Sonny Boy

At first I wasn’t keen on watching Sonny Boy because it is one of those confusing and abstract series whereby you have to put a lot of brain power into it. And you know me, I don’t have a lot of that so why waste my time watching something that I will eventually not understand? The iffy synopsis itself was already a clear warning sign that tells me to stay away. And of course you know me too, sometimes I feel so smart so I thought I could handle this. Because the worse that could happen is just me not comprehending a single thing and wasted my time, right? Yeah. It’s not like I am going to lose a lot more brain cells which I don’t have in the first place! HAHAHAHA!!! Okay, okay. So it’s good to have some variety in the animes I watched. Thus it’s like taking a break from my usual favourite genre and trying out something different and perhaps hope something different in my would awaken and change the direction of anime in my life. I know that feels like a stretch but well…

Episode 1
Nozomi asking Nagara if it is fun lying down all day like that. Well, to him it is since he has no super powers. Speaking of which, those guys just broke another window in an attempt to test their new powers. Nozomi sees some white spot in the sky but Nagara doesn’t. Hoshi and Cap talk about the breaking down of order and that rules need to be in place for this new world. Hence they create a chat group for everyone to participate and lay down the rules and duties for everyone. Those who break the rules will get penalized. In the end, Cap is voted to be their leader. Hayato comes to explain to Nagara and Nozomi about the new rules since the former didn’t look at his phone and the latter doesn’t have one. Asakaze confronts Cap because he doesn’t agree to the rules like one can’t use powers inside school. He thinks they are jealous they don’t have cool powers but Pony laughs and mocks him. He only has powers in this world and before that he was just an idiot. This makes him mad as he unleashes his power which looks like he can cut reality? But as Cap points out, he has broken a school rule and is penalized. Since Cap’s words are absolute, no one can disobey as Asakaze is made to do divisions of pi all night! Cap then gives Nozomi a handphone but she refuses. She refuses to be part of this. Hoshi claims this is for everyone’s good and for a fair world but Nozomi questions if the world was originally fair in the first place. She breaks the phone. But she has to be penalized by running 100 laps around the school.

Rajdhani ponders about the limbo and static situation the school is in as well as other stuffs like if they can grow or heal but at the same time they do get hungry. He observes and wonders if the school is sinking. Flashback shows Nozomi just transferred to this school and Nagara unsure with his career choice. Later at the rooftop, Nozomi is tearing pages out from a book for fun and wants Nagara to join in. He refuses and claims he needs to go somewhere. Nozomi claims he knows people like him who say they have somewhere to go but actually don’t. He tries to open the door but it seems locked. Then the lightning strikes. Asakaze leads a few other students to rebel against the leaders after contorting the school’s structure. But with Pony switching them out of their confines, they won’t go down with a fight. Cap penalizes them but it seems only Asakaze is not affected. This is because he didn’t break any rules and hence it didn’t work. After Asakaze mocks him, Cap gets violent and whacks him with the baseball bat! OMG. Bloody. Cap thinks he is exempted from the rules because he is the rules but Hoshi disagrees. No one is above the law. Just like that, Cap is penalized by stripping naked and doing jump squats. Asakaze still not pleased so Hoshi using his power to let him see some fearful vision of death. Nozomi thinks she knows the way out as she runs and jumps off the edge of the building, trying to grab whatever she saw in the darkness. However Nagara grabs her. The barricade gets loose as they fall into the darkness. Suddenly the whole is now floating over the ocean and there’s ahead land too.

Episode 2
Asakaze has returned from his journey. Not sure he teleported or flew around the world. But he claims that there are no other lands around and everywhere is just the ocean. This has Rajdhani deduce they are in another world. Okay, so what I get from this semi-convoluted explanation is that time stops still whenever in their school. Anything that breaks will return to its original state in a few seconds. This is why they can have running water and unlimited food. But on this island, anything that breaks stays broken. Then there is something about backtracking to find out how they come to this world and there might be gateways inside the school that caused them to drift to where they are now. However there are certain things on the island that suddenly get caught in blue fire and burn up. Nobody knows why but Nagara thinks it is Mizuho because he has seen her in front of a burning tree with similar blue fire. This has many misinterpret that Mizuho is the cause of this because they also notice that the stuffs that go up in fire are those belonged to her. Hoshi and Pony confront Mizuho about some slander she did on the latter. Mizuho claims she didn’t do anything and will not apologize. Later they confront her again to be the cause of the blue fires but she tells them to GTFO. Nozomi talks to Rajdhani and the latter has found a connection on what burns or not on this island. If there is something traded fairly, it won’t burn. He gives her a toy he created. She uses it but soon it catches fire. This proves that Mizuho did not cause the fire. The problem is why she doesn’t come out to deny those accusations.

