Sonic X

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.

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.

Take the Japanese Sonic X. Excelent dialog, music, and character voices. Add 4kids Entertainment. The result is a horrible dubbing of an excelent series. The dialog: acceptable words and phrases from the Japanese version were changed into cheesy jokes and sentences no one uses. The music: Japan had two excelent songs, Sonic Drive and Mi-Ra-I. 4kids removed both and replaced with repetive dull theme music. In-show music originally techno-esc music has been replaced with cartoon orchestral music. Character voices: Horrible, most of them are cheesy actors that can't speak normal. I wish the Japanese voice actors knew english. But even if they did, 4kids woldn't even take them. I'll stick with the subtitled episodes from WolfPack Productions.

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.

On a world of anthropomorphic animals, Sonic the Hedgehog along with his friends Knuckles the Echidna, pink hammer wielding Hedgehog Amy Rose, and two-tailed mechanical genius fox Miles "Tails" Prower fight against the nefarious mad scientist Dr. Eggman who uses his robots in pursuit of the Chaos Emeralds with his ultimate goal of creating his "Eggman Empire". When Eggman's machine malfunctions and uses "Chaos control" the effect results in Sonic, Eggman, and his friends being transported and scattered across a parallel world run by humans. After eluding the authorities who seek to capture him Sonic lands in a swimming pool and nearly drowns due to his inability to swim but is rescued by Chris Thorndyke the 12 year old son of software company CEO Nelson Thorndyke and famed actress Lindsay Fair. Using Chris' home as a hideaway and with the help of Chris' inventor/engineer grandfather Charles "Chuck" Throndyke, Chris, Sonic and Chuck scour the world looking for Sonic's lost friends and the Chaos Emeralds in the hope they can eventually return home as they elude both the government as well as Eggman who continues his schemes within this world.

Sonic X is a 2003 anime series based on the Sega video game character of the same name and is notable for being the first Sonic series produced following Sega's decision to leave the gaming hardware business and re-organize as a third party multi-platform developer with the anime series released in the same year leading up to the release of Sonic Heroes the first Sonic game to be made specifically for non-Sega consoles (not counting Sonic Pocket adventure for the Neo Geo Pocket Color). Produced primarily in mind for a Japanese audience hence why Sonic X's personality and story structure differ vastly from the previous DiC U. S./France co-productions of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic SatAM, and Sonic Underground, the show was initially written off as a disappointment when it was broadcast in its native Japan. However due to the popularity of Sonic outside Japan the series was acquired for localization in numerous foreign markets such as the United States, France, and Malaysia where it was one of the most popular animated series of the mid 2000s resulting in producer TMS and Sega authorizing a production of a third series of episodes that didn't air in Japan until 2020 nearly fifteen years after they were produced. The show has a complicated legacy due to its association with the infamous 4Kids company, but Sonic X along with the successful launch of Sonic Heroes is often seen as responsible for reintroducing the character to a new audience and keeping him relevant in a changing market. There's a lot that Sonic X does well, but there's also a lot it does wrong.

When watching Sonic X, there's a notable deviation in tone and approach between the three seasons with the first season being a "monster of the day" show that adheres to a "t" of all the trappings thereof, season two covers a bunch of mini-arcs that serve as more direct adaptations of the stories from some of the more recent games (notably both Sonic Adventures and Sonic Battle), and the third season is an original season long arc that takes the series in a space opera direction with a time jump between the first 52 episodes and this batch of 26 episodes as this season was only made in response to the international appeal of Sonic X hence why it aired everywhere but Japan until 2020. The general consensus among those who saw the show tend to agree the show did get better as it went along with some of the best episodes and character moments happening in the third season. For the most part the show does give moments to each member of Sonic team to shine and it remains pretty true to their personalities and portrayals in the series. I'll admit that I didn't immediately warm to the show's depiction of Sonic who seemed to be a bit more glib about the circumstances and didn't seem to have his trademarked cocky arrogance balanced against charming or humanizing scenes, but we did eventually get a more balanced portrayal of Sonic as the show went on.

