View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSDdRxAEdcs
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VYqcCLIx0s&t=20s
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvNVdo8Tchw
As a work of art, Sonny Boy is a modern masterpiece. It’s not flashy, but it consistently blew me away with its fluid animation and detailed artwork. As expected, this show is animated by 80% freelance talent from director Shingo Natsume's friends list, and the names he continues to attract despite post-2011, post-Maruyama Madhouse being such a dilapidated ghost town never ceases to amaze me. Sonny Boy's commitment to hand-drawn, non-digital stylization is worthy of everyone’s applause, and the work of art director, Mari Fujino, another genius to emerge from the background-art-obsessed Studio Pablo—such as Yuji Kaneko and Seiko Yoshioka, just to name a few—is stunningly beautiful and goes hand in hand with Natsume’s atmospheric tone.
Please, dear reader, allow me to give you some context on how impressive those names are. Yuji Kaneko, one of the best currently active art directors in my humble opinion, is responsible for bringing to life anime as iconic as Kill la Kill, Madoka Magica, and Little Witch Academia through his brilliant art direction. More recently, he served as art director for the incredibly inspired, fascinatingly weird, and content-dense dystopian sci-fi Production IG gem Heavenly Delusion, and Ousama Ranking, a fantastic fantasy adventure brimming with consistently unrestrained audiovisual sovl and love for anime as an art form. The grounded lived-in feeling of Ousama Ranking’s painterly, imaginative fairy tale represent two very different possibilities within Kaneko’s framework as his range beautifully expands—and in Heavenly Delusion, another two distinct sides of him exist. A dilapidated, overgrown post-apocalypse and a clinical, sterile orphanage. Heaven and hell, whichever those may be.
And Seiko Yoshioka? She provided background art for Production IG masterworks like Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit and Shinreigari: GHOST HOUND, served as art director for the gorgeously realized, touchingly nuanced, smooth jazz-infused ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., and most recently contributed much of the conceptual artwork for Frieren, with people in the production team having gone as far as saying that the world of Frieren’s anime wouldn’t even exist without her. In any case, I'll stop gushing and trace back to the topic at hand because you're probably bored now. Sonny Boy's art direction by Mari Fujino streamlines Studio Pablo’s qualities and brings a fresh, new perspective: without the intricate texture work they were known for when the studio’s name was synonymous with Kentaro Akiyama, we’re left with all the hand-painted goodness of older anime, but also the crisp visual resolution of digital anime, and the settings' arresting colorwork defines the atmosphere.
While traditional harmonies in anime tend to be dramatic closeups that highlight the expressions, director Shingo Natsume reinforced the atmosphere of every episode with wide shots—as well as medium ones—that feel like scenic paintings come alive, which he achieved through a variety of techniques at play. We’re treated to so many short moments, gestures, and facial expressions which all tell a little story in and of themselves, and they exhibit character development in a nuanced manner any other show would devote five minutes to explaining with overwrought, melodramatic dialogue. But this is something I seriously loved about it. This is most certainly the kind of show that doesn't spoon-feed you, and it rewards you for paying attention and treating its characters like people. It’s not “confusing.” It’s just complex visual storytelling—something that, incidentally, neither a visual novel nor a novel in general could accomplish
.Very few times in my life have I had the privilege to witness a series which pushes all my buttons so well and in so many ways, and even if you don’t share my exact aesthetic preferences, I promise you'll agree when I say Sonny Boy is an audiovisual masterclass. Every episode is endless wallpaper fuel, filled to the brim with cool, memorable shots, beautiful backgrounds, and excellent music which compliments the ambiance perfectly. The first song is by toe, and I can't get enough of it. @Zettacel I had no idea I had already listened to this band thanks to this show before you posted them here
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