Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Vaju
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 sourcea_last_flower
I am not criticising the content, but the way of telling it. The author chose the more complicated way, perhaps more beautiful for him, but less effective for others. And this limits the message the work could have had.
Sonny Boy deals with important themes (friendship, growth, loneliness, identity). But the way he tells them is too personal, cryptic and symbolic: it seems made more for himself than for a wide audience. This makes it accessible only to a niche of viewers willing to decipher the author's language or who see it as he does. I think, if you want to communicate universal themes, you have to find a simpler, more direct, shared language.
For example:
If a teacher asks: "Draw friendship."
Everyone draws children playing together. And one draws floating worlds, abstract metaphors,…
Read at the sourceSpaceBeebop
The worst anime I have ever seen in my life. The anime never had coherence, the events are a joke in very bad taste.
At the end of the anime I felt sad, frustrated. They played with my feelings throughout the anime, until you see that ending.
an anime, disturbing and dull and meaningless, left me with a very, very bad taste. If possible I would give it a 0 rating, I doubt that another anime can dethrone this piece of .....
It doesn't make any sense at all. unforgivable, unforgivable
I find it difficult to write this, using soft words and terms. since it would deserve the harshest terms but anyway.
Read at the sourceDragonacht
This anime was highly praised so I eventually got around to watching it, but it was profoundly disappointing. There are only one of two conclusions that can be reached: Either the author failed to convey anything meaningful or it was completely pointless to begin with. Why is this the case? Every episode starts with a mystery that is never solved and ends with a conclusion that has no meaning, and what happens in the middle doesn't matter. At best there are random scenes one may resonate with, and in parts there are interesting ideas, but as a whole there is just nothing there.
Read at the sourceMikaelX
A pretentious and "artsy" show about a bunch of teens who get lost in some kind of alternative dimension or something. It's really hard to say what's actually going on, because nothing makes any sense. Lots of weird and illogical things happen. And yet there's nothing of real interest going on. People stand around holding deep philosophical monologues. And yet nothing of real substance is being said. Some of the teens have random magic powers, and there are cats with magic powers too, and a talking dog, and they are exploring different worlds ruled by random metaphysical laws. And yet there is no sense of adventure.
The teens are stuck in a static limbo that lacks meaning, and so is the viewer.
To really hammer home the artistic vision of being stuck in a meaningless limbo, the art style…
Read at the sourceGTORI
First of all, this isn't a review meant as a message or advice to anyone reading this. It's more of a way of coping.
With that being said, Sonny Boy is a show i really wanted to enjoy and admittedely, there were quite a few aspects that resonated with me, such as the aesthetics, the soundtrack and the cloudyness in my head I was feeling while trying to understand what the story was trying to convey, or perhaps not even really to "understand" but to interpret it in a way of my own. I really enjoyed the mysterious atmosphere. The abstract presentation made it fun to pay attention to details and find out more about the world in Sonny Boy, though at times the dialogue gets so convoluted that it turns into a snoozefest. There's alot of appealing concepts which really made me feel like i had fo…
Read at the sourcesiphus007
Sonny Boy was truly bad viewing, demanding the audience to infuse their own meaning into a bunch of disjointed, nonsensical stories, as the production quality slowly dwindles toward an unsatisfying ending.
Story - 1/10
Characters - 2/10
Sound - 1.5/5
Animation - 3/5
Avg - 2.5/10
Sonny Boy has great potential due to its commitment to bizarro, intangible, freeform concepts and storylines that allow for deep psychological exploration and avant-garde animation.
