Sonny Boy is UNNECESESSARILY complex and difficult.

LordSozin said:
Show like Serial Experiment Lain at least had a solid direction. This one doesn't.

Lucas-Souza_19 said:

It's not dynamic, it's boring

yasm said:
You don't need to understand everything to enjoy it. Yes it's difficult to follow, and most people would need to watch each episode several times and probably pause and think a lot to "get it all". But every person will get different things from it, which sparks interesting discussions and keeps everyone thinking about the story long after watching each episode. That's the ultimate goal!

I'll argue that it would be arrogant if it "dumbed it down" to make everything easier to parse. There are several hidden messages about capitalism and society that would come across as preachy if they were more obvious and less ambiguous. Instead of telling you the answer, Sonny Boy hints at questions that you can ask and (maybe) answer yourself, and I find that very endearing.

NezukoMikasa said:
Honestly I think that the way Sonny Boy presents these topics are already preachy. While this concept of capitalism and a hierarchy forming between people who are stranded with no way home based on ability is not a new idea whatsoever and is honestly pretty easy to understand, the show still feels the need to have a conversation take place between Nagara and Mizuho about this very topic to feed it to the audience, with Nagara being like: cmon don’t do this give everything away for free! Be nice!

NezukoMikasa said:
Also I can’t think of any idea presented in this show that hasn’t already been presented by a classic piece of literature. It would be one thing if this show presented these ideas in a way that took these ideas and presented them in a more interesting way, but I think it has failed to do so.

yasm said:

I don't see how the way that topic was presented was preachy. It didn't express capitalism as either bad or good, it simply pointed out the effects it has on society. On the one hand, it worked wonders to get everyone organised and working together, contributing towards the greater good. On the other, it was intrinsically unfair, as the students gifted with better powers could earn more virtual money for less effort. I agree the way all of this was presented may have been a bit too transparent, but it was an early episode. They had to start slow on the metaphors or even more people would give up early. Whether capitalism was a good topic to cover early, I can't say, but it was well placed within the plot progression.

yasm said:

I find this valid criticism. I think the intended audience is young (Japanese) people that aren't necessarily bookish but are tired of the regular shonen and are looking for something with more substance. Odds are there's something that audience can learn from this, a new perspective that can be gained. There's always a first contact with quantum theory, questions of determinism and freewill, the worth of engaging socially and the dangers of mob thinking. While none of the ideas are original, they will be new to someone.

I do think this is a fairly interesting way to present those ideas, but I guess that's a matter of taste. That said I do also feel like they could've taken things farther, going deeper or presenting more exotic philosophical concepts. Then again, I have been exposed to so much literature that nothing seems entirely original nowadays.

CommanderEverest said:
Sonny Boy isn't all that complex or difficult to watch. Its themes/messages are super obvious and in-your-face.

Sonny Boy's big issues are: 1) it's trying too hard to be avant garde and "artsy"; 2) the way it goes about doing the whole "morality play of the week/society-related or existential topic of the week to preach about/shine a light on" thing is almost always too slow and/or ridiculously boring, nonsensical, and/or convoluted; and 3) the fact that it's put the main plot on standby for multiple episodes in a row now for the sake shoehorning in more morality plays/preaching (I've only watched through Episode 8) is only making things worse (it might come off as having no clear direction to some people).

I've been strongly considering dropping this show for a few episodes now, but I would feel guilty doing so given how I've basically watched around 3/4 of it so far and there's only a few episodes left. It definitely doesn't deserve its current 7.54 rating; it's more like a 7.1 at best or a 6.5 at worst. It's not "bad", just flawed and not executed as well as it could have been/should be.

ToraiS said:


1) We rarely get any anime that is experimental, visually unique and narratively unique. But when it does come, people don't hesitate to call it "pretentious", "tries too hard", and "elitist".

2) I don't think Sonny Boy preaches on anything. Sure, it puts on the table prevalent topics, as all coming of age stories should, but it does not put out a message of itself. Rather, it expects the viewer to come up with their own message. With its current 10 episodes, it does a really good job so far so I don't get where you came up with it "preaching" and "shoehorning" its morals.

