Super Sonico Episode 4
What They Say:
“Super Sonico” debuted as Nitro+’s live mascot girl, and her world will be brought to life in the anime, “SoniAni – SUPER SONICO THE ANIMATION -”!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Having had some fun in the sun at the beach with the previous episode, Super Sonico is all about moving on with her life to the next piece. As we talked about previously, there’s something positive to take from the show once you understand that it is at its most basic a mascot show so it won’t do anything bad. But what you have to look at is whether it’ dealing with the character in a positive way that could be seen as a role model of sorts. With the series playing it carefully with the fanservice (at least compared to some of the figures and the like out there), it’s been pretty respectful and largely giving us a show with a character that works hard, hits the books regularly, has friends and lives on her own in a comfortable way without any men in her life outside of her work manager. There’s a lot to like with that in terms of messaging.
Sonico’s life is definitely a busy one and not one where we see her just laying around playing games or goofing off, though there’s something to be said for doing that. But we see how she enjoys her life and definitely enjoys the postcards she gets of different places which inspires her to get out into the world herself. The focus in this episode turns to a friend of hers named Toma, a girl she had met several years ago at a time when she was a far shier girl that was totally into rock music and largely kept to herself as is kind of typical in middle school. With Toma being so much more outgoing and cool in that classic sense with plenty of confidence to back it up, when the two end up in the same place, Toma is able to draw Sonico out in a way that she needs to be. Amusingly, it comes down to her simply saying that you can’t be into rock music and be shy. You have to just let it out.
Hooking up with Toma and her friends in the club introduces Sonico to the whole music scene and completely gets her to learning the guitar, which is the tie to the present. It’s a lot of fun watching how they all interact and through the montage you get to see how Sonico went from shy and introverted to having friends and being more outgoing. Of course, it’s the kind of relationship that can go only so far because of age differences and the fact that Toma ended up going overseas, but what it did was establish a bond that transcends location. What’s more surprising is that we get such a small and personal episode for the show that delves into Sonico’s past in middle school which helps to establish a lot of why she is like she is now, and how it’s all grown and been polished over the years.
In Summary:
Super Sonico had my attention a bit from the start since it was giving us a lead character at a college age as they helps to eliminate some of the usual annoying subplots that comes from high school shows. So I was a bit wary of a story that delves into her past, going back to middle school even, since it could hit too many of those tropes. And while we do get some, we also get a pretty solid origin story bit here that shows us how Sonico has changed over the years from what she was to who she is now. It’s nicely done and has a good bit of smooth and expected progression about it, but it serves as a very encouraging tale for young women to actually find their passions and follow them. And hopefully the guys that watch this realize that it’s a big positive thing as well.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.