Sonic X, Episode 1.23: Emerald Anniversary

Sonic X, Episode 1.23: Emerald Anniversary

Japanese Title: Mayhem! 6 Chaos Emeralds

Japanese Air Date: September 7th, 2003

U.S. Release Date: March 6th, 2004

The plot of episode 23 of "Sonic X" begins with a very important event: Chris Thorndyke's dad deciding to buy his wife a gift for their wedding anniversary. He stops into the fanciest jewelry store in Station Square and buys their biggest and most expensive gemstone... Which just happens to be the purple Chaos Emerald. He meets Chris, Chuck, Sonic, and the rest of the team at Filmdom City, a studio where Lindsey is wrapping up her latest movie. Things start to go awry when the purple Emerald reacts violently to the other near-by Emeralds. This attracts the attention of Eggman, who crashes into the studio with his latest killer robot.

After screwing around for several episodes, "Sonic X" remembers that it has an on-going story arc. "Emerald Anniversary" manages to bring most of the pertinent plot points of the first season together. It's reaffirmed that Sonic and the gang has four emeralds — I'm glad they mentioned this as I had lost track — and Knuckles has one. With the introduction of the purple emerald, that means there's only one left to collect. Rouge and Topaz are brought back into the story, through an only slightly contrived series of events. (Rouge is lustfully starring at the jewelry shop when Nelson Thorndyke happens by.) Mr. Stewart also continues to force himself into these events, so I guess he'll be important eventually too. 

The exact properties of the Chaos Emeralds varies between the different iterations of the "Sonic" franchise. About the only thing that's consistent about them is they are a mysterious source of great power. In the Archie "Sonic" comics, if two Chaos Emeralds are brought together suddenly, it resulted in a massive, violent discharge of energy. While I doubt the writers and animators behind "Sonic X" we're aware of this, they've come to a similar conclusion. The purple emerald reacts to the blue emerald Sonic is just carrying around for some reason by blasting chaotic light and electric bolts everywhere. This is mostly an excuse to bring all the various parties together, as a big spike of energy shooting into the sky is hard to ignore. (Tails justifies it with a brief line about how "Chaos Emeralds need time to get use to each other" or something.) But I appreciate the almost certainly unintentional link to another branch of the franchise. 

Mostly, this episode is another great example of how rich people fucking blow. How a mundane jewelry store got ahold of a Chaos Emerald, when the government and our team of superheroes and villains are after them, I don't know. Either way, Nelson Thorndyke struts in — via a stretch limo and flanked by bodyguards, for fucks' sake — and demands a ring be made of it without a second thought. He's a first-hand witness to the violent effects of two emeralds being near-by but he goes ahead with his trivial anniversary surprise anyway. His absurd wealth and complete disregard for real world concerns, in favor of his shallow rich person bullshit, ends up endangering the world as Eggman makes it away with the emerald in the end. 

The episode seems at least mildly aware of what a horrible dumbass Chris' dad is, as Lindsey ends up hating his big anniversary surprise. She's filming yet another period piece costume drama when Nelson takes the place of her costar, stumbles to the ground, and drops the emerald. The two have a big argument about how he ruined the take. And that's before a mad scientist and his giant robot attacks. Jeez, it's almost as if barging into a situation unannounced, assuming what you are doing is delightful without informing anyone, is an asshole move, Nelson! Fucking rich people, man... 

Eggman attacking a film set and making it away in the end may sound like serious business but most of this episode is devoted to broad, comedic wackiness. He's sends a fire-breathing dragon-bot named E-74 Weazo — presumably so named because he looks just like Buddy Holly — after Sonic, while Bocoe and Decoe peruse Tails and Amy. What follows is a goofy foot chase across multiple film sets. There are goofy shout-outs to "Jurassic Park," "Star Wars," "Titanic" and "Godzilla." There's even a moment of stretchy slapstick when Tails' arms extend like an old rubber hose cartoon character. Truly, this show has more in common with "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" than I ever expected. 

The few action scenes that are serious concern Sonic fighting off Weazo. Sonic may be super-fast but he's rightfully intimidated by fire. What makes this action sequence especially entertaining is that Knuckles comes to Sonic's aide. He ends up shattering a random aquarium, dousing Weazo's flamethrower, and giving Sonic the chance to deliver one of those one-hit-K.O. headshots he's fond of. Considering so many episodes of this cartoon have concluded with Sonic tearing the Robot-of-the-Week apart without breaking a sweat, it's fun to see the hedgehog challenged, to see him need some help from a friend to survive. 

Season one of "Sonic X" definitely seems to be — finally! — ramping up towards a big conclusion with this episode. Eggman grabbing a Chaos Emerald is an exciting cliffhanger to end on. With only one left to locate, the story is advancing again. There's also a brief tease about the U.S. government reverse-engineering Eggman's technology, into some sort of Hercules beetle-shaped tank. Considering how easily Sonic destroys Eggman's machines, I don't know if that's money well-spent. But you know how the government is. Presumably, this plot point will pay off eventually.

Two more things I want to bring up before leaving you today: Usually 4Kids' dub titles are pretty dumb, thinking of the easiest pun and leaving it at that, but "Emerald Anniversary" made me crack a smile. Good job on that one, localization team. (It is, if nothing else, more elegant than "Mayhem! 6 Chaos Emeralds.") Speaking of localization! A moment definitely removed from the dub is Mr. Tanaka, after being totally defeated by Eggman's robot, ripping open his shirt and preparing to commit harikari. Dude, I think you might be taking this samurai a little too far. Anyway, the Thorndyke shenanigans are a little irritating but the last half of this episode is pretty entertaining, so I'll give it a soft recommendation. I can't give a negative score to an episode that has a "Godzilla" reference and features more barely concealed sexual chemistry between Rouge and Topaz. [6/10]