Sonic X
a review by ChirekachiMizu
a review by ChirekachiMizu
Well... this feels weird to come to. A 17 year old boy who does nothing but watch anime for his life, actually decided to return to an anime that he once gave a 1/10 out of spite. That boy is me. I originally gave this show a 1/10 out of spite, but the more I looked at it, I feel a lot different about it. The show's not great, for sure. But it's not that bad when coming to it again. I guess it's the nostalgia of it. So... why do I feel mixed about Sonic X? Well, let me just get it's points out first.
So Sonic, alongside with his pals, have went in and infiltrate Dr. Eggman's base after hearing the fact that the doc has all 7 Chaos Emeralds and is holding Cream held hostage. With no time to waste, Sonic goes in and saves them in the neck of time, and stops Eggman from any shenanigans he's pulling off. Unfortunately for them, one of Eggman robots shot the machine in which the doc made which utilizes the Chaos Emeralds. This causes an explosion in which Knuckles saw the blast as Chaos Control, and everyone caught within the blast radius is dragged to wherever the hell it takes them....
Well, it's already answered as it takes them to a strange world that is filled with humans, and humans are quite puzzled with them. Sonic, landing in the middle of the street, is surrounded by a number of them. Seeing as how the police quite literally think that he's just an ordinary Hedgehog, they decided to ahead and catch him. Unfortunately for them, Sonic runs away fast, and not only he out speeds the police, but he also out-sped the S-Team, a team of fast police drivers that go as fast as how the hedgehog goes. Still though, Sonic is faster than all of them, and he launches himself off of the air enjoying the view of the city (Btw, it's Station Square, if you were asking.) And unfortunately for the hedgehog, he lands in a pool of water, which is outside from a rich person's house and mansion. There, he is saved by Christopher Thorndyke (Just Chris will do) and thus kick starts off the adventure.
And then from here on out of Season 1, it's all of the matter to collect all the Chaos Emeralds. Every one of Sonic's friends are gathered and they set off to find the Chaos Emeralds to return to their world. Not a bad start for Sonic X so far. However, we do have more of the show to fill, so what happened at the end of Season 1, did they managed to go back. Well... no actually, after Sonic recieved a beating from one of Eggman's strongest robots, Chris manages to take away the Chaos Emeralds from Eggman, which was powering his robot, and throws it in the water to save the beaten up Sonic. There he's transformed into Super Sonic and starts to break the robot in to pieces. It not only breaks the robot, but it also starts Chaos Control, in which surprisingly, it does not take them back to their world, no. It instead takes more of what was in Sonic's world. And we see that with Angel Island landing in the ocean. We have another 52 episodes to fill for the show.
Thankfully for Season 2, there is much less to talk about. Season 2 follows up with the Adventure Games and throwing it's own original ideas. (Like how Eggman fixes the moon and Chaotix trying to get Cream to reunite with her mother) and it's also home to one of my favorite episodes (In which I'll get to in a bit). Season 2 is not that bad of a season. That's really all I can say. Let's go to the last season.
Now originally, Sonic X was only gonna be 52 episodes long, but someone had the mind to actually continue with it and come up with one of the best arcs to exist in the show, the Metarex Saga. This starts off with Sonic ALREADY taking a beating from a formidable enemy named Dark Oak. In his Super State, he uses Chaos Control to separate the Chaos Emeralds across the galaxy, and because of that, Dark Oak is now set off to go find them, as that is his original goal. What does he do with them is a spoiler, so I'm not gonna mention. In a second half, Tails, alongside with Amy and Cream, encountered a spaceship that crash-landed to their planet during a meteor shower. From there, they meet Cosmo, an alien in which she tells them about the threat that is to come. Of course with Sonic and co. concerned about it, they set off in an adventure to space to grab all the Chaos Emeralds again. AND FOR SOME WHAT OF A REASON, THEY DECIDED TO PUT CHRIS IN IT. (I'll get to the details on him in just a sec, but come on.. the season would be much more interesting if Chris wasn't involved.)
Season 3, from what sounded like a mediocre start, turned out to be a literal Sonic Unleashed filled adventure. But instead of the world, it's the entire galaxy. And from there, the metarex saga has it's own charm. I really like it for that sort of reason in of itself.
