Sonic Boom, Episode 1.45: Robot Battle Royale

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.45: Robot Battle Royale

Original Air Date: September 26th, 2015

When reviewing "Sonic X," I talked a bit about the required fighting tournament arc all shonen anime must do. Yet this desire to see everyone fight it out is hardly a strictly Japanese obsession. American pop culture does these sort of competition stories with some regularity. You see it every once in a while in comic books. "Sonic Boom" writers had to cook up a hundred scripts for this show so I'm not surprised they touched on a battle royale premise after a while. This show being what it is, it not only squeezed an entire tournament into eleven minutes but it also did it entirely as farce. 

Not that the big robot fighting event is the starting point for this episode. Instead, "Robot Battle Royale" kicks off with Tails inventing an antenna that picks up broadcast from the past. Knuckles decides this item is more useful as a backscratcher, giving the echidna the idea that he's an inventor like Tails. The fox is annoyed by his friend's ego and incompetence. When the village holds a robot fighting tournament, Tails decides to teach Knuckles a lesson. But when Eggman steals Tails' machine – a robot that can take control over other robots – chaos ensues. 

This episode has good structure and, honestly, I didn't expect it. The conflict between Tails and Knuckles drives the first third of the episode. Once the robot fighting begins, that seems to derail the tension between the heroes. Knuckles' robot is taken out due to his own incompetence, with Eggman's scheme emerging as the main antagonistic force here. Yet Tails and Knuckles find a way to resolve their disagreement that also saves the day from the bad guy. Tails learns to appreciate his idiot friend while also defeating Eggman. It's screenwriting 101 but you don't always get that in a show this gag-centric and short. Good job, writers. 

Yet this episode is solid for other reasons too. There's a nice dry absurdity to the jokes here that made me chuckle. Such as a lengthy scene where the Mayor wastes everyone's time by firing a cannonball into the sea, which passes with so little comment that I didn't even know if it was a gag at first. You also see this commitment to the bit in the scene where Tails and Knuckles are arguing, their friends egging them on in the most juvenile way possible. Or Sonic cheering random during the robot battle, only for the reveal to show he's actually excited about buying a chili dog. Good, silly stuff that's executed with strong timing. 

As I watch more of "Sonic Boom," it's becoming increasingly clear that Travis Willingham as Knuckles is the MVP of this cast. How often has his delivery made stupid little lines of dialogue sing? Maybe the biggest laugh here came from his first invention – a stick with a rock tied to the end – and the perfect pomposity with which he presents it. His Muskian habit of “inventing” concepts that already exist leads to a number of perfect line-readings from Willingham. I especially like his melodramatic speech at the episode's end, which circles back around in an amusing fashion. 

You might not be surprised to read that the robot fights here are not especially impressive. This is obviously by design. Most of the robots are goofy little things, such as the Goat Lady's little poodle bot or Comedy Chimp's cymbals clashing monkey. Most of the matches are hilariously uneven. Such as Eggman's six foot tall murder-bot going up against a cute little fella that looks like a toy attached to a skateboard. I do like the fighting game style split-screen image that appears before every match-up. That was a nice touch. 

While "Boom's" meta gags can sometimes be uneven, this episode begins and ends with two strong examples. The first scene has Sonic and Amy watching a movie, with him commenting that the beginning was slow. Amy says movies and TV shows always have "a little filler material" before the inciting incident gets things rolling. That's Tails' cue to bust in with the antenna. The episode concludes with Sonic commenting that Tails' Hypnobot is essentially a plot breaking invention, that renders all future Eggman machines a non-threat. Hypnobot is then destroyed in abrupt fashion, resetting the status quo. Nice. 

Also, there's a dance number and who doesn't love that? "Robot Battle Royale" is exactly what I think of when I consider the average episode of "Sonic Boom." It's not mind-blowingly hilarious or extra-incisive satire. However, it is consistently amusing, with solid writing and strong comedic timing. Moreover, the cast really knows what they're doing and help sell everything. As the end of the first season approaches, "Boom" has proved itself to be an efficient little comedy machine, a sturdy sitcom that is generally well-executed. [7/10]