Sonny Boy

Thirty-six students find themselves and their school building suddenly adrift in a void-like dimension. When supernatural powers awaken in some of them, a sense of detachment begins to divide the group. Despite the student council's attempts to impose order, they clash with the students possessing special abilities, who rebel against their strict control.

This conflict leads them to discover that this world has its own set of rules—and following them is necessary for survival. After one of the students decides to take a leap of faith, the school switches dimensions once again. While they deal with the unique challenges and circumstances that each world presents, the students must unravel the mysterious phenomenon and find a way back home.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Sonny Boy is based on an original story written by director Shingo Natsume who previously had his hand in directing shows such as One Punch Man and Space Dandy.

Sonny Boy's first episode debuted on Funimation's YouTube channel on June 19th but regular broadcasting began from July 16th.

Winner of the Excellence Award at the 25th Japan Media Arts Festival.

Episode Videos

Yusa, Kouji
Japanese

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Watanabe, Shinichirou

Producer

Cook, Justin

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Fukushi, Yuuichirou

Producer

Matsui, Yuuko

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Ending Theme

"Shounen Shoujo (少年少女)" by GING NANG BOYZ (銀杏BOYZ)

Reviews

Sep 30, 2021

SingleH

Recommended

The only thing I don’t understand about Sonny Boy is what other people don’t understand about Sonny Boy. The story is a reimagining of The Drifting Classroom, only now, some of the students lost in limbo have thematically relevant superpowers. People all over the anime community have given this show a reputation for being abstruse, or “2deep4u” as the saying goes, but I could not disagree more, and in fact, I actually think the show almost suffers from being too simplistic. Sonny Boy is a metaphor for entering the Japanese school and work system, and the emotional issues of these characters stem from their middle ... school graduation. It’s hard to see beyond what’s here at school; some of your friends are developing amazing talents and maybe you’re not; you have to take a leap of faith out into the real world; nothing comes for free, you have to stand up and work for it. Pretty much every episode can be boiled down to embody similarly basic coming-of-age themes, and everything interesting or innovative the show does is certainly not achieved though the depth of its writing. The very first piece of exposition at the beginning of episode one makes this crystal clear. “People who were nothing special yesterday suddenly gaining tremendous power. Of course they’ll want to test themselves to find out what they can do.” Tremendous power can symbolize adult responsibility, independence, or a salary, and testing one’s self can symbolize pushing boundaries which others may not have the confidence or maturity to: learning to drive, moving out of your parents’ house, starting a family of your own, and so on. It’s honestly really in your face. The school exists in its own pocket dimension where all your needs are met, all your resources are replenished, and all your wounds are healed, whereas the worlds they travel to outside the school hold actual risk and uncertainty. My friends…this is not subtle.

As a work of art, Sonny Boy is a modern masterpiece. It’s not flashy, but it consistently blew me away with its fluid animation and detailed artwork. As expected, this show is animated by 80% freelance talent from Shingo Natsume's friends list, and the names he continues to attract despite post-2011, post-Maruyama Madhouse being such a dilapidated ghost town never ceases to amaze me. Sonny Boy’s commitment to hand-drawn, non-digital stylization is worthy of everyone’s applause, and the work of art director, Mari Fujino, another genius to come out of Studio Pablo—such as Yuji Kaneko and Seiko Yoshioka, just to name a few—is stunningly beautiful and goes hand in hand with Natsume’s atmospheric tone. Every episode is endless wallpaper fuel, filled to the brim with cool, memorable shots, beautiful backgrounds, and excellent music which compliments the ambiance perfectly. I repeat, the messages delivered by each episode are pretty obvious and a little on the nose, but if I’m going to concede a single point to the people who are calling this show confusing, it’ll be this: what makes Sonny Boy a bit more difficult to watch than your average anime is how little is spelled out. We’re treated to so many short moments, gestures, and facial expressions which all tell a little story in and of themselves, and they exhibit character development in a nuanced manner any other show would devote five minutes to explaining with overwrought, melodramatic dialogue. But this is something I really liked about it. The show doesn't spoon-feed you, and it rewards you for paying attention and treating its characters like people. It’s not “high-IQ.” It’s just dense visual storytelling. Very few times in my life have I had the privilege to witness a series which pushes all my buttons so well and in so many ways, and even if you don’t share my exact aesthetic preferences, I promise you'll agree when I say Sonny Boy is an audiovisual masterclass.

