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Sonic X
The main characters of Sonic X.
ソニックX (Sonikku Ekkusu)
Genre	Action, Adventure, Science fiction, Comedy, Fantasy, Mecha, Drama
Anime and Manga Portal

Sonic X (ソニックX, Sonikku Ekkusu^?) is an anime series that is adapted from the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. It was produced in Japan by TMS Entertainment with the partnership of Sonic Team. So far, these are the only TV appearances of Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Rouge the Bat.

Contents 1 Plot synopsis 1.1 Series 1 (Seasons 1-2) 1.2 Series 2 (Season 3) 1.3 Series 3 (Season 4) 2 Characters 2.1 Main 2.2 Minor 2.3 Exclusive characters 3 American version 3.1 Censorship 4 Theme songs 4.1 U.S. 4.2 Japan 4.3 Europe/Australia/New Zealand 4.4 France 4.5 Latin America 5 DVD releases 6 Tie-ins 6.1 Comic book series 6.2 Toy line 6.3 Trading card game 7 Notes and references 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Plot synopsis

[edit] Series 1 (Seasons 1-2)

During a mission to rescue Cream the Rabbit and Cheese the Chao from Dr. Eggman's headquarters, Sonic and his friends are caught in an explosion that transports them to another dimension occupied by humans. While Sonic is exploring this new place, he gets into trouble with the local police, who send the S Team, led by Sam Speed, after him. The S Team fails at catching Sonic, but Sonic falls into a swimming pool. Luckily, he is saved from drowning by a twelve year old boy named Christopher Thorndyke. Chris lives in a mansion owned by his two celebrity parents with his inventor grandfather. Chris aids Sonic in locating his friends, and it is not long before Dr. Eggman reappears. Eggman decides to make the new dimension the start of the Eggman Empire, and Sonic and Eggman battle to collect all seven Chaos Emeralds, which came to Earth with them; Sonic wants to use the Emeralds to return home, while Eggman wants to use them to take over the new world. At the end of the first season, Chaos Control occurs, but instead of sending Sonic and co. back home, parts of their world (like Angel Island) are sent to Earth instead.

In the first season, when Sonic and his friends are transported to Chris's world and they get into trouble with the police they hide in Chris's house, where only Chris, his grandfather, their maid, Ella, and their butler, Tanaka, know of their existence. Eventually, however, they are accepted as heroes and celebrities, with the entire city knowing about them. The second season features plots based on Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Battle.

In the second season (in Japan, the end of the first series), it is discovered that the Earth and Sonic's world were once a single planet, but a cataclysmic event split it into two and sent them into different dimensions. The flow of time on Sonic's world is considerably slower, with a single month on Sonic's world equaling an entire year on Earth. Because Sonic and his friends were transported to Earth, the two worlds are beginning to merge into one yet again, which will cancel out their respective timelines and freeze time itself; thus, Sonic and co. have no choice but to go back.

[edit] Series 2 (Season 3)

It has been six years since Sonic and friends returned to their dimension. Chris is now eighteen and has been working on repairing his grandfather's dimensional portal. A plant being named Cosmo arrives on Sonic's planet, looking for the one who can wield the powers of the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic, having been nearly defeated by a new enemy called Dark Oak, scatters the Chaos Emeralds across the galaxy to prevent Dark Oak from using their power. When Chris uses the portal, he suddenly finds himself in Sonic's world. His age becomes the age he would be if it had only been six months, not six years, reverting him back to the age of twelve years old. However, Chris still has all his memories of the years since. To Sonic, only six months had passed. During their reunion, Dark Oak and his Metarex army (similar to the Black Arms from the Sonic games) attacks and steal the "Planet Egg" from Sonic's planet. Without the Egg, all the plants on the planet wither. Once again, Sonic and his friends venture into space to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds.

After many run-ins with Dr. Eggman and the pursuing Metarex, Cosmo is eventually unveiled as an unwilling spy for the Metarex, who are part of the same race of anthropomorphic plants that Cosmo from. When the Metarex enact a plan that could destroy the universe, Cosmo sacrifices herself with the help of Super Sonic and Super Shadow, and her essence is manifested in the form of a seed. With the Metarex destroyed, Eggman helps Chris to be sent back home. Soon thereafter, Dr. Eggman revives his previous rivalry with Sonic, albeit a more light-hearted one. The series ends with a couple of minor cliffhangers, such as the whereabouts of Shadow (although it is insinuated that Dr. Eggman knows what happened to Shadow) and what happened to the seed that Cosmo gave Tails. But in the Japanese version Shadow the Hedgehog is still alive were he put a rose on Molly's grave.

