying it._" above all, Shingo understands that to succeed with something as esoteric as this work, you need to make the experience itself take precedent (visually!) above all else. but unlike Tarkovsky's final point of art being analyzed, when _Sonny Boy_ is taken under a scalpel to be scrutinized, it doesn't wither away, but instead, impossibly, its ideas blossom into something new entirely. like life, though you may know the only way to experience it is to move forward, you can never fully box in or comprehend the experiences you collect every step of the way.

EuryDecie

(No Major Spoilers) Growing up is pretty difficult. Tasks and responsibility begins to pile up as one traverses further down the walk of life, and it can be rough. Yet, what if your life was taken from you, and you're left stranded somewhere with your classmates, and you have suddenly acquired several supernatural abilities which allow you to warp the fabric of reality? That's the basic conceit of Sonny Boy, the 2021 Madhouse anime, from Shingo Natsume, who also wrote the entire show in addition to directing. img(https://c.tenor.com/1byeQJpoSokAAAAd/sonny-boy.gif) Often it's difficult for me to try and watch too many shows, because of the nature of college and such, with workflow being near constant, but every now and then, I try to watch an episode of anime or two here and there. I'm not sure what prompted me to visit this show, but in the summer, Funimation's Youtube channel had uploaded the first episode for free to stream for about 24-hours. I watched it, and did not necessarily understand it for the most part. Something about the editing made the relay and passage of information feel dense, as if there's context missing. Of course, I was still intrigued to see where the show would head. Then I ended up not watching much anime over the course of the summer, with the Evangelion franchise taking up my obsession. Then I headed for college, and there were quite a few shows that I wanted to watch, but couldn't due to time constraints. One day though, sitting within the confines of my dorm's living room, I decided to continue on with Sonny Boy after hearing so much about how _confusing?_ it was. I sat down, and one a week, for around 4 weeks, I watched an episode of Sonny Boy. Then, midterms rolled around and consumed my attention. However, recently, I have gotten around to finishing the show, and personally, it has quickly become one of my favorites in anime. The biggest talking point about the show is how weird it is. Often times, there's a sense of an empty void within the script, with some parts of the narrative being held in or just going unexplained. This is very much true, but as the episodes progress, small fragments and memories are revealed. Breadcrumbs to give hints and allusions to the prior lives of the students, but nothing for which twenty minutes of backstory are particularly needed. In fact, the only time in which backstory is explored occurs within episode 8, in which it simultaneously lays the foundation for the worldbuilding, character, as well as new looming plot threads, and even then, much of it is told through the storytelling rather than voice-over narration, allowing us to see everything that had ever occurred to lead up to that point. It's one of television and film's greatest strengths: the ability to show rather than tell. And that's what Sonny Boy really excels at: showing us the story rather than bludgeoning the audience with plenty of exposition. For example, there's an entire underground system full of workers who build, and the grandiosity of it all really says all, rather than having to detail every facet of what is occurring. Although the jumps seem jarring going from location to location, you orient yourself, and everything begins to click into place. It also helps that this shows is simply as gorgeous as they come. When Shingo Natsume wants to make something look good, HE CAN MAKE IT LOOK GOOD. I wouldn't have expected anything else from the man responsible for One Punch Man's first season and ACCA-13. I think what's shocking is that in the past two or three years, we've seen animation cracks in the window, with shows sometimes beginning to look like slideshows as opposed to genuinely animated. Maybe that's just my eyes, but, with this show, everything about the movement moves so well, flows so smoothly, and it feels so very immersive compared to the jank of say, Tokyo Revengers. Probably the only thing needed to convince you of the show's fluidity is the ending moments of episode 1, where Nozomi runs off the ledge of the school to catch the light in the distance she can see. The animation quality runs on strong for the entire run, and there are scenes in which how scenarios are visualized are absolutely jaw-dropping. It also helps that the main setting is an island, which is naturally a gorgeous area, and eventually the show opens up to different locations, and the locales and worlds are quite stunning. The way the students' supernatural abilities warp reality are also extremely inventive, and unlike anything i've seen within animation. img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sonny-Boy-2.2.jpg) Characters are actually extremely solid as well, with a majority of them actually coming to be very likeable, and I found myself very much invested within these characters, even with their little backstory, as what matters is not what they did in the past, but how they interact with each other in the now. Nagara himself initially is a reclusive type of person, not really opening up to anyone, while Nozomi is the bright-eyed and cheerful transfer student. I think what strikes me the most is how easily the character interactions could have become something akin to Lord of the Flies, devolving into animalistic hatred, but rather, Natsume writes these characters and uses these conflicts to explore budding relationships. Not in the romantic sense, but how classmates interact with each other, where there are power dynamics, how people change to slowly open up and become friends, how people weave in and out throughout your life. The passage of time also is startling within the series, as between each episode, it feels as if quite a bit of time has passed, and you can feel subtle changes in how people begin to interact with each other. My favorite character was a girl named Mizuho. Initially shut off, her eventualy warmth and friendliness to Nozomi and Nagara is heartwarming to see. She also has cats! I love cats. Although I'm still processing the entire show and it's characters, there's something innately special about these characters, and though I can't put it into words, they really are wonderful. From an audio standpoint, every is just as wonderful. Both the Japanese seiyuu as well as Derrick Snow capture the sullenness of Nagara perfectly, with Tia Ballard and Aoi Yuuki offering the right amount of snark as Mizuho, as well as Saori Oonishi and Luci Christian doing a fantastic job to capure the exuberance and spirit of Nozomi. Also it's nice to see Funimation hiring an Indian voice actor to voice Rajdhani. The soundtrack is also wonderful, with the math-rock/post-rock inspired soundtrack bringing an interesting audible texture and soundscape to the scenarios of the story. The themes of growing up and drifting apart aren't original by any extent, but I'd argue that the way they are delivered in Sonny Boy make them feel fresh and as hard hitting as any other show. Sometimes, the show feels nhilistic at points, where characters begin to wonder about the purpose of continuing to go on in search of home. Yet the show is clear to balance this with a positive outlook, that there's always going to be a light in the distance, that you keep going even though what's around you isn't the best. You carry on with the torches of promise and all the memories and experiences you've shared with others. And that's really Sonny Boy's ultimate message: To keep going on, even as the world gets scarier and more burdensome. So it's pretty clear that I really loved Sonny Boy. However, I'm not sure many would find the same amount of connection and resonance that it had with me. It can be a tough watch due to its visual structure, and for some, it may not come together as cohesively as it did for me. Some of the characters may appear cold or distant, which could alienate some people. Heck, some people may not even dig the minimalist art-style, which I really loved. For me though, I haven't been able to keep this show out of my head. Everything about it is so intoxicating and satisfying to me, and I keep thinking about it, thinking of all the absurd yet beautiful moments within the show. It's something that'll always remain timeless, thematically at least, because we all go through hardships at a point or another, and begin to question why we bother if we keep failing. Sonny Boy is a gorgeous reminder that there's always something ahead to look for, that the light of hope will never die, and that though the world may not be all lovely, it's the world we live in, that we can make better. Thank you for reading. img(https://recommendmeanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/sonny-boy-anime.jpg)

