Sonic the Hedgehog: The OVA - Part 2

Sonic the Hedgehog: The OVA - Part 2

"Sonic vs. Metal Sonic"

Japanese Release Date: February 4th, 1996

U.S. Release Date: September 7th, 1999

As a young developing weeb, it took me a while to get my brain around the concept of an Original Video Animation. We had direct-to-video cartoons over here but the release strategy was largely associated with cheap animation and questionable artistic merit. In Japan, OVAs had bigger budgets and higher quality animation than televised anime, sometimes equal to theatrically released films. Moreover, I think the idea of releasing one episode on a single, full-priced VHS tape really blew my mind. In the U.S., we only got a few episodes of a series on a single VHS and even that seemed extravagant. I guess the point of this introduction is that A.D. Vision made the right decision releasing the "Sonic" OVA as a single movie. Ain't no way my mom was ponying up forty bucks in 1999 for two VHS tapes just so I could see one hour of content. 

Anyway, let's get on with the review. The second part of the OVA, "Sonic Vs. Metal Sonic," is about exactly that. The ploy of Metal Robotnik and the overloading generator was just an excuse to get Sonic into Eggman's base and to copy his brainwaves. Those are immediately downloaded into Metal Sonic, a robotic hedgehog that is just as fast as Sonic and can predict his every move. Sonic immediately gets his ass beaten. Tails and Knuckles soon deduces that Eggman's scheme is to have Metal Sonic activate the volcanos under Planet Freedom's frozen North Pole. This would release the magma underneath and melt the glaciers that keeps the elevated Kingdom of the Sky in the, uh, sky. (Leaving Eggman to rule over the devastated world and take Sara as his teenage child bride, I guess.) When Sonic overhears Tails telling this to the President, Metal Sonic learns it too. Everyone heads off for a rumble at the North Pole, which will determine the fate of the entire world. 

I've often questioned why "Sonic" fans are so enamored of Metal Sonic, beyond the fact that he looks cool and he's in the actual video games. I've never found him any more special than Robotnik's other robot Sonics. (In fact, I generally prefer the "Sonic & Knuckles" version to the default Metal Sonic.) The OVA presents us with a Metal Sonic that's genuinely intimidating. Within minutes of going online, he's beaten Sonic into submission. He moves so fast that the animation becomes a stylized laser light show to show how quick he is. After karate kicking Sonic off a peak above the planet, it seems like Metal has actually killed Sonic. Within a few minutes, this Metal Sonic has already accomplished more than any other version of the character. 

My main issue with canon Metal Sonic is that he doesn't have much of an actual personality, beyond a pre-programmed desire to best his flesh-and-blood counterpart. The anime fixes this too. This Metal Sonic shares a telepathic link with the original, which doesn't just mean he knows every move Sonic makes before he makes it. It means Sonic's personality starts to rub off on the robot. He shares some of his body language, for example. Finally, in the end, Metal starts to display some of Sonic's heroic traits. He rescues the President and Old Man Owl from an explosion and allows himself to melt in the lava, so Robotnik can't use him again as a weapon. Sonic feels a sense of sadness in the movie's final moments, because his enemy didn't have to be evil. That's pretty interesting and makes for a more compelling antagonist. 

But let's talk a little bit more about this version of Eggman. I think this might be the closest adaptation of Eggman, as he appears in the video games. The contradictions baked into the character is on full display. On one hand, he's a total goofball. He harbors a childish crush on Sara and is often humiliated. His eventual defeat doesn't come from Sonic but from a turtle shaped missile he deployed earlier in the episode, which crawls back to him and explodes. As he lays twitching in agony, the good guys all laugh like it's an eighties sitcom. 

At the same time, Eggman also desires the complete destruction of society as the characters know it. If his scheme had succeeded, it would've tossed entire continents into space, killing millions of people. His ultimate goal is to rule over a largely dead world populated mostly by robots. But, sure, the heroes go on a joy ride with him at the end. This is probably why most early Western versions of Robotnik focus on either his tyrannical goals or goofy appearance, as having him do both at once is a bit disorienting. 