The three seasons of Sonic X all has something unique to the table and I applaud it for that. But now, we go on talking about the whole thing.
Sonic X was made to be a kids show, thus, yes, the humor isn't all that great, but it does what it does best. Like I said, all three seasons have something unique to the table. Each season are on the same level and they have the same amount of humor. But like I said, the humor isn't all that great. It's passable though seeing as this is a show made in 2003 (Same year in which the very original Fullmetal Alchemist aired). I also quite like the original stories it shares, but only some of them though. Season 1 suffers it the most as some are mediocre while others are just, bland and it just continues with the story.
Characters for the most part, it's the characters of Sonic that you mostly know and love. Knuckles being the guardian of the Master Emerald, Tails being a mechanical genius, Amy still being Sonic's self-proclaimed "girlfriend", Cream being the youngest and quite a brave youngster, really, the main cast of Sonic is still all the same and is represented like how their suppose to be. Even Sonic himself is who he is (Although, I will admit, sometimes he's an asshole).
Now it's time for the major issue of the show, the human characters, specifically... Chris in general. I don't dislike Chris, but Chris really is quite unremarkable and for somewhat of a reason, has the most screen time. His personality, I really didn't like, seeing as how he's an elementary kid, it's understandable as to why he's like this, but I do wish he was made more useful (Hell, Chris' grandfather, Chuck, is more useful than Chris himself), cause all he does is listen to the conversation, and does the objective. He's just a kid that's there for the sake of having to be there. Nothing else, nothing more. That's all I can really say about him. The rest of the characters, are pretty solid.
Believe it or not, this is made by the same studio that did Dr. STONE, Rent-a-Girlfriend, Detective Conan, ReLIFE, and their best work, Fruits Basket. Being such, I really do like the art-style that TMS went with for Sonic X. It definitely suits 2003 standards. They have definitely gotten better with their later works and while that is a given, I'd like to think that it started with Sonic X actually. They did a decent job. It's passable.
Sonic X has a total of 3 different openings. One made for US, one for Japan, and one for Europe (except for France, in which it shares the JP opening).
The US version is known for the famous meme "Gotta Go Fast". In which it exists here in the US opening of Sonic X, and ya know what, the nostalgia pandrums and memes aside, this is a good song. Definitely one of the best things that 4kids has done (Alongside with the 1st Pokemon Opening). And I applaud it. It really is catchy too.
Japan's version of the opening, I'm just saying it right now. It's the best opening out of all the three. It's sung by Hideaki Takatori and Hironobu Kageyama. Hironobu best known for his works singing the openings of Dragon Ball Z. While Gotta Go Fast is filled with energy and attitude, Sonic Drive has a lot, and I mean a LOT more of that. It's positive inducing and is a lot more serious compared to US' goofiness in Gotta Go Fast. All I can really say is... it's really good.
Europe's version of the opening, gonna say... it's definitely the worst one. It's just the vocalist saying "Sonic X" over and over again. As if you don't know what the show is already. It's instruments used is also very weak, and not that great. France was lucky enough to share Japan's OP. Overall, not the best OP for the show. There's just no energy to it.
So basically, this is the order. JP > US> EU
While US and EU got it's OP's played as ED's, Japan has a total of 3 endings. Those 3 being Mi-Ra-I, Hikaru Michi, and T.O.P
Yeah... not a big fan of Mi-Ra-I. I don't know, maybe it's the quirkiness, but this ED, doesn't really suit Sonic X whatsoever. It's definitely the worst one out of all of them, but it does get a pass as the melody does sound nice, just the lyrics I guess.
Fun fact about this one. Aya Hiroshige was only 12 at the time the 2nd ED was made. Tell me how does a 12 year old make such a depressing ED this good. FOR FUCKS SAKE, THIS IS A KIDS SHOW!! WE'RE NOT SUPPOSE TO CRY, WE'RE SUPPOSE TO HAVE LAUGHS DAMN IT! Definitely a WHOLE lot better than the 1st ED by a LONG shot. And it's definitely one of the sadder ones that it can even fit such a sad scene. I'll get more into it later.
T.O.P thankfully isn't quirky, nor depressing. It's another attitude ED that's positive inducing, and I say, best suits Sonic X more. Though, because of ED 2, it's only 2nd best in terms of ED's. I gotta like it's energy the song has. Definitely is something else.
