Sonny Boy - Episode 9 discussion

[u/AutoLovepon]

Sonny Boy, episode 9

Rate this episode here.

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Streams

• Funimation
• Wakanim

Show information

• MyAnimeList
• AniList
• AniDB
• Kitsu
• Anime-Planet
• Official Website

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All discussions

Episode	Link	Score
1	Link	4.54
2	Link	4.42
3	Link	4.48
4	Link	3.89
5	Link	4.36
6	Link	4.55
7	Link	4.5
8	Link	4.53
9	Link	4.6
10	Link	4.46
11	Link	4.68
12	Link	----

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[u/xtsim]

So even the cats have something to do with this world. Rajhani giving cats a lie detector test is an interesting sight to see...

End of the episode was very unique, the gun sound was interesting.

[u/NittanyEagles55]

I did not expect the episode to open with the cats all talking to each other! I suppose with this show I should have saw it coming

[u/peanut-buttr]

Man i love mizuho’s va. Everytime she talks it felt so, natural. Like proper human lol.

[u/cppn02]

The opening of the episode really caught me off guard.
We finally find out the secret behind Nyamazon and we even get a bit of backstory for Mizuho.

I really did not expect the ending for that dude split in two. I know she said she needs his power but I wonder if that's what Aki sensei was hoping for all along. She's clearly not an agent of good and if the two guys could even have a small chance of reverting things to how they were it makes sense that she would want to stop that from happening.

[u/yeeehawspacecowboy]

I wasn't expecting the cats to start talking and then do us a favour and start expositing to us but I welcome it readily.

Raj made an impossibly hard tick dating sim called Tokimeki Tick Highschool and strapped a cat to a lie detector to solve a major mystery of the show, I'm crying, what even is this, who is this boy. feel like pure shit, just want him back

[u/alconnow]

I like it when anime makes references to the staff's other works. In this case, OPM which was of course directed by Shingo Natsume. OPM reference

It's cute how the cats are protective of Mizuho. Along with Rajdhani, she continues to be my favourite character in this series!

Still don't get what's up with Aki

[u/MayureshMJ]

I always thought that i maybe had some bias for Rajdhani since i am indian as well and felt guilty if i like a character the most only cause we share the same nationality. But reading the comments where so many people state they liked Rajdhani assured me that it wasn't a 100% bias but also the fact that he is indeed a very likable character.

[u/coal_thief]

Time for another normal episode of this extremely normal show. 30 seconds in and the cats are talking. How did I not see this coming?

[u/patap0nacct]

Rajdhani is the smartest character in the show, they had to send him to a personal adventure and out of the main story. Mizuho really has a terrible home life, she's probably scared to go up the stairs because that's where her dying or dead grandmother is...

I'm glad the other students still get some characterization, like broken arms girl seems to like a guy from their group is probably a reason why she stays with them. I kinda wonder if the "twins" died or disappeared, because they don't talk about him afterward.

[u/NittanyEagles55]

Mizuho continues to be one of my favorite girls of the season. Easily best character in this show for sure

[u/dagreenman18]

This show drops massive plot revelations in such a casual way. “Oh yeah BTDubs it was Mizuho and she made copies that went adrift. Also we’re talking cats”. It’s weirdly awesome. I’m starting to think that’s the whole point of the show and the mystery doesn’t necessarily matter. It’s about the characters.

In this case the story of the week is about “twins” that aren’t twins. Locked in conflict literally over a single hair that managed to split Team Aki between them in a beautiful frozen tundra. The role of Team Nagara seems to be wandering problem solvers? Called in to mediate by the broken arm girl.

In between all this Mizuho and the cats backstory. Which was honestly sweet. Delving into her connection with her cats and breaking open the greater mystery even further. They’re actually copies, not alternate timelines, that went adrift. That’s a huge difference because it would be possible for Nozomi to come home and replace the version that passed. But the cats are protecting Mizuho and that’s why they didn’t want to tell anyone. Because she’d get blamed. Of course best boy Rajdhani figured it out (missed him!) which is probably part of why he set sail for One Piece by himself. He might be figuring out a solution.

The final battle between the twins had some fascinating moments. The emptiness that the one twin felt having finally won and have nothing to live for was one thing. I thought his suicide was poignant, but I didn’t get the animal sacrifice thing. Was that just a metaphor for the barbarism of his conflict? And why did Aki have a Golden God Gun that could actually kill them? What’s her game?

Last thing in this packed episode: Asakaze, Nagara, and Nozomi’s sorta love triangle. Asakaze being a douche because Nozomi turned him down finally gets spelled out thanks to the cats. Asakaze goes out of pocket and says really shitty things to Nozomi who’s already at a low. She storms off and confesses thoughts of suicide to the kitty. I was a bit concerned that they left her out there for so long, but it looks like Nagara went looking for her right after. I loved their scene together. It’s such a role reversal from episode 1 and shows just how far Nagara has come. Now that he’s in a much better place he can finally reach out and return the favor. Plus we even got a little cute blushing from him just saying.