kempokid

Sonny Boy is certainly an interesting show to look at for many reasons. It seems to fall into this weird middle ground where it's entirely turned away large groups of people thanks to its intentionally obscure presentation that heavily draws from a sense of wandering, somewhat aimless surrealism, and yet a lot of what it says is conveyed in such a way that comes across as a tad overt and simplistic towards those who have taken the time to really try and understand what it's getting at. The anti-escapist nature of the show is another interesting point in how it feels almost like a lost cause to attempt to craft such strong messages to encourage introspection, with the morals completely being missed either through being excused away as part of the show's own set of rules that it's following, or by being seen as pretentious shlock if the piece of art ever tries to question the audience in a far more direct way. The issue's made further complicated by the way that even if a show such as this decides to forgo a concrete sense of intenal logic, it can then be hard to both craft a message that doesn't feel overly didactic while also engaging the audience as a whole, and it's this last bit that I feel lets Sonny Boy down the most. At its core, the series' attempt at representing the unease and fear that comes from growing up and feeling as if your world of freedom is already reaching its end, combined with the broader sense of not fitting in the world and the simultaneous desire to get up and make the changes you want while also having to bring yourself out of the depths of self-pity is all handled in a conceptually interesting way. Rather than trying to craft a strong, defined narrative, Sonny Boy instead feels like an abstract set of related, philosophical vignettes of stories that represent various elements of both society and humanity, drawing numerous parallels to the experiences the other characters are facing before reflecting everything back onto the audience. In theory I love this for the way it emphasises the conceptual elements of narrative above the surface level plot, made even stronger by the gorgeous animation that is smooth yet also takes full advantage of its medium as a storytelling device, having everything in this constant flux state of rapid change without attention being drawn to it. It truly feels like this uses animation to such an amazing degree to ensure that it's a story that couldn't be properly told another way and I think it's easily the best thing that the show has going for it, to the point where I'd say it's worth watching and episode or two just for the abstract beauty on display. It's unfortunate that despite all this potential that it has, that the characters feel so weak to me then, as it ends up tanking so much potential engagement, leaving the show being full of great ideas that are just presented in a way that stops them from being interesting to properly reflect upon them. The characters feel more like vessels to further communicate ideas, but not proper, interesting characters in their own right, it feels more like they're just telling me things as opposed to representing the things they're attempting to say in any deeper way, and it makes for something that not only ends up taking away from some of the show's density by presenting some things in such a painfully matter of fact way without any room for audience interpretation, but it almost feels like being dryly lectured at points. I feel like I get what this show is trying to go for in a lot of ways, but it's also just not something that I actually felt particularly moved by in a lot of cases, as it simultaneously obscured what it wanted to say while also screaming it out to the point where trying to sit back and take it all in doesn't quite work, but diving far deeper into things ends up revealing a disappointingly small amount of additional insight. Sonny Boy had a ton of potential, and had an incredible amount of pieces all in place to make for something truly special, but for me personally, the way in which a lot of these ideas were handled left me wishing that things had maybe been a bit less intentionally obtuse, or a bit deeper, rather than the awkward middle ground it ultimately fell in.

