Sonic X

This has been a great Sonic cartoon comeback! But also it is a little different from the other Sonic cartoons like Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and Sonic Underground. Because this series was produced by 4-Kids Entertainment (the creators who did Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!) and the first three Sonic cartoons were produced by DiC Entertainment. This series is based on the brand new Sonic video-games for Nintendo Gamecube. In this series, Sonic and his friends are trying to collect the powerful chaos emeralds before the evil, Dr. Eggman (aka Dr. Robotnik) gets the chaos emeralds. Sonic and his friends were accidentally transported from their world to the real world with the power of chaos control and then all the chaos emeralds were scattered in random places around the world. This time Amy Rose gets to be in this Sonic cartoon and so does Rouge the Bat and Shadow the Hedgehog! When I first watched the sneak preview at this show on Fox Box (formally known as Fox Kids), I thought at first Jaleel White was going to return to his role of Sonic the Hedgehog but instead they used a different voice actor named Jason Anthony Griffith who does a pretty good job at doing the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog. Plus I think Dan Green does an excellent job at doing the voice of the all and powerful Knuckles the Echidna! I am really glad Knuckles is in this series again just like in the last series in 1999, Sonic Underground! I like the animation to this show and the voice acting is pretty good. Maybe with the success of this show maybe it will help bring back new episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and Sonic Underground. But who knows?

User Rating: 10/10

BOTTOM LINE: A GREAT SUPER SONIC COMEBACK!

Truly wonderful series. It definitely starts out slow, but once the third episode comes around, it really picks up. The human characters aren't the best additions to the Sonic universe I've ever seen, but they're tolerable. Sonic and Co., however, are very well developed. I've only seen the series in Japanese so far, but I'm not sure if I'll watch it in English. I can't imagine what it'd be like with the English voice actors for the Sonic Adventure series (if that's who'll be used). Still, if you can catch it in the original language, I highly recommend it.

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.

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 ^_^

This new anime is certainly a few steps up from the American cartoons, especially the awful Sonic Underground. However, for hard-core anime and Sonic fans, you can't judge a book by its cover.

The basic story is that Sonic and his friends have been stranded in a new world. They befriend a little boy named Chris who aids them in their quest to stop Dr. Eggman from ruling the world, all the while trying to get back home. As interesting as the story sounds, it falls short because of the repetitiveness in each episode. Sonic's hanging out, Eggman shows up, he runs and destroys a robot. That's it, most times saving the little boy in the process. And it seems that the creators try to develop Chris a whole lot more than realizing Sonic's potential to entertain us with his stunts and attitude. Don't get me wrong, there are several episodes that had me in stitches or crying like a baby, but mostly, it's the same old thing. Also, character development is almost non-existent (not counting humans), mostly because the show was intended only for Sonic fans who know the blue dude well. And for those who are familiar with the games, the voice acting is quite good. It sounds like normal conversation, with the exception of a few of Sonic's one-liner's and the unimportant humans.

Not only does the story suffer, but the animation suffers as well. In the first episode, it was beautiful. Sonic's running through tunnels, on walls, on the highway, bullets flying, cars chasing him, all in smooth animation you expect from a Japanese action anime. But as the story progresses on to later sagas, the animation suffers a huge downfall. Frames skip or characters will sometimes look weird, all the while you wondering how the animation got bad and the artists didn't realize, however they do straighten their act up in special episodes, like Sonic's long-awaited transformation to Super Sonic.

All in all, it's not what I expected when I saw the raw Japanese version of episode one. This anime is quite predictable and the art gets bad as the story goes on. However, one good thing is that this story has some good humor and a lot of heart, expressed mostly in Sonic and Chris's growing love and friendship. It's no Dragonball Z, but it's definitely a step up from the American shows and has enough appeal to keep the interested interested. Maybe, just maybe, when the new episodes are produced and aired this fall, fans will get what they asked for and Sonic will get the true adventure he deserves.

3/5 stars.

EDIT: Hmm... ya know... the more I watch this show, the more I can't get enough of it. While waiting for the extremely-longed-for Season Three to be produced in Japan, I figured I might as well watch the old ones while I'm waiting. If you really look inbetween the lines of this show, it speaks one important thing very loudly: love. Not only is Sonic a funny and cool person to be around, but the hedgehog is wise beyond his years, and he constantly teaches the new kid what true friendship is all about in a non sugar-coated way, like like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon do for example, and it's very satisfying. Now, I really don't like this new kid that much as some other people do. In fact, I don't care what happens to him, but I like to see a character grow throughout a movie or show. It's heart-warming, and it should be to the other people who('ve) realize this, even though it does like a cheap, one-shot kid's fare on the surface. Maybe Sonic did get his adventure after all, or maybe it's all waiting right around the corner in April....

Gotta change the rating: 4/5. Good job, Sonic.