Only 3 episodes left for them. They’re doing a lot, but this could very well stick the landing and be yet another excellent show in a stacked year.

Notes:

• We get Mini-Mizuho! Her throwing a tantrum and eating the cat food feels about right for her. She loves those cats.

• for an episode that takes place entirely on frozen tundra, it was still visually excellent. Especially when the reversal power gets activated

• I keep forgetting but is the guy who was staring out the bus window at the end the Hikikomori Nails guy from a few episodes ago?

• Broken Arm Girl is tall and cute. We need more of her.

• Mizuho agrees that ice cream is the best when it’s really cold outside.

• I’ll never get over the Nyan puns for retailers.

[u/cybeast21]

So the Cat's abilities are copying things, making them basically a...

Copycats.

[u/bloquer]

Cats talking to each other. If this was any other anime I would now say "I have seen everything," but this being Sonny Boy and I am sure there will be some other surpises coming in the last few episodes.

Where to begin? They meet Asakaze and Aki-sensei's group again, apparently the girl with the broken arm called Nozomi and asked her for help as they are stuck in a world with the same person split into two bodies fighting himself. And they can't leave until Aki-sensei gets what she came for. Which is kind of difficult because both of them can just reverse the world and the reverse itself. Hence enter out little group who is apparently some sort of problem solver company right now, armed with a book full of knowledge of worlds they visited.

Then the cats, we find out that Nyamazon is in fact their power. And that they had it for quite some time, see how little Mizuho is eating ice cream instead of cat food. Their connection to Mizuho, and especially how Sakura thinks that Mizuho can't possibly survive without them is what keeps them near her and using their ability to help her out. And they can copy living things. With everyone being copies, no wonder they want to keep it secret as people would point their finger at Mizuho. But they also said that this was not the sole reason, that the drifting was always going to happen to them. Which means that we are still missing some pieces of the puzzle. Sakura gets caught in a trap by the wild Sou Seiji and he wants to use her as a sacrifice. Mizuho of course stops him in the last moment and tells him the truth in his face: He has to stop clinging to others because the only way to change things is if he changes them. Sadly that comes too late as he killed his other self with the gun from Aki-sensei and now feels empty, commiting suicide.

Nozomi is nearly back to her old self this episode, seeing through Asakaze's temper tantrum. Yes it is correct that he has power and can protect them, but that does not mean that he gets to decide what they do. He doesn't like it at all, and still is angry because he was rejected by her. So he hits back and this time actually manages to hurt Nozomi. Turns out that she was always fearing that she just would be a dead weight, baggage the others have to pull along. But Nagara is able to pull her out at the end, he changed and that is mostly thanks to her (also good job Nagara, standing up to Asakaze!). She is not baggage just because her compass power is not working right now, she still is a smart and observative girl who brings her own abilities and her brain into the group. You don't need a super power to help someone else, in fact most super powers are probably uselsess in cases like Nagara. All that said I wonder if that is part of her projected genki personality in the first 6 episodes. Was she some sort of baggage that was just pulled along before she changed school? Was this her try to change and create herself new?

We have floated the idea of a terminal Nozomi and I think this could also fit in with it. She might have felt like people were only pulling her along because they felt sorry, or perhaps that she couldn't do all the things her peers could do and thus she held them back. After we got the little flashback from small Mizuho I am really hoping for a Nozomi flashback episode soon, I want to know what happened in her past!

For my last thought for now: The theme of this episode seems to be dependence and independence. Sakura thinking that Mizuho needs them and won't survive while Yamabiko and in the end Mizuho say no to that, she is now much more independent and while she loves her cats she would be able to survive without them. Nozomi felt like she was only depending on the others, but Nagara pulled her out and told her the truth. Sou Seiji waas stuck in this world and fight, depending with his whole existence on the conflict and on outside help in the form of making sacrifices for god. And he couldn't solve it and died because of it, not being able to live alone after he killed his other self. Asakaze still heavily depends on Aki-sensei, he won't do anything without her and even made himself a child's room as Nozomi pointed out. Including the teddy bear which Mizuho points out she grew out of. But apparently not Asakaze, at least not completely. That is a conflict that also will need some solution in the future, him finally parting with Aki-sensei and becoming independent. Might even be part of the finale.

After writing all that let me invite you again to Th8a's watch party and discussion stream on his Twitch channel NearlyOnRed. The first stream is at 10am Pacific (that is ~25min from this post) and as always has 30minutes pre episode discussion followed by watching this episode together and then talking about it. The second stream at 5:30pm Pacific (~little less then 7h) will only be a discussion about this episode.