Once again the mob confronts Mizuho to seek her cooperation. She still won’t. They throw bricks into her home and the glass shards hurt her a little. Then it starts raining money. Easy come, easy go. Because all of them burn up. Oh sh*t! The entire island is on fire too! Nagara and Nozomi go talk to Mizuho. The former apologizing that he is the one who caused everybody to suspect her. He returns one of her missing cats that was lost in the woods. They ask why she just didn’t tell the truth. She fears there was nothing she could do by herself. After the fire burns everything down, in just a blink of an eye, the island returns back to normal. Mizuho then apologizes that although she was the one who rained money and burnt the island, the other blue fire incidents are not her doing. Rajdhani then explains this is one of the workings on this island. If you take something without trading or paying its fair share of it, that stuff will burn. As they need to accept this law, he has come up with a digital currency called Hyo-ryu-coin in which they can do and trade for stuffs on this island. And just like that, problem solved. Nozomi claims she can see the way out but this time it is quite far. She reveals her power as compass.

Episode 3
Nagara, Nozomi and Asakaze are doing experiments and finding new portals to other worlds. Rajdhani is mapping them out and it’s like they’re all over the place in school. However there are still many questions that are unanswered like who gave them these powers and perhaps there are powers that are still unknown. Pony then has a meeting with others. There seems to be an incident. Freezing incident. Maruyama who has been missing for a while has been found frozen and pitch black. A guy then also points out that Inuyama has been missing for a week. The class elects Mizuho to investigate this and Nagara as her assistant. As they investigate Maruyama’s frozen body, listening closely, they could hear he is live streaming games. Similarly, Inuyama has been found in a frozen state and sounds of him exercising could be heard. So they go around asking other students about them. A slight detour as Nagara asks about her cats and she claims it belongs to her grandma. Since she got dementia and couldn’t take care of them, Mizuho put them in her bag. Next thing she knew, they’re drifted to another world. Soon a third frozen victim. Pony is not satisfied with their findings as Nagara explains that Mizuho thinks the victims are oddballs and that nobody cares about them. It’s like somebody is picking on them and they are being excluded from the group. The duo go talk to Hayato since he keeps a notebook of everyone’s known powers to see if there are those who can freeze. None. For the record, Hayato’s power is to light up his finger? And he ranks it A-class because of some movie?!

As they continue their investigation, suddenly something strange happen because it’s like they can pull down the sky?! It’s like a piece of cloth?! Doing so reveals a room with huge black curtains all around. This is where they find those frozen students doing the things they love in their own space. Seems they are happy indulging in their own world. Reporting back to Pony, it looks like these victims are happy where they are. They’re not planning on leaving. But if it comes to a shove, Mizuho suggests using Asakaze to forcefully yank them out. Since Nagara is against this, this causes Mizuho to snap at him. Something about Nozomi losing interest with a wuss like him. Nagara also hits back that Mizuho is doing this investigation just to see how powerless she is. She too is a recluse. This causes her to be mad as she storms off. Eventually they get together again to take down those curtains. That has the frozen victims return to reality and the case resolved. They apologize to each other for saying harsh things. Nozomi and Rajdhani investigate that the portals have gone missing. This means the anomaly must have been caused by the frozen world. As for how those portals were discovered, Nozomi believes Nagara’s power might be to find new worlds and portals are just a product of that.

Episode 4
Nozomi and Asakaze jump into the black pool thingy. It’s like jelly. Nagara is hesitant to do so but gets pushed off. When he is about to hit the rock below, suddenly the scenery changes. They’re back in their own world?! Who’s that monkey playing baseball? But it lasted for a while before they return back to the other world. Asakaze thinks this is his power and wants him to take them back to their original world. Because Nagara remains sceptical and unsure this is even his power, this makes Asakaze mad. Then when the gang practice baseball with Cap, Cap is like talking something about the Monkey League. Some legendary monkeys playing baseball. Not sure all the details he is blabbing about. However the rest can’t see the monkeys and they need some gear to see them. Ace has that gear. A flashlight. But Shanghai doesn’t want to sell it to them since she doesn’t like them. But Ace is going to give them a chance. Play baseball with him. If they win, he’ll lend it to them. But of course should he win, he needs Nagara to do a favour. So as we see the gang practice with Cap, Cap is narrating more on some drama on the baseball playing monkeys. I suppose we have to use our imagination since we can’t see the monkeys. Not sure about the disagreement with a player and the umpire but it ends up with the umpire dead! Wow. Unseen drama. Finally the match with Ace. Mizuho and Nozomi lost and their last hope is Nagara. It looks like Nagara doesn’t feel like hitting. Nagara claims Ace is good so there’s no way he could hit it. Not sure why Ace is mad. Ace claims he taught the monkeys to play baseball and he wants to return to a place he is needed. Hence if Nagara’s team lose, Ace wanted him to return them all back to their world. He must even if he has to die for it. Nagara could then see the monkey and the scene keeps changing a few times. Ace throws his final pitch. Nagara does a good strike but ultimately misses. Strike out. Cap and Nagara clean up as the former talk about his love for baseball despite he has no talent. Everyone packs up and prepares to head for home, saying goodbye to this world. But as Nagara tries to teleport back, it seems they land in places of abstract art? He realizes he can’t go anywhere he wants. Rajdhani deduces that this proves Nagara’s power of moving to other worlds but he has no control to which world. I guess everybody’s back where they started. Then they see their teacher, Aki coming into the picture.

