Sonic X

So, this thread is talking about the anime series Sonic X . For me personally, I actually liked this series since it was probably the most faithful to the Adventure Era of Sonic the Hedgehog and I liked the fact that this series really focused on the relationship between the characters. Probably the only downside to this series is that Chris, the human boy, seemed to take a lot of attention away from Sonic and his friends and it felt like I was watching a show that focused on Chris rather than Sonic himself.

I didn't really have access to any Sonic games until Sonic Adventure DX (which is a good game, shush) so Sonic X holds a special place as being my go-to source for Sonic (though I recall Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog by name, I don't exactly remember 100% of it).

I thought it was the best when I was a kid, but as I look back on it...yeah, Chris was kinda obnoxious, right?

Kinda wish we could get an official uncut English dub one day. Maybe in 20 years' time?

Yeah! I always wondered about what the show would have been like if they had retained the original Japanese dialogue instead of toning everything down. Would the show have done well in the US if they had retained the darker tone of the original Japanese version?

Didn't the show already do well in the US? I swear I remember hearing that the only reason the third season existed was due to good response in the West and that the Japanese version of the third season wasn't released until years later? Though I'd still love a re-dub of that show, it could use one. Wonder what it'd be like with the newer voice actors?

Edited by Oshawott337 on Aug 23rd 2021 at 4:47:31 AM

I dunno. I wish we got the 4th season. It would've been nice to see if Chris got back, at least. Season 3 definitely was an improvement.

Otherwise, it would've been nice to have more than one version of the theme song(namely the animations used. The theme is good. But they could've done more). It decently covered Season 1 and 2 enough(though not having Rouge in there was silly. She's clearly not an extra, and actually is pretty important. Season 3 is the least amount she's notable, and it's not that much different. It helps that she's pretty active during the Adventure 2 arc, logically so, and that Sonic X expands on her whole government agent backstory very very well. Otherwise, Sonic Battle at least noted it a bit, and we see her in action under G.U.N. in Sonic 06 and Sonic Chronicles. (Coincidentally both aren't good games by any means, though I did have fun with 06, but regardless).

Knuckles seeming like a dumbass finally is explained in Season 3, where he believes there's good in everyone, and he's right. Eggman becomes one of their strongest allies down the line, even during Season 2 he helps out from time to time(but still clearly tries to be a villain, just with some standards).

It's a great show, albeit the dub's horrid removal of some stuff(poor Cosmo...) didn't help. Like, why even bother censoring the love thing when they had an entire episode dedicated to it and it's clear how Amy feels throughout the whole show. Eggman also dropping a pretty dumb line was the other terrible censorship; "It's one thing if you threaten someone. It's another if you hurt them." (I probably remembered it a bit off, but he constantly hurt people, meaning the line makes no sense at all. All of them have done damage to other characters. It happens. It's part of a Hero VS Villain fight. So while the whole point was protecting Chris, the line is just dubbed badly. He has a clear soft spot for the kid, and it's also a big scene for him too, since his team kicks the Metarex's ass badly. And not just a grunt, but one of the major Generals. After that, it's clear whose side he's really on).

It's why I like the show. Everybody has quite a lot of depth. Even Cream is willing to fight(especially in Season 3. In Season 2, it's not till she battles against Emerl. But come Season 3, she's a lot more active and quite awesome at it. She goes from Pacifist to Technical Pacifist(and maybe that's inaccurate too). It helps that she went through a similar arc in Sonic Battle, hence her fighting Emerl, a decent way to adapt the idea. Season 3 however has no basis. She's just recurring enough to make sense as one of the members of the core team by that point.

I do wonder if Gemerl would've appeared in Season 4 though. Metal Sonic is all I know of.

On another note, Season 3 reminded me a bit of Shadow The Hedgehog. Besides adapting more of the Chaotix, the whole world-ending stuff, Shadow's exact same backstory explained(found in space by Eggman, etc.), and then you have Cosmo who plays Shadow's role of being related to the Metarex, who also happen to be genocidal aliens. There's also a lot more vehicles and weapons this time around compared to earlier seasons(which at most would apply to Eggman's machines on a consistent basis, and a small bit of the Military episode's stuff). You could also compare the Metarex generals loosely to most of Eggman(and even G.U.N.'s) final bosses to a small degree, though that's an actual stretch. Also, G.U.N. never appeared officially, did they? They more or less were the government instead. Unless I am remembering the Adventure 2 Arc a bit off. Which admittedly was a far better adaption than Adventure 1 was(which was really really loose). Adventure 2's Arc only had one stinker, and that was mostly Chris taking some spots that other characters normally did instead. Adventure 1 however felt super short and rushed in comparison, and that's even without Chris being too active instead of what you'd expect. Big's few moments were barely there as well. Gamma came by the best, heavily showing his proper arcs, though.

Yeah, the show did very well in America, which was why they made a third season, even though the show didn't do well in Japan. I'm also interested in them redubbing the show, just so we can get the actual dialogue from the Japanese version instead of the 4kids version dumbing down the dialogue.

This was the first Sonic series I watched consistently. I have some good memories of it but it has been a while since I saw it last.

To be honest, I actually grew up with the American cartoons first before I got into this series. This series came out around the same time as the Sonic Adventure games and I remembered being so excited to watch this show since I loved the Adventure games. Glad that this show ended up being pretty good!

Well, the Gamecube ports. Sonic X was still a few years off back on 9-9-99.

I’m really weird on how I like Sonic X.

It was the first Sonic thing I experienced after playing Olympic Games and Brawl, but before I played any of the games.

So I liked it as a kid and it is nostalgic for me, but I don’t think I can go back to the dub at least as an adult because of all the censorship. I can probably just watch the original Japanese version. (That’s actually how I am with a lot of anime that got horribly butchered to be considered acceptable for kids, since Japan and America have different standards for that.)

