Series Summary
A group of students on summer vacation find themselves transported to another dimension and granted superpowers to survive there. (IMDB)
Episode 2 Summary
The students have relocated to a nearby island, where they have no shortage of food, and can get whatever they want through Mizuho's power. (Hulu)
• Amazon Box Girl sees blue flames on a big tree at night, while Nagara watches her from a distance.
• Nozomi throws a crab at Nagara. He notices a bleeding cut on her hand but she says not to worry since it’ll heal quick anyway.
• Indian Boy is playing with some equipment, with headphones on.
• Red Shirt Boy can fly now, not sure how that’s related with his world-cracking ability. He tells Indian Boy, Nozomi, and Nagara that the ocean around the island is seemingly endless and that their island is the only thing he saw.
• Someone named Ms Mizuho has a castle. A girl wandering the castle says that Ms Mizuho can order anything to appear regardless of price, like the castle. Sounds like a god-like power until we learn it’s limits, since Red Shirt Boy went from breaking windows to flying over endless oceans.
• Amazon Box Girl is Ms Mizuho.
• Indian Boy addresses the class in front of a chalkboard on the beach. He’s sent out radio signals but no ones responded, so they might be alone again wherever they are. Their phones can contact each other but not the outside world.
• Nagara has found “gateways” around the school that lead to other inhuman worlds.
• Indian explains that unlike the school, things that are broken on the island stay broken. This makes the school an endless source of electricity, water, and food. He adds that they might be cycling through worlds and that eventually they might be able to go back home.
• Tanigawa asks Indian Boy a question and his voice sounds deep and weird for a moment, something that only Nozomi notices.
• The girl that was in Ms Mizuho’s castle puts on lipstick but drops it when it erupts into blue flames like the big tree Miss Mizuho was looking at earlier. Is this an additional power of hers, or Nagara since he was also at the blue burning tree?
• The same girl and other classmates look at a house consumed in blue fire. Tanigawa asks if she’s okay, with a frozen look on his face. Machi says someone should get water. Cap runs off to grab some but when he returns a boy with a bowl-cut hairdo uses his power to lift up tons of sand and smother the blue fire. Someone says blue fires have been appearing on the island, destroying stuff.
• Tanigawa asks if anyone knows where the blue fire’s from. Machi gives him a weird look and a flashback reveals before the school moved that the two committed election fraud to make her student council President instead of rebellious boy named Taichi. Geez, this show’s hitting close to home in the real world.
• Alone in her castle, surrounded by a collection of stuffed animals and other goods, Ms Mizuho scrolls through her phone and calls some of the other girls beach pictures ugly. All that stuff but there she is, jealous and alone. She flops on her bed and plays with a ring on her left hand—perhaps a promise ring between a friend or lover? Funny how such a small thing can feel more interesting than the vague ability to summon whatever one wants. Nagara shows up at the gate of her castle. He tells her Machi is wondering when the essential goods Mizuho said she would order would arrive. She says maybe three days which is confusing if she can instantly summon objects. Why is she delaying the delivery of essential items to the rest of her class? Also, important, she now has two cats instead of one … can she summon living things too? One of her cats is name Tora.
• While working on the beach with a kid in glasses, Nagara lets slip that he saw Mizuho staring at tree covered on blue flames—hinting she might know more about the blue fire. They see more blue fire in the distance. In the next shot, we see the Indian Kid kneeling in front of electrical equipment that’s been destroyed.
• A girl shows up and reveals that everyone that has caught on fire are objects that Mizuho “ordered”/summoned. These conjured objects might have a limited lifespan that ends in their blue combustion.
• The guy in glasses misunderstands Nagara and a girl ends up telling others that Mizuho is causing the blue flames, instead of her conjured objects are eventually bursting into blue flames. Nagara does not look too concerned at the thought he might have have just caused a witch hunt against the powerful girl who lives alone in a castle in the woods.
• Nagara and Indian Boy see Nozomi with a backpack, talking to Tanigawa and Cap.
• Machi finds out on her laptop that other students have discovered her election fraud.
• In what looks like a flashback, Mizuho expresses her displeasure with something to a teacher who has a similar or same ring she wears in her castle. When he looks away, she glances at him longingly.
• Flashback continues—Tanigawa and Machi confront Mizuho about posting online about their alleged election fraud. They reveal that Tanigawa’s grandfather has enough connections that they got access to phone records and discovered it was Mizuho. She tells Machi it doesn’t matter if they know it was her since she’s only spreading the truth. Tanigawa tells Mizuho that since she used library wifi to slander a student, the presiding teacher will be liable for Mizuho’s actions.
• Back in the present, Mizuho looks for her other cat on the island while the students begin piling goods from Mizuho and claiming that the blue fire is a curse she put on everything she “ordered” for them. Nagara just watched from afar and does nothing to correct them.
