This review will be divided into two parts, in the first I will give general opinions without spoilers, in the second I will make a more in-depth analysis of the series with spoilers attached.
That said, let's get started, enjoy!
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Sonny boy is an original series written and directed by the brilliant mind of Shingo Natsume and produced by studio Madhouse, which despite the bad phase it has been going through for almost a decade now, continues to churn out products worthy of the name. So what exactly is Sonny boy? Attaching labels to this series is really complicated.Sonny boy is not just a diamond, it's THE diamond, a pride of Japanese animation, a product that will certainly not be easily forgotten by the public, for better or for worse. Yes, because here we are talking about a unique series, fresh, clear and out of the box, an experience that in this field is rare to say the least.
# story
An entire junior high school class, together with the school building, finds itself in a new, lost world, where most of them will have special powers. At the beginning there is an anarchy without laws within the environment, then, a small group feels the need to create a system that can weigh and balance the situation ... and this is the simple premise, the series will then take a fantastic development, which will touch all kinds of situations and issues - politics in all its facets, religion, human existence - placed on several levels - from society to the individual - .
One of the greatest strengths of this series is precisely how it uses its particular context to its advantage without constraints by expanding on multiple contexts and themes, thus offering an incredible existential journey to us viewers.
This, however, will also make the series more complex and heavy to follow, the latter will then also burden the lazy ones by releasing a low dose of explanation, leaving more room for free interpretation of the events.
# Drift as a medium
Fundamentally, however, Sonny boy does have a central genre to focus on; it is a coming of age, the personal story of gradual development in its purest state.
But its execution and, as mentioned before, its particular context, differentiate it from the average product in its genre, elevating it on a pedestal, in my opinion. The themes addressed by this series are myriad. I find in these the strength of Sonny boy. Each episode has its own moral and logic, in fact some of them can also be seen individually.
# Characters
Here I don't want to dwell too much, also because talking about them in depth without making spoilers would be difficult. Certainly the strong point of the anime is not its characters, but even here the work behind them is no less. We speak especially for the protagonists, which in addition to being very human, empathetic and really well characterized, will undergo an evolution from dizzying.
# Visual and sound compartment
And here too, they have confirmed their quality. The series, despite its rather low budget, manages to maintain its eccentricity even in this respect. Shingo, with his dynamic direction peppered with superlative and imaginative close-ups and settings, makes the experience even more immersive. The art style winks at the past and the result is truly enjoyable, as well as perfectly suited to the type of story.
The soundtrack is also commendable if not perfect, which in addition to being very apt, are inserted (or not inserted!) in an exemplary manner, especially in the final episodes.
> Having said that, for those of you who will stop here, I highly recommend that you catch up on this animation gem, you would only be doing yourself a favour.
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# setting
It may not seem like it, but Sonny boy, contrary to what many people claim, leaves very little to chance. I find that the way in which the average spectator has been placed has been wrong from the start, without having been able to contextualise it properly and compromising the very understanding of the work. we find ourselves before a context that has no constraints, a new universe that we spectators do not know at all. It is necessary to start with an empty mind, without making comparisons, in order to enjoy the experience to the fullest and to take in more accurately the information that the work leaves us on this fascinating drift that is built from scratch.
This is basically a coming of age. Nagara (15 years old, the age at which a person begins to shape himself, to grow up, to come into contact with the world of adults) is an apathetic eighth-grader with obvious family problems who is undecided about which school path to take.
He is the classic teenager with no initiative, who always takes the easy way out, that is to escape from problems (in short, gold to reflect himself in the story, after all we all have been or still are teenagers). His power is coincidentally escapism, and he will be one of the causes that triggered this drift, but let's go in order. Mizuho, 15 years old as well, an emotional and a bit spoilt girl who will be marked by one event in particular. The first great disappointment due to the corrupt cynicism of the adult world.She discovers that there had been sabotage (due to Hoshi's influence) of the votes for the school representative elections. She also has the same problem of making her voice heard but in a more moderate manner, managing at least to do so under an anonymous account. She will however be discovered (again by Hoshi) thanks to the powerful contacts she has, and after various threats, they have the professor with whom she had a (one can guess) very intimate relationship fired.
A real emotional shock that will make her even more closed in on herself. The cat wants to protect her at all costs, he doesn't think she's ready for the world of grown-ups yet.
The series tells us that certain subjects already possessed powers before the drift, but only within the school. The only ones whose powers we have confirmation of before are only 2, that is the main characters of this series: Nagara and Mizuho (there would be also Hoshi but I wouldn't consider him a power, more a simple interpreter of 'god'). What do they have in common? They both don't feel at ease in the school environment and have difficulties in relating to each other. And it is the two of them who are responsible for the drift: the cats have created the copies, while Nagara has created the context,but all of this was done by accident.
As the headmaster says, it happened because it had to happen, there is no real why. And as chance would have it, they will always be the ones to close the circle, returning to the original world, also thanks to Nozomi's essence/idealism represented by a compass. In fact, it is she who encouraged Nagara to return to the original world. Nagara himself confirms this: "because this is the light that Nozomi saw", since only drifting, for Nagara, Nozomi has been a compass.
The ending approaches what is hailed as perfection. The characters will go on to live their lives as normal, after all, they have only just begun....
The messages to analyse present from this series are just too many; therefore, I will just expound on what I preferred.
Sport, a form of entertainment to distract man from his boredom. It can bring minorities closer together and acceptance, a real weapon against racism, but it can also breed hatred. BlueMonkey, thanks to his talent, goes from being an outcast to the idol of the whole audience. On the other side of the coin, a referee (the most controversial and hated figure in this context) firm in his convictions, was even killed by the public, for a mistake in the evaluation that does not even exist. The parallelism between man and monkey is brilliant, the message is cruel but realistic. The first question that sport demands is respect, and the series reminds us of this beautifully.
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That's it, I hope you enjoyed my review. Goodbye!`71.5 out of 76 users liked this review