Sonic X: Introduction

The "Sonic Adventure" series may not have saved the Sega Dreamcast but it did completely reinvent the "Sonic" franchise. This is reflected not just in the sleeker, more animesque designs for Sonic and his friends but in changes to the games' world. Sonic was now an urban creature, living partially in a city and regularly interacting with other humans. This was a radical shift from the ecological themes of the original games, where Eggman was the only human and Sonic resided solely in nature. The nineties were over. Nobody cared about saving the rain forest anymore. 

The "Adventure" series was also far more story driven than the original Genesis games, which had frequently vague plots. The first "Sonic Adventure" had an epic (some would say convoluted) story that involved six intertwining plot lines, a mythological back story about ancient spirits and angry gods, and tackled themes concerning free will and imperialism. The second game doubled-down on the convoluted backstory, the melodrama, and introduced post-millennial paranoias like military strike-forces, terrorism, and a trigger-happy human government.

Moreover, the new characters of Shadow and Rouge -- a gruff, mysterious, and overpowered rival to Sonic and a sexy femme fatale -- would introduce clichés prevalent to shounen fighting anime to the "Sonic" setting. This choice would prove especially popular to younger fans and would, in my opinion, largely altered the fandom perception of what "Sonic" was supposed to be. Whether you liked it or not, this was the future of the franchise. 

Since the "Sonic" games were becoming more like anime anyway, it only made sense to actually turn the games into anime. Sometime before 2002, a new cartoon would enter development. Unlike previous "Sonic" animations, which were largely made by Western studios for an American audiences, the new series would be a Japanese series meant for Japanese children. Yuji Naka would executive producer the show, insuring more fidelity to the source material than previous adaptations. TMS Entertainment, an animation subsidiary of the megacorp that owns Sega, would be tasked with creating the show. TMS was best known for series like "Lupin III," "Anpanman," "Hamtaro," and "Monster Rancher," though they also worked on more adult-skewing animated features and even some well-known U.S. Saturday morning cartoons.

Information about the new "Sonic" anime, quickly dubbed "Sonic X," would start to leak into the English language web in 2002. And the hype was huge. I know this because I was there. Screen caps from trailers would be hotly discussed and would even launch a few fan legends, thanks to a glimpse of a mysterious silvery-blue Super Sonic. Mostly, "Sonic" fans the world over were super-excited to see a series that actually reflected the video games. Where characters actually resembled their in-game models and where fan favorites like Knuckles, Amy, Rouge and Shadow would have prominent roles. The perception that anime was still better than Western cartoons was still prevalent online, which no doubt contributed to the hype.

Soon afterwards, the English language rights to "Sonic X" would be acquired by 4Kids Entertainment. 4Kids was notorious for their heavy editing and Americanization of series. Yet they were still the U.S. distributors of "Pokémon," meaning they were hot shit at the time. In fact, 4Kids had recently reached a deal with the Fox Broadcasting Company, allowing them to completely take over the network's Saturday morning cartoon programming block. "Sonic X" would debut on American television in 2003, as part of the "FoxBox," the 4Kids owned replacement for the recently deceased Fox Kids banner.

"Sonic X" would prove very popular in the U.S. and all over the world. It was so popular overseas that TMS would produce a third season specifically for English-speaking markets that didn't even air in Japan until 2020. The series would air and re-air on Fox until 2008, when the network completely abandoned all weekend morning kids programming. Re-runs would air on the CW and various other networks as late as 2014, a full twelve years after the series first aired. This means the series reached a huge audience of kids and is probably the most far-reaching bit of non-video game "Sonic" media in the franchise's entire existence. Though rarely heavily promoted, and sparingly referenced by Sega since TMS still owns many of the characters, "Sonic X" is secretly one of the biggest chapters in all of blue hedgehog history. 

I've never seen it. 

Okay, this is not entirely true. When the show first started airing on U.S. television, I think I watched two episodes. Yet I was fifteen by August of 2003. I was now an angst-y teenager who no longer felt confident watching programming meant specifically for children, fearful the bullies at my high school could psychically discern this information about me. I found the childish English dub almost unbearable and checked out shortly after Sam Speed made his first appearance. Knowing the place "Sonic X" holds in "Sonic" history, I've made a couple attempts to watch the show over the years but always gave up not long after starting. 

The truth is, I've never recognized much of what I love about "Sonic" in "Sonic X." My fandom was based in the comic and "SatAM," which had no influence at all on this show. The show always felt sanitized to me, "Sonic" reduced to his most marketable attributes with all the weirder parts scrubbed off. It bugged me that the show was set on Earth and I found most of the exclusive characters annoying. (An opinion that didn't really change any after I read the Archie tie-in comic.) It was "Sonic" by way of "Naruto" or something, designed to appeal to the six-year-olds of 2003 and not the six-year-olds of 1993. I've just never been able to get into it. It's not my Sonic.

Well, all of that is about to change, at least potentially. The time has come for me to really delve into "Sonic X," my most earnest attempt yet to watch through the show. I do it for you, dear readers. I'm going to watch the original Japanese version, to ensure the least biased reaction possible. (And also because I remember that 4Kids sub being really bad.) I have no idea if I'm going to love it, hate it, or be indifferent to it, which is at least different from the previous cartoon retrospectives I've done for this blog. 

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