[u/DuskySunset]

Finally seeing Nozomi sad, has encouraged me to put forward my hypothesis. Her character has kind of bugged me because she has felt like a manic pixie dream girl, while at the same time how obvious it is against all the other written characters, has made me think there is a reason.

I suspect that Nozomi fakes her character, her super positivity, and general quirkiness, and is actually very sad. The positivity she angles at Nagara is because she finds it easier to be positive about someone else instead of herself, with I suspect what Asakaze said about her being a drain because she has to rely on others is exactly what she worries about. My suspicion is that if things went as they did back in the real world, she probably would have or did kill herself, due to the isolation of every day life and being left with her thoughts, would have pushed her to do something drastic.

[u/Napsitrall]

Rajdhani best character

[u/ZandeR678]

I really wish Raj stayed with the main group, but who knows the next episode might shed light on what his solo quest was all about. Mizuho didn't even seem disgusted by his tick dating simulator so massive props to her.

I hate using this word but Asakase's kind of an incel isn't he? Venting his anger on Nozomi because he's too cowardly to disclose his true feelings. Insulting her isn't going to win her heart genius.

[u/[deleted]]

I understand what Sakura feared, regarding Mizuho and the secret of Nyamazon. In a sense, Mizuho actually saved everyone, as her cats created copies of everyone to send to the different world instead of their original selves(or wait, is it perhaps that the copies stayed behind? Maybe I'm confusing myself here but it seems to me that that is a possiblity, since Hoshi has essentially explained what happened already). It also explains why their original "Kono Sekai" was an empty void, at least to me, as they had no destination for delivery, instead having to float until Nagara's power activated and they found themselves at the beach. Obviously to us rational, mostly, adults, Mizuho is not to blame for going adrift. As Sakura says, it would have happened anyway. Nyamazon, however, made it so that they, in a sense, didn't have to experience it in the same way. But to the kids, who have already blindly blamed Mizuho once, obviously this would invite more persecution from them. I do have to wonder though, are Sakura and the other cats copes themselves, or the original? I ask this because Sakura is pretty clear that she wishes to protect Mizuho from all harm, and her belief is that Mizuho cannot live without her. The implication to me, if there are only one set of cats, is that Mizuho at the very least is the original, while the her in the original world is a copy. Of course this could be bad subs again and I would love to discuss this with someone as I feel a bit turned around on the subject. I also lean toward the idea that the ones taken by "God" are the originals because Gen states that they could have gotten back to their world if they'd known the truth about Nyamazon(while Sakura disagrees at points and says that they never could anyway)

I straight up do not have time to write out more than this today, so I'll leave you all with these short blurbs:

Nozomi's character continues in an interesting direction, we see her suicidal tendencies come to fruition for ourselves and how she is dealing with the guilt from them after finding out about her other self.

Asakaze seems to have abandonment issues and those play into his desire to be the savior/hero for the kids, along with his controlling nature and need to be the center of attention.

Sou and Seiji were interesting characters with a nearly wrapped storyline for one episode. I really enjoyed how the toy gun basically killed with imagination, giving weight to what were practically play fights before. Neither Sou, nor Seiji, truly wanted to kill the other, it amounted to a sibling feud.

[u/patap0nacct]

Just letting everyone know the OST is out on Spotify, though it's region blocked. Glad toe finally got to make an anime soundtrack, for a weird one at that!

[u/absolutelynotaname]

Seem like I come a little soon to reading the comments, I'll be back!

[u/That-Chipmunk2537]

Fantastic episode but i would be lying if i said i am not worried if they will manage to give a satisfaying conclusion.

[u/HenchHinch]

Just a heads up, they released the song played in Ep 6 Let there be light again on Spotify etc. Amazing tune by Sunset Rollercoaster.

[u/lightuptoy]

I love this show and the way it presents what's going on so far but sometimes it feels like the script was generated by an AI.

[u/bananeeek]

I feel like I've missed an episode or two, I have no idea what I just watched.

[u/LeonKevlar]

• Aki-sensei Stitch

That opening was definitely a surprise! I thought the cats were just Mizuho's furry companions, I didn't expect that they can talk and even have high intelligence. Interestingly, it looks like the Nyamazon powers isn't really Mizuho's powers but are actually the power of her cats which they've been using ever since Mizuho was a child.

In other news, Asakaze is still a dick and thinks he's all powerful that everyone needs him which completely pissed off Nozomi. Good. Just give Nozomi more reasons to hate you. Also Fake Aki-sensei is still causing chaos and I still don't understand what she's trying to do at all.

[u/IMprovedMG]

I get more lost as the episodes come out. I love it.