This of course brings me to the biggest sticking point of this series and one that is either tolerated or viscerally hated, arguably the co-lead of the series Chris Thorndyke. Chris is a character created especially for the show and is in theory supposed to serve as an "audience proxy" and human ally for Sonic and friends in a manner similar to say April O'Neill was the friend of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Spike Witwicky from the 80s Generation 1 Transformers cartoon. The biggest issue with Chris however is he just isn't interesting, and he doesn't have enough substance as a character to be a co-lead because he isn't a character. From the moment where Chris is introduced saving Sonic from drowning in his backyard pool, 100% of Chris' moments are either based around Sonic, wanting to go on adventures with Sonic, or moping about how Sonic isn't around. Chris is basically Richie Rich with even less personality and there's nothing that really justifies the character tagging along because he has no special skills or abilities and is just "there". If Chris and his money and connections were actually important to helping Sonic and his friends maybe you could make an argument for him being important, but that justification is done away with when it's revealed the Government has a special "Sonic Budget" to cover all expenses made by Sonic and his friends removing the last possible justification you could make for this character. The best episodes tended to be the ones where Chris was sidelined, downplayed, or absent and to this day there's a strong vitriol against the character especially due to him serving as substitute to Amy Rose in a pivotal scene in the Shadow the Hedgehog arc. While supposedly Chris was better characterized in the Japanese version of the show, this is something that even a competent dubbing company like Funimation or Viz would have trouble making palatable because despite the show's insistence Sonic and Chris are friends we never actually see them interact outside of their adventures (in fact Sonic has a stronger connection to a supporting character named Helen who probably would've made a much better Proxy) and you can really boil down all the issues with Chris down to a scene early in the series: The next morning after rescuing Sonic, Chris researches hedgehogs on the internet and sees cat food and crickets as foods hedgehogs eat and proceeds to feed them to Sonic. Despite knowing Sonic could talk at this point Chris didn't simply ask Sonic what he wanted because that would require the two of them having an actual conversation and it's clear the show doesn't want to do that.

Then of course we have the localization by the infamous 4Kids entertainment. While the show had the typical edits you'd expect from the company's snip happy censor scissors, there were never any full episodes or arcs pulled similar to One Piece or Pokémon. As with other 4Kids dubs the dubbing is hit and miss with some on point casting such as Dan Green as Knuckles a marked improvement from when Brian Drummond voiced him in Sonic Underground and Mike Pollock was is arguably the definitive Eggman as he along with a sizable number of the Sonic X dub cast soon began voicing the mainline Sonic games and Pollock still voices Eggman up to the latest release Sonic Frontiers as of the time of this writing. Various other parts of the dub were less successful as I always felt like Cream the Rabbit's high pitched falsetto voice was played at way too high a pitch and bordered on parody at points and there were also instances that probably could've benefitted from being toned down (such as some stuff involving the characters of Tanaka and Ella). For the most part the overzealous editing by 4Kids wasn't too disruptive as despite the Sonic Adventure 2 arc involving Shadow the Hedgehog well known for its dark storyline, most of the key points are left intact and still heavily implied despite not being as explicit (including the Maria plot point) but unfortunately despite no episodes being pulled, that didn't stop 4Kids from severely crippling them such as the case with arguably the series best episode A Revolutionary Tale that featured a great story involving Shadow and a soldier named Molly with the original poignant ending replaced with nothing but an abrupt stop.

There's a lot to like and enjoy in Sonic X, but it requires a massive amount of patience and forgiveness in order to enjoy it. Positions on the series remain no less divisive than they were upon initial release and the 4Kids dub (or at least portions of it) certainly didn't do any favors at minimizing the impact of certain wrongheaded decisions prior to production. While the show did a good job of cross promoting the game series and creating awareness as well as being popular enough that it continued to be shown on TV 10 years after new episodes stopped being produced there's a lot of baggage associated with this show and not undeservedly so.