In the ED department. ED 2 > ED 3 > ED 1
This is where Jason Griffeth, Mike Polluck, and such other voice actors from the 4kids cast debuted as Sonic characters. And, bless 4kids for it. They were some of the best Voice Actors that we had in Sonic. And I'm glad to see that Polluck is still going strong as Eggman. He's really the perfect VA for him, and I can't really think of anyone else for the job. The 4kids cast definitely did a great job. But even then. I even get a kick out of hearing the Japanese VA's, in which, I'm saying it right now.
Sonic X is better if you watch it in Japanese.
More on that later, but the voice acting in Sonic X (JP) is really good. I especially love Sonic's engrish here. You're better off listening it to yourself, it's really great:
uh... anyhow. Moving on.
Well, aside from the obvious cut content, it's sounds better and like I said with the opening, it's more serious. I have respects to the 4kids cast, in fact, the first time I watched Sonic X was in English Dub, but when I watch the Japanese Dub, I noticed how much better it was. First off, the OST is great and does set the atmosphere, secondly there's all the original stuff that you couldn't see in the original English Dub, and thirdly, 25 minutes of an episode is better than having like, 4 minutes less of the episode. Thus, ending why Sonic X is better when watching it in Japanese. I mean, I ain't forcing you to watch the dub too, that's all up to you.
Specifically for Tails' case. Tails often relies on Sonic and doesn't wanna be a big bother to him. He wants to stand up for himself and Season 3 definitely highlights it. You know what's unfortunate, the brother moments that Sonic and Tails have, it's not present here. It's mostly Chris that gets all the highlights with him and Sonic, and nothing else. But Tails in S3 makes up for it. He's really trying to do things his own. He's becoming an independent man, you may say. I like that.
I really like Eggman here. There's the one side where he's trying to take over the world, and then there's the other in which he's a goofy villain, in which that's what Eggman is supposed to be. And he does sound like it too, whether it'd be Mike Polluck, or the late Chikao Ootsuka, both do a great job at portraying Eggman. I also like how Eggman does have a soft spot. While he does wanna take over the world, he wants Sonic to at least come in and stop him from taking over said world. It's a moment like that where Eggman, not only is a really great Villain, but does wanna put up a fight for it. Where does that soft spot show?
So... I actually never really got to finish off the anime, and while saying that "I didn't bother" would be a good excuse, in truth of reality, I'm just trying not to watch the heavy hitters. The biggest one being Episode 52, which is the last episode of Season 2 and was originally supposed to be the last episode in all of Sonic X, but then another 26 came. I'd make a long thesis about why I love this episode so much, but instead, I'll do it in bulletins. (Spoiler Warning, btw)
Never in my life would I actually have mixed feelings about an anime that I've seen in 2018. And to be fair, all the points that I was talking about was based off my experience with watching it back in 2018. Good lord... I was a weird 14 year old back then.
Sonic X isn't a bad show, but it's also not a masterpiece, it's good, and I really liked it a whole lot. Maybe if Chris was written better as a character, this show would've sat at an 8 or a 7. But I'm satisfied with a 69/100. Do I recommend it? No. Especially since it's made for kids, but if you're really curious enough, or if you're a Sonic fan, go ahead. But only if you can handle someone like Chris, or the humor.
Jesus, I think this is as long as my K-On review. I did say there that it's hard for me to try and compose a 5 sentence paragraph for something that I love the most. This is not an anime that I love, this is an anime that I have fond memories about, AND THIS REVIEW TOOK 5 HOURS TO MAKE! God damn, my experience with this anime might've been the reason why it's this long. But like I said, it does require a lot of thought. And hey, at least you got a review that was lower than an 89. I kept a promise... I guess.
If I were to decide to come back to it again for nostalgia, I'll indeed do it, though, not as a modern anime watcher, but as a Sonic fan. I grew up with Sonic the Hedgehog, and I've played a couple of games from the franchise. The community is very chill and I like reading the fan comics. Some fan arts are also nice too. And lots of other stuff. I sadly left it at 2018, but then today, I decided to come back to it. And I'm glad I did, because this anime solidified my signature as a Sonic fan.
Alright, enough rambling, I'm a end it off by saying this: Go watch it if you're curious enough. That's all.
See you in another review, which will take another decade. :)
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