RiPHopscotch

When Sonny Boy first got announced I was genuinely excited. In my experience original productions are a little more willing to take risks when compared to adaptations of popular manga series, and I think there are also some benefits to flow and pacing when stories are written in the context of “I have 20 minutes for 12 weeks to tell a story”, as opposed to “I have 20 pages every week to keep readers engaged”. I also really love a well-done coming of age story, and after taking a glance at the character designs and school uniforms, I thought Sonny Boy would likely fit this bill. So, it’s a little disappointing that despite this being something I thought I would really love… I didn’t. I would actually say I disliked the show. Its themes are muddled and nebulous, the story is deliberately unapproachable with characters that manage to mix being weird and uninteresting, and the production is a mixed bag, with some elements of it being great but others bordering on pretentious. To be fair there is a niche that appreciates these elements, which is why Sonny Boy has received some very vocal praise. But they don’t appeal to me, and I think many will feel the same way. Sonny Boy’s story kicks off with a class of high school students “drifting” together into an alternate dimension, with some receiving useful powers, some receiving useless powers, and others receiving nothing. The entirety of the first episode is just a group of stressed out, on edge, dangerous teens trapped in their school that’s traversing a pitch-black void, and it’s genuinely fantastic. Established social norms vanished along with the real world, making way for hastily improvised replacements which in turn give the characters something to clash against. It’s compact, focused, interesting, and it works on its own – it’s everything the rest of the series isn’t. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/m4bh6r9.jpg)~~~ I say that because immediately after episode one the cast is dropped onto a desolate tropical island and the focus rapidly disintegrates. The strength of episode one was that the confusion the audience felt made sense; the students had no idea where they were or what was happening, and no real plans. It was chaotic, but the chaos reflected the situation the characters found themselves in, and their motivations were still discernable. Once they reach the island the goal of the group is to figure out how to return home, at least ostensibly, but what is shown doesn’t reflect this. More alternate realities are discovered, which are visually engaging on a surface level but meaningless otherwise, the show spends a bizarre amount of time focusing on how the society is running, and many characters stop being rational (and by extension interesting), instead being revealed or re-introduced to be whatever the story needs them to be at a given time. This continues until episode seven, at which point the story goes completely off the rails and loses all semblance of cohesion, and I lose all semblance of interest. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/Yku54QO.jpg)~~~ The thing is, disconnected stories have been told in compelling ways before. The example of this that lives foremost in my mind is Girls’ Last Tour, which is essentially a series of self-contained events, each with their own little moral. The audience knows the characters are on a journey, but where exactly they’re headed isn’t important, and is never presented as such. This kind of structure that opts to tell several stories in lieu of a single, larger one is called episodic storytelling, and it’s a time-tested way of doing things. Sonny Boy’s issue is that, at best, it’s pseudo-episodic. An equal amount of importance is placed on showing seemingly disparate things and exploring the overarching plot thread of “get home”, leading to a disjointed story that doesn’t manage to do either particularly well. This approach doesn’t just lead to an unsatisfying story with weak characters, but it also damages what is intended to be the most important part of the show. To be blunt, Sonny Boy is very good at presenting an absolutely vapid metaphor or idea and twisting it, making it confusing to the point where it can be interpreted as something insightful and deep. There is no clearer example of this than episode four, the “Monkey Baseball” episode. As one might be able to guess, this episode revolves around monkeys playing baseball, specifically one monkey, Blue. Blue is a great player, and he has a confrontation with an umpire who makes the correct call, refusing to change it in the face of Blue’s abuse. Eventually Blue’s stubbornness and the umpire’s sense of duty lead to the umpire’s death at the hands of an angry mob. This monkey baseball story is a metaphor to compare two side characters, one of whom became blessed with an incredible power during the reality shift and let it get to his head, and the other who did not gain powers but still refuses to change his worldview or morals to adapt to the students’ new reality. The thing is, the meaning of this relatively simple metaphor is obfuscated to a ridiculous degree for no real reason, and it’s not even particularly interesting. Honestly, it doesn’t even challenge the audience; it could have posited an idea like “Hey, maybe the umpire pointlessly adhering to the rules to the point of his own death is too far”, but instead blind, unwavering devotion with no nuance is portrayed as admirable. This sequence also totally interrupts the flow of the plot between episodes three and five, and, to cap off all of the sub-par aspects of this, all of this effort was done for the benefit of just two side-characters, both of whom will lose every ounce of plot relevance they had just a few episodes down the line. