SUNNY is one of Apple TV+ originals that is successfully maintaining the viewers’ interest due to its full-fledged sci-fi plot, and the eighth episode brings a fresh twist on analyzing one of the show’s most mysterious characters, Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima). Moving away from the episode structure of rapid succession short peeks into the past this episode explores Masa’s past in more detail thus giving vital information about him as a hikikomori, his family life, and the development of his roboticist career. This backstory is crucial for learning about Masa’s reason for acting and his character development and is accompanied by a significant cliffhanger that twists the future of the main home bot, Sunny.
SUNNY EPISODE 8 RECAP: MASA’S HIKIKOMORI PAST
The episode (titled: Trash or Not-Trash) of the series focuses on the young years of Masa and shows the conflicts that he had with his stepfather. Noriko, Masa’s mother, never allows him to visit his stepfather even on his death bed as they depict the cold condition that made Masa withdraw from society. This leads to the rejection of Masa into a life of seclusion, locking himself in a room and becoming a hikikomori. Although Noriko tries everything within her power to make Kurosawa leave his room and open up for her, it only takes his biological father, Hiromasa, to make him do so.
Hiromasa ‘s look adds a dramatic plot twist in Masa ‘s life as the story progresses. Hiromasa first attempts to change Masa’s mind but to no avail and after that, he transforms into his true form and offers Masa a place to live alone. This moment of truth is the most crucial step towards Masa’s liberation from his loneliness and seclusion.
The flashback also shows us how Hiromasa influenced Masa’s future towards robotics. However, what may be more noteworthy is that Hiromasa is the same fellow who handed Sunny to Suzie at the end of the very first episode of the show via his bike delivery service, thus, suggesting we look for more complexity in the series’ plotlines. Incidentally, being a robotics entrepreneur, Hiromasa is the first person to notice Masa’s potential and to motivate him to get a job in robotics. After following the instructions of his father, Masa starts working on the home bots and develops fond of the robotic engineering.
The start of Masa’s work is symbolically associated with his relocation to a cabin in isolation, thanks to Hiromasa. His relations with a broken Trash Bot in the cabin pique his interest and he becomes very committed to repairing the robot. Masa’s talent for robotics comes out into play as he programs human like qualities into the Trash Bot which suggests that he has the potential to make robots more human-like.
The meaning of life is again seen through Masa as he works on the Trash Bot invention. Hiromasa says it is not only about making robots work better and fantastic but also about finding his humanity through Masa’s invention. This theme is linked to Sunny’s main plot, where robots such as Sunny and people they encounter in life assist each other in discovering their identities.
As the flashback continues, Masa meets with his mother Noriko and questioning his mother Noriko as to why she never told the truth about Hiromasa. This confrontation becomes worse when his robot, the Trash Bot imitates his anger and tries to hit Hiromasa. The outburst of emotions leads to the fact that Hiromasa did not leave Masa, but Noriko decided that her husband should stay away from his birth father. This moment explains the problems in Masa’s family and develops his personality, making him a more emotional character.
SUNNY EPISODE 8 RECAP: THE PRESENT TIMELINE
In the last part of the episode, the viewer returns to the current timeline and continues where the seventh episode left off. Suzie, played by Rashida Jones, gathers Hiromasa and Mixxy to find Masa with the help of Sunny’s GPS . They discover another GPS tracker and they are puzzled to know who could be the fourth person whose GPS was planted.
As the trio investigate they begin to discover that Masa knew he was in some kind of danger possibly connected to the Yakuza and had ‘given ‘Sunny to Suzie to look after. In the last few moments of the episode, Suzie hears her son’s voice before she is cut short by one of Hime’s men; leading Sunny to intervene dramatically and unexpectedly.
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