• At sunset, Nagara sees a seagull fatally injure itself against a classroom window. Nozomi tries to rush the bird inside the building to undo the injury but Nagara says it’s too late and that there’s nothing they could’ve done. Nozomi remarks this isn’t the second time he’s done this. Confused, Nagara asks what she’s talking about—she reveals right before their school moved, he did nothing and let a wounded bird die. She points out that people who ignore hurt animals, do the same to people.
• Tanigawa and some other classmates confront Mizuho outside her castle, about the blue flames. She tells Tanigawa to stop with his trickery. We see the entire island engulfed in blue fire and gaunt students walking through a burned forest. Back at the castle, the other students look nervously at Mizuho while Tanigawa smiles and claims they only want to help her. He finally admits that what they’ve all seen is an example of what he thinks will happen if she doesn’t let them help her. So it’s confirmed, Tanigawa can give people visions of whatever he wants them to see.
• Indian Boy reveals to Nozomi that a GameBoy device that Mizuho made for him was the only object that didn’t get destroyed by the blue flames. He reveals that it is the only object from her that he traded for, having given toys he made in exchange. He hands her a block with a leaf in it. When she hits it, she grows raccoon ears and a tail. Soon after the ears and tails erupt in blue flames before Indian Boy puts her out with some water. He then reveals that the box was something he made and that Mizuho cannot be responsible for the blue flames—and that it might be a rule similar to the rule system in the black void world. Also the blue fire doesn’t hurt anyone and just feels warm.
• While looking for her cat Tora in her castle, some boys throw rocks through the windows and for some reason Mizuho’s head starts to bleed.
• The episode flashes back to Tanigawa and Machi confronting Mizuho in front of her castle. They warn her that if doesn’t apologize and submit to them, she’ll lose another person who is precious to her … so they might have Torah and got her favorite teacher fired or something.
• In the present, money starts falling from the sky before shortly bursting into blue flames. The fire spreads over the island.
• Nagara finds Mizuho’s cat so he and Nozomi return it to her at the big burning tree.
• The Indian Boy and Red Shirt hover in the sky and rain clouds move to put out the fire.
• The students stare at the burnt remains for a moment before it all reverts to the paradise it was before.
• In the morning, Mizuho reveals she made the money fall from the sky and set it on fire but that all the blue fire was not her.
• Indian Boy reveals that anything taken and not traded eventually bursts into flames. He reveals he’s made an app with digital money for them to use and circumvent the blue-fire rule of the island.
• Mizuho gives Nagara a straw hat as a thank you for finding Tora. He asks her what she wants in exchange so it doesn’t burn but she says nothing since it’s a gift.
• Red Shirt asks Indian Boy what they should do now that the island’s reverted to normal. Nozomi reveals that she can see their way home and her power is called, “Compass.”
While last episode was about law and freedom, this episode is about the emotional and physical repercussions of voluntary and forced transactions—and witch hunts. Mizuho, the girl who can “produce” anything becomes a broken vending machine for the rest of her class. They tell her what she wants and she gives it to them without anything in exchange. Exploited for her power, she isolates herself in a faraway castle and begins to resent everyone who takes from her. The only persons who traded with her are Indian Boy when he gave her toys and Nagara when he gave her back her cat—which felt near equal due to him starting the rumor she was responsible for the blue fire.
I’m curious why the past two worlds the school has moved to have rule systems—as in are they an innate trait of each world, or are they a reaction to activity of the students? Did the black void respond to the corrupt nature of the student council—and did the island world respond to the exploitation of Mizuho’s power? Will every world respond to some feature or flaw of the students group dynamic?
Another thing I noticed was that the hallucination Tanigawa made when they confronted Mizuho at her castle gates, came true. Yes, the island reversed back into its undismayed state but blue flames did destroy the island’s vegetation and the students did sadly walk thru a barren patch of charred trees. It made me wonder if his ability might, instead of being hallucination-sharing, prophecy-sharing. That might be a stretch but it created a sense of dread for me due to episode one’s hallucination of a death-like figure swinging a scythe and students laying around the school, sickly, unconscious, and possibly dead.
Also, what was up with that weird voice Tanigawa had for a moment that only Nozomi noticed? Does her “compass” power reveal to her things other than the way home—instead of safety perhaps danger or threats?
There was a weak attempt at a lesson in compassion with Nagara and injured animals but no more significance to his rather flaccid personality was added to that secondary story thread.
Having watched too many scandalous dramas, I assumed there was an inappropriate relationship between Mizuho and her favorite teacher but perhaps she “produced” a copy of the man’s ring to remind herself of what happened the last time she went up against Tanigawa and Machi, and that it was a platonic fondness and nothing else.
Red Shirt Boy apparently has telekinesis now, and another kid also has a similar ability or can control sand. I was expecting to see more abilities but I do like the gradual inclusion of abilities and the current lack of absolute X-Men chaos that could ensue.
But my new ultimate question is, why is this show called Sonny Boy?