Episode 5
So we’re in a 2D pixelated world whereby Pac-mans are eating mice? This is one of the many worlds Nagara jumped to as he still tries to find a way home. Not sure what they do to save this world as they help relocate the mice. Reward for this? A computer mouse! Genius pun. And this mouse can help solve puzzles? Huh? Meanwhile the other students are discussing how strange Aki is. She told them all that they never to go back and the reason she is here is not to pick them up but because God needed her. It sounds like she’s trying to start a cult… She goes on to further hint that they’re stuck here because someone might be using their powers to not want to go home. Hence all suspicions fall on Nagara. What if he doesn’t really want to go home? While Asakaze is hanging out alone, Aki goes to brainwash him how he is the special one and that he is going to evolve into something better. Nagara is then interrogated by the other students if he is doing this on purpose. Despite saying no, they don’t believe. They continue to guilt trip him that they have loved ones back in their world. Nozomi stands up for him and accuses them of wanting to pin the blame on him just to make themselves feel better. Hoshi thinks everyone has got Aki’s words got to them. Many of them get up and leave. Nozomi talking to Nagara to make him realize he is not at fault and not to follow the mob mentality. Not sure what this guardian spirits she saw. Those little fish? Don’t know what it means, but it’s supposed to make Nagara feel better? Nozomi admits that she do get scared and anxious at times. That is precisely why she does it instead of running away.

Aki and the other students confront Nagara. Aki claiming his power is to escape and that his true wish is that he doesn’t want to be here. Nagara denies but Aki continues to claim he’ll drag others with him. The rest start to think he likes it here since he got cool powers and back in their world, he was a nobody. For a while, Nagara tells them off he doesn’t care if he goes back or not and whatever happens to them is not his concern. This makes them mad but Nagara retracts what he said and runs away. Nagara crying alone that he too wants to go home. A voice tells him there is still time. Aki claims Nozomi’s compass power is a lie and the real guardian who will give them hope is Asakaze. Behold your saviour! Nozomi, Mizuho and Rajdhani find Nagara. Mizuho being mad because he ran away without saying anything. Despite all that, she is actually worried for him. Rajdhani notices this world is the one that was previously burnt. Then he realizes they have been under a very huge false assumption. It seems Nagara’s power has another meaning. They thought Asakaze’s power restored the island but it is actually Nagara’s power. Which means his power isn’t teleporting but creating another new world entirely. Nozomi claims she can see the light and it is getting nearer. Asakaze laments no one was nice to him in his world. Aki thinks he wants to change the world and offers to come with her.

Episode 6
So now we’re in a movie world? Sorry, not the Hollywood kind of movie. There are lots of reels and they are through the eyes of Nagara. Meanwhile Aki is chastising her team that it has been 2 months and they still haven’t found Nagara. Nagara is shocked when Mizuho brings in a huge black dog named Yamabiko. He talks too! Seems he was human like them and ended up adrift. Unfortunately he doesn’t know the cause of this but knows there were many that came before him too. Yamabiko reveals his real name is Kunihiko Yamada and is in the same class as them. However his name doesn’t ring a bell. That’s because he enrolled in their school after he graduated. So, he is from the future? How long has he been stuck here? 5000 years! As Nagara and Rajdhani tinker with the movies, they realize they can some effects to their reality too. Nagara uses his app and successfully duplicates clones all over. Thing is, Rajdhani created this app before but couldn’t replicate this. Thus the only reason is because Nagara is here watching. Nagara suggests playing backwards and hopes they’ll end back in their world. Too bad it can’t. With Nagara finding and old reel of their school, Rajdhani hits an idea. He is going to make a director’s cut. This means he will be implanting themselves into this reel and this is how they’ll get home. But Hoshi is sceptical. What if the future remains unchanged? He believes the future too can’t be unchanged and that this shelter is an ark. And he is going to be Moses to be their saviour? Nagara disagrees with this idea. Even if the future is fixed, he won’t run. Nozomi agrees with him because life’s more fun that way.