It wastes that potential by filling episodes with very poorly-developed plots that lack any realism to help the viewer make profound connections to real life, as well as a complete lack of cohesion throughout. The first 1-3 episodes work somewhat well, but after that, characters vanish, transport, go through dimensions, voids, and pr…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Sonny Boy exploded on to the scene in Fall of 2021 and quickly proved to be amongst the most unique, challenging, and ambitious anime in recent years. If anyone asks me what my favorite anime time period is, I will quickly answer that it was the 10 years between 1995-2005. Evangelion was a HUGE financial success despite being weird, unconventional, and not at all holding the viewer's hand. This ushered in the most creative and bold period in anime history where TONS of weird, artsy shit got greenlit that probably wouldn't have in any other period. Especially original properties not based on a manga, LN, or game. Examples of anime from this period include the Satoshi Kon films, Paranoia Agent, Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze, Haibane Renmei, Kino's Journey, Mushishi, Utena, Cowboy Bebop…
Read at the sourceThatAnimeSnobRE
During its airing Sonny boy was hyped up as an anime unlike anything else out there. Because it’s an isekai and there was a great shortage on those, am I right? But this one was different, you see, because it wasn’t a power fantasy about otakus forming harems in a videogame. For some reason being so different to the point it becomes completely alien to the reasons people are watching something is supposed to be a good thing.
No, the actual reason they were hyping it was for thinking it’s deep and mature, and even then it was an overestimation of its presentation. The themes and meanings of the show were fairly easy to understand; it’s just that no one was infodumping them on the viewer. The average anime fan is used to having the characters going Captain Obvious all the time and explainin…
Read at the sourceEdenharley
Sonny Boy is a show I don't think I'll be able to explain very well, but it really was just a work of art. It was so stylised and intricate and there were so many small details that really meant a lot, it was so fun to think back about events in previous episodes and what they meant afterwards.
The story was so well told, my understanding was that it was very much a story about graduating from childhood and escapism, told in an incredibly abstract way and with some very abstract themes too. There were so many thought experiment like scenarios and it was just so interesting to watch.
The characters were really fun, the cast were very diverse and all took their own paths through this other world that showcased off a lot of different ways people handle growing up. I absolutely loved the mai…
Read at the sourceeliashilario
SPOILER FREE
I have finished this anime having tasted so many emotions along the way, i will not share them though as i think that spoils things a bit.
Sonny Boy was something that i knew i would love when i finished ep 1, it asked questions that were simplistic yet so dificult to answer , it made me think , better yet, made me reflect upon myself and my position on the world .
This simplistic and somewhat cold, human, pattern is followed throughout the show, for most of the time there is no music, only ambient sound and dialogue, immersing you in the feelings of the characters in screen, but when music starts playing it just slaps, that end theme hits different and always at the right time. The art is gorgeous, simple yet detailed when it needs to, its just right.
The characters and t…
Read at the sourceWhiteWolf3568
[This review has NO Spoilers]
Well, take a deep breath before watching this anime and stay focused, because it is surreal and it has many allegories. I really enjoyed Sonny boy, it made me feel a variety of different feelings throughout and... here I am writing my first MAL review on it.
This review is mainly for those who have not yet decided to watch this anime but I am actually just sharing my oppinion because I do not have necessary philosophical knowledge to make an analysis.
First things first, I want to keep it short cause I hate that habbit people have here to write HUGE reviews, even though I undertand the hype one might have while writing about his/her favourite anime.
I assume that you have read the synopsis prior to reading this but let me give you my own.
"A bunch of high…
Read at the sourceChrisATX
I genuinely do not know where to start with this anime. I know people toss this phrase around a lot but I believe that this anime truly transcends the medium. It seems today all movies and TV shows follow a nice neat hero's journey with a 3 act structure and a satisfying conclusion, and to be honest that gets quite boring and predictable. Sonny Boy is such a breath of fresh air with dozens of intertwining themes and an ambiguous ending that feels earned/builds off of the pre-established themes. The lack of music in many episodes and the abundance of music in others is always done with a purpose. There are so many unanswered questions that I still have, yet at the same time, I feel perfectly satisfied. This anime couldn't have ended any other way. This entire anime was trying to drive home…
Read at the sourcePersona111
Sonny Boy is, first and foremost, a piece of art. Not necessarily in a good sense; many people may criticize the lack of logic and the experimental non-sense of Sonny Boy, and they’re probably right on their own criterion. Nonetheless, what Sonny Boy does that captivates me the most is that it shows an unique perspective about anime narratives, where the entire project is sacrificed in favor of symbolism and messages.
