Sonic X: Episode 1.01: Chaos Control Freaks

Sonic X: Episode 1.01: Chaos Control Freaks

Japanese Title: Supersonic Hero Appears!

Japanese Air Date: April 6th, 2003

US Air Date: August 23rd, 2003

I have always begun these cartoon retrospectives by talking about the opening credits and theme song... Something I don't intend on changing now! Even though I'm watching the original Japanese version of "Sonic X," you really kind of have to talk about the English language theme song. This is not to denigrate the Japanese opening, which is good. Really good, actually. It's a loud, fast, and propulsive bit of power-pop called "Sonic Drive." It has lots of excited whoops and fast guitars. It plays over a cool bit of animation of Sonic being chased by and fighting off some of Eggman's robots, while including cameos from most of the show's supporting players. It's neat!

But the Japanese opening doesn't have the power of memes on its side. The American opening is a series of clips from the show, including one of Sonic spanking his own ass, edited at a break-neck pace and with some shitty video effects added. The song, "Go Gotta Fast," is the stupidest shit imaginable. The lyrics are utterly inane, just a solid minute of nothing but catchphrases. Most of the words are repetitions of the title or Sonic's name. But it's catchy. It's insanely, dangerously catchy. If you hear it once, it's going to be in your head all day. Because of this, "Gotta Go Fast" has irrevocably become a catchphrase associated with the entire franchise. I can't sing it with going "faster faster FUCKING FUCKING faster," personally. If nothing else, at least the Japanese and Americans agree that Sonic's preferred genre of music is fast paced, vaguely punk-y power pop. I'm glad we figured that out. 

Anyway, on with the show! We begin with... Big the Cat. He happens to be chilling outside Eggman's compound. The villain has captured all the Chaos Emeralds, as well as Cream and Cheese, to power some new war machine. Sonic and his friends appear to save the day and the hedgehog quickly infiltrates the base. During the fight, the Chaos Emerald machine is damaged and triggers an enormous Chaos Control flash that engulfs everyone in the area. Sonic awakens in America – you know it's America because the cops threaten to beat him after two minutes – and quickly leads the police on a high speed pursuit. After outrunning Sam Speed, a race car driver who works with the cops, Sonic accidentally lands in a swimming pool. He's saved from drowning by some kid named Chris. 

Maybe it's just because I have PTSD from watching forty episodes of "Sonic Underground" but the first thing I notice about "Sonic X" is how fucking good the animation is. That opening sequence, where Sonic fights his way into Eggman's base, has some fantastic moments. A wonderful sense of speed is present as Sonic dodges around Eggman's robots. There's a lot of intricate details in the machine designs – you can tell the mechanical designers on this show loved their job – and the shots of them ripping through steel or being smashed by Sonic are vivid. The colors are vibrant and there's lots of neat touches. Like Sonic zooming over some windmills, making them spin faster. 

I mean, it's not all great. Something that's always bugged me about "Sonic X" – and this is more apparent once we're on Earth – is that the character designs are kind of bland. They are like the smoothest, most rounded-off versions of the game designs possible. The human characters are especially completely generic too, which is really obvious once the cops show up in this episode. As great as the action is in that opening scene, there's occasionally these weird stationary moments that stick out. Like Knuckles's fist flying towards a rock or Sonic grinning and glowing after grabbing a Power Ring. It honestly some times looks like a still image floating through the cartoon. This just might be budgetary quirk of the show, since TMS was just working with television resources here.

That opening action scene is frenzied. It throws some plot information out there as quickly as possible and briefly introduces eleven characters. (Including Rouge, who is just hanging around Eggman's lab for some reason.) It only slows down a little when Sonic arrives on Earth... And then there's an entire three minute sequence devoted to introducing Sam Speed and his race team. All of "A Supersonic Hero Appears!" is kind of like that. Scenes of Sonic outrunning the cops are broken up by him sitting on a lamppost and looking at the sky. Or more moments devoted to Sam Speed's interior monologue. (His voice is hilariously deep in Japanese.) It seems the show only has two speeds: kiss-your-ass quick or "ponder the mystery" slow. 

We don't really get a chance to meet most of the characters on this episode. Tails panics slightly when the Tornado almost crashes into a rock. Amy is a little better at keeping her cool. Knuckles is gruff as he watches Sonic from afar. Eggman is a little too goofy for my taste, as Sonic wrecks his lab. The rest of the characters, Rouge and Big most of all, are truly just hanging around in the margins. The Japanese voice actors are all a little too shriek-y for my taste, in this combat heavy first episode. Since this is a more serialized "Sonic" cartoon than any of the previous ones, there will be plenty of time for introductions later.

No, this episode is primarily devoted to introducing Sonic. And it does a pretty good job of that. The hedgehog remains a smart-ass, mocking the cops as he literally runs circles around them. There's even an "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog"-style fourth wall break, when Sonic tells the kids in the audience not to stand on moving cars. And I do like the short, introspective moments, when Sonic gazes up at the night sky or is awed by the pretty lights of the city. Jun'ichi Kanemaru's vocal performance is going to take some getting used to, as it's a bit on the nasally side. 

We will definitely get into my thoughts on the "Sonic on Earth" premise of this show more as we progress through it. It certainly works well enough for this first episode. I would rather Sonic get zapped from his world to a planet that is explicitly Earth, then have his home world be made more Earth-like. "Sonic runs from the cops" is a totally solid premise for a first episode and it's executed well enough here. The introduction of Chris Thorndyke – whose reputation I'm familiar with and who already annoyed me in the Archie comic – may change my opinion. But "Sonic X" is off to a pretty good start. I genuinely enjoyed this. [7/10]