But weirdo tonal shifts are more tolerated in Asian pop culture than they are over here. Another thing more tolerated in Japanese children's media is gratuitous fan service. (Or maybe the entire "Sonic" franchise is just horny-on-main, considering how perverted "AoStH" could get...) The second half of the OVA has a mildly concerning focus on Sara. She first appears in this installment via a lingering shot of her ass up in the air. Robotnik makes her change into an equally revealing wedding dress outfit early on. Which leads to a fantasy where Sara is breastfeeding one of a whole horde of little Eggmen. Later, Metal Sonic looks up Sara's skirt, Tails accidentally gropes her boobs, and her kisses give Knuckles the strength to dig next to lava. 

I've referred to Sara as a love interest of Sonic's in the past, which is actually wrong. Seemingly everybody except for Sonic wants to fuck her in this cartoon. I obviously have no issue with sex appeal in "Sonic" media but, considering Sara both looks and acts like a teenage girl, it feels a little weirder than Steven Butler drawing Sally with curves or whatever Rouge gets up to at any given moment. I guess you just couldn't sell an OVA in the nineties without some scantily clad jail bait. 

For what it's worth, there's a lot less goofy comic relief in this half... Save for a baffling sequence where Metal Sonic forces Old Man Owl to wear Sonic's clothes. Which includes a backwards baseball cap, a skateboard, and a pink t-shirt. For twenty years, I've been trying to figure out the motivation behind that particular joke. Oh, also, Sonic smashes his balls after landing crotch-first in Robotnik's little shuttle. 

Perviness and weird humor aside, "Sonic Vs. Metal Sonic" is overall stronger than the first half of the OVA. Probably because it's mostly one long action scene. We begin with a really nicely animated sequence of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles rushing into Eggman’s base and avoiding shots from a Snail Blaster. Once Metal Sonic shows up, we get a couple gorgeously animated scenes of his turbines whirling around and such. (The mechanical designers really had fun on this project.) After a brief, plot centric scene to determine what the rest of the movie will be about, it's off to the Arctic for another fight. 

What makes these action sequences good, aside from the nice animation and stylish direction, is how the script constantly ups the stakes. Metal Sonic is wrecking some cities and then the entire world is in danger. When the destruction of the glacier that holds the planet together is prevented, the story has the President crash his ship right into the same glacier. Now our heroes have to save someone and keep an explosion at bay. For a film about a super-fast character, it's fitting the pacing rarely lets up and the story keeps striving for more and more excitement. This would probably be exhausting for a feature but for an hour-long two-parter, it works just fine. 

For this review, I watched a couple of different sources of the OVA: My old VHS tape of the English dub (yes, I still have a working VCR), an HD rip of the hour-long cut with the original Japanese audio and English subtitles, and a heavily pixelated upload of the separated OVA release with no subtitles. (Seemingly the only way to watch the original two-part presentation these days.) The difference between the latter two cuts is negligible. Basically, you're missing out on two credit sequences and some Japanese lettering. 

As for the dub... It's not great. A lot of the English actors affect nasally, high-pitched voices for the characters. Sonic sounds like a haughty brat, Knuckles has a perpetually jokey tone to his voice, and Tails seems to have a head-cold. Gravelly Edwin Neal makes an okay Robotnik and Sasha Biesi, Sara's V.O., is a little less annoying than her Japanese counterpart. Tails sounds equally grating in either version but the Japanese audio is overall much better. I especially like how tough Masami Kikuchi makes Sonic sound. The audio mix is slightly different between the two versions but the awesome score is maintained. My copy includes the boob-grabbing, middle finger, and breastfeeding, though supposedly some copies don't. 

The Japanese audio is preferable but you're doing fine watching either cut. Honestly, considering how most of the OVA's joys are visual and the plot is pretty simple, a dialogue-free/isolated score cut would probably work great too. Overall, I really like the "Sonic" OVA. Like all "Sonic" media, it has some peculiar quirks and some of the changes work better than others. Yet it's great to look at, is a fun to watch, and really captures the spirit of classic Sonic. It's not as good as the "Sonic CD" opening but few things are. There was a recent "fan recreation," which hopefully brought a little more attention to the original. I hope it gets license rescued eventually and winds up streaming somewhere. Or at least receives a nice Blu-Ray release. It's a brief but entertaining chapter of "Sonic" history that doesn't deserve to be forgotten. Now lets rock out to the Engrish filled theme song! [7/10]