Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Kranst
Reality is illogical. People spend much of their lives striving to find meaning within the absurdity of existence despite the overwhelming simplicity of life. Sonny Boy explores this concept through captivatingly experimental writing that has converging philosophical, psychological, metaphorical, and symbolic interpretations. This is coming-of-age storytelling that demands introspection. It tackles interpersonal connection, adolescence, identity, social expectation, freedom, loneliness, and escapism, among other topics. The narrative is deliberately vague with a semi-directionless structure, more often utilizing imagery or music to convey ideas or emotions. Undoubtedly, this non-traditional format is not for everyone. But it is worth trying. The ending invokes feelings better experienced t…
Read at the sourceOll1397
Sonny Boy has many qualities we may typically associate with bad writing. Characters come and go abruptly; plot threads are picked up then abandoned and the show's story lacks any real direction until it's closing episodes. But these are not the result of an inexperienced team or troubled production, they are very deliberate subversions of narrative convention.
After all, how much of storytelling is following the same comfortable patterns? Characters get their arcs with satisfying pay offs and everything that happens to them does so for a clear reason. But of course, reality is much stranger than that.
The Absurd is the idea that we as humans are programmed to seek meaning and purpose in a universe where there is none. It doesn't matter what we do or care about now, it all still melts aw…
Read at the sourcejackn6
A beautiful coming of age story and one of the best to ever do it. A meticulously crafted existential exploration of literally everything about the human condition as it transition from adolescent into adulthood. Life changing.
Shows like this only come around once or twice a year, and they always get mixed reviews, partly because of the declining media literacy, partly because people are so stubbornly fixated on conventional storytelling. Sonny Boy doesnt hold your hand, it doesnt explain itself, doesnt spell out its themes, and doesnt offer easy answers. For some, thats a barrier, for others, its what makes it so good. Very similar to works like eva and lain, however i think it carries a much more realistic and stronger, emotionally touching themes, particularly about growing up, relati…
Read at the sourceBlueSharko
The story starts off similarly to Lord of The Flies, having a bunch of kids trying to reconstruct order and society on an uninhabited island. However, the show slowly drifts away from this simple premise, as our ragtag group of high schoolers delve into the rules of the new world. Super powers are a great addition that allows them to further interact with their environment and shape the narrative.
Sonny Boy is a truly touching story and its characters are complex and endearing. Music and visuals are astonishing. Each episode has its own concluded storyline, which makes them all have merit on their own. The first episode especially made a strong impression on me as it could just as well function as a standalone short animation. The story doesn’t drag, as they are always new developments ah…
Read at the sourceRamun_Flame
This one was a bit of a trip. So immediately in the first episode, I knew this was going to be a unique experience. The direction of the episodes is quite unorthodox. The art changes, and many scenes feel more like art pieces. The characters have unique personalities, ideas, and flaws. Not a typical isekai.
The story is pretty interesting, if not hard to follow. It's a human story full of emotions, and a lot of things are abstracted and not explained directly. It covers a lot of things, and the premise let's it play around with it's story telling in unexpected ways. I don't want to be too specific about the details, since that will spoil things.
One thing that held this back a bit for me was the pacing. Even though a lot of things seem to happen, the pace is quite slow, with a lot of tal…
Read at the sourcegabrielcostav
This is a really amazing anime. Yeah, I'm actually coming back to this kind of stuff but that doesn't mean I'm doing it in the same intensity I did back in 2020. Like, if it was me from that time, I'd have watched the whole "Sonny Boy" series in a day, probably, and nowadays, I was struggling a tad with it to be honest. But it's not really that it is bad, maybe the fact it's so complex and all makes up for an extremely original story as much as it makes up for a pretty confusing experience too. In a way, that was something quite hard to follow, but at the same time, I was genuinely invested into whatever this thing was.
I think this kind of anime is a combo I just might have to praise: short, 1-season-only + ingenious and very original/distinctive. I really respect it, and the narrative i…
Read at the sourcemrkib
It's perfect. This is, without a doubt, the best "isekai" I've ever watched and I think ever will. The story can be so confusing at times, and it feels so chaotic that you wonder how this show could ever be any good. But to be honest, the main appeal of this show isn't really what is going on, but more so what the overarching picture is. You don't really need to understand the nitty details to truly understand this show is my point.