Pony now has her doubts but Rajdhani assures her she won’t turn into a dog like Yamabiko since this world is set up to favour the students. Yamabiko adds that the reason the students and the school go adrift is because the principal is God. It is his will. Ace’s group meets up to deliver some stone to activate the ark. Uhm, some flying cube? Also, a confrontation with Aki’s group as she tells them all this is futile because everyone is going to stay here forever. With the cube moving through different worlds, this proves that Nagara has the ability to move to different worlds. With a press of a button, everyone returns to school on their graduation day. Happy ending? When Nozomi tries to touch Asakaze, she slips through. Nagara and other students see their own versions at graduation. What’s this? Nozomi is dead? God tells Nagara he needs to always screen the future to see what happens. Because he didn’t create worlds but as an observer, he is just opening a box of possibilities. This world exists because of him. They are just simply copies. Hoshi takes it as they are not the chosen ones and have no more place to go home to. Also, this isn’t about them going adrift but God rolling the dice. The cube returns to the other world. Aki is happy that the world is saved and preserved. Nagara apologizes for his failure but nobody pins the blame on him since there was a chance they could’ve become the originals.

Episode 7
Oh wow. There’s a meeting between victims who have been drifted and this is the 601,344th meeting?! It seems they have determined that Nagara is the cause of their drifting and suffering. Although the great tragedy has not begun yet, they must do everything to stop it. They dispatch Koumori from Beatnik to pass his judgment. As Rajdhani observes his ant farm, Nagara snatches it away and decides to free them. This leaves Rajdhani in despair! Nagara remembers Yamabiko’s words not to feel bad about his powers because it was given by God. Nagara sees a strange bat flying before coming across some parallel bars. When he takes a spin on it, suddenly the world turns upside down and he falls down the sky! When he wakes up, he is in some huge tower constructing world. The foreman thinks he is slacking and imposes punishment on his group and that is to carry more bricks. Nagara quickly makes friends with Futatsuboshi. Of course Nagara has to go under the name of Nagata as rumours are abound that he is the cause of their misery and they can’t wait for him to be punished. Nagara learns that all of them here are from the same class and they’ve been doing nothing but building the tower because it is believed they can get out of here by reaching heaven. In between, they go treasure hunting. There’s all there is in this world. That night, he tries to use his power to change world but it doesn’t work. Some guy tells him it won’t work here because he decided it is so. Next day as Nagara continues to work, he asks why they are carrying the bricks down and not up. Well, Futatsuboshi doesn’t question that or even want to know it. And he is doing this for 200 years! Some veterans have been at it for thousands! Noticing a strange guy, Futatsuboshi explains he is Susugashira who is a bigshot here and involved in Beatnik. Those are elites from another world and travel to different worlds to take part in them. After work, they visit the bar as the hostess tells about some legendary shooting star that would make your wish come true.

That night, Futatsuboshi takes Nagara to go treasure hunting to find that legend. Even if it isn’t true, what matters most is that they tried. How deep you believe in this nonsense is also important otherwise they have nothing. This is why everyone continues to carry bricks despite actually not really believing they will reach heaven. Suddenly they see the shooting star in the cave. Futatsuboshi rushes in but Nagara remembers something from Rajdhani. You know those bugs impersonating as stars on the ceiling to catch its victims? Yup. Futatsuboshi fell into that trap and gets eaten! Meanwhile, Rajdhani and Mizuho are trying to find missing Nagara. Hoshi and the other students decide to leave in their cube and go elsewhere. Nagara continues his work but this time does the opposite. He carries the bricks up instead. Now he is summoned by Susugashira. Nagara claiming he needs to move forward to make up for everyone else. What it looked like he stepped off the ledge, the world flips upside down. Then he meets that bat, Koumori (just a guy in a huge umbrella?). Seems Koumori knows him. He explains the world is upside down a great pit. He locked hope up there to keep everyone safe. At the same time, Mizuho and Yamabiko find Nagara. When Koumori returns to the meeting, they are not pleased he let Nagara off the hook. He claims there won’t be any more tragedies without reason and no matter where they wind up, they must keep contending. He makes his judgment that no one can accuse of Nagara of anything from now on. Rajdhani has created a boat and is going to travel and explore this world as much as he can. He says goodbye to the rest and gives Nagara some ball. He claims its scent will never go away no matter what you do to it. It’s the perfect power for him. Apparently Asakaze hasn’t left too so he wants them to come with him rather than stay here. However Nagara claims he wants to walk his own path even if it means never getting home.

