The original 50 episodes of Sonic X had their issues, but the Metarex Saga is by far not only the best part of Sonic X—it’s arguably one of the best Sonic stories ever.

At first, the idea of Sonic and his friends traveling through space, Star Wars or Star Trek-style, seemed kinda weird. But it actually works really well. It even has a Dragon Ball GT vibe, with the team searching for the Chaos Emeralds while also trying to save planets from losing all their plant life, which is a fun and unique concept.

Thankfully, most of the human characters from the first 50 episodes are gone, so we get to focus way more on the actual Sonic cast. That alone makes this arc infinitely more enjoyable than the original series.

There’s still some repetition, especially in the first half, where a lot of episodes follow a pattern of landing on a planet, searching for an Emerald, and Sonic beating up a Metarex—usually with that insanely cool cannon-firing Super Spin Dash.

But the overall plot gets surprisingly dark at times, somehow even darker than Sonic Adventure 2. There are moments where I genuinely wondered if this was still a kids' show, considering how many characters go through some pretty brutal (but bloodless) deaths.

The emotional moments in the second half hit hard. Those gut-punch scenes alone are why the Metarex Saga is easily one of my favorite Sonic stories ever.

That said, the arc isn’t without its issues. While I like the overall plot of the Metarex and the introduction of Cosmo, certain parts of their lore aren’t explained or built up well enough. Some emotional scenes land perfectly, but others don’t hit as hard as they should—especially when it comes to the main villains.

Like I mentioned earlier, there are still a few aimless episodes here and there. Nowhere near as bad as the first 50 episodes, but sometimes it’s just Sonic and the gang going to a random planet to help out. It’s nice, but not always as exciting as it could be.

There are so many great ideas in this arc that I feel could be expanded into a full-length Sonic game. And anyone who’s watched the Metarex Saga knows exactly what I mean when I say Dark Sonic had insane potential.

Sadly if you watch the 4kids version of this arc, while they get the comedic parts just right the emotional parts just don't hit nearly as well as they do since 4kids likes to remove any mention of death, just making their attempts at these emotional scenes more comical than anything.

All in all, I love the Metarex Saga. To me, this is the ultimate Sonic series. While it has its flaws, it nails the emotional beats, has some really fun action scenes, and—more importantly—cuts down on the forgettable human characters. Heck, it even manages to make Chris surprisingly likable.