The detailing on this show isn't very "good" at first, but I feel like that is intentional and makes the show's message even clearer. Towards the end, when they finally return to reality, there's much more depth and overall penwork. The other world was simply a dream to these two, per se; it's meant to be chaotic, colorful, and cartoony. Plus, it's a personal…
Read at the sourceUpholder
Obvious quality, but with a scattered execution that keeps it from being truly great. In many ways it's remarkable that a show with so many blatant flaws somehow still manages to be as powerful and deep as it was.
Perhaps first and foremost, any prospective viewer needs to be prepared for the somewhat abstract storytelling in Sonny Boy. This is a show far more concerned with its themes than with a coherent narrative. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you'll appreciate your time with it more if you approach it as an abstract exploration of various themes associated with change and growing up, rather than as a story in its own right.
When Sonny Boy is at its best it is honestly brilliant, delivering on everything a mind-bending psychological mystery can. But these moments of greatnes…
Read at the sourceVaju
Just finished Sonny Boy. What a complete pile of vomit. It honestly feels like something spawned from the feverish imagination of a schizophrenic running a 40°C fever. I genuinely have no idea how anyone can call this good storytelling. I give it a solid 0/10. It's in exactly the same category as Serial Experiments Lain and Texhnolyze for me. I seriously wonder what kind of people come up with this pretentious, overly abstract nonsense and then expect viewers to find some deep meaning in it. It was exhausting, confusing, and completely unenjoyable from beginning to end. Definitely not for me.
Read at the sourceSilverSyanide
I got around to watching this and found interest in it right away. Each episode slowly gets better and better, the episode Laughing Dog was great but that may have been the problem.
Each episode after that a slow decline to the point of the the final episode. I felt the way I did when I watched FMA and Soul Eater the first times, the way you know it the story ended to end with no real reason. I. looked to see if it was ongoing or unended, but it was a anime original.
I don’t think he made it a cautionary tail as a be careful what you wish for but it seemed the ones that took the risk rolled snake eyes big time and was like oh well we screwed up but hopefully we won’t grow up to be a lone and depressed. I mean it just really feels weird for how he weaved the story up to that point.
Ev…
Read at the sourceFigardMB1
Sonny Boy is a short, yet a long show, and I don't know how to even start talking about.
The story is a story of combined stories making up one big story, that all feel different, and all feel interesting.
People say it's a complicated show, which is definetly true, even if you think that you're "too smart" for this story, it has so many different interpretations and symbols which need quite a bit of time to think about.
It felt like this show lasted longer than it did, (I still would love it to last a lot longer, damn it, I hate goodbyes!) and I don't mean it in a bad way. I really love the pacing and the amount of information we must learn to get to know the "This World's" of Sonny Boy. Even though it was fast paced, we get to know so much about the characters and their stories its a…
Read at the sourceYourboizeo
Sonny Boy is what you get if you take a high school class, yeet them into weird drifting dimensions, and then forget to add a plot checklist. No villains, no “save the world”, just a bunch of teens dealing with random powers + existential dread while the show looks like a trippy art project. It’s slow, it’s weird, and it’ll have you pausing every 5 minutes like “wait… what was that a metaphor for?” Nagara and Mizuho just trying to survive while everyone else is having a philosophy breakdown, and Madhouse animated it like they were paid in vibes instead of money. The sound design + backgrounds go crazy though - feels like you’re actually lost in some empty dimension at 3am. Is it for everyone? Nah. But if you’re tired of shonen fights and want an anime that respects your brain cells and mes…
Read at the sourceEiji1997
Sonny Boy is very hard to review, because how do you really explain it? Its themes are simple enough to understand on a surface level: it’s about growing up. However, the show is so dense with little character interactions, visual cues and symbolism, and open-ended questions, that it almost begs for a rewatch.
What immediately pulled me in was the art direction. Like so many other reviewers, I think Sonny Boy is one of the most beautiful anime I’ve ever seen. The contrasting color palettes and simple yet fluid animation were a real treat. I felt like I was watching a love letter to the medium. If I were in a museum and clips from the show were projected onto a wall without sound, I would have been happy to sit there and contemplate them all day. That’s how much I enjoyed it! The sound dir…
Read at the sourceStairscases
It is... impossible to put into words what this anime actually made me feel. It feels like a dream that you never want to wake up from.