Episode 8
Mizuho wants to know how Yamabiko became a dog. Well, it’s been 5000 years… Can he still remember? He starts off briefly giving us the gist. There was this girl named Kodama who can control stuffs and she was the leader of the group. Yamabiko was a stranger who wandered in and you could say he doesn’t consider himself a nice person. Kodama and the rest got inflicted by some tumour disease and were slowly dying or turning into such tumour. Yamabiko would do anything to save her. Uhm, so that’s how he turned into a dog? Not sure if that explained anything. Yamabiko now further elaborates on the story. Aimlessly wandering across worlds, he stumbled into Kodama’s group. She treated him nicely and wanted to know him. But he kept his distance and maintained he is useless and would be of no use. Kodama wanted to listen about stories of the world he has been but even that he feels annoyed. He tried to leave the group but with Kodama being persistent, he relents and plays along. He slowly opens up to her like how he has lots of regrets and this might be some sort of final journey for him. Then they meet a man named War whom they believe is the source of the plague. Despite he called her ugly, she was relieved with the truth. She took him in out of her kindness but Yamabiko felt he should’ve stopped her then. He couldn’t because he believed her more than himself. With the disease taking its toll, Kodama confronted War to find a way to overcome this. But he claims he is not the source. Kodama has no time for this and leaves. This left War in despair. Then Yamabiko confronted War who told him the reason he the only one not inflicted because he created this world. Besides, those aren’t tumours but mental scars and from another world manifested as tumours. This was when Yamabiko realized his power was to materialize what was on his mind. To resolve this, Yamabiko must break out from the shell he created. War tries to leave but Yamabiko won’t let him. War claims they know each other and they’ve met many times before. Kodama last words to Yamabiko was to get out of this place. Then she died. Yamabiko realized how he had many chances to save her but didn’t. All she wanted was to travel together with him to different worlds. She waited but he never responded. All because he was afraid to lose the light. But he finally took that step 5000 years later. As for that War guy, it is believed his mission is to kill God. Even if that happens, he wonders if anything would change.

Episode 9
Mizuho’s cats are talking about the need to assert their rights to humans. Uhm, doesn’t that make that human?! But that’s why they have to. They’re cats! OMFG. I’m so confused! Then Mizuho says it’s lunchtime. Yeah. Time to get some grub. Cats will be cats. We are kangz! Today’s strange episode is about twins named Sou and Seiji fighting for thousands of years because one of them has 1 more strand of hair than the other?! There’s no mistake as they’ve counted millions of times! Oh, they even kept a book of it! I guess our friends have some suggestions like hair transplant but the twins want to settle it themselves. This time both of them are having a sumo match as it is explained they can use this reverse power that rewinds things back to where it was. That’s why they’ve been at it for thousands of years. One of the twins lost the match and leaves. Soon, the gang are surprised as they discover they are the same person. Or at least was the same person. Aki talks to the losing twin and gives him a toy gun so he can win. Yamabiko confronts one of the cats, Sakura. It seems he knows that the cats have the ability to copy things. Sakura claims they kept this power to themselves to protect Mizuho. If it had gotten out, they would’ve a chance to go home and the blame would fall on Mizuho. Yamabiko disagrees and thinks they’re doing it for themselves.

Sakura further adds Rajdhani was the first one who noticed this. I’m not sure about this part as it’s confusing. So he noticed something odd about the cats and started observing them. Oh heck, using lie detector on them?! It seems when he got to the conclusion that Mizuho’s power was the one that set them adrift, the cats ran berserk. Sakura was afraid he would announced it but instead he left for a solo voyage. Meanwhile there’s some spat between Asakaze and Nozomi. The former accusing the latter that she cannot live by herself and must depend on others. Hence she is a burden. When he thinks she is better off not following them, Nagara tells him off that is not his decision to make. He goes to talk to Nozomi and thanks her for changing him. It seems Sakura has been captured and to be sacrificed to the gods. Hence another duel between the twins. To be fair, the losing twin gives the other a toy gun. But it is no ordinary toy gun because if you get zapped, you disintegrate. The losing twin wins. Mizuho arrives in time to save Sakura and tells that winning twin that things won’t change if he keeps relying on others. You just have to deal it yourself. Aki asks how does it feel to finally get his wish to come true. Well, he feels hollow and doesn’t know what to do. He shoots and kills himself. Asakaze leaves with Aki and the rest of the students in her bus. Nagara and the rest stay behind and make a grave for those twins.

Episode 10
Kosetsu tells us she has to ability to read other people’s minds but kept it a secret from others so as not to be ostracized. She has a major crush on Asakaze, the reason why she went with him and the others on Aki’s ‘compulsory education’ trip. Now that it is over and they have graduated, Kosetsu fears there will be no more reason to be with him. Of course she also knows that Asakaze has a crush on Nozomi ever since the first time they set adrift. So when Asakaze asked her to help out despite knowing she would be just his errand girl, she didn’t say no. This means Kosetsu also knows that Aki is just using Asakaze for his powers and clearly doesn’t care about him. She needs to avoid him being further tainted by her. Another seen shows the principal asking Aki and Asakaze to kill War. Many have tried but failed. Yamabiko explains how the cats have different roles in bringing the copied things and could be the one creating them as copies but only unconsciously involved in the phenomenon happening. Hence this wasn’t Mizuho’s actual power so she questions what she has been doing all this time. Not really sure about this part but had they know about this from the start, things could’ve been different. In a bid to wrest Asakaze from Aki, believing that he will only listen to Nozomi, hence Kosetsu texts to meet up with her. Since Nozomi is the only one who doesn’t have deceit in her words. Both girls decide to join Asakaze and Aki to go kill War.