What depth it lacks in the theme department, it more than makes up for in the character department, and not simply because they brought Hisashi Eguchi back from the grave. Natsume stated in an interview, “Sonny Boy is a simple story about a boy growing up and people drifting apart,” and the only reason he imagined it with such an abstract presentation was simply because “life can be absurd and inexplainable sometimes, and you find yourself asking ‘Why?’ a lot.” To me, this is very obvious. The tangible plot of Sonny Boy is a straightforward mystery box which just so happens to have a great deal of surreal elements, but this simplicity is a good thing, because with all the symbolism and character details you already have to keep track of, any narrative structure more complex than this would’ve been way too overbearing and—now that I mention it—probably would’ve made the series as confusing as everyone already says it is. What makes the cast so good is a combination of the expressive character animation I mentioned earlier and the fact Natsume personally wrote the script for every episode, making every character feel consistent. I was actually worried about him writing, because while Natsume is a fantastic director, I wasn’t sure how confident I was in his ability to direct AND write his own original project. While his themes weren’t as profound as he might've hoped, his character writing was first-class, and while some episodes were definitely more verbose than necessary, he still proved my worries wrong. There’s a cute, snarky cat girl whose cats work for Jeff Bezos at Nyamazon, an Indian exchange student who literally invents bitcoin, a New York Yankee’s fan who builds a religion around baseball playing monkeys, and a five thousand year old talking dog. This idiosyncratic charm defines nearly every character, and the few exceptions are still well-realized and serve as a much needed anchor.

Rereading everything I’ve written here, I suppose there’s always a chance I’m subconsciously handwaving parts of the show which are obviously lacking, or perhaps I’m similarly making excuses for what the average viewer may see as wasted potential by overselling what already stands out, but I sincerely think this is one of the most visually compelling anime to come out in years, and aesthetically speaking, I’m not sure if an anime has ever resonated with me in quite the same way. I imagine it's a simple lack of all the abhorrent digital filters, aftereffects, bloom, and other post-production alterations which are layered on top of every modern anime, but this show is just SO gorgeous. It looks like it has all the hand-painted goodness of older anime, but also the crisp visual resolution of digital anime. Its internal consistency is incredible. A lot of modern anime mix 2D and 3D together (where the 3D is usually poor quality), and then adds other effects on top of that. This is just the 2D and little else, with only two noticeable 3D models used throughout the entire show. It looks like Mamoru Hosoda's One Piece film without all the shitty CG. And I hardly did justice to Eguchi’s masterful character designs, or for that matter, the masterful music. The soundtrack for this show is just so immaculate, and it was advised by Shinichiro fucking Watanabe! It uses genres and styles you almost never hear in anime, and hardly for the sole sake of standing out or being pretentious. It just works. It sounds like seminal stage progrock, or some weird Close To The Edge stuff, and I love it. There’s a subtle yet worthwhile distinction to be made between something which is trite and something which is simply commonplace, and I think Sonny Boy has more than enough heart and soul in its creation to excuse any level of unoriginality you may perceive in its coming-of-age themes, and if you tried to call these audiovisuals anything close to lackluster, they’d scoff.

Thank you for reading.

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Sep 30, 2021

SunlitSonata

Mixed Feelings

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 ...

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Sep 30, 2021

Mario_Isla

Not Recommended

Funny

I don't know why this show has good reviews, it's one of the worst shows ever made.
The story its a lot of no sense points, characters that appear or disappear without explanation and hypothesis that guides to nothing, but who cares? That is the goal of this pretentious show. All is justified because of GOD.
the show has a lot of points almost everyone is forgotten in the middle of the show . I wonder to myself what is happening? And then a new thing starts happening because of the plot armor: The rules of the world or god.

In short, if you don't understand the half ...

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S2. aurora_yuuki - Apr 4	16 replies	by WatchTillTandava »» Apr 18, 7:03 AM
Did Sonny boy give you a huge impact after finish it? kisaragi_eki - Sep 8, 2023	44 replies	by JessicaKari »» Apr 2, 2:56 AM
Poll: Sonny Boy Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Sep 30, 2021	295 replies	by Flomik »» Mar 28, 4:44 AM
Poll: Sonny Boy Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Sep 23, 2021	113 replies	by vit_ »» Mar 24, 5:43 PM
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