I get that most people would find difficult to grasp what this show is really trying to say, and I was not the exception, but it can be as simple as you want to be and as complex as you want to be. It is probably one of the most profound and artistic story not only in anime but in fiction.
The animation is very well made with a stylistic bright blue aesthetic and the beautiful math rock OST is another big factor that contributes to the anime's merit & atmosphere.
It is not for everybody but if you think it is for you go and watch it, media like this is very hard to find.
P.S - The only thing about it that left me disappointed was the lack of a proper…
Read at the sourceIlikesomestuff
This show is so good, the visuals, the music, the ideas, all of it is so good, the end was a little 500 days of summer but other than that it's freaking awesome. I love the FLCL vibes and the side stories it really captures the feeling of being lost and young. The best part was towards the end when "Kyo No Uta" plays holy moly. The slight bit of drama adds so much to each character even if it didn't really lead to anything. This is a little Monogatari, Fooly Cooly, and Stein's Gate. My favorite world was the monkey one.
Read at the sourceghostinthefella
Perhaps the most moving anime series I've seen. Natural flowing dialogue with an emphasis on subtly and away from monologue-led exposition. Full of conflicted characters caught in their own internal cycles, in-groups and out-groups forming out of thin air in grasps of futility to understand the impossible. Full of beautiful backgrounds and skies to stare into as you ponder the meaning of it all. The meaning of it all - I would classify this as a very existential work of at. Given a new chance, a new order, how do you find meaning? And what value do you place within yourself? There may be a few follies - a single oversexualized character here, a clear manic pixie dream girl trope there - but all in all this creates something soft and tugging and beyond the bounds of the typical isekai genre…
Read at the sourceADR01018
Sonny boy is a thoughtful, carefully crafted and thematically dense anime about growing up and finding your purspose and meaning in life. That may sound pretentious and abstract but if you are willing to stick with it, it can be a very rewarding experience.
The initial few(around 3-4) episodes establish the world, setup the plot and introduce us to the central conflicts of the story. While they are interesting and fun, each of them have their own individual subplots for the viewers to follow through. The first episode thrusts it's characters into a new world which operates on a set of specific and idiosyncratic rules. At the end of the first episode we move into a new world and we learn about it in the second episode. This repeats for the first few episodes and we slowly begin to underst…
Read at the sourcetoukss
Don't try to understand it, feel it.
From a logical perspective there are so many other different ways these characters would've gone about their escape or living their lives. It's not really explained as to why they got these powers or where it came from but the experience of watching this show is something else.
At the start of the first few episodes it slow burns. As a viewer myself I was thinking of dropping it multiple of times but there were scenes of mystery that left me curious and wanted to finish it. Characters from this show figure out their selves and their true natures whilst trying to survive and cope the reality they are given.
I legitimately think this is one of those anime that would let you stare at the ceiling for a couple of minutes before you would be able to proce…
Read at the sourceXNK0KU
Sonny Boy is the kind of anime that hits harder if your life has been complicated. it might be difficult for some to understand at first, but that's the point, there are no long monologues explaining everything. You are meant to feel just as lost as the characters, as if you are experiencing it alongside them.
when we're young, we see the world differently: Vast, endless, full of possibilities. Every day feels like a new world, filled with new experiences. Time feels infinite or unimportant, much like the way our minds capture everything so vividly. Our brains when we're young constantly encounter something new, so each moment feels longer and more meaningful than it does in adulthood. thus Its fragmented episodic structure mirrors the way memory works, vivid moments surrounded by blanks.…
Read at the sourceNkalaB
To simplify this anime: people experience the world differently. There could be many different worlds to one, but one world to many people as well. Survival, prejudice, freedom, death are all abound in this simple universe that expands itself in a short area.
There are mainly four characters with a main focus within this abstract anime: Nozomi, Mizuho, Nagara and Asakaze.
These four alone represent some emotion or theme for this show. Nozomi represents the light, which is the direction needed. Mizuho represents the dull, but simple character of care which links her to the universe. Nagara shows that your subconscious tells you the truth way before you know it and Asakaze is power absolute, even if it ruins what he loves the most.
There are two extra characters that show that the universe…
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