Every time I think Sonny Boy has gotten about as weird as it can get, the next week’s episode ups the ante just a bit more. My bar for what to expect has been shot to smithereens at this point.
In a faraway world, an auditorium full of angry people point the finger at Nagara for being to blame for their drifting. As a result of this fingerpointing, another person with the ability to travel to other worlds is selected to bring him back to their world for punishment. The thing is, this character, Koumori, is… well, he looks like a closed black umbrella with legs instead of a handle. It’s the weirdest thing.
So Koumori travels to Nagara’s island world, and lures him to a trap by appearing as an umbrella… flapping like a bat. Again, I know this is weird. ^^;;; When the world flips upside down, Nagara falls off the exercise bar and down into what looks like an endless void. He wakes up in another world… with humans! With middle school students like Nagara is, and from his school even! Sure enough, some of the students have been in that world for a very long time. Some for hundreds of years, others for over a thousand. Gotta love how space-time works eh?
In this world, the students are lifting stone blocks and taking them… down a tower? What? But they’re trying to build a tower to Heaven, no? So shouldn’t they be walking upwards instead of down? I don’t understand. o_o
Because this is the world shown at the beginning of the episode, the one where everyone is mad at Nagara for supposedly causing their drifting, Nagara has to lie about his identity. He makes friends with a kid named Futatsuboshi, who looks out for him and explains how the world works.
In this world, Nagara faces danger. In previous worlds where there were no humans, Nagara could simply use his world-hopping/creating power and leave the world at will. But here, Nagara cannot leave. The host of the world, a man named Susugashira with a… giant sock for a hat? What?! [ facepalm ] This man created the world in such a way that people like Nagara could be brought there but could not leave. So Nagara’s stuck for now.
By working for several days, Nagara is able to slowly figure out how the world works. When Nagara is taken to the “manager’s office” to speak to Susugashira, who rules from a glitzy room named “Babel,” Nagara demonstrates exactly what he means. It’s tricky to explain but if you watch this episode, you’ll see what I mean. Suffice to say by taking certain steps or certain movements, it’s possible to understand that the world is actually upside-down. 
Nagara travels to the “bottom” of the tower where he finds Koumori the Convictor, the umbrella-bat person from earlier. He’s revealed to be a kid from Nagara’s past, once a young boy who enjoyed spinning on the monkey bars. Nagara shunned this kid because he didn’t see any point to being acrobatic on some bars and didn’t want to learn the skill. Thankfully it appears that Koumori is not angry or vengeful towards Nagara. I think he was just doing what Susugashira told him to do.
Mizuho and Yamabiko finally make their way to this upside-down world, where they find Nagara with Koumori and bring their friend back to their island world.
After Nagara leaves with Yamabiko and Mizuho, we see Koumori speaking on the stage defending Nagara, saying that he will no longer allow people to blame Nagara for their drifting.
Here the episode finally resumes a sense of normalcy, something I was very grateful after watching child slave labor and a dude with a stiff knee-high sock for a hat. Some students have already left on a bus with the imposter-Ms. Aki, though Asakaze has chosen to remain behind. The remaining students are going to leave the island world in the black cube Ark, with Hoshi leading at its helm.
That leaves Nagara, Nozomi, and Mizuho on the island alone. Rajdhani decides to leave on a boat to explore other worlds, although Asakaze had previously tried flying out over the ocean and said it just went on endlessly, so I’m not sure how Rajdhani is going to accomplish this goal.
In other words, it seems like everyone has given up on going home and has resolved to try to find a way to make something out of their lives. Whether they’re exploring or traveling through space-time, the students are doing their best to have a purpose and a goal.
Nagara and Mizuho are resolved to try to continue to find a way back to their home world. Nozomi is… having some kind of (potential) change of heart. I’m unsure why at this point. And Asakaze has rejoined the rest of the group. He tries to talk Nozomi into leaving with him, still clinging to his fragile ego and sense of self-importance, but she turns him down. Oh and Yamabiko has chosen to stay behind on the island too.
Will this series boil down to a fight between Nagara and Asakaze? I’m really happy to see Nagara FINALLY develop a backbone and a resolution to complete his goal, even if the other students have given up and left the island. I really hope the other students make a return and don’t just vanish off into the vastness of space-time, never to be seen again. I love our main cast but things could get a little boring if the last few episodes focus only on the same 4 people.
If I’m going to be critical of Sonny Boy for anything, it’s the disjointed feeling I get between episodes. I wish there was more continuity, instead of the series picking up in an entirely new location (like another world), dropping our cast into a new scenario and then using flashbacks and subtle allegories to convey a message. If each episode were episodic and didn’t need the continuity, like Drugstore In Another World, then it wouldn’t bother me as much. But Sonny Boy is one story from start to finish so an increase in continuity and a more cohesive flow would be much appreciated.
