Sonic The Hedgehog

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
Did Ian Flynn work on this? Becuase I'm getting some strong 'Other-M' (his old fan comic, not the Metroid game) vibes from that trailer.
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen

The character posters for Sonic Prime have been revealed and the talking point seems to be Rouge. Her original outfit has good color balance but the obvious cleavage. However, I don't see this as a replacement of her main outfit (though it is) and rather a replacement of her stealth/agent outfit from Heroes. From that standpoint, it's a massive upgrade. Also, as clothes she could easily look like a secret agent and then have something more casual when off the job.

Actually, the real talking point is how the Miles Electric got changed from a giant tablet to something the size of a smartphone.

EDIT: Oh, I guess the trailer just dropped. I'll need to watch that.
 

Confuzor

Koopaling Aficionado
Citizen
Yo I'm SERIOUSLY impressed by the new trailer! I think I may actually enjoy this.

Digging the new Sonic voice too.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
It's fascinating how this game franchise struggles so much with games but always has comics and a show.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
That animation is actually looking pretty good in the fight scene with the badniks.

And, I'm guessing the first world we visit is going to be a world where Sonic never existed, so Eggman took over? Kind of getting some Freedom Fighters vibes from our alternate-universe friends. And even Eggman's base at around 0:40 looks a *little* like Robotnik's fortress from SatAM. And Amy could be our stand in for Bunnie. Am I just seeing things? Maybe. *shrugs*



But...now for my LEAST favorite game: Will Ken Penders Sue?

I can't help but notice that...Knuckles has a beret! *gasp* Okay, that's going to take some explaining. Why is Knuckles having a hat a big deal? Well, because of Anti-Knuckles, who Penders "owns"


Amy also looks like she has cyborg parts. And while Penders can't POSSIBLY own the CONCEPT of cyborgs, he MIGHT own "legionization", which is basically the same thing.


So, will Penders try to take this show down, just because he has nothing better to do with his time? Who knows?! He really SHOULDN'T have a case, but, I'm not sure that would stop him.


Am I making a big deal out of nothing? Hopefully. But, this is a guy who REALLY wanted to own "Sonic in a leather jacket". I could see him making a big deal about "Knuckles in a hat".
 
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Fero McPigletron

Feel the fear!
Citizen
Sudden side thing but I caught up with the comics. Reading them together shows how Sonic, Tails and Belle have been on one single adventure for... six issues now? Since Starline started recalling the robots and the base invasion and running from Metal and now Surge attacks? Other than Kitsunami getting konked out, I don't think the crew has had any sleep at all, poor dudes.

Where is Ian Flynn? The issues are written by Evan S. Flynn said he had no plans for Starline but now Evan has Starline making appearances.

I hope they give Kit a spine soon. He's a powerhouse, strong enough to stop Metal (else could say he's the only one who had a chance cuz Metal hadn't scanned him then?) but if he goes crazy, it'll be trouble for everyone. At least Surge is focused.

I can see Starline doing a Batman Beyond Return of the Joker. With Surge's electricity (possibly make hardlight) and Kit's hydrokinesis (solid water), he can easily take over both their minds (if Kit has one in his head too) and do cosmetic changes on their bodies to fully return as himself.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
And, I'm guessing the first world we visit is going to be a world where Sonic never existed, so Eggman took over? Kind of getting some Freedom Fighters vibes from our alternate-universe friends. And even Eggman's base at around 0:40 looks a *little* like Robotnik's fortress from SatAM. And Amy could be our stand in for Bunnie. Am I just seeing things? Maybe. *shrugs*
I was getting Sonic Forces vibes, myself.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
Where is Ian Flynn? The issues are written by Evan S. Flynn said he had no plans for Starline but now Evan has Starline making appearances.
Ian seems to be back with issue 57. I'm not sure if they're just switching between each other every other arc, or what exactly is going on. The last time Ian was gone for awhile we ended up learning he was helping to localize Sonic Frontiers, so who knows what Sega has him working on in the background?

As for Starline...yeah, I'm thinking the "real" him will be back somehow, someday. He's been fairly popular.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
I'm not sure what Yardley's doing, honestly. He DID most recently work on issues 44 and the Sonic 2 Pre-Quill comic.