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/9qMP3nq.jpg)~~~ ~~~*Very long and kind of boring, just like real baseball*~~~ It's not just those characters that are lacking, however, it’s the characters in general that are a major issue. Episode seven marks a shift in the story for a lot of reasons, with one of the most apparent being that many side characters just sort of… vanish. When almost the entirety of the supporting cast has no relevance in over half the show the main cast needs to step up, however the main cast of Sonny Boy is wholly incapable of doing so. Nagara, the lead character, is listless and borderline depressing to watch, and Nozomi, his companion from day one, doesn’t really do anything for a rational reason. Throughout the show it seems like she knows a lot more than she’s letting on solely because her actions need some justification, which was more irritating than anything else. There are two characters in the show that I came around on, however, Mizuho and Rajdhani. While my appreciation for the latter is honestly just because as the obligatory “boy genius” he’s fun to watch, the former is genuinely interesting. Mizuho initially exudes "antisocial cat lady" energy, which can be hard to justify in a character, but as the show goes on it’s shown how her worldview was formed, and how that in turn informs her decision-making. She’s not a bad person whatsoever and is legitimately misunderstood by her classmates, and the best thing Nagara does in the show is befriend her. Of every character, her story was by far the most fleshed out, and she did an admirable job of somewhat grounding everything, managing to provide the audience a character they can understand and root for throughout the entirety of the show. ~~~img330(https://i.imgur.com/Zl87SYq.jpg)~~~ Unlike my opinion of Mizuho, I’m a little torn on the visual production of Sonny Boy. On the one hand the character designs are flawed, failing a very basic “litmus test” commonly used: being able to tell characters apart based on their silhouette. This is actually an issue at times, as when there are far out shots it can be genuinely hard to tell which character is which. With that being said, the character designs do convey a good deal of information about the characters and reinforce their personalities, which is what character designs should be doing (even if the personalities are lackluster). The visual direction is also hit or miss, as the style is certainly unique and helps to keep the viewer engaged, but frequently shots convey so much information that it’s overwhelming. I think that when rewatches of a show or breakdowns done by third parties are essentially required in order to catch every plot relevant detail – not just easter egg details or bits of foreshadowing – it’s a sign that the frame is being overcrowded and there is too much for the viewer to process. I will say, however, that the background art is undeniably superb. It’s gorgeous and looks almost right, but stands out against the characters juuust enough to support the notion that this really is another universe, and the situational use of blank space as a background is something I really love for this show in particular. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/DRPmGBJ.jpg)~~~ ~~~*Seriously, good luck guessing who is who*~~~ Like the background art’s use of blank space, there are also quite a few moments in Sonny Boy where there is nothing but silence. When it comes to the sound design, however, I worry that this trick was somewhat overused. This is an especially noticeable issue in the early episodes, where the soundtrack is at its weakest. Deciding to lean so heavily on silence with such an underpowered OST is definitely risky, and I think it would have been an unequivocal failure if not for the ambient sounds. This aspect of the sound design is incredible, absolutely nailing everything whether that’s the sound of waves crashing on the beach or rain coming down on an umbrella, the murmurs of an idle crowd or the chirps of tropical birds. Even though it seems like a minor thing, the ambient sounds really help to drive home how close the various alternate realities are to our world, regardless of what we’re seeing on screen. Despite what I think, many people praise Sonny Boy’s OST for its use of silence in particular. Everything about this show is polarizing. There are plenty who adore the show as a whole and plenty who despise it; there are individual aspects and episodes that I love and others than I loathe. I don’t think that’s unusual at all for productions like this, and, based on behind the scenes or extra interviews with some of the creators, it’s clear that a lot of the risks taken were taken because artists wanted to try something new. Taking risks and trying to push the envelope are both admirable, but there’s a quote from Michael Jordan that’s applicable here: “Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise”. Making the best icing in the world doesn’t matter if the actual cake isn’t good, and at the end of the day there are just some really glaring issues with the final product, issues that arose because fundamental aspects of storytelling and character writing were tossed to the side – that’s the kind of decision making that really limits how broad the appeal of something can be. Maybe my early expectations and pre-conceptions about the show simply put it at too big of a disadvantage to overcome, but I don’t think there is an alternate world where I view this as more than an inconsistent mess. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/GI8loNi.jpg)~~~ ~~~*The Magic School Bus crossover nobody saw coming*~~~