As they float down the never ending abyss, they see some strange guy falling. They call out to him but he doesn’t respond. They realize he is empty. However Aki seems to hint she knows Kosetsu’s power. So when Nozomi questions Asakaze’s mission to follow God’s words to kill War and create death, that is when Aki reveals Kosetsu’s mind reading power. This causes Asakaze to be embarrassed as he seeks comfort in the bosoms of Aki, believing everyone is mocking him. The girls talk about things, like how this world is like a reflection of being wounded for so long. Then Asakaze returns to settle the score. Nozomi gets honest with him that she turned him down because she cannot respect him. Despite God and everyone chose him, it is what he decided to be worth. Even if she is dead, she can accept that fate. Asakaze admits he can never be strong as her and that’s why he kept chasing her. But that ends today. With that, Nozomi says goodbye. Kosetsu relieved that she was true, only Nozomi could change him. Suddenly Nozomi falls off the cliff. Asakaze could’ve used his power to save her but didn’t. Is he regretting he didn’t? Kosetsu laments she thought she knew the real Asakaze. Meanwhile Nagara kills a copy chicken. Something to prove that Mizuho doesn’t want to see anyone die. I don’t get it…

Episode 11
I thought Nagara, Mizuho and the pets are making some tent for some fun festival. BUT DAMN! IT’S A FUNERAL SERVICE FOR NOZOMI!!! OH F*CK???!!! NOZOMI IS REALLY DEAD???!!! Though, got to love that painting of Rajdhani with a rose in his mouth and mudskipper in hand! Epic! So anyone attending the wake? Nobody. When it’s time to pack up, 1 person shows up: Rajdhani. Is he some Pacific islander now?! After paying his respects, he takes a look at the plan Nagara put together. Knowing that they are going to go home, he wants to help them. So we see some mega construction taking place. In the meantime, Rajdhani talks about various stuffs. This part is long and confusing so from what I understand, Rajdhani talks about the concept of homesick, the recreation of their homeland, the difference between reality and perception (using some girlfriend story to tell it and how disappointed it was), the concept of dying in this world (Nagara receives a threatening letter mocking him, perhaps from Asakaze who pinned Nozomi’s death on him?), some dude obsessed with death and he invented it to break the stasis of this world. At first Rajdhani admired him but he took the experiment too far by conducting murders and suicide over and over again. So Rajdhani found the invention for death: An electric chair? So the creator finally died himself using this. Rajdhani is still unsure about his obsession with death but understands after living for so long. Everything will become diluted and end up as a gaping lopsided hole. Hence with death, it makes life precious. Therefore Nozomi is never coming back to this world. Even though she is dead, her will lives on. Although Nagara didn’t see where or how Nozomi died, he knew it by the cats who know the status of everything. Flashback Nagara and Nozomi talking about going back to their world but there’s a risk they won’t be who they are. Nozomi had him make a promise to become friends again. So, the big ticket home is constructing a huge rocket and the returning duo are in astronaut outfits? Rajdhani explaining how going back is easy but it will take resolve and sacrifice. This means Mizuho cannot take her cats with her as they cannot live there. After Nagara and Mizuho say goodbye to the cats and Yamabiko, it’s blast-off into space. Or emptiness. Whatever. Mizuho left Rajdhani that epic painting and Nagara that ball he gave. In space, Nagara and Mizuho leave their cockpit and transit into a gondola?

Episode 12
Nagara is back in his own world and living the boring and mundane life. Must be great, huh? He waits for Mizuho at the gates but it seems she doesn’t recognize who he is. Sorry, wrong person? He also spotted Nozomi but looks like she is totally unaware of who he is. And is she dating Asakaze? Flashback reveals when their gondola start to unfasten, it means they have past the speed of light and arrived at the entrance of the other dimension. They make preparations to leave their gondola. But before them as Asakaze who tries to warn them about some consequences and that their selves will be different people. Nagara replies that this is not the place for them. After he hands Asakaze some note, he is given Nozomi’s compass. Asakaze complaining that Aki has disappeared, Kosetsu went to join Hoshi’s group, Rajdhani became one with the forest and animals and the island has sunk. Now he has nothing left. I guess there’s no stopping them now as the duo run through the abstractness of the dimension. Woah! Am I high on drugs seeing this psychedelic thingy?! Eventually God tells them not to cross over but they don’t listen and went ahead. Then something about if Nozomi will be alive in that world. Nagara believes nothing is going to change. They’re just going to roll again their possibilities. Now we see Mizuho back in her world. Attending someone’s funeral. Some weird stuffs going on. Dropping a glass and making a run because cops outside her place? Huh?! Next time she passes by Nagara who obviously tries to avoid her, this time she says their password to confirm this is the Mizuho he knows. They talk about how nothing has changed and it was to be expected since this is what they have chosen. She believes he’ll be fine as long as a little part of him from that island remains. When Nagara tries to tend to a nest of abandoned young birds, Nozomi also helps. She thinks they’ve gone to an old school before. Then she returns to Asakaze and wants to care for these birds. Nagara eking out a smile that their lives are just beginning since it’s a long road ahead.

