Sunny is a little something different. It’s part comedy and part mystery. It’s set in a future Kyoto, Japan where domestic robots are commonplace. Sunny is one such robot. There’s a lot of creative imagination in both the story and in the way of telling the story. Lots of flashbacks, dreams, and even a quiz show, are used to unearth the plot.
Sunny begins with Suzie (Rashida Jones) learning that the plane her husband (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and son (Fares Belkheir) were on crashed. Everyone is presumed dead, but all the bodies haven’t been found including the body of husband Masa and son Zen.
Maybe her family is alive. Why aren’t their bodies found? Suzie goes through a lot trying to figure that out and find them if they are alive.
Soon after the plane crash, a robot named Sunny is delivered. It’s a gift from her husband. Suzie thought her husband made refrigerators, not robots. Another mystery.
At first Suzie is desperate to shut off the robot and keep it from befriending her. Suzie is a foul-mouthed grouch. She’s been living in Japan for 10 years and hasn’t learned the language or made any friends. Sunny eventually grows on her. Together they figure out what happened to her family.
Suzie’s mother-in-law Noriko (Judy Ongg) insists there be a funeral, even without bodies. Then Noriko gets herself thrown in jail on purpose. A little strange, but by episode 10 her being in jail provided one of the best plot twists in the series. This series had more plot twists than a Slinky has curves.
Rashinda Jones was terrific as the morose, unfriendly American. The actor voicing Sunny (Joanna Sotomura) was absolutely wonderful. Voice acting is its own skillset and Joanna Sotomura is really good.
The series is a combination of Japanese style and appearance coupled with danger and action. Masa did, in fact, make robots. And a Japanese gang wanted the code in Sunny because they thought it would allow them to make a bunch of killer robots.
Himé (You) works for the Yakuza and is the blonde nemisis to all of Suzie’s efforts of solve the mystery. Himé is determined to download the code working Sunny. She will kill to get it.
Suzie befriends a young bartender named Mixxy (Annie the Clumsy). Mixxy is a help to Suzie, but she’s questionable. Is she really a friend?
The way this series works is so different. Wholly original. I didn’t love it 100%, in fact I sometimes found it confusing. Robots falling into the void like a video game. Loud songs scaring away bears. Robots with a conscience and emotion. Fantasy, sci-fi, action, grief, murder. It was a lot.
A second season hasn’t been announced, but the first season ended on a cliffhanger. This Apple TV+ series had two women directors: Lucy Tcherniak and Dearbhla Walsh. It was created by Katie Robbins based on a novel by Colin O’Sullivan.
Discover more from Old Ain't Dead
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
i havent reached episode 10 yet but i have enjoyed the series so far. its a series that requires active watching and a willingness to accept a show that isnt culturally American. i dont see it as part comedy though – its a drama that has comedic moments (or moments i think are meant to be comedic). i liked Suzie and she serves as a good stand in for the viewer, an American in a foreign land who hadnt quite adjusted to her life there. i hope there is a second season.
It’s so unique in style – especially the quiz show episode – that I felt like it was trying to be comic. It could just be cultural though.
i’m certain that episode was meant to be cultural. i believe that there are real shows like that, in Japan & Korea. and the entry into that episode – Sunny falling into the game show – is based on something that can happen to characters in video games who somehow fall outside of the game play boundaries.
I did not know that. Thanks for sharing and helping educate me.