[edit] Series 3 (Season 4)

Rumors have begun to circulate about a possible fourth season of Sonic X being in development, for instance, according to SonicHQ TMS is listing Sonic X among the anime they are producing, (although this may be because the third season has not yet been broadcast in Japan). The ending of episode 78 has also fueled speculation. There were many cliffhangers such as what happened to Chris. In the very end after Sonic and the gang take off in the X-Tornado, a pot is shown with a small plant in it which could supposedly be one of Cosmo's seeds. In addition, Shadow is shown to be alive, him having put a rose next to Molly's grave. This scene is excluded from the English version, although he is certainly still alive. It is possible that the fourth season will be based on Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Amy Rose
• Miles "Tails" Prower
• Knuckles the Echidna
• Shadow the Hedgehog
• Rouge the Bat
• Dr. Eggman

[edit] Minor

• Cream the Rabbit & Cheese
• Big the Cat
• Froggy
• E-102 Gamma
• E-123 Omega
• Chaos
• Chaotix
• Emerl: Emerl is an ancient robot found by Eggman. He becomes close friends with Cream after she finds him. He can copy abilities displayed by others.
• Tikal the Echidna
• Vanilla the Rabbit

[edit] Exclusive characters

• Christopher ("Chris") Thorndyke: Chris is a boy who becomes involved with Sonic and his companions. He is the son of Nelson Thorndyke, a CEO of a engineering corporation, and Lindsay Thorndyke, an actress, who do not spend much time with him. He is mainly raised by his grandfather, Chuck, and Ella. He lets Sonic and his companions stay at his mansion, and he helps them find the Chaos Emeralds. After they return back to their dimension, he spends six years working on a gate that will allow him to transport himself to Sonic's world. After he arrives, he reverts back to his twelve year old body, and helps fight against the Metarex. Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (child) and Masakazu Morita (adult) (Japanese), Suzanne Goldish (child) and Michael Sinterniklaas (adult) (English)
• Charles "Chuck" Thorndyke: Chuck is the paternal grandfather of Chris Thorndyke. He is a scientist and inventor, who bonds with Tails due to their shared interest of inventing. Voiced by: Bin Shimada (Japanese), Jerry Lobozzo (English)
• Ella: Ella is Chris's large and jolly maid. She befriends Amy and Cream after discovering their existence. She enjoys her job and she is very hotheaded.
• Tanaka: Tanaka is Chris's butler, who discovers that Chris is hiding the existence of Sonic and his companions. He is a skilled martial artist and he works with Topaz on occasions.Voiced by: (Japanese), Darren Dunstan (English)
• Decoe and Bocoe: Decoe and Bocoe are Eggman's personal humanoid assistant robots. Decoe is tall, slim and gold-colored, while Bocoe is short, stubby and silver. They are almost constantly seen with Eggman, helping him pilot his machinery among other things. They are somewhat clumsy and stupid,(similar to Scratch and Grounder) and they constantly reflect on their failures and insult Dr. Eggman behind his back. Voiced by: Ken Yamaguchi (Decoe) and Bin Shimada (Bocoe) (Japanese), Andrew Rannells (Decoe) and Darren Dunstan (Bocoe) (English)
• Bokkun: Bokkun is robot employed by Doctor Eggman to send messages to Sonic that come in a form of a TV that blows up in the recipient's face. Bokkun is constantly mistreated and abused by Eggman, though he still is very loyal to him. He enjoys using bombs to annoy people and he flies using a jetpack. Voiced by: Yumiko Kobayashi (Japanese), Andrew Rannells (English)
• Cosmo: Cosmo is a young member of a plant-like alien species, whose homeworld was destroyed by the villainous Metarex. She escapes to Sonic's homeworld after the attack and meets Sonic and his companions. She has the ability to empathize with plants, trees, or the planet and determine their state of life, while her skirt allows her to jump to high heights, and gently float down to the ground. Voiced by: Etsuko Kozakura (Japanese), Amy Birnbaum (English)
• Metarex: The Metarex are a group of five cyborgs, Pale Bay Leaf, Black Narcissus, Dark Oak, Yellow Zelkova, and Red Pine, who use a vast army of robots to steal worlds of their "Planet Eggs," the source of all life, leaving the worlds dying in their wake. They later reveal that they are the male members of Cosmo's species, who betrayed their own kind. They are extremely powerful; in his first appearance, Dark Oak easily outmatches Super Sonic (though it should be noted that Sonic was, by his own admission, holding back). Dark Oak is voiced by Jouji Nakata in Japanese and Jonathan Todd Ross in English.
• Mr. Stewart is a government agent posing as a school teacher assigned to watch Sonic and his friends by the President. He is a fan of Chris' mother Linsey Flair. He always looks out for him and the kids in his class. He is voiced Andrew Rannells in the English dub.
• Scarlet Garcia is a reporter for SSTV news in Station Square. She is voiced by Megan Hollingshead in English.
• Sam Speed: Sam is Chris's maternal uncle and the leader of the Speed Team, a special unit of the Station Square police force that uses high-performance Formula racing cars. He forms a rivalry with Sonic. Voiced by: Souichirou Tanaka (Japanese), Frank Frankson (English)
• Topaz is a GUN agent and the human partner of Rouge the Bat. She initially disapproves of Rouge, though they later become friends, and their main assignment is to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds from Eggman. She is voiced by Kayzie Rogers in the English version.