3) Sonny Boy's main story is slow, but never really paused. It just feeds spoonfuls of it with really fast cuts, but Sonny Boy can be capable of taking pace as evidenced by ep 6.

4) Other than the small pace, I think you're just not used to shows like this. Like Mushishi, Perfect Blue and Serial Experiments Lain. If its not for you, then that doesn't mean it's objectively bad. The first episode should have been a sign that you won't like this series with unique directing choices like no music and non-chronological storytelling so Sonny Boy hasn't really robbed you of anything.

CommanderEverest said:


1) I have no problem with the visuals or it being "experimental", though I wouldn't call the narrative unique. It genuinely feels like it's trying too hard to be unique and "deep" and they've made things worse by ignoring the main plot in favor of the topic of the week stuff that never seems to end.

2) Every episode seems to focus on some new topic, almost like a villain of the week but instead a topic of the week for them to act like they're being "deep" about it. It's all surface level, doesn't bring anything new, and takes forever to get to a simple, obvious conclusion on the topic. It was fine at first because the topic and the drama taking place made sense given the characters' personalities and the events that occurred. However, by the middle of the season it just became repetitive and boring and had nothing to do with the characters' personalities or any events that took place. It was shoehorned in for the sake of having a new topic of the week instead of actually focusing on the main plot like it should be. You can't just dedicated the first few episodes to the main plot and then suddenly stop and switch to topics of the week and act like that was supposed to be expected.

3) The story stopped focusing on the main plot (i.e. trying to find a way home and stopping the bad guys ("God" and the teacher who randomly reappeared as an evil person)) and made the topic of the week the main focus instead.

It reminds me of those god-awful RPGs where you're inundated with a bunch of time-consuming, unrelated side quests and can't progress the main story until you've completed them all. It's basically like those anime where they stuff a bunch of random "filler" episodes into the middle of the season so they can return to the main plot for the last 2-4 episodes and end with the most impactful content for that season. This season's My Next Life as a Villainess (aka Bakarina) Season 2 did just that, which is simultaneously disappointing and understandable as a light novel reader of the series (I'm caught up with the English release).

The issue here is that Sonny Boy doesn't need to be doing this, especially since it's an anime original story. It may as well cut out these "filler" episodes and shorten the series to six episodes instead.

4) I haven't watched any of those anime and don't plan to. I know they're too "artsy" for me, so I don't bother. Does Seikaisuru Kado/KADO: The Right Answer count though? Death Parade? Denpa-teki na Kanojo? Occultic;Nine? Odd Taxi? Girls' Last Tour? Subete ga F ni Naru?

I chose to watch Sonny Boy because of the interesting premise (Lord of the Flies with a Sci-Fi twist) and stayed for the main group of characters. I don't have any issues with the art style nor lack of music at times (more series should try doing this for impactful moments/scenes). Also, I wasn't aware that the story wasn't being shown in chronological order. I thought it was being shown chronologically. I never saw anything to indicate that the story began to be told out of order.

Lucas-Souza_19 said:

It's not dynamic, it's boring (Monkey episode, I'm talking to you...), the anime just plays and throws information every second, and requires you to pay attention to every cut, every scene transition, in the text, in the subtext, in the scenery, even in the dubbing (voice coming from beyond talking to the little star's douchebag in the face out of nowhere), everything.

Lucas-Souza_19 said:
Like, I get it that the anime wants to be abstract, wants to pass messages through symbolism, metalanguage and everything else. But man, the way Sonny Boy tries to do it is absolutely elitist and this is the BIGGEST PROBLEM of this anime...

It's not dynamic, it's boring (Monkey episode, I'm talking to you...), the anime just plays and throws information every second, and requires you to pay attention to every cut, every scene transition, in the text, in the subtext, in the scenery, even in the dubbing (voice coming from beyond talking to the little star's douchebag in the face out of nowhere), everything.

If you miss even 1 of these details you're gone, it's hard to get into that. I feel like this anime tried to be "The End of Evangelion" from the beginning, only without the context of the characters in the past, without their nuances, without even knowing them or the world, or the rules properly. Which if evangelion had tried to do it would have failed miserably.