savagespencer1

I recently did a re-watch of this show. The purpose was to make an AMV using the show, which you can find [here](https://youtu.be/0IDyoA6wmT8). I had enjoyed the show before, but I was a bit concerned that I liked it mostly because of its novelty. It is quite visibly and tonally different from most other shows I have watched. I was concerned that, under further inspection, these quirks would be no more than flash and mirrors. Surprisingly, I liked it just as much as I did previously. I may have even appreciated it more than I did the first time I watched it. I hope that I can explain why I enjoy the show so much and convince you to give this show a chance. ---------- __What is Sonny Boy?__ Sonny Boy is about a group of students who have “gone adrift”. Our lead, Nagara, and his classmates have been transported outside of their normal reality and manifested various powers. Sonny Boy is a story about exploring various worlds and trying to find a way back home. __Misconceptions:__ Sonny Boy is not your typical anime. This is immediately apparent from its art style. This is further cemented by its storytelling style. It is in this second way that I believe people misunderstand this anime. I have previously covered this in my Serial Experiments Lain review, but this anime also suffers from the idea that “If you don’t like this anime, you just don’t get it”. I want to make this clear: _You do not need to “have a very high IQ” to understand Sonny Boy._ This misconception comes from the show’s confusing nature. What you need to understand going into this show is that you are going to be confused. THAT IS OKAY. You are supposed to be confused. Some may be more or less confused than others, but you need to want to be confused. To question things. To apply the allegories of the show to your own life. __The Pitch:__ You should watch Sonny Boy if you want to see beautiful art and hear an amazing soundtrack. You should watch Sonny Boy if you love fantastical worlds shrouded in metaphor. You should watch Sonny Boy if you want to see realistic, yet powerful character development. You should watch Sonny Boy if you are looking for a reason to care, searching for the meaning of life. Because above the story which we are told by the show, we are prompted to reflect on our own story. ------------- —SPOILERS BEGIN— ------- __Characters:__ Sonny Boy has a strong cast in general, but the standouts are Nagara, Nozomi, and Mizuho. Each has character development throughout the season. Nagara - ~!When it comes down to it, Sonny Boy is a story about Nagara beginning to care about his life. At the start of the show and in flashbacks, we see many examples of Nagara’s general apathetic attitude. He ignores a dying bird at the school gates, he turns away from Nozomi and her confetti on the roof, and he lies on the floor doing nothing after going adrift. Throughout the show, we see many other This Worlds. I believe them to be real, but they also have a symbolic value. Their confusing rules and unnatural environments represent purposes for living that Nagara has seen and discarded. They are not why he keeps going, and this is reflected in their differences from the real world. !~ ~!Much of this attitude change can be attributed to Nozomi, who is a compass for Nagara in many ways. She helps him find his purpose and at the same time her compass ability helps him find his way back home. When Nagara and Mizuho return to the real world, things are mostly the same. Nagara falls back into who he used to be. Mostly. In the finale, Nozomi (without memory of going adrift) catches him watching a bird at the train station. Though all else may seem the same, Nagara has undergone a subtle yet incredibly important change.!~ Nozomi - ~!Nozomi has compass powers. Nozomi acts as Nagara’s compass. Not the most subtle symbolism, but one executed extremely well. Her journey is one of three phases.!~ ~!True North - Just as Nozomi reaches for the light in the first episode, Nagara reaches for Nozomi.!~ ~!Magnetic Interference - Her trajectory changes considerably around episode 6, when she learns that she is dead in the “real world”. Because of this, the human compass loses her way. Luckily, she is not alone. She helped Nagara find his way. It was only right that he returned the favor. !~ ~!Triangulation - In episode 10, Nozomi dies and leaves behind a compass. Where Nozomi led Nagara in the first phase and Nagara led Nozomi in the second, Nozomi and Nagara worked together in this phase. They were finally able to reach the light.!~ Mizuho - ~!Mizuho has a good arc about learning to let people in, but mostly I just like her because she’s really funny. Her interactions with Nagara, her cats, and Yamabiko are super sweet too.!~ __ Odds and Ends__ With how Sonny Boy is set up, the overarching story is mostly about the development of the characters. So, I felt like throwing out a few of my thoughts on the different episodes. ~!Ep 1 - This releasing early is what got me into the show. I particularly liked two scenes: Nagara and Nozomi falling in the darkness, and the ending credits showing their new world outside of the darkness. Ep 2 - Mizuho is awesome, so is Rajdhani. Ep 3 - Probably one of the weaker episodes for me. I believe that is because the black curtain world is not that visually exciting, although the concept is interesting. Ep 4 - I unironically love this episode. We need more made up baseball history in anime. Everyone’s least favorite well-endowed teacher arrives. Ep 5 - Fishing scene is beautiful, Miss Aki sucks. Ep 6 - The earth ship scene is incredible. Ep 7 - The tower allegory never grows old. Goodbye my sweet prince, Rajdhani. Ep 8 - I feel bad for Yamabiko. Those sores looked disgusting. Ep 9 - “All that’s left is a gaping hole”. When the dude killed himself my jaw dropped. Ep 10 - Not a fan of Azakaze. Ep 11 - I started tearing up at the funeral. I can’t believe nobody came except for Raj. Also we’re in space now! Ep 12 - Escape scene is breathtaking. Great song, great visuals. I understand why Nagara and Nozomi don’t happen, although it hurts me to see Nagara alone again. Hopefully he and Mizuho stay friends. !~ --------------- ---SPOILERS END--- -------------------- __Conclusion:__ Sonny Boy is a great show, but you need to want what it offers. If you are not okay with being confused or if you are looking for a show to watch in the background, this isn’t the show for you. But if you give yourself up to the experience, I think you will really appreciate it.

