Sonic the Hedgehog: The OVA - Introduction

There is a chapter in “Sonic the Hedgehog” history that I fear is close to being forgotten. Younger fans weren’t there but the Sega Saturn era of “Sonic” was a near desolate one. While it did better in Japan, the Saturn was more-or-less a flop in America. It never developed a hit game library and was quickly overshadowed by the far more popular Nintendo 64 and Sony PlayStation. While everyone my age knew someone who had a Genesis/MegaDrive, the Saturn never reached that level of success. To give you an idea of how much Sega had fallen by this point, I knew more people who had a Sega CD than a Saturn. 

There's a lot of reasons why the Saturn failed in America, which I'm not really prepared to discuss. But a big reason was the lack of the company's star franchise. Ultimately, only three "Sonic" games were released for the Saturn. They were a boosted port of a title meant for the Genesis, a wonky racing game, and a compilation game. None of them made much of an impact and this would go a long way towards solidifying the theory that Sonic could never breach the polygon ceiling. Along with the lack of a popular new "Sonic" game, both "Sonic" cartoon series had ended by this point. This is why so many older "Sonic" fans rallied around the comic books, as that's what really kept the fandom going during these near-famine years. 

Within a few years, Sonic went from being a phenomenon to, at best, a cult favorite and, at worst, a has-been. And the franchise's reputation never really recovered.

I mention all of this because you have to understand the environment of the time for the rest of my point to make sense. It was during these post-Saturn, pre-Dreamcast years that stories of a new "Sonic" production started to filtered out over this recent invention known as the Internet. At the time, anime was just beginning to creep into the American mainstream. This was before even "Pokémon" started to blow up. Anime was still perceived as an edgier, more mature alternative to American animation. So news of a "Sonic" anime was received with intense interest by fans. 

Yes, for those of you who might not know, a "Sonic" original-video-animation (anime mini-series released straight-to-video) was released in Japan in 1996. The two part series was released on two VHS tapes, the first arriving on January 26th and the second on February 4th. There's very little behind-the-scenes information on the series. One assumes Sega commissioned the show to promote the Saturn and its flagship series. We know "Sonic" creators Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima had approval over the series and were, to some minor degree, involved in its production. 

This is what I can gleam from Wikipedia and IMDb: It was produced by Studio Pierrot, a company that has worked on mega-franchises like "Naruto," "Bleach," "Urusei Yatsura," and "Yu Yu Hakosho." Its director, Kazunori Ikegami, and writer, Masashi Kubota, have few other credits. (Kubota's most notable other credit is "Those Who Hunt Elves," a fantasy series whose name is familiar but I know nothing about.) Its animation team, however, include people who have worked on various iterations of "Pokémon," "Digimon," "Gundam," "Evangelion," "Cardcaptor Sakura," “Trigun," and "Lupin the 3rd." Key animator Fumie Muroi would go on to direct some of the beloved, and decidedly not-kid-friendly, "Black Lagoon" series. 

But that doesn't really tell the story of the "Sonic" OVA, at least as I remember it. In the days before streaming or file-sharing, it was really hard to get ahold of certain anime titles. Unless you were one of the lucky souls included in the convention tape trading or fan-subbing scene, you only saw what was on TV or in the anime section of your local Suncoast or Sam Goody. Something like the "Sonic" OVA, which was not especially popular or well-received in Japan, was hard to get ahold of for a long time. Screenshots and rumors were all we had to go on. What we did see looked a lot like the "Sonic CD" opening, which was the then-pentacle of "Sonic" animation. (And, you know, might still be.)

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Fans like me were intensely curious about this "Sonic" anime. How did it differ from the versions of "Sonic" we knew in America? Since "Sonic" is a Japanese series, there was this assumption that the anime must be truer in spirit, if not content, to the games. Or would the "Sonic" anime match the then-perception of format and have our hero killing bad guys and ogling big titty schoolgirls? There were rumors that Sonic said bad words or that there was some other naughtiness involved. Either way, we knew the two-part show would look a lot cooler than the American cartoons.

For three whole years, that's really all we had to go on. Some fans had watched the OVA but I'd wager more "Sonic" fanatics had read about the series then actually seen it. I first got a good look at the anime on an early iteration of abusive scumbag/Sonic fan-artist Psyguy's website. He had pictures, clips, and sound bites available for download. Since this was the days of dial-up, it took hours for me to download a two minute long trailer. I really wanted to see this thing, you guys. 

After "Pokémon" hit American shores and video game anime became huge business, the "Sonic" OVA would see an official Region 1 release. A.D. Visions, one of the biggest U.S. distributors of Japanese cartoons in the nineties and early 2000s, picked up the OVA for American release. It came out over here a few weeks before “Sonic Adventure,” A.D.V. surely hoping to capitalize on the more high-profile release. For U.S. audiences, the two installments were fused into a single hour-long presentation and sold as "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie." Rumors persist that some U.S. releases of the movie had content cut out. Yet the distinctive white VHS tape that I vividly recall buying from my local mall's GameStop had minimal tampering and no censorship.

Finally watching the anime after years of reading about it, my reaction was more bemused than impressed. The much ballyhooed "adult content" amounted to some brief scatological humor, a cat-girl damsel in short-shorts, and one blink-and-miss-it rude hand gesture. Like every "Sonic" adaptation, there was a lot of bizarre deviations from established Sega lore. The English dub was frequently ear-piercing. Mostly, my disappointment in the anime was in its tone. I was hoping for a serious story with a lot of high-stakes action. There was some of that but the movie was also badly hampered by childish humor, annoying side characters, and weird story logic that might've been the result of the shitty dub. 

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Despite my reservations about "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie," I watched it a lot. Growing into my teen years, I was still a "Sonic" dork and there still wasn't a lot of easily accessible hedgehog media at the time. The anime movie had bursts of bad-ass animation and Knuckles wearing a cool hat, which still put it above "Sonic Underground" in my mind. That tape spent a lot of time in my VCR. I can recall one slightly inebriated night where I popped the movie in for me and my college friends, a good time being had by all. I never loved "Sonic: The Movie" but it had a big novelty factor. Over time and via repeated viewings, I grew fond of it.

In the years afterwards, the "Sonic" franchise and the fandom it spawned would change in countless ways. A proper "Sonic" anime series would eventually arrive and reach a far wider audience than the OVA ever did. In time, A.D.V. would go out-of-business and their VHS and DVD releases of "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie" would go out-of-print. (Used copies still sell for a hundred bucks or more.) Weirdly, despite being part of a iconic game franchise with a devoted fandom, it has never been re-released by another company. The OVA survives via YouTube uploads but is available for official streaming absolutely nowhere. 

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This lack of availability is why I fear the "Sonic" OVA is on the verge of being forgotten or overlooked. I've talked to younger "Sonic" nerds who didn't even know the anime existed. I will always think of the OVA as the third "Sonic" cartoon but the wider fandom have reduced it to a footnote. And maybe a footnote is all it is. Yet I, nevertheless, recall what this short anime meant to the "Sonic" fandom once. 

And with that, I bring this meandering introduction to an end. I'll be reviewing the OVA in two parts, to give myself more room to ramble about it and to preserve the original Japanese structure. It's time to scrap some knuckles and catch some tails – whatever the fuck that means! – and look back at this retro relic.