I swear this episode gets wackier to review every week. I think I have a new candidate for “anime on acid” now. xD If you’re watching with me and you’re picking up on details I’m missing, please feel free to (gently) point them out in the comments.
This episode introduced a couple of new characters. One is an old man in a wheelchair, and while it is not explicitly explained who he is, I think he is the school’s principal and also the unknown narrator (the voice that’s been speaking to both Hoshi and Nagara). The other is a huge talking black dog named Yamabiko, who is actually middle school student Yamada Kunihiko.
Perhaps because he’s been stuck in space-time for so long (5000 years!), Yamabiko is able to sense things about the students’ This World, space-time, and even about Ms. Aki. For example when Ms. Aki, Asakaze and the students supporting her confront Rajdhani and the other students on the outside of the “ark,” Yamabiko is able to sense that Ms. Aki can’t actually be a teacher. Only students and the school are able to drift. We see a flash of a black skirt, the same that the other female students wear – wait a minute, could Ms. Aki be one of the students from the future?! Omg what if she’s Nozomi who got stuck in space-time??
Ahhh we learned so much this episode! It’s all very confusing to me, but Sonny Boy is like a 5000 piece puzzle and I’m determined to put all the pieces together, dammit!
Yamabiko also mentions that only 2 months have passed since the students first started drifting, and there is a 1 year time limit for the students to be able to make their way back home before presumably they are stuck in space-time forever.
The theory Nagara, Nozomi, Mizuho and Rajdhani are putting to the test this episode is whether editing two different film reels together to create a composite reel will allow them to return home. It’s neat watching Rajdhani editing a reel of film from their current island world to include things like multiple copies of Yamabiko or monkeys from another world, then seeing Mizuho freak out as her surroundings inexplicably change. xDD
I thought it was a neat detail that the changes Rajdhani was making to the film were only becoming permanent as long as Nagara was watching them. See, Rajdhani had tried making film edits before but because Nagara wasn’t with him to see them, the edits didn’t last. Once again Nagara’s superpowers are becoming more clearly defined (and expanding!), and whether he seems to fully understand it or not, it’s my guess that Nagara will be the key that unlocks the “door” that’s presently preventing them from going home.
The episode culminates with Nagara transporting the students to the “world” of the composite film, hoping it would allow them to return home. Instead, the students became “copies” within the film. And Nozomi was actually dead! The students could watch themselves attend their graduation ceremony and talk with each other, but would pass through people like air if they tried to interact with anyone in the film.
As the old man explains to Nagara, he and the other students were just observers, “opening a box of possibilities.” The world contained within the composite film only exists because the students were there.
With the failure of the film project, Hoshi realizes that the students have no home to return to, and Rajdhani realizes that the students drifting in the first place was due to “God” (apparently the school’s principal) rolling the dice. There was no reason for the drifting to happen, it just… did?
This revelation also puts Ms. Aki’s words from last episode in a different context. If “God” was the principal and the drifting is the result of his interference, could God have overrode the effects of chance to deliberately put Ms. Aki with the students? Or is Ms. Aki on the island because she wants to be there?
I don’t really have a context to frame it in, but I just wanted to add that Ms. Aki’s behavior with Asakaze and her building him up to be some kind of prophet/savior is creepy, although not nearly as creepy as her pressing him to her large chest (and Asakaze repeating that behavior willingly this episode). It’s gross.
So now with the students unsure of whether they can ever return home, tensions continue to rise. The students have split into three different factions, each with different beliefs and goals. Ms. Aki is highlighting Asakaze as some kind of savior, telling the students following her that Nagara and his friends are liars and trying to prevent everyone from going home. Hoshi believes that he has to “save everyone” and that the students are stuck on their island world permanently, so they might as well get used to living there. And then of course there’s Nagara, Nozomi, Rajdhani and Mizuho who are trying to find a way back home.
It’s reassuring to see that some students are starting to see that Nagara is trying his best to help everyone get home, to the best of his ability and superpowers, regardless of whether or not it’s actually even possible. Hopefully this means that the students who believe Ms. Aki’s words will be reduced to a smaller group as the students watch Nagara come out of his apathetic shell and actually try.
At the halfway point, I’m the most curious about Ms. Aki. If she’s not a teacher, then who is she really? Why is she messing around with the students and trying to convince them that Asakaze is their savior?
What do you think of Sonny Boy so far?
