Sunny
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Sunnybarrels into its final third with an episode thats 80 percent flashback followed by what might be a hallucination.
Anyone whos been cravingmasMasa will feel well-served, as this is the most Masa-centric installment to date.
No framing or establishing shots remind us why hes talking about Masa or to whom.
When little Masa asks why his father dislikes him, Noriko doesnt answer.
Masa wont answer when Yuki speaks to him through the door, of course.
But he doesnt sell Masa on this relocation by describing the places many comforts.
He sells it by telling him he could be alone there.
Then he tells Masa that he, not Shigeru, is his father.
It feels relevant and resonant now; it just felt like clumsy exposition back then.
What was the benefit of shoehorning this bombshell into an already-overstuffed earlier episode?
Trying to reverse-engineerSunnyoften feels like staring at the sun.
Anywho, the next scene is of Yuki showing Masa around the not-cabin.
When Yuki refers to the many unfinished projects he has lying around, Masa quips, Yes.
We know you cant commit.
These might be the first words Yukis son has ever spoken to him.
I chuckled when he went into Yukis file cabinet and found a Kit-Kat candy bar in the K folder.
The way this rolling trash can cheerfully announces Trash!
in Japanese each time it collects a piece of detritus is weirdly charming.
But like so many professional critics, Sho is easily flummoxed by whats trash and what isnt.
You were programmed by a moron, Masa sighs.
He resolves to improve the bots taste by upgrading its code.
A montage of Masa testing Shos evolving trash-identification acumen follows.
Yuki suggests that Noriko accompany him next time he goes to the cabin.
Grabbing his coat, Masa tells Sho that the trashbot needs a fresh challenge.
He rewards Little Masa with a comically oversized Kit-Kat bar.
Sho interrupts Masas reverie by announcing that a new pattern in his behavior has been deduced.
You frown at objects that are valuable to you, the bot says.
Because you value being sad.
(How does Yuki know all this?
It seems unlikely that the taciturn Masa told him or Noriko about thiseurekaevening after the fact.
Maybe he scraped it out of Shos memory bank.)
Trash, Masa says, gesturing towards Yuki.
He was trying to dispose of trash!
Masa demands to know if Shigeru knew that Masa was not his son.
He hated me my whole life, and I had no idea why, Masa reflects.
Maybe he felt safer keeping part of himself still inside, Yuki speculates.
He knew the yakuza were after him, Suzie concludes.
All Risa knows is that Sunny punched Mixxy, and Suzie wanted to know how that could have happened.
I didnt realize it was something they do to punish civilians who have crossed them, too.)
After this, Hime dispatches her sweet potato truck-driving henchman to collect Sunny from Suzies home.
The concluding act of this chapter is, would you believe, puzzling.
The second is Noriko, who is in jail but it sounds like shes really thriving.
The third is Yuki himself.
Thats how they found him.
Thats why this conversation is happening.
Mixxy interrupts to say that afourthtracking dot, a blue dot, has now appeared.
How she deduced this, Ill confess, completely eludes me, and Ive watched this episode thrice.
Barging into a large storeroom, Suzie sees Zen standing some distance away.
As she runs toward him, Sunny appears by the boys side.
Then Tetsu grabs Suzie from behind and presses the barrel of a pistol against her temple.
Is there GPS reception in hell?
Only two episodes remain, True Believers!
So shehasbeen wearing Masas clothes!
Ditto Shos habit of laughing along when Masa laughs.
Sho is the most lovable ambulatory trash can in all of Western fiction.