He might just be working on his own comics? I'm really not sure.

 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
Yup, he wrote Imposter Syndrome and issues 50 and 51 of the main book, too. Ian's been back off and on.

 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Fun Sonic related fact about Shannon Chan-Kent is that she was the diner waitress in the first Paramount movie. Don't think the others have prior Sonic connections but I could be wrong.
If any of them do, it'd have to have been in either AoStH or Underground.
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was a bit of a ride. While it wound up tying with Sonic Boom as my favorite show to watch, it also winds up being a show I don't feel I can recommend to anyone who doesn't already enjoy it. It's very love it or hate it. Yet...I didn't expect the intro to have such a vicegrip on my nostalgia. And as already mentioned, despite how different it is from the games due to its tone, it might wind up being the show that pulled the most from the games. It outright had the special stages as a thing. It inadvertently predicted numerous games/concepts in the franchise. And all the while it managed to maintain light continuity with itself, something I didn't expect.

EDIT: Oh wow. When put on display, the continuity might not have been as light as I thought. Especially with Tails.

A recap of my thoughts on each series (wow, this ballooned in size)...

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
Greatest Strengths: Long John Baldry. Tails. Soundtrack.
Greatest Weakness: Sometimes it got too weird and gross.

Long John Baldry's Robotnik channels a mix of stage actor performing for people in the nosebleed section and Raul Julia's M. Bison and it's glorious. He maintains both the light hearted vocal register and the sinister vocal register that good Eggman performances have. And yes, he does get called "Eggman" twice and has tons of egg based interests.

As far as this version of Tails, he winds up being a good "Robin". He complements the hero's strengths and weaknesses instead of simply being a weaker copy. And this Tails who accents the second syllable of Sonic's name and is even younger than his game counterpart often saved the day or saved Sonic as often as he got captured. Perhaps the most shocking thing is that in the final third of the show, the universe started to acknowledge Tails as an oddity. Despite the weirdness of this show, there were times he would get called a freak or told he should get plastic surgery to "fix" his two tails. He's inherently sympathetic I almost feel like should start a separate discussion on Tails since 2022 has caused me a lot of thought about him. Also, the expressions he makes make him an image board on his own.

The soundtrack fully understood 80s/90s cartoon music. Theme music powerup was in full effect along with numerous incidentals for various tones. And to think, the main theme of the show is just the game theme plus two public domain tracks.

Sonic the Hedgehog ("SatAM")
Greatest Strengths: Drama. Bonnie.
Greatest Weaknesses: Sonic is kinda overbearing. Misuse of characters.

I've already said my thoughts on Bonnie so I'll talk about this show's form of drama. Robotnik is wholly apocalyptic. He seeks to convert all life into mindless machines and almost pulls it off. "NEXT WEEK: DOOMSDAY" indeed. Most of the characters have either watched someone get roboticized or partial experienced it themselves. This is the one version of Tails who seems to have lost his parents as opposed to being abandoned or existing in an ambiguous free range child state. It's a mostly serious story that mostly does a good job at managing the tone.

Season 1 Robotnik does a good sinister vocal register but without the mechanical reverb, Season 2 Robotnik is just a character voiced by Jim Cummings. And he mostly lacks the light hearted vocal register. Intriguingly, SatAM Robotnik holds the odd honor of being the sole Robotnik who "dies" in the show's finale.

Sonic does get annoyingly overbearing with his cockiness at times and it feels like the show wants to treat him as right even if he endangers his friends. But this seems to be bundled in with a misuse of the characters. I don't hate Antoine or Dulcy but they got overused for comic relief in Season 2. And it was to the detriment of both others and themselves. I wanted to see better from them since there was obvious potential. It winds up being a situation where I'm more annoyed at this show misusing Tails versus Sonic Underground not having him at all. I sorta feel like SatAM Sonic has too many friends.

I'm in this weird state where I'm poking at all the holes but I do think it's a good show. I think length and use of time winds up being an issue, seeing as Sonic Underground has more episodes (and thus more room to breathe) and SatAM's first season was episodic.