I actually watched the OG dub for Sonic X first.

I know peoole like the "Gotta Go Fast" meme, because its catchy, but S Onic X's original Japanese OP, "Sonic Drive" by Hironobu Kageyama is easily superior, and I think its catchier, honestly.

Ya know, this show has probably had the most impact on the perceptions of some group of fans of the series.

SATAM, and AOSTH are acknowledged as being completely different takes nowadays even if they still have fan support.

But Sonic X is the most game accurate adaptation to date, so its pretty much the go to show for many 2000 Sonic fans to this very day.

It's the only Sonic cartoon that used the game plots right? When I was a kid, I honestly expected the show to do Sonic Heroes next.

It almost did look like it, bringing in the Chaotix. As Metal Sonic was planned for Season 4, that was likely the next plot. Maybe it was canned too early so they had to make something up, which would explain them more or less doing a retake of the Shadow plot(which arguably is still better written in the show, anyway. Though it also makes Shadow vastly overpowered compared to the games. Wow).

Shadow was obscenely OP, and some that carried over to his home game.

His Super Strength is almost on par with Knuckles, when before he was only slightly stronger then Sonic.

It was also the orign of his wrist rings being a Power Limiter, where before they were cosmetic.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on Aug 24th 2021 at 3:40:55 PM

The Chaotix made it into the Anime to promote Heroes actually. Their debut episode was the same week Heroes came out in Japan.

Yea, this show is probably a significant reason why the fandom overhype Sonic and Shadow so much, because they were so much powerful than everyone else.

To Knuckles' credit, he did push Shadow so he wasn't that far behind them in strength but yea man.

Shadow wasn't actually OP in his own game. He couldn't even easily KO a regular soldier that easily. Or a grunt. Storywise, only the Black Arms(and large robots) should've taken more hits, but it wasn't done that way. The Black Arms are made of the same DNA that Shadow has, so they're going to easily have the same super toughness. That doesn't mean that's exactly what was planned, but there's at least a reasonable explanation for it.

Shadow needed a Chaos Emerald to do a lot, same with weapons. He's actually been downgraded in his own game in terms of power. Sonic 06 and Sonic Battle made him op, though.

Did the Metarex saga come after Shadow's game was out, btw? Or well before? Like, I can see the game inspiring the arc's design, but other than that, it's obviously still quite different. Just bits and pieces were copied over/based upon.

Enemies were harder to take down because the game wanted to emphasize gun gameplay more. Had nothing to do with canonical power levels.

Meterex aired after Shadow's game, but the whole inhibitor ring business was a way to explain Shadow losing them in the Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation and carried over into subsequent media.

Heroes already determined that. Guns had nothing to do with it. They were added to an already created formula, which is more for the darker and edgier, as well as they put a huge emphasis on Shadow being related to G.U.N. this time around(as well as the Black Arms). The weapons are still shoehorned in, but there's a plausibility for him to understand how to use them after growing up on a giant military base. That's not logical much for the Black Arms' weapons, but they likely weren't nearly that different, having a simple trigger button. A lot of weapons however obviously can't fit this and just were "rule of cool". Like the Orbital Laser. Swords as well, for obvious reasons.

Shadow was changed up quite heavily too. Suddenly is swearing(though to be fair, it's not that it hasn't happened in Sonic media before, but usually Japanese ones. And it's about as heavy as Shadow's game at most). While the whole "is emo" thing is a bit misplaced, as his own lyrics from his core theme song in 2 is... actually fairly edgy, they obviously took it way further. 06 went back to him being badass but not over the top(still some narm, like always). Even then, his dialogue is still better than Heroes'. .-. That was just bad. Not all of it. Metal Sonic and Eggman have great lines, and some still do, but most of the cutscenes got pretty terribad. Amy's at her worst here too, with only slightly bad at Adventure 2 where she would only free Sonic from his jail cell if he married her(she mostly retracts that overall, or at least ignores it in the end). Then she's fixed in Shadow to be a nice girl(for once), and 06 where she's at her most mature(and unfortunately those events are erased, but still. Unleashed keeps the same act, so she finally grew up a little).

Eh, I think people exaggerate how bad that Amy scene was. Sonic says no and she still agrees to let him out and tell him what she knows, anyways. Tbh, I think Amy was actually at her worst in Sonic X, from what I remember.

In terms of the dub, I think it's pretty weird/funny how hard 4Kids Americanized a show that was clearly originally aimed at American audiences in the first place with an obviously American setting.

I mean Heroes is Amy’s worst game appearance. In Sonic Battle, she’s bad if you entirely ignore the context. She’s misled to believe Sonic views Emerl as his own child. She’s still nuts, but not entirely without merit.

That’s what I mean about Adventure 2. She slides back into issues a little, but clearly keeps her character development. …Till Heroes. So much cringe there.

Yep, Amy is horrid in Sonic X. Thankfully her Sonic Boom incarnation in the show is much better.

I believe it was this show where they made Knuckles much more aggressive. This actually shows up in Sonic Battle where I think that Knuckles was arguably at his worst. Although, Knuckles' personality turned a 180 when Sonic Boom came out. So, it would be interesting to see how the games will portray Knuckles' character from this point forward.

Knuckles was played somewhat straight in the beginning as the archetypal Aloof Ally and that carried well into the second season, it was only really in the 3rd season where they played up comical traits.

Same with Amy and her aggressiveness.

That's partially why this show is so infamous, it's the beginning of the gradual flanderization that would define the characters for quite a few years.

I never actually watched the show but the American theme song was catchy as hell. Probably should check it out sometime.