It’s Always Sonny In Psychedelia
Uhm… Oh… What… WHAT?! So can anybody tell me what or who the heck is a Sonny Boy then? Is Nagara the Sonny Boy? As he is the mascot for Sonny Playstation console or something?! Or is being a Sonny Boy being this series’ b*tch?! I’m sorry. I drifted a bit there since I was still so confused in the end. So to say that Nagara and Mizuho returning to their original world despite being the most boring and uneventful is better than that psychedelic abstract dimension that they could possibly have everything they want simply they just don’t belong there? Okay. It’s their choice and responsibility. Whatever happened to the need to kill War or God is none of our business. Let’s get back to where we once belong because it’s all going to be okay. Hey, at least no freaking use of their strange powers. Normalcy is da best!

Okay well, I guess at this point the truth is totally clear. I DIDN’T REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!!! I’m just so lost right now. Obviously this series is somewhat taken inspiration from The Drifting Classroom but since I didn’t see that show either, I can’t make any comparisons or comments. But as far as this series is concerned, in the end I just do not get what they’re trying to say. I don’t know, the students want to go home? Is that it or is there something more complex that I didn’t understand? I have to admit that at first it started out interesting albeit still confusing as f*ck. Understandably, everything was just starting so I was willing to give it a chance and hopefully things will be explained later on. But as I try to keep up and follow what is happening, once the other classmates started to leave on their own journey and the episodes then turned into even more bizarre randomness, that was when I just gave up. I just didn’t know what to believe or understand anymore. Sorry folks, my brains couldn’t handle it.

Therefore I am not sure and I think I am missing out on a lot of deeper meanings from all the bizarre randomness that each subsequent episode has to offer. It may be that they just show you enough and then you go piece the rest of the puzzle yourself or at least form your own conclusions. And as you know, I am not smart enough to do that. Heck, I am too confused to even do that as I am writing this. Thus all the weird explanations and stuffs seem like hogwash to me. Like as though they were just pulling it out of thin air to justify all the strangeness and peculiarity of this world and its abnormal logic and physics. Like as though it was like anything goes. For example, when Rajdhani starts to explain stuffs and all his theories, it just sounded like he just came up with that explanation on the fly. I mean, was there scientific evidence to back this up? On first looks it sounds plausible only because a simpleton like me doesn’t even begin to understand what is head or tail. At the end of the day, I am left very confused with anything because for instance say, Nagara’s powers. It’s like this but then later on it’s not like so but like that but perhaps okay, no either. SO WHICH IS IT?! The more I think about it, the more my brains feel like exploding!

Sure, there are some explanations on the series’ ending and I believe it is one of the many theories people come up with online. Yeah, thank the power of the internet. Too bad I still didn’t understand I am going to have a major headache if I don’t stop… Yeah well, everybody is entitled to their own opinions and can formulate their own theories. I’ll just accept whatever they say here because well you know, sounds pretty legit to me! I’ll go with that! Can’t argue with that, can I?! Uhm, if I can understand what has been written there in the first place! Oh gosh, if this was part of the literature during my school’s curriculum, I would have definitely failed big time! No Sonny Boy for me. More like Dunce Boy! Thank goodness Shakespeare’s works weren’t all that complicated to analyse and study!

Hence there is nothing much I can talk about the characters because well, I really don’t understand them. The main characters are one thing but the rest like Hoshi and the gang who decided to go on their own journey, it feels like they decided to kill them off after halfway point. It is both good and bad. Good in the sense it gives more focus and screen time on the main characters. Bad because it felt they were never important in the first place and it’s like they’re insignificant. So main characters like Nagara, Nozomi, Mizuho and Rajdhani… I don’t know. I don’t really know. It feels confusing. I don’t understand. Nozomi being always positive as I noticed but it doesn’t get them anywhere. Nagara feels like he is indecisive and has low self-confidence and if this was some sort of journey of self-discovery, I fail to understand how. Mizuho… She’s just weird. And of course Rajdhani the brains of it all. So smart that he is on another level that I just don’t understand. It feels like plot convenience that he could just create tools to create stuffs and then decipher things after just observing them a short while. And I still don’t understand why he doesn’t want to go back with them or at least stick with them. I know it’s something about the cats but still doesn’t make that much sense to me.

