Sonic X, Episode 3.23: Agent of Mischief

Sonic X, Episode 3.23: Agent of Mischief

Japanese Title: The Day of the Plantations

U.S. Air Date: April 15th, 2006

Japanese Air Date: April 27th, 2020

Once again, I have to open a "Sonic X" review by talking about the differences between the original Japanese title and the dub title. There's some confusion over the Japanese title, which some sources translating it as "The Day of the Plantations" – which sounds the Metarex are going to do some Paula Deen cosplay – and other sources translating it as "The Day of the Forestation." Which is a fairly straightforward description of the episode's events. For some reason, 4Kids looked at all this and decided to call the episode "Agent of Mischief." Who is the agent of mischief and what does it have to do with the plot? Bokkun is in the first couple of minutes of this episode being goofy and I can only assume that's all the people who make the titles watched. 

Anyway, yes, the episode does start with Bokkun informing the Sonic Team that Eggman has been captured. Before being attacked, Eggman overheard that the Metarex are headed for the coordinates of the Planet Aquarius. This will be the site of a once-a-millennium alignment that will spread throughout the universe. Dark Oak plants to use this to spread the forestation everywhere. And that's where the Blue Typhoon heads to make its final stand. Unexpected allies will appear to help while our heroes face their greatest challenge yet. 

At the very least, this episode clarifies some of the questions I have about Dark Oak's master plan. Yes, it seems his final goal really is to turn the entire universe into a massive forest, with no life but trees in it anywhere. That's a very literal interpretation of "bringing peace and tranquility to the universe." But it's also the kind of insane objective you can imagine zealots getting sucked into. I just wish the mechanics were a little less convoluted. Dark Oak had to get all the Chaos Emeralds, go to this specific point during a specific time, and then instantly spread the forestation everywhere. There's also something significant about Aquarius being a water planet and the role of light. Very specific stuff. Kind of makes you wonder why he was going around collecting random Planet Eggs separately, if an instantaneous transformation of the entire universe was always the plan. I suspect the writers made some of this up as they went along. 

If the last episode was surprisingly character focused, this one does sort of the same thing in a much simpler way. As the Sonic Team flies into combat and faces off with their enemies, all the regular cast members are reduced their own basic characteristics. Sonic has a never-say-die attitude, fighting to the last breath. Knuckles is dumb and strong and angry. Rouge is flirty and vain. Amy is obsessed with loving Sonic. Eggman is only watching out for himself. (Cream, hilariously, just gets to fire missiles at Black Narcissus while yelling at him.) This even extends to the bad guys, as the self-absorbed Black Narcissus carries a huge mirror into battle, so he can admire himself even in the heat of combat. All of these tiny character beats occur between space ship fights, fisticuffs, and explosions. It's reductive, perhaps, but does add a little more flavor to an otherwise standard fight sequence.

Shadow shows up too. He said he wasn't going to run headlong into a suicide mission. When the Chaotix show up on the planet – they followed Bokkun there, believing it could be a lead – he changes his mind. So why did Shadow change his mind about wanting to fight the Metarex? The episode doesn't provide an actual answer but I can guess: He's still pissed at them for killing Molly. Because avenging the murder of pretty little anime girls at the hands of nebulous evil organizations is Shadow's primary defining characteristics. I don't know what they did in the English dub. Probably just have him be angry at the Metarex empire because they're assholes. 

The last third of this episode also justifies all that bullshit last time about Mover Mode. In order to facilitate the Forestation, Dark Oak and the two surviving Metarex bosses all change into Mover Mode. They combine into one massive monster that the Sonic wiki informs me is called "Final Mova." It's a tree-like three-headed dragon thing that looks a little bit like King Ghidorah. (Which, knowing this show, is probably a deliberate reference.) In other words: To save the world, Sonic has to defeat a giant eldritch abomination. Just like the final boss battle of a "Sonic" video game, you guys! This all but guarantees that Super Sonic will be appearing soon. But I've got to give "Sonic X" points for fidelity to the source material. 

Despite being an episode that brings the entire fucking universe to the brink of annihilation, there's a lot of comedy here. The opening scene with Bokkun is pretty goofy, as you'd expect. Even though he's delivering an important message, his TV monitor still explodes. (Necessitating a very unnecessary scene where Tails reveals there's a second deck below the main deck on the Typhoon.) At one point, Bocoe and Decoe combine to form a wacky cannon, which is an amusing gag. The Chaotix showing up, naturally, allow for multiple fourth wall leaning gags, where the detective acknowledge that they are semi-reoccurring characters. Shadow doesn't pay attention to any of this, which is pretty funny. Even though their lives are at stake, Rouge continues to tease Knuckles throughout. The other guys even get in on the fun, Knuckles yelling at everyone after it's implied he likes Rouge. I'm starting to feel sorry for the poor echidna. His friends are so mean to him. 

I wish Cosmo was given a little more to do here. She has only one real scene, where she gets typically self-loath-y about her role in the final battle. Tails assures her that she does matter. He also asks her to live on his home world with him after all this is over, essentially the fox's form of a proposal. Aww, how friggin' cute is that? The episode ends in a fairly dark place. The Blue Typhoon has seemingly been destroyed and Sonic is swallowed by the Final Mova, which has filled itself with water. So, yes, it's an important plot point in this episode that hedgehogs can't swim. One presumes this is the darkest night before the dawn and it makes for a strong cliffhanger. Things continue to ramp up as "Sonic X" races towards its action-packed conclusion and it's pretty entertaining. [7/10]