What makes Sonny Boy a pleasure to watch is its audiovisuals. Notice the striking absence of music in episode one. From the very beginning, you realize that this is going to be something different. Audio is predominantly sound effects, and music is almost never present on top of dialogue. That, of course, isn't to say that Sonny Boy's tracks are subpar - quite the opposite, in fact. Then come graphics: simply superb. The vibrant and precise animation coupled with the character designs of Sonny Boy make for one of the most absorbing experiences I've had in anime. Fantastic scene direction and background art. Quality is maintained. My writing skills are not good enough to describe the artistic prowess of Sonny Boy, though I can say that this is as far as a 10 can go in visuals.
What makes Sonny Boy a puzzle is its narrative; a torrent of visual information, asking you to put it together. You have a castle filled with desserts and shopping bags in the middle of an abandoned island; a classroom, desks and chalkboard, on a rocky beach shore; Rajdhani's many and peculiar inventions; all these bizarre worlds, with the main one resembling a Robinsonade in conjunction with its "rules". And of course, you have people living in them, with the detail in their expressions telling stories, the camera sharply cutting to close ups, if even for a second, to impose significance in every sentence of dialogue.
What makes Sonny Boy deliver, is that it NEVER instructs you on how to perceive what you see. No visual effects. Static camera work. Everything is grounded and unfiltered. Exposition is seldom, but when present, is only for its world. Little details, to fill you in. You have no esoteric monologues. Dialogue is natural and so are characters, struggling to accept the presence of others with brutal honesty that escapes outwards once in a while - something addictive to watch. You discover their personalities through their stories, and slowly but surely, begin to see the underlying themes.
What makes Sonny Boy entrancing is its surreal world. I personally tried too much to find out whether everything was a fever dream, a world spawned by Nagara's subconsciousness, and whatnot. But that is simply missing the point. The world is not meant to be understood, it''s meant to be experienced. Our cast is surrounded by such extravagant circumstances, unbelievable powers, popping in and out of different worlds, yet they react to all of it so... nonchalantly. Like they've seen something like this before. Why? You'll keep asking, until you realize that the asking in itself is the point.
What makes Sonny Boy poignant is its themes. Uncertainty and anxiety, in the context of teenage school life. Learning to live on your own. Acknowledging responsibility and regret. Coming closer with people, and drifting away from them. Growing up and accepting reality. Sonny Boy is not very hopeful. It recognizes the pointlessness of life, the nihilism, the consequences of being conscious - especially inside a social environment. But it nevertheless embraces all of it. It asks, "is there any other alternative?"
What makes Sonny Boy great is everything mentioned. But it is not perfect. It asks you to perceive depth by simply observing the surface, to find meaning in a plot where linear story telling is thrown out of the window, to toil, trying to connect dispersed story and character threads with one another, in order to make something out of all of it... but the result will probably not be wholly satisfying. Therefore, even character moments might be void of impact at times.
However, Sonny Boy is aware of that. It asks you directly, even: what would life be if but a constant struggle to find meaning? I cannot pretend that I've understood Sonny Boy in its entirety, though I assure you that when you figure this anecdote out, you will have, at the very least, understood its intentions.
