Hello, everyone. Psyga here. Now, most people will know that I’ve riffed on American Kitsune, an infamous fanfiction where a self-insert makes himself Serena’s half-brother, becomes a Henshin Hero, and fights evil all while standing on a soapbox and making moves on Serena, who people constantly bash the fact that they’re related into their heads. This was actually a pretty good read... right up until chapter 8, then everything went to hell for a bit before being better. Nevertheless, it still had its soapbox moments that make it more like the author is ranting rather than an actual narrative.
However, what we’re digging into may bump all the soapbox goodness to eleven. Yes, as you can tell from the title, we’re digging into the infamous Sonichu comic. For those not in the know, allow me to fill you in. Sonichu is a story about a Pikachu transforming into a Sonic The Hedgehog-like humanoid aptly named Sonichu. You’d think with a concept like that, the creator of the comic can’t go wrong, right? Well... You then notice that I say infamous. This has been criticized and panned by people everywhere, up to and including Linkara himself, who even put this up on his top ten comics he will never review. Is it that bad? And if so why? Well, that’s what this liveblog is here to find out. Like how I differentiated David and Davey in American Kitsune, I’m going to differentiate CWC into two names: Chris-chan the Character, and Christian the Author.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the madness.
We first start things off with a disclaimer. It’s the basic disclaimer of “if anyone seems to be based off someone, living or dead, it’s coincidental” and I only bring this up purely because of later circumstances. We open with the climax of the first Sonic Adventure game, as Perfect Chaos goes about destroying Station Square. The author of the comic, Christian Weston Chandler, tells us that this is Sonichu’s story, and nothing else. Like the disclaimer, keep this in mind for later.
A small Pikachu notices the chaos drawing near in Station Square, and runs off to investigate. During this, Sonic becomes Super Sonic, and fights off Chaos similarly to how he fights him in the game, something that I’m going to give the author credit for, as it’s a nice quirk. During the fight, he smacks heads with Pikachu, then a magic rainbow comes and touches a Raichu? And that rainbow apparently mutates it into a hedgehog-like figure? Huh? So this Raichu has now become Rosechu, and she named herself that because her owner said she’s as beautiful as one.
Back with our Pikachu, he too changed and that he too would kick Chaos’ ass. He assists Sonic in killing Chaos, then heading off while the crowd cheered for Sonic. The Pikachu realized that he had changed into a creature similar to Sonic, and decides that, basing his name off Sonic’s, he would be called Sonichu. Now, that’s actually a little better than how Rosechu was named, because Sonichu is basing his name off something he was mutated from, while Rosechu just takes the first noun she hears besides her name. It also helps that Sonichu’s speech is similar to your standard super hero origin speech where the hero declares he is no longer a human and instead a super hero.
Suddenly, the author becomes Wikipedia, and decides to tell us about the world of Sonichu. He talks about how he’s the mayor of CWCville, and talks about other characters. I’m not going into these, because I want to see these characters debut without someone telling me “Oh, hey, there’s this guy, who’s the son of Giovanni, and all that jazz! And this hedgehog’s made from cherry cola!” Especially since they’ll appear later and have these explained pretty normally for a comic book. This is usually the thing you’d find in a Databook, or a Wikia. Though I suppose that there may be some things that won’t be touched up on in later books, so this might be a good read when looking back later on. To be fair, the author doesn’t spill all the beans, as he just leaves it a secret of who these three Hedgehogs are, even though one of them is named “Chris-chan Sonichu”, and thus can be assumed to be an alternate form of Chris-chan. He even gives himself a profile too.
Next episode, and Sonichu realizes that he’s hungry, but since he has a bigger body, simple things like nuts or apples won’t fill his stomach like they would when he was a Pikachu. Then he sees Rosechu, instantly falls in love with her, and then stalks her. Meanwhile, Rosechu goes home and talks with her trainer, Kel, about being lonely. Kel asks if she could hook her up with her Dragonite. ...uuuh... I know Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action and all but still, wut?
Anyways, Rosechu then finds Sonichu outside her door, and drags him in because he’s the only other kind of Pokemon that’s like her. Kel seems to buy this idea pretty quickly and becomes a Shipper on Deck. Then a few days later, the two declare their love, replacing the O with Hearts. And then they have a Big Damn Kiss. And an actual Big Damn Kiss, not the oversized confectionary from Echo Chamber.
Next episode and I’m getting Digimon: The Movie vibes, as it starts off with two guys fighting, Sonichu and a kid, Naitsirhc... Which is a pretty stupid name so I’m calling him Silver. Mostly due to the red hair... And something else, but that’s spoilery. Anyways, after a fourth wall-breaking How We Got Here narration, our hero dashes to rescue his girl. The fight is pretty good, complete with attack names and all that. The author even puts in a little countdown for the final blow. Silver, defeated, vows he will be back and retreats. Then everyone cheers and soon the author cameos, congratulating Sonichu for... Saving his girlfriend? Was Silver destroying anything before he decided to capture Rosechu? In fact, why was Silver even there to begin with? Screw it, it’s almost over.
You know how in Animal Man, there was this issue where Grant Morrison goes to Buddy and they talk? Yeah, this is what I am reminded of with this exchange between Chris-chan and Sonichu, though Chris-chan doesn’t really go “BOW BEFORE ME, FOR YOU ARE MY PUPPET!” like Morrison did. In fact, they seem to be cool with the fact that Chris-chan is their author, as Sonichu even calls him his father. And so our comic ends with Chris-chan driving off in search for love and Sonichu commenting that he is proud to have a father like Chris-chan. It actually felt a little heart-warming. Yes. This felt heart-warming. Look, even I can’t believe that I’m saying these words.
There were some other comics that Christian drew sometime before Sonichu #0, and a short with Chris-chan fighting some Jerkops, but I’m skipping them. The other comics because they’re short, stupid, and the joke is lost to me, and the Chris-chan short because it will be liveblogged soon. This was a pretty decent start. Asides from “herp derp, fusing Sonic and Pikachu isn’t original”, which to me is kind of bullshit considering how there are several well-known characters that are pretty much fusions of other characters, I don’t see how this is bad. However, we have just finished the first of ten issues, and I do have this curse of things I start rooting for turn to shit later on...
Tune in next time when we meet Shado- I mean Blake.
Comments