[edit] American version

In 2003, 4Kids Entertainment and VIZ Media co-licensed Sonic X for the United States, with the series being distributed and licensed on DVD by FUNimation, Alliance Films (Canada) and Paramount Home Entertainment (UK). The episodes were then localized for the intended demographic, including the complete replacement of the score, as well as removing suggestive content and changing the fate of several characters, as well as editing the story to be much lighter and younger in tone for US Release. Other continuity errors include mislabelling "Chaos Control" as Doctor Eggman's base. While both English and Japanese characters were digitally removed or replaced with incoherent symbols, Chinese characters were unedited in The Adventures of Knuckles and Hawk, in coherence with the episode's setting.

4Kids did not cast the voice actors from the Sonic games and went with their in-house VAs. Mike Pollock, the current voice actor for Doctor Eggman, stated during an interview that he was provided samples of the game's voice overs as a reference.^[1] The original 4Kids cast included Jason Griffith (as Sonic and Shadow), Lisa Ortiz (as Amy), Amy Palant (as Tails), Dan Green (as Knuckles), Rebecca Handler (as Cream), and Mike Pollock (as Dr. Eggman).

Many people panned the American version for being poorly dubbed while some criticized it for editing the dialogue and changing the music to be more "suitable for kids". In episode 52 (A New Start), when characters Amy and Sonic reunite, the dialogue was changed in a way that removed any signs of them being more than friends, along with removing the sign that stated "Home of Amy Rose". Because of these and many other edits, the Sonic X fanbase have said that the original Japanese version is far superior to the English version. Some people have criticized the show for bringing in human characters.

The cast of the 4Kids production eventually became the official cast for Sega's Sonic titles, starting from Shadow the Hedgehog in 2005.

When a producer for the series was asked about any prior experience with the Sonic franchise, he replied, "I've never played the game, seen the series or read the comics."^[2]

As of November 2009, 4Kids Entertainment still owns the North American rights to Sonic X. The edited dub airs on The CW4Kids in reruns, and the entire series can be viewed online at 4KidsTV.com, as well as the first 26 episodes on YouTube Shows. However, in July 2009, 4Kids uploaded a preview for a subtitled episode of the Japanese version of Sonic X. [1] A representative on 4Kids' YouTube Channel says more episodes are coming, including the complete first season. [2].

[edit] Censorship

Although all the episodes aired in the US, they were not presented full-length compared to the original Japanese version. In the Japanese version, some scenes from some Sonic X episodes contained material such as weapons, guns, violence, character death, hints of romance, cussing, and sexual stereotyping (In Japan, this type of material is not considered inappropriate). As a result, 4Kids Entertainment removed most scenes containing these elements, due to the fact that the American version was rated TV Y7 FV, although most of the fighting was kept in all the episodes.

[edit] Theme songs

For the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, much of Europe, and Brazil, the opening song was performed by a female singer repeating the show's title numerous times, the U.S. ending theme was kept, however, and all of the inserts were edited out of the English version.

[edit] U.S.

• Opening

1. "Gotta Go Fast" by Norman J. Grossfeld, Joseph Garrity, and Russell Velázquez

• Ending

1. "Gotta Go Fast" (shortened version) by Norman J. Grossfeld, Joseph Garrity, and Russell Velázquez

[edit] Japan

• Opening

1. "SONIC DRIVE" by Hironobu Kageyama & Hideaki Takatori

1. Intro Version 1 (eps. 1-26)
2. Intro Version 2 (eps. 27-78)

• Endings

1. "Mi-Ra-I" by:RUN&GUN(English translation: "Future") (eps. 1–13)
2. "Hikaru Michi" by Aya Hiroshige (English translation: "The Shining Road") (eps. 14–39 and 53–78)
3. "T.O.P" by KP & URU (eps. 40–52)