The circumstance that allows the magic of this anime to happen is that Sonny Boy is practically an one-man project on it’s basis, with it’s script and direction both in the hands of Natsume Shingo. That’s the best-case-scenario that could happen for such an ambitious idea. While Shingo is still a rookie in terms of scriptwriting, and that won’t come unnoticed for the viewer a…
Read at the sourceWilkaoo
At first, it all begins when teenagers from a class travel to a dark and empty world filled only by their school, while totally ignorant of their situation. After a short time, they begin to organize themselves socially and establish power relations among themselves, but our protagonists refuse to participate in this, why? Nagara shows himself to be an extremely passive person, following what is ordered and what will cost him the least effort to accomplish, but this characteristic ends up being confronted when Nozomi, the only character who does not wear the white uniform of her school, begins to interact with him, because just like Nagara she does not consider herself part of the large group that was forming but for a completely different reason: Nozomi is a free spirit who prioritizes fu…
Read at the sourcenightshadekait
“You’re going to go adrift. It will be into a world governed by the absurd.”
Sonny Boy is dense, messy, and sometimes pretentious beyond thematic purpose. Watching Sonny Boy requires patience and thought. In one episode, the audience is expected to sit through an entire five minutes of one character just talking about monkeys and baseball, and unless you’re someone who is either decently knowledgeable in baseball strategy or who is particularly fond of long metaphorical narrations, I don’t see how that could be appealing. Throughout its seasonal run, the show constantly divided the anime community, often sparking new chances to usher in the age-old conversation of “this is an elitist anime” vs “you just dislike it because you don’t get it”. And though I hate to admit it, both arguments ma…
Read at the sourcedanielsalt
Here is my very own, humble, spoiler-free take on Sonny Boy:
Sonny Boy is an anime that had a lot of promise, and quite frankly, it absolutely delivered. Likely inspired by The Drifting Classroom, Sonny Boy is the surreal story of a class of students that is sent adrift into a void-like alternate dimension. With a touch, but not much focus into its fiction, Sonny Boy explores the relationships between charismatic, captivating characters and the inner challenges they face along the length of the story.
Admittedly this anime is not for everyone, but it stands out from the bunch. Watching this anime weekly the pace already felt fast, and each chapter was very plot heavy: I can’t even begin to imagine what this anime is like when you binge it from beginning to end. It has its quirks, and it’…
Read at the sourceSunlitSonata
Whenever you browse a seasonal chart, it’s inevitable the majority of shows will be adaptations. Manga, light novel, visual novel, video game, music CDs, etc. It’s just less of a hassle for studios to tackle media proven successful elsewhere, and these works often provide a very clear path to follow as far as where their stories are headed or what key moments should be highlighted for the maximum oomph. Anime originals don’t have that same expected trajectory. They’re closer to western cartoons, in that they mainly get made because their creator attained clout within the industry and then was given the space by a studio to bring their new original animated concepts to life. This creative looseness can be a strength, avoiding publications that have specific molds they want to be filled for…
Read at the sourceKANLen09
I love me some "Blue's Clues" kind of shows where you need to sit on the red couch, have your handy-dandy notebook (with specifically red crayon of course), gather "dog's paw" clues and make up the entire picture, not having to be spoon-fed with infodump (like so many who prefer the "turn off your brain" type of enjoyment, which I really don't understand why). This formula was what made Spring 2021's Odd Taxi stood out for me as a modern-day masterpiece of a creation from nobodies like début director Baku Kinoshita and scriptwriter Kazuya Konomoto who did ONE HELL of a godly, breakneck awesome show (that will indefinitely be 2021's AOTY for me). And now in the Summer season, we're back with the same distinct experimentation of a show with Sonny Boy, directed and written both by Shingo Nats…
Read at the sourceSingleH
The only thing I don’t understand about Sonny Boy is what other people don’t understand about Sonny Boy. The story is a reimagining of The Drifting Classroom, only now, some of the students lost in limbo have thematically relevant superpowers. People all over the anime community have given this show a reputation for being abstruse, or “2deep4u” as the saying goes, but I could not disagree more, and in fact, I actually think the show almost suffers from being too simplistic. Sonny Boy is a metaphor for entering the Japanese school and work system, and the emotional issues of these characters stem from their middle school graduation. It’s hard to see beyond what’s here at school; some of your friends are developing amazing talents and maybe you’re not; you have to take a leap of faith out in…
Read at the source