Sonic X, Episode 3.02: Cosmic Crisis

Sonic X, Episode 3.02: Cosmic Crisis

Japanese Title: The Spaceship Blue Typhoon

U.S. Air Date: September 17th, 2005

Japanese Air Date: March 26th, 2020

Suggesting the show may become more plot-heavy now, the second episode of "Sonic X's" third season picks up right where the last one left off. Chris, now in his childhood body again, steps through the Master Emerald. He has a tearful reunion with Sonic before the hedgehog collapses from exhaustion. As he recovers, Cosmo explains how grave the situation is. The Metarex are traveling the galaxy, destroying life on all the planets they find. It becomes clear the heroes have to gather the Chaos Emeralds before their enemies can. Luckily, Tails built a massive battle ship when no one was looking that he easily converts into a spaceship. Just as the Sonic Team is getting ready to take off, another Metarex warrior attacks. 

"Cosmic Crisis" is obviously one of those episodes designed to set up the rest of the season. Within this twenty-four minute installment, what is likely to be the motivating goal for the entire season is established. The good guys are going to be traveling across the galaxy, trying to collect the Chaos Emeralds before the bad guys can. They'll be performing this mission from a big ol' spaceship, which will obviously be their base of operation for the rest of the series. This premise is a little bit "Dragonball" and a lot of space opera, with the "Sonic" characters in it for some reason. But it's a bold direction nevertheless. 

I mused on Cosmo's personality little bit in the last review and we learn a lot more about her this time. The plant girl is still unfailingly polite but there's a good reason for it: She's a survivor of genocide. The Metarex killed off her entire species and she's the sole survivor. She's determined now to make sure nobody else ever experiences that kind of tragedy. Which is a pretty fucking heavy back story. Remember when this show was about the wacky adventures of a millionaire child and his furry friends? Cosmo is also kind of clumsy, we learn during a fairly cute bit of physical comedy. But I'm pretty on-her-side now, as I'd be with anybody with that kind of fucked-up background story. 

As grim as this show is getting, it still has some wacky humor. It even emerged pretty organically from the plot and character interaction. The heroes obviously need a large energy source to power their giant space ship. They decide to burrow the Master Emerald — which you'd think the Metarex would be interested in but I guess not — when Knuckles isn't looking. (Once again suggesting Knuckles is bad at his job.) The echidna is pretty reasonably upset about this but the heroes bully him into coming along on this intergalactic journey with him. I'm not exaggerating either: Cream nags at Knuckles and Amy threatens him with violence until he agrees to join them. That probably shouldn't be funny but it is. Knuckles' friends treat him badly and Amy is abusive, haha! 

I'm still skeptical if "Sonic X" can successfully blend this space opera stuff with more traditional "Sonic" elements. This is the second episode in a row to feature a Metarex robot warrior — this one is named Spike — who has the toyetic ability to change into a flying mode, shoots lasers from his fingers, missiles from his chest, and has a weirdly reptilian-like tail. The Blue Typhoon resembles the flying battleships we've seen in previous seasons of this show but also looks like White Base from the original "Gundam" somewhat. (With a little bit of Gotengo thrown in yet again.) "Sonic" has always been sci-fi but I associate tropes like this specifically with shows like "Transformers" and "Macross," both of which were obvious influences on the dorky guy who designed the show's mecha element. 

Yet, for what it's worth, "X" is at least attempting to blend these elements here. There's lots of scenes of Sonic and Knuckles using their specific superpowers to fight off Spike. Knuckles even digs a hole under the robot at one point, the first time in a long time that this show has referenced his digging ability. Once everyone gets aboard the Typhoon, they have to combined all their special skills to activate the ship's fanciest weapon. That includes Knuckles powering-up the Master Emerald with a chant, Tails and Chris using their brains, and Sonic spinning deep inside the ship. I thought Sonic was just using his speed to activate the "Sonic Driver" but, nope, the cannon actually fires him as a projectile. So you still get the required amount of Sonic smashing shit in this episode. It's a novel way of combining the different tropes at play here. 

And, oh yeah, what of Chris Thorndyke? This episode gives a shrug of an explanation with how he's returned to his childhood body — something went screwy during the teleportation process! — and then moves on as quickly as possible. Vanilla even knits him a perfect replica of his old clothes, so it's like Chris hasn't changed any at all. Except, it turns out, he has. First off, Chris apparently grew into the same engineering genius as his grandfather. He helps Tails space-ready the Blue Typhoon and is seen at the ship's controls in the episode's last third. This gives the whiny, clingy man-in-a-boy's-body an actual function in the show's cast. He's still really attached to Sonic. He's the one who gets to pluck Sonic out of the sky in the Tornado II after the hedgehog is shot out the ship's cannon. Yet something about the scene where Chris hugs Sonic close to his body after saving him seems to bring some serenity to the character. I have no idea how aware TMS was of the American fandom's reaction to Chris but it seems season three is already making some moves to address common criticism of the character, without sacrificing any of the development Chris underwent at the end of the last season.

"Cosmic Crisis" leaves plenty of dangling plot threads for future episodes to pick up. Eggman planted a tracking device on Sonic when he rescued him — I knew he was up to something! — and pursues the gang into space in the final minutes of the episode. Rouge also follows along, in her own private little flying saucer. Cream also leaves Vanilla on the home world. Since we already know Not-Mobius' natural resources are soon to dry up, now that the planet is without its Egg, one assumes Vanilla will have to learn to survive in the Mad Max-ian hellscape the world will soon become. At least that's what happens in the fanfiction I'm writing in my head right now. As for this episode, it's pretty good! I continue to be intrigued by the radical change in tone this season has already enacted. [7/10]