Trying To Be Weightless | Moral Ethics Of Being Omnipotent - Sonny Boy
Words nor a well-written summary don't fully explain this show and never will because it's all kinds of things. It's a mystery, adventure, coming of age, slice of life, fantasy world, it is those things. But mainly it's grounded by school students whose schools are stuck somewhere in some otherworldly dimension that has no bearing to reality.
These school students are stuck in this place, trying to define their reality using their various abilities all the while holding onto hope that they'll come back to their world. While not knowing what exactly has happened to them.
Sonny Boy isn't an original show, that uses any kind of narrative structure, even if incoherent or incohesive in some cases, to be used to the extent to find a deeper meaning. That uses its narrative as a tool as just an extension to its themes, even if there's a plot.
Shows like Tatami Galaxy and Kaiba create worlds that only use relatable concepts in their physical forms. Yet only exist to thrust characters into whatever situations for the convenience of character development and enriching the show's themes.
Director Shingo Natsume has worked on various popular animes, from the likes of Naruto, One Punch Man, Mob Psycho, Gurren Lagann, and Full Metal Alchemist. Mostly as a key animator, he would later work on as episode director full on for One Punch Man, and Welcome to NHK.
This man is an absolute creative unit in the anime industry, anything he works on, you know it's going to be great. It's one of the big reasons why One Punch Man season 1 became a notable success.
Being known widely for making the most craziest, hyper action superhero anime could easily pigeonhole him into such archetypes for the rest of his life, yet unfazed, he moved on to a unique project called Sonny Boy. Something that's wholly original and a personal project of his, both written and directed by him. With Hisashi Eguchi as the character designer.
To explain the plot narrative structure would be a very difficult process, it involves dissecting the world-building, themes, figuring out subtexts, and brainstorm exactly as to what cosmic purpose do the students spacing out of reality have?
Putting it simply, they are in a cosmic reality where their perceived abilities and imagination bring things to life. And they have to use whatever they have at their disposal to go back home. Despite the freedom they seem to have, there are rules to their dimensions, which they have to figure out by trial and error.
Unable to control their problems, and dealing with weird adverse effects from this reality, they go full Lord of Flies and create a student body hierarchy. Where if all fails, someone with more power and influence will take over and imbue rules of fascism. Hah, kind of like how our world works.
The show deals with youth, dealing with fledgling time and constantly overexerting themselves to solve problems that are kind of out of their league. As the story progresses, you learn so much about how other students from other classes have dealt with their reality. Different realities are also where time moves differently. One student lived somewhere for 2 years, another had lived for 1 thousand years elsewhere, relativity. Pretty obvious at this point that they don't have to deal with mortality, but the pain and suffering are much mental and spiritual.
The focus is on two boys and two girls. Alongside some interesting side characters, you see so much unfolding through their stories here. By episode 10th, a lot has happened already. Like civilizations have risen and fallen down. One of the main characters(a boy), was chastised by the student body for hiding his powerful abilities. Of which he and the others have no idea how it works. Used as a scapegoat to appease the masses.
Sonny Boy deals with existentialism with youth, losing time while also not being able to cherish things you love because of having to deal with the changes of reality. In the end, the show depicts its characters finding ways to move on with their lives and accept their circumstances.
The ending of the show would have really hit right though if they included another episode before it to help the plot gap left. The ending felt rushed, missing out on important plot details that led to its eventual conclusion.
But when it comes to the message and deep themes, the show succeeds, well mostly. I liked the bittersweet ending, it hits on the right note that was building up all the way from the beginning.
There are YouTubers scrutinizing the world for references, if you search "Sonny Boy explained", a lot of videos would pop up. But most of them having different interpretations from different lenses. It's free to watch on YouTube, thanks to Ani-Asia uploading it.
It's also worth it for the killer OST, lot of low-fi soft core rock music to fit the atmosphere.