R2R

https://anilist.co/anime/132126/Sonny-Boy/ The left aligned text is what I would've said 8 months ago.

The right aligned text is what I think of now.

*Better view on a Desktop mode, Mobile users*.

---

***I personally don't recommend it, unless you are into into confusing things. Something like this needs a rewatch imo. As of now, if you ask me; This is a boring sci-fi story with some unnecessary symbolism & all going through with it. Even the ending felt pointless***.

(Ah! There was typo, F!) That was me, 8 months ago in a discussion forum on AL. I remember (re)watching the first episode of *Sonny Boy* when it aired a month prior to it's actual release season and was really excited. The lack of background music creating a mysterious feel, the simplistic & vibrant art style and that jump scene still gives me chills, so I decided to watch it weekly when it aired but I gradually got bored and thought it was becoming way too complex for it's own good. Except for episode 1,7 and OST at the final episode, I didn't liked everything else from this Anime and shoved among the 'Art House work I didn't liked' list. But I wanted to give it a rewatch, and see how much does this rewatch changed my views.

#Meaningful but not Entertaining When it comes to media, entertainment has always been a center of focus. 'Even if it's bad, it should be entertaining'; many new recycled Anime (or any other Media forms) just follow this motto. And while *Sonny Boy* with it's first episode certainly says that it is going to be different, I still went into it with the mindset of getting 'entertained'. And it DID entertained me with it's world puzzling mystery in the first half, but it gradually lost that entertainment value and became way too 'not entertainment like' (*My vocabulary sucks!*) in next second half. I had the same problem with a [similar anime](https://anilist.co/anime/323/Paranoia-Agent/). It's this shift is what made me gradually loose interest in this. Sure, it did had an interesting turn of events and some social commentary episode I liked (like Episode 7) but it wasn't entertaining enough to be satisfied with.

On my rewatch, I threw out the thought of getting entertained from the get go, and while it's not enjoyable, it certainly is a better experience than what I had before. Yamabiko's backstory, the mind reading girl's episode, the final episode and a few initial episodes were actually pretty good which I missed on my first watch. And just like before, my favorite episode is still Episode 7, the Babel episode. Out of all episodes, this episode showed how aimlessly office workers seem to work (& how I was in a similar situation), this episode spoke to me a bit, and this rewatch made me appreciate it a bit more.

#Confusing? It's absurd, dialogue-heavy, and so many things just happens for simple reasons like 'just because' yet they have a big effect on the story. I really didn't liked how dialogue heavy episode 4 was actually; ~!Cap narrates a story about the tragedy in some baseball game between monkeys for nearly 7 minutes straight and I was bored to death (this is also where I kinda strated to not like the series). But even then, it's not hard to understand the conflict of Beliefs it's trying to portray at the end of the episode. "Is it OK to abandon your beliefs for everyone's happiness, or should you stand on your own belief even if it brings unhappiness on others?"!~

Every episode of *Sonny Boy* makes itself very clear what it's trying to say, the questions on society norms, beliefs, and many others topics that are worth discussing about. But what I think the problem is the *Exposition* & *Time Limit*. For a single episode, the show crams in a lot of sci-fi elements that feels a bit excess at times. The exposition is mostly done through dialogue than visuals, and dialogue heavy Anime aren't really my thing (with exceptions). It just shoves into your mind and wants you to process it all, which worked initially but I gradually stopped caring everything it's trying to show and just accepted the social commentary questions it's posing on it's surface and was done with it.

#Unlikeable and/or Understandable Characters Annoying & Unlikeable bunch. I despised how spineless Nagara is, I found it annoying how Mizuho refuses to talk (if she just said a simple 'I didn't do it' in episode 2, all that melodrama would've been avoided), I found Nozomi to be annoying, didn't liked Hoshi's "May God safe you foolish sheep" attitude and the overall cast is just... Unbearable! Rajdhani was the only who felt like he's trying something and actually cares about solving the mystery.

