Sonic X, Episode 3.06: Desperately Seeking Sonic

Sonic X, Episode 3.06: Desperately Seeking Sonic

Japanese Title: The Maiden's Jungle Trap

U.S. Air Date: October 15th, 2005

Japanese Air Date: April 2nd, 2020

We open again in outer space, as the Blue Typhoon floats over a green planet. They are attacked by a pair of Metarex soldiers. The Sonic Hammer is deployed to destroy the bigger machine... Which ends up stranding Sonic on the jungle planet below. By an extraordinary coincidence, Sonic lands right on Eggman, who is also on the planet looking for a Chaos Emerald. Tails and Knuckles fly out in the Tornado, looking for Sonic, but Amy insists on looking on her own. Cream and Cosmo come along, looking for the Planet Egg, and fall into a series of traps set by the surviving Metarex. 

Before we really get into the guts of this review, we have to discuss something: Sonic is invulnerable. In the opening scene, he's running around on the outside of the Typhoon in outer space, before he gets fired again out of the ship's canon. Sonic surviving out in the vacuum of space is nothing new. He's been doing that since the second game. (I guess you could bullshit this by saying they're in the upper atmosphere or something but... Come on.) What's even more ridiculous is, after being fired out of a cannon and destroying a robot, Sonic survives re-entry and falling to the planet's surface. He lands atop Eggman's machine, after falling hundreds of feet, and just shrugs it off! He also survived falling from space in the first episode of this season but I attributed that to lingering Super Sonic powers. But I guess the "X" version of Sonic is just fucking indestructible. No wonder he's so hard to beat in a fight! 

Anyway, that's not the main point of this episode. In fact, Sonic's not even the main star of this one. Instead, the script here focuses on the female cast members. Amy, Cream, and Cosmo are the ones who really motivate the story here. I always enjoy it when shows or comics do that, even if this episode isn't exactly devoted to feminine empowerment. Amy's main motivation, after all, is being reunited with Sonic. And the trio fall into multiple traps here, which necessitates multiple scenes of their skirts flopping down. But there's definitely some novelty in seeing the often sidelined ladies get an episode to themselves. Cream even gets to kick a little ass, when she tosses Cheese at the mandrill-resembling Metarex Kingape. 

And the female cast member this episode is most interested in is Cosmo. Since Chris' psychological trauma is mostly resolved, I'm glad this show introduced another mentally fucked-up character for me to analyze. Cosmo is clearly suffering from some PTSD, as she has a flashback to the Metarex attacking her planet here. She feels personally responsible for her planet dying and repeatedly fixates on her failures here. Luckily, Amy's single-minded pursuit of Sonic inspires Cosmo to focus on going out and seizing her problems with both hands. This still gets the plant girl in trouble, as she repeatedly runs headlong into nearly identical traps here. But at least she's building confidence in the face of an ego-crushing tragedy. That's good progress. 

Then again, I can slightly forgive Cosmo for repeatedly falling into Kingape's traps. Up to this point, the Metarex have been a loosely defined threat. Aside from brief references to them wanting to bring order to the universe, we haven't gotten much insight into their motivations. All the Metarex baddies have been more-or-less identical in personality. They are singularly driven by their desire to conquer. Yet here we have something new: a Metarex-of-the-Week with an actual personality. Kingape is somewhat cowardly, realizing he's not much of a physical threat to our heroes. That's why he focuses on these easily detected traps. He seems to think he's pretty clever and even tries to talk his way out of an ass-kicking at the end, right before Sonic murders him. It's nothing new but some much needed variety. 

This episode is, in general, able to get away with some goofy plot turns because it's mostly played for laughs. Once again, "Sonic X" has pretty good comedic timing. When Tails and Knuckles are getting ready to fly off, Amy demands to come along. Knuckles then makes a mildly sexist comment, causing Amy to retort in anger... After which Knuckles demands they fly off quickly. Amy's feminine rage is used for another gag later on, when she easily smashed her way out of the gazebo Kingape has imprisoned them with. Of course, when she's reunited with Sonic at the end, she has to stop in the middle of a fight and give him kisses, much to his chagrin. I know some people hate "Sonic X" playing up Amy's manic side but I guess I've gotten used to it, because all of these gags made me chuckle. And I guess I've always found Amy more interesting when her violent, obsessive side is emphasized. There's also a pretty funny bit at the end where Eggman, Decoe and Bocoe get flattened. 

Eggman does actually get to do something in this episode, though it's probably my least favorite part of this half-hour. He shows up at the end in a giant bee robot to steal the Chao Emerald. Things get even more convoluted when Cosmo uses the Planet Egg to summon a bunch of crushing vines, which she then can't control. And what's the payoff of this contrived series of events? Chris flies in and gives Sonic another pair of fancy shoes... His Soap shoes, which he then uses to grind along the vines and saves the day. This sequence is gorgeously animated and it's not hard to figure out why. Soap shoes were a real brand and one Sega partnered with around this time. In other words: The day is saved in this episode thanks to product placement. And I'm betting Soap or whoever wanted to make sure their product looked cool, which is why the animation gets a noticeable upgrade in this sequence. 

Despite some pretty big flaws, I did enjoy this episode. The humor made me laugh a couple of times. Cosmo remains the new season's most interesting character. The villain is something a little different than what we've been getting lately. And the episode ends with another Chaos Emerald being acquired, so it's not another filler episode. All in all, I think that's worth at least a [7/10.]