Sonny Boy is dense, messy, and sometimes pretentious beyond thematic purpose. Watching Sonny Boy requires patience and thought. In one episode, the audience is expected to sit through an entire five minutes of one character just talking about monkeys and baseball, and unless you’re someone who is either decently knowledgeable in baseball strategy or who is particularly fond of long metaphorical narrations, I don’t see how that could be appealing. Throughout its seasonal run, the show constantly divided the anime community, often sparking new chances to usher in the age-old conversation of “this is an elitist anime” vs “you just dislike it because you don’t get it”. And though I hate to admit it, both arguments may actually be kind of right this time. Sonny boy can be difficult to enjoy because it’s hard to grasp, but every episode also made me question whether its artistic value was just a result of symbolism-hungry anime watchers digging through scraps. The show is a divisive mindfuck with a jumbled narrative. Yet still… Sonny Boy has managed to touch the hearts of those willing to stick with it. So if you think that there’s even just the slightest possibility of this anime resonating with you, I cannot recommend it enough. For beyond Sonny Boy’s many flaws, there is so much to experience.
Every episode of Sonny Boy is an unexpected moment. Almost every scene in this anime comes with it’s own unique feeling, story, themes, and focus. Like opening a book with random curiosity of what’s inside, no page is alike. Though the show begins with students suddenly getting thrown into a new dimension, it slowly breaks apart into a myriad of story pathways each with their own things to offer. One episode looks into how the students got where they are. Another episode looks at what the students plan to do next with their lives in their new dimension. There are a couple episodes that uncover the secrets of various students and their unknown pasts, giving them depth while still retaining a sense of mystery. It’s intriguing, and there’s tons of fun in trying to guess what's going to happen next. The way Sonny Boy's creativity branches out to build its story is so crucial to what makes watching the show unique that it would be counterintuitive for me to try and explain things in detail for prospective watchers. But just know that this anime has no limits. The synopsis is just the starting point. The true plot of Sonny Boy is a fluid ball of unknowns revolving solely around the fact that anything can be a metaphor and anything can be explored.
While there is no set formula to Sonny Boy’s aesthetically erratic storyline, there are set rules to the setting. Like in every good work of creative worldbuilding, there must be some semblance of reality in order to create a sense of relativity amongst the viewers. In Sonny Boy, the setting comes with rules that force the characters to act as they would in a real society. Students form groups, they argue, they converse, they share things, they hide things, they create currency, they create cults, they are forced into labor. The societies the characters interact in and the experiences these environments create are all subplots that could act as their own anime. And as a result of the believable setting, the characters within this setting feel very believable too.
Sonny Boy is a fantastic character drama. The characters are psychologically nuanced, they are flawed, they often represent something philosophical to some degree, and their deeper personalities are shown through us through atypical deconstructions over time. With over thirty students, the show definitely doesn’t give every single person screentime, but everyone that’s important to what is happening is a well-structured character with their own likable points. The show covers just the right amount of cast for its run with surprisingly touching depth. And though the character writing in this show is amazing enough on its own, it does even greater wonders for the show as a whole. The realism and subsequent attachment audience members will feel towards the characters is the solid foundation that allows the show to do all sorts of crazy things without making it feel like it’s completely lost all reason.
On to technicalities, Sonny Boy’s art is... subpar. That is if you’re looking at just the drawings themselves. If you simply paused at one scene and looked up close to see the linework and the detail, you would be disappointed. Sometimes characters in Sonny Boy just don’t have faces. The show is absurd enough that no one can tell if it’s a budgeting issue or an actual artistic decision, but there are times when things are just missing. Shoelaces don’t overlap properly, and people walk weirdly. It happens often. But what Sonny Boy’s art lacks in detail, it makes up for in framing and directing. In those aspects, Sonny Boy is truly beautiful. Like the rest of the show, the art is far from the norm. But it’s that exact slight eeriness and boundless creativity that makes the animation so fun to look at. It is, in every sense I can think of, true “art”. The positioning of characters against the background in every frame is well-thought out. Slower moments are paired with just one or two characters on the screen to emphasize the quiet atmosphere. Even the slightest character movements like stares and head turns are impactful because of the way scenes are directed and edited. The show focuses on the right things at the right times, and it knows when to back off or look close. It’s cinematic and engaging.
The music is one of the best parts of Sonny Boy. The ED is an immersive song that usually just plays over a black credit screen. It works in stark contrast to the quiet that plays in the majority of most episodes which makes it obvious and eventually, super easy to look forward to. The way the music suddenly comes in amidst the vast and empty world with empty sounds makes the ending literally and figuratively “music to one’s ears.” The background scores are wonderful and often ethereal. Highly tense and psychological moments get paired with magical sounding light eerie tunes that add to the events occurring on screen. The music stands out without being out of place and while still adding to story points and showing expert use of dynamics. Everything was simply picked out with perfection and masterfully directed into the show.
Sonny Boy is an absolute gem that does so much more than one show probably needs to do. It isn’t afraid to explore, analyze, question, and discuss all at once. Through the limitless creative freedom the show allows itself, it takes the anime medium and art in general to heights often unseen. By having flawed characters that deconstruct away from tropes, and settings that reflect society but still overflow with unhindered originality, Sonny Boy is the culmination of all the good things anime may have to offer. It's a revolutionary must-see.
