Sonic X, Episode 2.19: Prize Fights

Sonic X, Episode 2.19: Prize Fights

Japanese Title: Sonic Battle: Opening!!

Japanese Air Date: February 8th, 2004

U.S. Air Date: February 19th, 2005

After a bit of build-up, we have finally arrived at the official adaptation of "Sonic Battle." Sort of. "Sonic X" completely abandons the game's plot in favor of its own wacky premise. The government is concerned about Eggman, now out of prison and up to no good. They decide to hold a public martial arts tournament, with Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge all being forced to participate. The prize is an honest-to-god Chaos Emerald. It's all a ploy to lure the mad scientist out into the open. The tournament is opened to the public, with most of Sonic's friends successfully entering into the competition. Much shenanigans ensue. 

In the history of action anime, there's no story more commonplace than the tournament arc. Since so many shonen shows revolve around fighting or competition, it's natural and almost obligatory to include a tournament eventually. It's a simple premise that allows the writers to take it easy for a bit, putting pure plot aside in favor of bouncing colorful characters off of each other. It gives an excuse to let good guys grapple it out or to showcase the skills of supporting characters. It's also often used as filler for this exact same reason. Whether you find this more-fighting, less-story set-up entertaining or tedious is entirely a matter of personal taste. 

"Sonic X," being the show it is, completely refuses to play by the usual rules of the tournament arc. Instead of showcasing popular "Sonic" cast members, like the Chaotix or Shadow, most of the fights are made up of random side characters. Was anyone begging to see Sam Speed and Mr. Stewart fight it out? Characters I had forgotten about, like Lucky and Hawk, are reintroduced here. Unsurprisingly, this show plays this premise less for action and more for absurdist comedy. Many of the fights are totally farcical. Ella chases Big the Cat around the ring, a scene so silly even 4Kids decided it had to be cut. Sam gets disqualified for tackling Mr. Stewart before the bell rings. Bocoe and Decoe are ready to have an epic judo match when the cops show up and declare them wanted fugitives. 

The show lacks so much commitment to the fight-driven premise that most of the showdowns end with someone nonviolently conceding. Ella refuses to fight Emerl. Mr. Tanaka charms Topaz into surrendering with some jewelry. (Which is bullshit, as we all know Topaz only has eyes for Rouge.) Rouge rings-out Tails by stunning him with a peck on the cheek. Chuck doesn't even get a chance to fight Lucky, because his back goes out while training. Which is pretty funny. In fact, I laughed a lot during this episode. Such as when everyone plays on an otherwise uninterested Knuckles' fragile masculine ego to convince him to enter the competition, essentially guilting him into fighting. Or when Amy debates whether it's right for a young lady like her to show-off her violent side before absolutely annihilating Bokkun with her hammer. 

Of course, I really have to question how any of this is legal. There doesn't seem to be any rules determining who could enter this tournament, or what equipment they could use. Looking at the contestants, you could've potentially had ordinary citizens – including an elderly man or a rotund middle-age woman – fighting against alien superheroes or robots. One of the contestants wears a full suit of armor and Amy uses her hammer, while everyone else is unarmed. Was there any guidelines preventing someone from just bringing a machine gun into the ring and gunning down their opponent? And then we have to consider that several of the fighters are literal children. Having someone like Tails – a fox from another planet with various special abilities – fight an adult like Hawk is one thing. But forcing Chris and Danny, grade schoolers, to wrestle for the public's entertainment or Chris to grapple his own father is unethical, at best, and completely sadistic at worst. 

Yeah, that's right, Chris fights his own dad here. The show plays the match-up for comedy, obviously. Chris defeats his father in minutes and largely off-screen, seemingly pinning him with a leg lock. I suspect Nelson let the boy win. Yet I can't help but imagine how this match-up will further exacerbate the kid's growing Daddy Issues. You can easily imagine him, years later, telling a therapist about the time it sure seemed like his dad was willing to beat his ass in front of millions of people. Then again, Chris' psychological issues are already manifesting. He tricks Danny by acting like he's unwilling to fight a friend, before pinning the other boy quickly. Later, Chris confesses to Sonic that he's tired of being perceived as a child and a "good kid." Obviously, Chris' abandonment issues have left him unable to trust people and questioning his own identity. He's a good thing he's rich and will be able to afford the years of therapy it's going to take to unravel all this shit. 

There are certain political ramifications to consider here, as well. And I'm not even talking about the U.S. government sponsoring a prepubescent fight club in an elaborate, poorly thought out scheme to catch a wanted fugitive. The very first match of the tournament features the President of the United States boxing a regular citizen. Absolutely any outcome to this scenario is going to be a P.R. disaster. Since the President is a doughy old white guy in boxing gloves and trunks and his opponent is someone wearing a suit of medieval armor, Christina Cooper throws in the towel before the leader of the free world is beaten to death. Such a display of cowardice and weakness is definitely not going to play well in the red states! I'm just going to assume President Michael K. is a Republican, because I sure as fuck can't imagine a Democrat ever stripping down and stepping into the ring for some fisticuffs. He's pretty annoyed that he doesn't get to fight. Which seems all too probable in a post-Trump world, where childish macho dumb-assery was a regular event in the Oval Office. (By the way, the Black Knight – nary a flesh wound in sight – turns out to be someone with a personal grudge against the President. I feel like the Secret Service wouldn't have allowed any of this to happen!)

Man, I'm trying to imagine the intense disappointment seven-year-old "Sonic" fans watching this for the first time in 2005 must have felt. The premise makes it seem like we're going to get awesome brawls between Sonic and Knuckles. Instead, the only fight that isn't a massive joke is Tails flailing Hawk, a fat guy with a salad bowl haircut, around the ring. I can see why the U.S. dub didn't include the "Sonic Battle" connection that's in the Japanese title. Not only is this nothing like the game but Gemerl does very little in this episode. The robot continues to have no personality at all and the show has done little of the work needed to make us invested in its bond with Cream. 

The only thing here that I can imagine really pleasing fans is some more gratuitous SonAmy ship-teasing. Sonic and Amy are scheduled to fight. Both are obviously reluctant to do anything and debate how this is going to go... Before Eggman swoops in, fires a laser, and Sonic saves Amy's life. He leaps after the villain, leaving the ring and forfeiting the match. Amy, of course, takes all of this as a sign of the hedgehog's undying love for her. It plays off the opening scene, where she was going through some existential angst over whether or not Sonic would ever acknowledge his feelings for her. The "X" version of Sonic definitely has feelings for Amy but her increasingly maudlin obsession with him is starting to get tiring. Can she go back to being crazy? That's more fun. 

This is definitely a very dumb episode of "Sonic X" but it's so weird and messed-up that I still really enjoyed it. The combination of Japan's surreal sense of humor and these cutesy characters has led to so much unexpected shit. I hope the rest of this story arc is just as demented as this episode was. [7/10]