I still don't think my initial impressions are different, I did had the same impressions even after a rewatch with a small understanding of their nature. Nagara, the center of story and whose growth we're supposed to follow while is slow & small, is still pretty grounded & satisfying. All his growth can be shown in two images; Once he didn't saved the bird in front of his eyes but now he did. It's not grand but still is satisfying. Nozomi is annoying, but that's because she's the only one who's asking the right questions about the characters, and actually serves like something that we should reflect on. "Is this is a Utopia or hell?", "Are you a Sunflower or Dandelion?", "So you're just going to give up again?", and finally, "Don't trust girls with big boobs" (Pretty sure this is meant for all those horny people out there). Rajdhani is still my favorite character. Mizuho.. Well, she felt more like a supporting character for Nagara's growth so my impression on her is still pretty much the same. Yamabiko's backstory was actually way more impactful than I thought. It kinda shows how kindness doesn't always work on people.

#Presentation The visuals are certainly unique, and probably one of the few things I found appreciable in the Anime but nothing memorable. The OST during the final episode's "escape" is also really great (adding to my playlist).

Yeah, we can agree on that one. I kinda forgot the sheer brilliance I felt in that "escape" scene, where Nagara & Mizuho started to run in some multi dimensional sand glass. I kinda liked the existence of those long shadows in that scene, not really sure how they even exist though. With shows that use the same OST for every scene, *Sonny Boy* does know when to use background music & insert songs to a good effect. And yeah, that OST is brilliant.

#Conclusion **Sonny Boy** will going to be one of the unique Anime that aired in this decade, while it's not in a legendary league among other art house works I like, it's still has something unique that I haven't seen in a while. Just prepared to be bored. I'd recommend [Humanity has declined](https://anilist.co/anime/10357/Humanity-Has-Declined/) which is kinda similar to this but it's something more on the fun side of things. It's a part social commentary, part satire/parody, and cute. You can check out my [review](https://anilist.co/review/16499) for it.

---

*So, I think it's a 5/10 and you think it's better than that?*

*Yeah, think of giving an 8/10 or 9/10*

*... Are you sure you're not getting swayed by the "This is a Landmine in Anime" comments?*

*... And are you sure that you didn't hated just because it's getting that "This is a Landmine in Anime" comments, just to grab attention?*

*...*

*... How about this? Let's give it a 7. It's in the middle ground and we both can be on equal temrs.*

*.. OK. Let's do that. Honestly, who gives a dime about scores anyway?*

*Yeah, really. Why bother about a single vague score when there's a whole review for it?*

