Sonny Boy has been the highlight of a dry summer anime season and needs to be watched by more people.
A Masterclass In Illustrating A Singular Worldview: Sonny Boy And Shingo Natsume
Sonny Boy is an anomaly in commercial media, let alone as a TV anime: a fascinating creator given a blank cheque that he cashed in to explore his philosophical views, mixing cultural touchstones an…
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Sonny Boy is an anomaly in commercial media, let alone as a TV anime: a fascinating creator given a blank cheque that he cashed in to explore his philosophical views, mixing cultural touchstones and personal musings into a unique sci-fi story, and tweaking animation production norms to illustrate a singular worldview with unmatched cohesion.
Shingo Natsume is a lucky director, and we're just as fortunate of an audience that he is. This isn't to say that he hasn't earned his position, of course, but the range of registers and formats that he has been able to tackle as a director with less than a decade of experience heading projects is by all means extraordinary.
While Natsume is still best known for the action blockbuster that was One-Punch Man's first season, he never allowed that to pigeonhole him. He would reappear every year or two to jump from the pleasantly understated political thriller ACCA: 13 to attempting to tackle the off-kilter, atmospheric action of Boogiepop and Others. We've seen him coordinate the production of a wildly imaginative anthology series in Space Dandy, which he directed alongside Shinichiro Watanabe, a mentor he still turns to nowadays when it comes to musical choices. Although people tend to forget that, the first project Natsume led was actually the first OVA for Hori-san to Miyamura-kun, an indie effort that presented an austere world of two; a fascinating contrast with the lavishly presented ensemble cast narrative of Horimiya's eventual TV series. Next year, Natsume will face yet another new challenge by succeeding a critically acclaimed director. By directing a Tatami Galaxy sequel, he'll be returning to the series that featured his first televised episode as director and storyboarder, having taken over arguably his number one mentor in Masaaki Yuasa. It's one interesting development after the other when it comes to Natsume.
Even in this tightly packed, fascinating career, a single project stands out from the rest; the exceptional within the exceptional, something he deemed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When it comes to titles pitched by a producer to a creator—which is to say most of them—the former will tend to have a precise goal in mind. It could be a specific title to adapt, one current trend they want to ride, a type of narrative they think could be a hit, or if they're feeling terribly generous towards the arts, perhaps one idea that they genuinely believe would be interesting if handled by that team. That is the norm, but Sonny Boy is anything but normal, hence why its backstory is quite different.
Veteran producer Motoki Mukaichi met Natsume for the first time during the preambles of Space Dandy, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he fell for him at first sight. He had made a name for himself at Bandai Visual, which he leveraged into a position as chief producer and manager at Shochiku after he transferred companies in 2017; which is to say, the kind of job that allows you to get away with a passion project or two. And so, when their schedules aligned, he approached Natsume with a proposal to make… anything at all. While Mukaichi had some specific details in mind—you know who to thank for the constant cliffhangers, since he suggested having one twist per episode to keep viewers hooked—his pitch to Natsume could be summarized with anything goes, as long as you like it. Essentially a blank cheque, a gift that's hard to come by in this industry.
