English Dub Review: Sonny Boy “The Island at the Far End of Summer”

Overview:

Thirty-six students find themselves and their school building suddenly adrift in a void-like dimension. When supernatural powers awaken in some of them, a sense of detachment begins to divide the group. Despite the student council’s attempts to impose order, they clash with the students possessing special abilities, who rebel against their strict control.

Our Take:

I am almost at a loss of words for how to describe Sonny Boy. This is an anime original by the studio Madhouse, in what has become a pretty great year for original anime. We’ve already gotten amazing shows like Odd Taxi and Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song so my hopes are pretty high for Sonny Boy.

Original anime don’t have a source material to draw on so they need to make a really memorable first impression. I can tell you that Sonny Boy definitely does that. There are so many questions and just when you think one is about to be solved it opens up more. I really like where this show is going and I think it could be something special if you’re into weird, psychological mind trips that is.

From a presentation standpoint, I love the art style for this show. It is at times minimalistic and I don’t think this is corner-cutting by the studio, it feels very deliberate. It reminds me of older animation but they throw in extreme details at times which you think would be jarring but just adds to the appeal. The visual effects for some of the student powers are really interesting and eye-catching. One student “penalizes” others who break the rules, when this is done a giant “X” shows up on their face while and it slowly fades while they do their punishment.

The voice cast in this is really stellar, Luci Christian fits Nozomi perfectly. When I saw the casting I thought that choice made a lot of sense. I really like Derick Snow as Nagara, definitely a departure from his role as Shinra in Fire Force but I am excited to see how he does. They were the main two who got to shine in this episode but I will definitely be revisting the VA’s as the season goes on.

The first episode is a wild ride and I don’t know if I quite get what’s going on, to be honest. I don’t think we are supposed to yet but it is definitely trippy. This could be a fun show so keep your eye on it for sure. One final thing I want to mention is the ending song. It’s “Shounen Shoujo” by GING NANG BOYZ and it’s super catchy. Always like to point out when an anime has awesome songs and this one is a definite banger.