• Inserts

1. "Kotoba ni Dekinai" by OFF COURSE (Episode 26) (TV-Tokyo Broadcast Only)
2. "Live & Learn" by Crush 40 (Episode 38) (From Sonic Adventure 2)
3. "Natsu no Hi" by OFF COURSE (Episode 52) (International and TV-Tokyo Broadcast Only)
4. "Midori no Hibi" by OFF COURSE (Episode 52) (TV-Tokyo Broadcast Only)
5. "Event: The Last Scene" by Fumie Kumatani (Episode 52) (From Sonic Adventure 2) (Japanese DVD and International Broadcasts Only)
6. "Fakery Way...for Twinkle Park" by Jun Senoue (Episode 68, 76) (From Sonic Adventure)
7. "Event : Defeat of the Ultimate Lifeform" by Jun Senoue and Fumie Kumatani (Episode 68) (From Sonic Adventure 2)
8. "Event : Keeping my promises" (Episode 68) (From Sonic Adventure 2)
9. "Vengeance is Mine...for Radical Highway" by Jun Senoue (Episode 72) (From Sonic Adventure 2)
10. "3 Black Noises" by Jun Senoue (Episode 68, 72) (From Sonic Adventure 2)
11. "Boss : Chaos ver.0, 2, 4" by Jun Senoue (Episode 73) (From Sonic Adventure)
12. "SONIC DRIVE" by Hironobu Kageyama & Hideaki Takatori (Episodes 1, 42, 48, 52 [Hironobu Kageyama only/instrumental], 72)

[edit] Europe/Australia/New Zealand

• Opening

1. "Sonic X" by Jetix
2. "Gotta Go Fast" Played in certain episodes throughout the show.

• Ending

1. "Gotta Go Fast" (shortened version) by Norman J. Grossfeld, Joseph Garrity, and Russell Velázquez

[edit] France

• Opening of TF1

1. "SONIC DRIVE" by Hironobu Kageyama & Hideaki Takatori; sung in French by Claude Vallois (Lyrics completely modified but same music)

• Intro Version 1 (eps. 1-26) First Season
• Intro Version 2 only seen in episode 39, also eps. 67-74

• Opening of Jetix

1. "Sonic X" by Jetix

• Endings

1. "Mi-Ra-I" by:RUN&GUN (English translation: "Future") (eps. 1–13) instrumental version
2. "Hikaru Michi" by Aya Hiroshige (English translation: "The Shining Road") (eps. 14–39 and 53–78) instrumental version
3. "T.O.P" by KP & URU (eps. 40–52) instrumental version

• Inserts

1. "Live & Learn" by Crush 40 (Episode 38) (From Sonic Adventure 2)
2. "Natsu no Hi" by OFF COURSE (Episode 52)
3. "Event: The Last Scene" by Fumie Kumatani (Episode 52) (From Sonic Adventure 2)

[edit] Latin America

• Opening

1. "Sonic X" by Jetix (Seasons 1 and 2)
2. "Gotta Go Fast" Spanish version by Jetix (Season 3, only on some episodes)

• Ending

1. "Gotta Go Fast" (shortened version) by Norman J. Grossfeld and Russell Velázquez (English and Spanish versions by Jetix. English version was shown on seasons 1 and 2, Spanish version on season 3)

[edit] DVD releases

All Sonic X episodes were released in Australia. In 2005, four volumes were released in the UK by Warner Home Video, which featured two episodes per disc. In America, after complaints about confusion among which episodes were on which volumes, 4Kids released all three seasons on 13 episode collection box sets by Universal Studios Home Entertainment (Because of Jetix), Walt Disney Home Entertainment & Contender Entertainment Group.

[edit] Tie-ins

[edit] Comic book series

In September 2005, Archie Comics, publisher of the North American Sonic the Hedgehog comics started a series based on Sonic X. Issue #40 was its finale, and in March a new comic book series started entitled, Sonic Universe.

[edit] Toy line

McDonald's released a set of Sonic X disk launchers one with Sonic, one with Tails and one with Knuckles on the launchers and the disk themselves. The Leapster, from LeapFrog Enterprises, released a Sonic X-themed math game intended for kindergarten and first grade students. Toy Island also made action figures in 2006 and 2007, some of which were 2 slightly altered re-releases of figures from a Sonic Adventure line and larger molds of part of a series of Gashapon figurines.

[edit] Trading card game

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] See also

• List of Sonic X episodes
• List of Sonic X characters
• List of television programmes broadcast by ITV
• List of voice actors in Sonic X

[edit] External links

• Sonic X at Sonic Central
• Sonic X at Sonic Team
• Sonic X (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Sonic X (anime) at Absolute Anime
• Sonic X at TV Tokyo (Japanese)
• Sonic X at Wikia

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