As asides, while I'm sorta disappointed with some things the show did, I loved the choice of making Season 2 Snivley sick of his uncle's abuse and quietly plotting against him. A similar Season 2 change I liked was the atomic power effect when Sonic would use a Power Ring. It gives a Super Sonic vibe in contrast to how it was Robotnik who got the Chaos Emeralds in AoStH. The intro does a fantastic job of "show, don't tell" since the song is just telling you how cool Sonic is while the visuals are essentially a miniature episode.

Sonic Christmas Blast
Strengths & Weaknesses: ???

Pulling this out since while technically billed as part of AoStH, it's outside the production order and feels slightly outside of that show's canon. It's slower paced than a actual AoStH episode and Robotnik is more subdued. Wholly possible that being made three years after production ended would change how it's produced. There's elements of SatAM like "Robotropolis" and Princess Sally in her pink palette from the pilot. I don't know if the idea was to make her tie into AoStH's nuttiness by not using natural squirrel colors, it's a show bible thing that never got updated, or an odd attempt to tie her into Amy Rose considering the US manual for Sonic CD tried to call Amy "Princess Sally".

I don't hate it and more think of it as mediocre and disposable. Other Christmas stuff is out there...but oddly no other Sonic show did a Christmas episode despite Sega's active portrayal of Sonic and friends celebrating Christmas. I may watch it again after Christmas to see if it's just me since I work retail but I don't think that's it.
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
Sonic Underground
Greatest Strengths: Class struggle and dystopia. Triplet dynamic. Bartleby.
Greatest Weaknesses: The premise of music every episode. Flawed use of tone.

Robotnik's actions have created a dystopia. While I believe his end goal is still roboticizing the entire planet, leaving some people normal and leaning on the rich for funds creates an interesting dynamic to how people live in this world. There were some fairly fascinating shades of grey to the show despite the otherwise clearcut good vs. evil. I think it was best showcased with Bartleby but it popped up numerous other times. Compared to SatAM, Robotnik's horror is more quiet, especially since he's more overtly goofy. They accidentally made him similar to real life dictators. It's interesting that the rich were willing to put up with Robotnik as ruler, though some quietly rebelled.

I found myself not complaining about the lack of Tails because the triplet dynamic felt right. The main cast felt the the right size and there were enough minor characters with recurring roles so the world of the show didn't feel empty. While it often felt like Sonia got the most, each of the triplets got focus based on their different upbringings. I think this is where I noticed the apocalypse vs dystopia aspect since there was both roboticized friends/family and some that were still normal that popped up from time to time.

It could be the fact that I've been a GM for RPGs but I was drawn in by the quest structure. They were building to something but it got cut short. While SatAM had a cliffhanger ending, it at least had an ending with Robotnik defeated.

I will say that the premise is a bit of a problem. Young me thought "Sonic in a band sounds kind dumb" (which is ironic considering scrapped plans for Sonic 1). This was the show in the marathon I most dreaded. And though the theme song is great, the concept of playing in a band usually felt tacked on outside of episodes where they learned what the instruments did or episodes where a concert was part of the plot. At least the episode songs were generally inoffensive to decent.

The tone was often uneven. I liked Sleet & Dingo's dynamic with each other and with Robotnik but the show didn't seem to know if it wanted them to be mostly competent or bumbling fools. 90% of the time Robotnik wasn't intimidating on his own and the intimidation came about as a ripple effect of his actions. It seems like the show is accidentally enjoyable.

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (OVA)
Greatest Strengths: THE SOUNDTRACK. Metal Sonic.
Greatest Weaknesses: Everything else.

By far the the best soundtrack of a Sonic show sitting square in the Sonic CD sound space. Metal Sonic was cool. But this was the the sole Sonic show I outright disliked. From the perspective of someone watching years later, it just didn't feel like Sonic to me. I don't think the kinda pervy Eggman or Sara accidentally getting groped would be used today. I couldn't get into the actual worldbuilding. And a quiet part of me raged at "neither of you can swim" since by this point they established Tails can swim in the games.

