Sonny Boy (TV series)

Sonny Boy (サニーボーイ) is an original Japanese anime television series animated by Madhouse and written and directed by Shingo Natsume. The story follows a group of middle school students who are transported to an alternative dimension where some of them gain supernatural powers. In their quest to find their way home, they unravel the mysteries of this new world, and conflicts between them arise. The series aired from July to October 2021.

Sonny Boy has been noted for its non-traditional storytelling, occasionally skipping over major events and instead focusing on characters' reactions to those events. While fantasy elements are present, the series primarily uses its setting to explore psychological themes such as identity, social expectation, freedom, and loneliness.[1] The series has been featured in several lists of best anime of its year, and has been praised for the quality of its production and animation and the originality of its visuals.

Plot

Midway through a seemingly endless day of summer vacation, third-year middle school student Nagara and his class, along with transfer student Nozomi and the aloof and mysterious Mizuho, are suddenly transported to an alternate dimension. The group calls the new dimension "This World", and finds it has its own set of rules and physics. Over time, while trying to get back home, they realize that they have individual supernatural abilities, but also find it difficult to navigate their own interpersonal relationships.

The class later splits into two groups due to internal conflicts. As both the groups continue journeying to find their way back home, they discover many other students who have spent thousands of years in other "This Worlds".

Characters

• Nagara (長良)
• A middle school student who keeps to himself. He has problems with his relatives, and is distant to his schoolmates, adopting a cold attitude towards them. He is initially shown to have no powers.[4]
• Nozomi (希)
• A mysterious transfer student from Berlin, who was seen by Nagara at the ceiling of the school, tearing apart some textbooks. She stands her ground no matter how hard the circumstances. When gone adrift, she gains the superpower "compass", which allows her to see a light at the distance that no one else is able to perceive.[4]
• Mizuho (瑞穂)
• A student who carries her grandmother's cats, Tora, Gen and Sakura, in a tote bag. She has an attitude of "going at one's own pace", and she's honest about her feelings. She tends to isolate herself to avoid being affected by her surrounding circumstances. She has the superpower "nyamazon", where her three cats can deliver her any object she desires. Having a power indispensable for survival, the other students come to rely on her, annoying her quite a bit.[4]
• Asakaze (朝風)
• A rebellious student who dislikes authority. He opposed the members of the student council who tried to control him, starting a dispute. His power allows him to control gravity, and he repeatedly helps Nagara and company in perilous situations.[4]
• Rajdhani (ラジダニ)
• A very intelligent and exotic student who, after going adrift, approaches the new dimensions with curiosity, and concentrates his efforts to elucidate the mysteries of this alternate world. He gains the power "Pocket Computer", which allows him to create objects through computer programs.
• Hoshi (明星)
• Born with a star-shaped birthmark below his left eye, he has a cute face in contrast with his mature personality. After going adrift with the rest, he starts to move behind the scenes, doing things like inciting Cap to become the leader of the students. He gains the power "Hope" that allows him to materialize images.
• Pony (ポニー)
• The president of the student council, she does not talk much and always has a cold facial expression. She works closely with Hoshi to organize the students. She gains the power "Switch" that allows her to make the things she has touched change places.
• Cap (キャップ)
• A robust student which always has a trademark baseball cap on. Even though he was elected the leader in the course of events, he really is a timid and gentle person. He was a baseball teammate of Nagara. He gains the ability "All-purpose club room" which lets him create diverse things when concentrating on an empty room.
• Hayato (はやと)
• An easy-going person, he is one of the few close friends of Nagara. At the request of Hoshi, he made a list of everyone's powers in a notebook. After going adrift, he gains the ability "ET" which lets him turn on a little light in his index finger.
• Shanghai (上海)
• A transfer student from abroad, she talks in Shanghainese. Belonging to the cool group, she is frequently together with Ace. She gains the ability to control electromagnetism.
• Kossetsu (骨折)
• A female student with a fractured left arm, which is suspended in an arm sling. In episode 10, she becomes the narrator and reveals that she has been faking her ability to make objects stick to her body. Her true ability is "Monologue," which allows her to hear the voices of others' hearts. She has a crush on Asakaze and often accompanies him, but he only sees her as an errand girl. Despite knowing this, she uses her ability to maintain the demeanor he desires. According to Nozomi's letter, her real name is "Tsubasa."

Production

Themes

Sonny Boy has been noted for its metaphorical and symbolical use of supernatural elements for social commentary, and as catalysts for conflicts between the characters,[1] dealing with topics such as alienation, loneliness, social expectations, freedom and identity.[1] Director Shingo Natsume declared in an interview that one of his main objectives was to show the friction between maintaining order and individual freedom, saying "[t]he story is inspired by the illogicalities that can sprout through rules".[1] He furthers explains the symbolism used in the series, and how these elements reflect the psychology and growth of the protagonists. He considers Nagara to mirror his feelings during his teenage years, reflecting how he was always constrained back then.[1] Collider's David Lynn comments how the show "addresses themes of capitalist exploitation, social isolation, and the power of community", constantly presenting many different philosophical topics, and "not so much answering any questions as much as asking and then pondering on them"

In his honors thesis, Inoue (2023) analyzes two anime with multiverse settings, The Tatami Galaxy and Sonny Boy, comparing them and commenting how they explore the experiences of Japanese adolescents growing up in their country's modern society. He states that Sonny Boy reflects people's desire for maintaining order, especially in times of crisis. In the first episode, the leaders of the school student council send a "Group Talk" invitation to the rest of students, asking them to choose a leader to follow, and then assigning tasks for everyone with the purpose of keeping order, which echoes the rigid structure of Japanese schooling system, where the students are expected to follow rules first and foremost without causing any trouble nor deviating from the norm.[12] He also comments on the growth of protagonist Nagara throughout the series, deeming it the main message of the show: he starts as an apathetic individual with a very nihilistic outlook of life, but changes to a more optimistic attitude later on due to his interactions with Nozomi, who has a more positive disposition from the start, which is reflected symbolically in her superpower, a "compass" that allows her to "see the way out" of the darkness surrounding the school in order to return home.[12]

Release

The anime television series was announced on April 28, 2021. While the first episode was given an early premiere on June 19, 2021,[13] the series officially aired from July 16 to October 1, 2021, on Tokyo MX and other channels.[2]

The series was licensed outside of Asia by Funimation.[15] On September 14, 2021, Funimation announced the series would receive an English dub, which premiered on September 16.[3] Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll.[16] Medialink licensed the series in South and Southeast Asia and streamed it in their YouTube channel.[17]

On December 16, 2022, a Blu-ray box was announced, which includes scenes from the last episodes that were not used, together with some previews of the anime and recordings of the songs.[18][19]

Reception

Explanatory notes

External links