Tirez

__Sonny Boy__ parte de una premisa muy interesante: ____estudiantes con poderes recién dados, atrapados en una dimensión de la que no saben nada y la cual sigue sus propias reglas.____ Es difícil que algo así falle, ¿verdad?. Incluso si el misterio o el final no terminan siendo satisfactorios, las situaciones que se pueden crear son infinitas, al menos disfrutarás gran parte de la serie, ¿no? ____Estos fueron mis pensamientos iniciales, y la verdad, no pude estar más equivocado.____ Debo decir varias cosas antes de comenzar esta review 1. Las notas de mi perfil sobre otros animes reflejan únicamente el como me sentí con respecto a ese anime, y no la calidad objetiva que estos tengan. Lo que quiere decir que, si vas a venir a desechar mi opinión exclusivamente por mis puntuaciones, date la vuelta ahora que estas a tiempo. 1. No, no he terminado Sonny Boy, pero he llegado lo suficientemente lejos en la serie como para hacer una review al menos de los primeros 9 capítulos. Aún así y solo por si las moscas, decidí leer otras reviews de usuarios para ver si la serie finalmente lograba dar un giro lo suficientemente único como para salvarla. Una vez más, no ha sido el caso. Y ahora si, comencemos. #____~~~~~~La belleza en la mediocridad.____~~~~~~# Pese a que si, Sonny Boy apenas alcanza la mediocridad, tiene un punto único que caracteriza a la gran mayoría de animes traídos por esta productora, Madhouse: ____Su excelente apartado artístico____ Sin duda, este es el mayor acierto de esta obra. Se suele hablar de _buena animación_ cuando esta es increíblemente colorida, llena de efectos, rápida y super detallada (véase las obra de Ufotable). Pero Sonny Boy ____no necesita algo así____. La "historia" avanza con calma, dando pequeñas pinceladas una tras otra de una forma muy... minimalista. Exactamente igual que su apartado artístico. Simple, sin aparentemente nada que destaque, pero cuidando los detalles al dedillo. Sin duda, esta sección merece un ____ 10/10____ #____ ~~~~~~ Vale, pero...¿y la banda sonora? ~~~~~~____# Este sin duda es mi mayor conflicto con este anime, ____una completa y total fatal de banda sonora a excepción de momentos muy puntuales____. Entiendo lo que se quiere conseguir con ello, una sensación de vacío, incertidumbre y desolación igual a la que sienten los protagonistas al estar flotando a la deriva, ____pero fracasa estrepitosamente haciendo el anime monótono y aburrido.____ Y en los momentos en los que finalmente hace aparición, ni siquiera se esfuerza en destacar lo más mínimo. Apenas son cuatro notas, probablemente redondas tocadas una detrás de otra, sin acompañamiento ni armonía. Esto provoca un efecto curioso a la par que tremendamente negativo: ____ni siquiera notas cuando esta ahí.____ Por lo tanto, si no aprecias cuando aparece, ¿Qué diferencia hay entre que suene y no suene? Pocas series pueden ganarse una nota tan negativa en un apartado, siempre hay algo que hacen bien, pero esta es insalvable. Por lo que mi nota en este apartado es un ____0/10____ #____ ~~~~~~Una historia que deja mucho que desear.~~~~~~ ____# Sonny Boy comienza de forma excepcional planteando situaciones muy interesantes, tratando de manera magistral como unos niños reaccionarían ante el exceso de poder, ____pero decae demasiado rápido.____ Los 4 primeros capítulos son bastante entretenidos, y, a pesar de no enterarte de demasiado, te apetece seguir viendo más porque quieres conocer el misterio detrás de todo o simplemente observar como resuelven problemas ocasionados únicamente bajo estas circunstancias. Sin embargo, el surrealismo poco a poco se come la serie hasta dejarla en un cascarón vacío y carente de sentido. Empiezas a perder la noción de que estas viendo, de como transcurre la línea del tiempo, de donde esta cada uno de los personajes, de que sucesos son importantes y cuales no... ____Estas completamente perdido.____ No, no soy lo suficientemente estúpido como para no saber que ese es exactamente el mensaje que quiere dar. La incertidumbre y la desesperación de no encontrar un camino ni saber por donde ir en el transcurso de tu vida. Pero la ejecución es sencillamente pésima. Existen muchas formas de mandar este mensaje y hacer que impacte, mediante el exceso de surrealismo y quebraderos de cabeza innecesarios al espectador no es una de ellas. Aún así debo darle ciertos puntos por el comienzo y por la emotividad del mensaje detrás de toda la obra. Este apartado obtiene un ____4/10____ #____ ~~~~~~Seré breve, tiraron a la basura su mejor baza.~~~~~~____ # No pienso desarrollarme mucho en el ámbito del world-building, por lo que simplemente daré una opinión breve y pondré la respectiva nota. Una vez más, Sonny Boy tiene la oportunidad de crear algo completamente único y maravilloso, pero termina dejando que se lo coma el surrealismo creando un universo carente de sentido en su totalidad, sin nada interesante. Mi nota es un ____1/10____ #____ ~~~~~~¿Y que hay de los personajes?.~~~~~~____ # Cayeron completamente en los mayores tópicos posibles, haciendo un elenco ____ poco memorable y sin personalidad ni transfondo ____ de los cuales, una vez termines la serie, apenas recordarás su nombre o su aspecto. Los personajes se sienten incoherentes y completamente vacíos, sin ningún objetivo claro ni nada que te permita empatizar con ellos. Muchas veces confundirás unos personajes con otros, o simplemente aparecerán en pantalla y te preguntarás de donde ha salido o si ha aparecido antes, lo que solamente añadirá mas confusión a la historia. Por supuesto, siempre esta la excepción que confirma la regla: __Rajdhani. __ Es probablemente lo único en toda la serie que logra traer un poco de coherencia y cohesión a la historia, con inventos sumamente locos, pero con un sentido detrás y, por qué no decirlo, el objetivo de salir de esta dimensión. Y es que ese es otro gran fallo de todo el elenco, __la absoluta pasividad con respecto a su situación__. Literalmente parece no importarles salir, no se esfuerzan por ello, no intentan buscarle un sentido. Simplemente realizan una acción vacía, tras otra, tras otra, tras otra... Creando un bucle infinito del que no escapan nunca. Mi puntuación sobre este apartado es un 3/10 #____ ~~~~~~Conclusión: Una promesa que se quedo en eso, una promesa.~~~~~~____ # Como ya he repetido varias veces durante esta review, __Sonny Boy lo tenía TODO__ para convertirse en una obra maestra. Pero la soberbia del director, guionista, o quien sea que fuere el que decidiese el rumbo de la serie ha provocado que sea un completo y desastroso fracaso. Muchas veces nos creemos demasiado inteligentes y tratamos de crear algo que _solo lo más inteligentes_ podrán entender, traspasando la fina línea que separa una obra intelectual y complicada de un batiburrillo de simbologías y sinsentidos. >Es irónico que el mensaje de una serie que se pierde en si misma sea el propio sentimiento de perderse. Mi nota final sería de un 3'6, realizando la media de los 5 apartados. Por lo tanto, __no se la recomiendo a nadie.__ El resultado más probable es que simplemente te duermas en la silla durante el visionado y veas como 240 minutos de tu vida se desechan en una serie sin ningún valor.