Sonic X

I've been a big Sonic fan (well, more of a Tails fan actually) since the Saturday Morning (SatAm) cartoon series that ABC used to show. Everyone remembers that one with Sally, Bunny, Antoine, Tails, Rotor, Snively and Robotnic. Well don't expect it from this show.

Well.. Sonic X is made by the Japanese, of course its not going to follow the story lines of the >>AMERICAN<< Archie Sonic comics, plus the animation style is a lot more streamline. Sonic X blends computer cgi with super-realistic hand-drawn animation. And we all know how much better the Japanese are at animating than we are, as evidenced by Dexter's Lab and Power Puff Girls.

This show is produced by Sonic Team, so it's no surprise that most of the episodes will coincide with familiar events in the Sonic Adventure games. The idea to throw Sonic and pals into the human world allows for much more interaction and excitement than when he was stuck on Mobius and the only two humans were Snively and Robotnik. Now Sonic gets to meet a variety of interesting and strange characters.

I thought it was rather humorous when Chris's grandfather thought Sonic was a robot and he tried to stick a screwdriver into his nether regions. 0.o

This really is a great show, its just that I really don't like how 4Kids Entertainment went about "Americanizing" it. If you've ever watched one of the Sonic X translated fansubs by WolfPac or Team Artail you'll notice that the Japanese used actual gun sounds instead of the more friendly laser fire sounds that are heard in the US dub.

Also most of the Japanese voice actors in Sonic X also did the voices for the same characters in the Japanese Sonic games.

Amy Palanth is the voice of Tails in the 4Kids dub? No wonder he sounds like Ash Ketchum from Pokemon... how degrading. Seriously guys, the English voice acting is enough to make my ears bleed! Give me the original Japanese voices with English subtitles any day so long as I don't have to hear that stupid Ninja Turtle-ish theme song. Gotta go faster, faster, faster, faster, faster! Uggghhh -.- Why'd they replace a perfectly good J-Pop song with such lame surf-rock garbage?

What would've been so wrong with keeping Hironobu & Hideaki's "Sonic Drive" as the opening theme? So what if your kids don't understand Japanese, let them have a little culture in their TV diet anyway! And it utterly disgusts me how when an anime gets dubbed for kiddy TV its almost completely stripped of all its individuality and anything that may've made it unique.

In the original Sonic X, episode 2, Sonic says in plain English the word "sh*t" as he is trying to sneak past the Area 99 security cameras. In another episode where Eggman (Robotnik) tricks Sonic and Knuckles into fighting each other, Knuckles calls Sonic a b*stard. Hey, they do it in the English dub of Inuyasha all the time.. and they kept the J-Pop songs too. =P

Before being "Americanized" two of the young male digi-mon trainers in the original Japanese Digimon were in love. The Japanese don't have as much of a problem with homosexuality as we do in the states. So in the American re-dub they just make the excuse that the two boys are "Really good friends." Sure... two really good friends who just happen to hold each other's hands and blush when they're scared ^.^

These poor little animes get butchered and dumbed down for the American youth, when in actuality your kids really aren't as dumb as you think. We try to keep the children away from swear words, violence, and sexuality when most of the time they've already seen it in the last movie they went to see with their parents.

-Sonikuu kawaii desu ^_^

Fans of the Sega Sonic games will love this new show. The familiar Sonic cast is here in a flashy new series but the show is in no way as good as it could be.

Sonic X is based on Sonic games rather than the Sonic universe presented in Archie Comics. This might be disappointing to fans of the old Sonic show which starred Sonic alongside Princess Sally and the Freedom Fighters. However fans of Sega's interpretations of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose will no doubt enjoy the cast on offer.

Anyone who has played Sonic games will instantly understand Sonic X. Sonic and the regular gaming cast (their latest adventure being in "Sonic Adventure 2" on Dreamcast and GameCube) must collect all 7 master emeralds before the evil Dr. Eggman can. The new twist is that in Sonic X, Sonic and friends have been transported to a world which resembles our earth.

Sounds good? Well... not altogether. The fact that the show takes place on earth means that all new characters are human. Sonic's new friend (and regular cast member) is named Chris and is rather dull and unexciting. A great portion of Sonic X revolves around the regular Sonic cast interacting with Chris and his household... pretty boring stuff considering the show is based on an all action fast paced game.

The episodes do however contain action, most of which is the same from episode to episode. Sonic and friends are presented by a new robot created by Dr. Eggman almost every episode. These robots are rather menacing but whenever Sonic gets his hands on a power ring he can defeat ANY construction that Eggman creates with no sweat. This eliminates any sense of the unexpected from the show, viewers KNOW that Sonic can and will win every battle as long as he holds a ring.

