I enjoy philosophy, mostly Indian (esp Advaita!) and Chinese, but have also read some Western works as well, so when I'd heard of Sonny Boy, I was eager to dive in. Upon reading the synopsis, however, I was immediately sceptical. Isekai? ew, but I figured I'd take a chance, and don't regret it!
When I watched it, I did so rather quickly, across only a few days. I was reasonably confident in my assessment of the show, believing I understood its themes and message quite clearly. I branded the series a social commentary on power dynamics (privilege, mob mentality, all that sort of thing). But as it progressed, my thoughts on it felt increasingly jumbled up and nonsensical. The wide variety of interpretations for the series just fed into my belief that perhaps the way I was approaching this show was all wrong. Despite my love for philosophy, I strongly believe that the entire profession is foolhardy and anthropomorphising. The universe may appear to operate entirely according to (theoretically) predictable forces of nature, but from my understanding of quantum mechanics (not my speciality, please don't rip my head off I'm trying my best!), this is not always true, and that a large portion of how our lives turn out is due to random chance. Though it must be stressed I don't believe that this is true for the universe at large, as in that case, much of the early universe was dictated by predictable forces. As such, I believe that a core tenant of maturity is learning to accept that very few things in your life are within your control. I'm not trying to be deterministic to the point of being defeatist, but ultimately, my education in philosophy has left me increasingly confused as to the nature of existence. I've had an inclination towards nihilism and absurdism for some time now, but Sonny Boy is the first anime I've watched since then that brought up those ideas organically to me.
Hence, my revised approached to the show is that its meaning can be whatever you want it to be. If you see it as a series focused on social commentary, philosophy, or even just a coming of age story, then, in that moment, it is. I, however, now see Sonny Boy through an absurdist lens. It's confusing, much like the universe, and you will never tease objectivity out of it, stop kidding yourself. No matter what hypothesis you conceive of, someone will still be able to find flaws in it somewhere. To sum up Sonny Boy's ending, I can resolutely say that I loved everything about it. Nagara's experience didn't change him as much as I expected it would, but his eagerness to return to the mundane real world is so profoundly human. Apart from death itself, whatever you may experience throughout the day, eventually you'll return home, make dinner, hop into bed, and life will go on tomorrow. In this, I saw a meditation on impermanence. Both the universe and Sonny Boy are chaotic messes that can only be understood a fraction of the time, and that's ok. I love the rain, the automated motions of life, the freedom of insignificance. Nagara and Mizuho are the true victors here, despite how some may see it, they win the peacefulness of mundane existence. Even if Sonny Boy doesn't have a deeper meaning and it's just shallow window-dressing pretending to be sophisticated, I still found it to be good fun to watch!
My only complaint would be the music, I absolutely hated it! It was so grating to listen to, but the sound effects and voice acting were amazing, so those, plus the piece at the end (we all know the one), bump its sound score up to 6. Everything else, though, is either a 9 or a 10. This anime may turn out to be one of my favourites once I have a few weeks and months to think about it, but at the moment, I would give it a 9 overall. Highly recommended!
tldr: nothing makes sense, i'm so confused bruh
EDIT: Upon rewatching it, I only love it more! I have raised my 9 to a 10, I can definitely see myself rewatching it in a few years every now and then! I've even come around to enjoying the music!
