Seeing a feminine/masculine same-sex couple hugging in the bathroom prompted me to watch Sonny Boy on Hulu, even though I generally dislike anime.
Scene 1: A feminine boy named Nagara (Aoi Ichikawa, left, who looks nonbinary but identifies as male) is lying on the floor in an empty classroom. A girl named Nozimi comes in and asks if he has a superpower. He doesn't. They explain the premise to each other: the world outside has vanished, or the school has vanished: it is floating alone in a dark void. 36 summer school students, but no adults, are trapped there; some have developed superpowers. Oddly, no one is panicking; they take it as a given, unfortunate, but a common occurance.
Scene 2: Nagara, who is now called Hoshi (English voice by Ry Mckeand), is at a urinal in the bathroom. Cap, a jock, is on the toilet. They discuss what will happen when things go back to normal, and the teachers yell at them for not working on their summer projects while in the void. They decide to "make some new rules" to maintain discipline during this down-time.
Scene 3: Feminine Nagara and his gal pal Nozimi having lunch on the soccer field. They discuss their situation some more. Suddenly everyone gets a text message (the towers are still operational?) suggesting that they elect a leader to help them continue their studies.
Scene 4: The Muscular Cap is elected leader, but Evil Queen Hoshi is behind the scenes, pulling his strings. Feminine Nagara and his gal paldiscuss their situation some more.
Wait -- Nagara and Hoshi are obviously different people. So, why make them look alike? Why have Nagara announce that he is going to the bathroom, with a switch to Hoshi in the bathroom? Sounds like the writers are trying their best to confuse us.
Another boy comes in and asks why Feminine Nagara didn't show up for his Cleaning Crew duty. He didn't want to. "Haven't you heard? There are a bunch of new rules, and everyone has a job to do." He's too self-possessed to notice.
Scene 5: Some kids are arguing with Muscular Cap. Why can't they use their superpowers in school? Where else is there? One gets so mad that he breaks all the windows, which is against the rule "do not damage our school."
Scene 6: Some kids discuss what happened to the window-breaking boy. Meanwhile, Muscular Cap and his goons track down Gal Pal Nozimi to see why she's not following the rules. Do most Japanese schools have a carousel, or did someone zap one up with their superpowers? She doesn't know about them, since she doesn't have a cell phone. Muscular Cap offers her one; she breaks it. She doesn't want to participate in their silly dictator game. Penalty: running 100 laps.
Scene 7: The students, led by New Character Azakezi, discuss a mutiny. Azakezi is voiced in English by Daman Mills, who looks nonbinary identifies as male. Meanwhile, another new character, Science Boy tries to explain their situation: a void outside, but time goes on; they have to eat and sleep.
Flashback to the day it happened: Feminine Nagara's teacher calls him in to discuss his deteriorating "mental state." He meets Gal Pal Nozimi, who asks him out on a date; he refuses. She criticizes his inability to make friends. He tries to run away, and suddenly the world goes black. So this is all Nagara's fault, for not accepting a date with a girl!
Scene 8: Azakeze and the rebels use their superpowers to twist the school like a pretzel. They announce: "We'll be taking over now." Exchanging one dictator for another?
Penalty: push-ups and sit-ups (apparently Cap can force them due to his superpower). But it doesn't work on Azakeze, since he technically hasn't broken any school rules. So Cap clobbers him with a baseball bat.
Now Cap has broken a rule! Evil Queen Hoshi turns on him, and forces a penalty of his own: take off your clothes and jump up and down. (I can get behind that penalty!). Everyone laugh; Cap is humiliated.
Suddenly Evil Queen Hoshi turns into the Dark Lord. "None of you will ever leave this place!" he exclaims. American villains speak with a British accent; do Japanese villains sound Chinese?
Meanwhile, Feminine Nagara and Gal Pal Nozimi, holding hands, think they have found a way out of the void; it involves following a floating feather. Gal Pal Nozimi, confident, takes a flying leap into the void, and starts to fall. Feminine Nagara tries to grab her, but they both fall into the void.
And splash into the ocean near a tropical island. The school comes with them. Next Episode: The Lord of the Flies. No fair! The void was much more interesting than a dumb desert island.
Title: Sonny Boy in both English and Japanese. But I don't know who Sonny Boy is.
Beefcake: The muscular Cap nude.
Gay Characters: Evil Queen Hoshi is obviously gay. Feminine Nagara's lack of interest in girls apparently pushed them into the void in the first place, but he "got over it" and began dating Gal Pal Nozimi.
Gay Voice Actors: Most of them, apparently.
Heterosexism: A romance with Nozimi is key to Nagara's salvation, AND the heterosexual couple saves the day.
My Grade: D