I have seen 20 of the 25 episodes from season 1. Most of these episodes are awful and very repetitive... although so is the Pokemon show and that was successful so who knows what will become of Sonic X.

If you like Sonic and don't mind repetitive mindless plots then this show is great... if you loathe Sonic you'll hate this.

And if you hate Amy Rose don't even bother... she's here in bucket loads.

There is a great deal of hype surrounding Sonic X, and to be fair I can see why. The use of the same art style featuring in the Sonic game series and using all of the regular cast from the Sonic series is a major plus point, and something that hasn't happened yet as far as all of Sonic's animated iterations have gone.

But sadly, this doesn't cover the fact that the series is severely lacking. While the series does feature the same animation style and characters directly from the games, it also loses the atmosphere of the series by urbanising the entire thing, contradicting the character personalities evident in the series - we're supposed to believe Sonic is fighting against urbanisation and loves natural beauty, living every day with freedom and adventure in mind, he's now also living in a rich mansion on the suburbs of a city with a young pre-adolescent named Chris.

While human characters have been evident in the series since Sonic Adventure in 1999, they've never been as overbearing as they are here. Over 50% of the regular cast is made up of humans (excluding the traditional Dr. Eggman), and the pace takes a serious drop because of it. There's barely anything traditionally Sonic here - Chris goes to school, where he talks with his friends, and the human characters have "adventures" with the Sonic gang. The pace takes a serious drop after the first episode because of it.

The first episode is perfect - blending amazingly fast animation with great character usage and wonderful set pieces - an action scene that continues for around 7 minutes is a wonderful way to kick off the series, and the humour and characters are all around for a purpose. It feels like a direct translation from the video game series. But then Chris is introduced, after the cliche of the characters being "sent to a new dimension", and the series grinds to a halt to develop Chris, and only Chris.

This is the series major fault. The emphasis is clearly on Chris and the humans, and never seems to be about the Sonic cast. None of them ever get a chance to develop. Chris's role is essentially that of Tails' - a young boy who aspires to grow up to be like Sonic, but the fact that he steals much of the other characters' charms leaves them as empty shells who are only background scenery to Chris's homelife. It's a terrible waste, and not only do the regular cast of Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Cream suffer, but also Sonic himself, who spends the series saving Chris with one-shot kill battles in the vain of the weak MegaZord battles of Power Rangers fame. This is a direct contradiction of the game series, where the focus is firmly on speed, and light-hearted adventuring. There is no room for Sonic to adventure, because he has been trapped in a household for a series, and in an unbelievably un-Sonic turn he spends entire episodes asleep on rooftops.

The series also serves as more of a nuisance than anything to Sonic fans, as it destroys the continuity and storyline of the games and instead creates an alternate version where events happen out of sequence. This will only serve to confuse new fans to the series, who will probably be fans for the wrong reasons supplied by this anime. As a series working on it's own merits, it's still poor for it's lack of anything actually happening - the characters talk for five minutes at a time with useless sub-characters, and without a spark of humour or charm the series just feels weak and dull.

It may feature all of the regular cast, but this isn't the Sonic we've known for the last 13 years. The series is dull, inconsistent, and at times features very poor and jerky animation, filled with aesthetic mistakes which suggest the series has been rushed out in order to simply make quick money, without offering anything new - the fact that the series adapts in-game storylines means there's literally nothing we haven't seen before as far as Sonic the Hedgehog goes, unless fans can genuinely bring themselves to care about Chris - a hard task, due to his consistent ways of stealing the limelight from every character.

Fans would be better sticking with the 1993 DiC cartoon Sonic the Hedgehog (or SatAM). While it may not be very accurate as far as storyline and characters are concerned, it translates the feel of the games almost perfectly - combining fast action in dark settings with light-hearted atmosphere and genuine character development. It may only be 26 episodes long, but it's a far superior animation on it's own merits alone, and a very fulfilling alternative to Sonic X.

I get why people while say that It has too much focus on Chris Thorndyke and other side characters. But it is a fun show none the less. I feel like the critics don't get it.

I'm watching it for the first time in a decade and also the first time with English subtitles rather than English voice acting (recommended by the way). It's not a fantastic show. It just isn't. It's an anime about anthropomorphic herdgehogs, it's not gonna be winning any Emmys. It is overdramatic and incredibly edgy, especially the episodes including Shadow. It's storylines are kinda dumb. But it's also the first Sonic cartoon I watched that actually has serious stuff going on. There's death and stuff, ya know? It's not purely a kids tv show. And even though that makes it come off as edgy and a little off, I still like it. It's definitely not for everyone, just for people who already know the characters and don't mind watching a show where you're invested in what's going on half of the time and and smiling about how ridiculous it all is the other half. If you can put up with that, then it's something that's enjoyable enough to watch.