I will say it's odd just how little Metal Sonic shows up across Sonic's shows. Due to Sonic Heroes, you'd think he'd show up in Sonic X at some point but there was an odd Metal Sonic drought early in the Modern era.

Also, it's interesting that Underground and the OVA swapped places with how much I expected to enjoy them versus how much I did.

Sonic X
Greatest Strengths: Inclusion of game characters. Most of the human cast.
Greatest Weaknesses: Misuse of Chris. The show's obsession with Sonic. Specific plot points. Specific dub vs sub changes.

While AoStH pulled stuff from the games and accidentally predicted stuff from future games, Sonic X was worked on with Sonic Team's assistance. It's the show I'd point people at who like Sonic and don't know where to start. Pretty sure everyone but Metal Sonic and Omega that was a recurring game character showed up and it directly adapted some Adventure era arcs.

I'll go ahead and get this out the way: I don't hate Chris Thorndyke but don't think he was used properly. The reason everyone (myself included) thinks Helen would have been a better main character is because her problems are more relatable and the flawed setup with Chris. He's supposed to be a lonely rich kid but his parents will drop everything to see him when he's sick, the staff in the mansion get along with him, and he has a friends. Changing any of those would have his clingy moments work better since he'd actually seem credibly lonely. Maybe it's a difference in culture between America and Japan since I know Chris is more liked over there.

Part of why I bring this up is because I actually liked most of the show's human cast. I wouldn't mind seeing cameos of some of them in other Sonic media. Biggest problem was the "real world" element that forced them to stand out (despite working with the style of animation) and the obsession with Sonic...but not his friends.

This show would sometimes seem really obsessed with Sonic as the only one who was interesting or could save the day. Makes Tails stand out more but I guess when compared to AoStH, anthropomorphic characters are already considered weird regardless of what traits they have. Not helped by the occasional bad plot point like the Egg Moon arc.

On the sub vs dub discussion, I feel like fans get way too focused on 'XYZ got censored' as opposed to other more major problems that the dub created. Out of the three biggest specific issues brought about by the dub, I can think of only one that's a censorship complaint. Not saying the dub is perfect but I think it did a pretty good job.

Finally, while I felt the Metarex Arc was mostly well done, the Metarex generals were mostly kinda boring. It's possible that going in somewhat spoiled ruined the feel but I don't think that would have helped make them come off as less 'generic anime villain' (despite the otherwise somewhat interesting origin). Perhaps the thing that shocked me most is that despite knowing what would happen in the finale, I still got a little misty eyed. Don't know if it was because it happened with Tails or it was otherwise a sad moment.

Sonic Boom
Greatest Strengths: Characterization and interaction. Humor when it lands.
Greatest Weaknesses: Knuckles. Humor doesn't always land. Sonic appears oddly slow.

If Sonic Boom were just memes, I wouldn't like it. Surprisingly, Sonic Boom tended to be genuinely funny and had heart. The interactions worked and part of that's because it's technically a slice of life comedy with action scenes instead of an action show.

While Tails is great, the show's portrayal of Amy is a high point. It pulls from her various character traits but tweaks them to a more well rounded portrayal. By making her shy about her crush on Sonic, they got the ability to play around with it without coming off mean spirited. Sonic himself actually has some of his negatives dialed up but played for humor. He's either overtly in the wrong (and the show treats it as such) or he's dealing with something like ungrateful villagers. His friends feel like his friends instead of people who are around him. Even Sticks has her high points when properly used.

And then we come to Knuckles. While they were going for 'dumb jock', far too often the humor landed on 'can not function'. It's sad since there were times the writers got the tone right so it was worse when they didn't. Sometimes in the same episode. Some of the other humor in the show didn't always land and as a whole you can see they were figuring out the flow in Season 1.

A lot of the show's setup works off of this version of Eggman. Usually coming off more like a grumpy neighbor, the heroes can just hold casual conversations with him while shopping. Outside of individual plots, there is a frenemy vibe that plays off of Eggman being lonely and depressed. And yet, he still some manages decent schemes.

In the end, the Sonic shows have fairly apples to oranges differences.
 


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