Sep 30, 2021
intro:
initially, I was excited about this anime because of the unique art style and me being a fan of abstract anime like tatami galaxy and lain. I thought I'm in for a treat but ended up having flashbacks of my disappointment with boogipop 2019.
story and characters:
- the only positive thing about this story is that it's an isekai that doesn't have a video game setting with a morally depraved otaku protagonist.
- sadly this anime is plagued by long-winded explanations, dialogues, and monologue that are mostly confusing and dull instead of making sense and being intriguing worst-case example being the monkey episode
...
where a character talks about monkeys uninterrupted for almost five minutes and it happens twice with very little things happening dot hack sign couldn't get away with it and it made some sense and answered some questions so you can't either.
- anime is a visual medium so show don't tell is an important rule which sonny boy doesn't take advantage of we are told a lot of things instead of being shown especially those that happened during time skips since every episode doesn't pick up right after each episode ends, therefore, time is skipped were character did some explorations and had discussion off-screen therefore at the beginning of a new episode you are bombarded by briefings of information that the characters know and shouldn't be repeating to each other.
-lack of tension is an issue for it since there is a lack of urgency for the characters. for example, they are pretty much immortal and one of the characters has the ability of amazong ordering anything she wants so the lack of every day convinces isn't an issue when they were initially stranded. later on, the author tries to fix this by introducing a certain character (war) and the twin episode but he never interacts with our main cast ( at the end war was completely forgotten about) and the twins only hurt each other and the mothed they used seems to only affect them. and when a major character actually died. it didn't have any gravity to it. i didn't even buy it at first but at the end, she is alive and well even tho both versions of her are supposed to be dead.
- lack of atmosphere sonny boy lacks energy overall and a gripping atmosphere and mood that sucks you in like with lain and Texhnolyze. going the intellectual route doesn't absolve you of not having an atmosphere in your show they are necessary.
- the ending doesn't explain anything and we would few lines describing what happened to every other character showcase how little they mattered
- overall, the story lacks cohesion I still can't pick out the central theme or concept it's flushing out. and the ending explains jack shit about the mystories and just glosses over them. I would give it a pass if they weren't the main focus and we weren't constantly being baited by them and got an actual focus on theme exploration instead of being bombarded by different concepts.
- the characters are mostly two-dimensional and forgettable I can't remember the names I only distinguish them by nicknames like star boy, cats girl and pixi girl etc., and even most people who seem to like it use it too. side characters are mostly underdeveloped and some only show up for one episode or have very little impact on the story.
Art and animation and ost:
- I like the art style it has a retro feel to it but the animation, on the other hand, is average there isn't any animation sequence that left an impression on me or made me think. this is not what an abstract anime should be. there isn't a lot of visual storytelling available.
- the directing is on the bland side as well it reminds me of boogipop 2019 directing and how dull it was which is obvious since both have the same director i don't know why when he direct anime that tries to be smart or artsy he presents it as boring as possible and extremely convoluted seriously they don't have to be. with good directing and shot composition, they can be made easier to comprehend Masaki Yuasa proved it can be done.
- the ost with exception of the ed is none existent it tries to go for a minimalist approach with using ambit sounds like with lain but unlike lain which used it to make the viewer unsettled and creeped out before it goes crazy sonny boy didn't go anywhere with it wasn't trying to build an atmosphere and as a result, it felt empty.
- near the end, the anime tries to fix a lot o the issues I mentioned but sadly it's too little too late.
overall impressions :
- sonny boy comes across to me as pretentious instead of smart because of the constant need to bombard the viewer with scientific terminology instead of making actual sense and having theme exploration. if you want depth or smart shows check out lain, Ergue proxy, Texhnolyze, zegapian, Shinseki yuri, and ghost in the shell (both versions).
PS, it's really ironic that I'm recommending some anime that casual anime fans call pretentious haha.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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