Adding more to the confusion is of course Asakaze who is neither here nor there. Trying to be a hero but he looks more like a dick and a jerk. Even more confusing when they play up his unrequited crush on Nozomi that ultimately led to her death. HUH?! In the end, he got nothing. So he remains because he is nothing? Whatever. His choice. But I guess that beats Aki because I’m still confused over this woman’s mind. Don’t really know what this b*tch is thinking. She acts a lot like an arrogant know-it-all villain but thanks to Kosetsu’s mind reading, she truly has ulterior intentions. But that is only from Kosetsu’s point of view. And just like that she’s gone too. Like as though they don’t want to expand further on this and killed her off with her disappearance. Whatever. Not that I care to understand at this point either. So yeah, I thought there’s this plot to kill War by God and vice versa, but at this point I think I’m too confused to think what God himself is thinking and causing this sh*t f*ckery of clones and copies of these students and many other worlds. Oh God, if this mess is what life is after death, I just want to vanish and be erased into nothingness. Lastly, Yamabiko and Mizuho’s cats. Still don’t understand from his flashback how he turned into a dog. Still can’t believe those cats can duplicate anything non-living with purr-fection. Plot convenience I suppose. Anybody remember about Beatnik? Their relevance? No? Me neither.

With the anime itself being weird, I guess the art and animation itself is weird. Overall, it looks pretty sketchy and of course from all the abstractness (some scenes make you feel you’re high on drugs with all that flashy psychedelic thingy), it is your excuse to have this series looking like it is low quality production. Like as though it is the bare minimum as you can see from the character designs themselves. But there is something that has been bugging me. I keep wondering if the jerky animation is due to rotoscoping but I couldn’t find any info that this series was done via this method. If it was, it could explain why some of the characters’ movements are weird and obviously jerky. If not, then I think it was done on purpose just to add to the weirdness of everything. Heck, they didn’t even draw the faces of the characters at times. Not sure if this is part of the creativity or just plain laziness. This anime is done by Madhouse who did One Punch Man, Overlord, No Game No Life and Highschool Of The Dead.

Voice acting, feels very minimal here and I believe that those whom I recognized weren’t utilizing their full potential. From Aoi Yuuki as Mizuho, Kenjirou Tsuda as Yamabiko, Kouji Yusa as War and Ayana Taketatsu as Kodama. This is of course not to their fault as the tone of this series is so and there is hardly anything that would make them flesh out their usual voice acting talents. Yeah, the tone of the dialogue feels very monotonous and doesn’t require much effort. I thought Youko Hikasa was behind Aki’s voice but it turned out to be Ai Kakuma (Rossweisse in High School DxD). The rest are Aoi Ichikawa as Nagara (Assistant in Tejina-senpai), Saori Oonishi as Nozomi (Aiz in DanMachi), Chiaki Kobayashi as Asakaze (Tony in Kenja Na Mago), Hiroki Gotou as Rajdhani (Michitaka in Log Horizon) and Yuka Ozaki as Kosetsu (Asuka in BanG Dream).

If there is one thing that I can at least enjoy, it is the ending theme, Boy Meets Girl by Ging Nang Boyz. Even if this rock piece doesn’t fit the pace of this series, at least it is not bad to hear. But the last episode’s variation which is of the acoustic version feels like the singer drank too much last night and it shows in the drunkard way he sings and tries to scream his lines. Or I’m not sure if he is sad the anime has ended and pouring out his feelings there. Yeah. Whatever. Adding to the bizarreness of the series is that the ending credits animation is just pitch black with the credits scrolling. It lacks of any other animation and you wonder if they don’t have the budget to animate the ending credits or this is part of the pitch black theme this other world has. And yeah, there is no opening theme. Just like One Piece today but the opposite (got opening theme but no ending theme song).

Overall, this series is definitely not very anybody because it is confusing and complex. Brainier people and those who love this genre might be able to see past all that with their superior intellect but for average and casual viewers, if you don’t have that kind of mind, you are definitely not going to enjoy this. Take it from yours truly. There are many of these ‘smart’ people singing praises and giving their 2 cents worth of analysis how this is so great but I’m sorry, I just can’t see it from their point of view. It was clearly confusing and I’m afraid I cannot find this fascinating or engaging in any ways. A frustrating experience if I should say. Weird is one thing but not being able to at least enjoy or comprehend the gist of what is going on is another thing. It just zaps all that enthusiast and positive vibe I had for this series. Even if it was all just wishful thinking. Sad to say that the only thing that went adrift into another world is my mind :’(. I wonder if it’s coming back soon any time…