Sonic X

"Good night! Have sweet dreams!"

- Sonic in the Japanese version.

Sonic X (ソニックX) is an anime series loosely based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. It was animated and produced in Japan by TMS Entertainment with the partnership of Sega and Sonic Team. It was first broadcasted in Japan in 2003 by TV Tokyo. During that same year, 4Kids Entertainment obtained the license to localize and broadcast the show in America.

Originally planned as a 52 episode series which would be inspired by the storylines of the Sonic Adventure series, Sonic X expanded to 78 episodes between 2005 and 2006. These additional episodes (53 to 78) were never aired in Japan.

As of June 2012, the copyright and branding of Sonic X in America was passed onto Saban Brand's Kidsco Media Ventures following 4Kids Entertainment's bankruptcy due to a lawsuit. Despite this, the show did not receive significant differences from 4Kids Entertainment's changes.

Plot synopsis


The 78 episodes in Sonic X are split into eight sagas:
 * New World Saga (episodes 1-13)
 * Chaos Emerald Saga (episodes 14-26)
 * Chaos Saga (episodes 27-32)
 * Shadow Saga (episodes 33-38)
 * Egg Moon Saga (episodes 39-41)
 * Emerl Saga (episodes 42-46)
 * Homebound Saga (episodes 47-52)
 * Metarex Saga (episodes 53-78)

New World Saga
Sonic and his friends arrived into Earth from their unnamed home planet via Chaos Control. Sonic met Christopher Thorndyke, becoming friends with him. Sonic then rescued his other friends who ended up in Earth as well and they agreed to settle into the Thorndyke Mansion as their new home in Earth. They mainly had to hide from the public because of their unique characteristics but were accepted by Chris' family and friends. Dr. Eggman vowed to achieve world domination over Earth with his robots but are stopped by Sonic and his friends. The President, however, is greatly concerned with Eggman's threats to the public society and issues the military to attack Eggman's base. Sonic and his friends also aided the military and at the end, Eggman's base was destroyed and Sonic was praised as a hero to the human population.

Chaos Emerald Saga
Now being hailed as heroes, Sonic's friends are able to get out of the house more often and went on vacations. Dr. Eggman and his diabolical attempts to achieve world domination returns, mainly using his flying fortresses the Egg Fort and Egg Fort II as his new operational bases instead of a stationary tower but this didn't stop Sonic and his friends from continuing to defeat Eggman.

Also, the heroes collected Chaos Emeralds, bringing their total to five while Eggman managed to steal one. As Knuckles was desperate to obtain the last Chaos Emerald but knew it was not possible due to Sonic and Eggman's differences, he made the mistake of entrusting Dr. Eggman with the Chaos Emeralds the heroes have collected. The Egg Fort II transforms into E-99 Eggsterminator and harnesses the emeralds' power to defeat Sonic but Chris manages to reclaim the emeralds and give them to Sonic, allowing Sonic to transform into Super Sonic and defeat Eggman. As a result of the seven Chaos Emeralds' proximity within another, Chaos Control occurred but instead of sending Sonic and his friends back to their home planet, parts of Sonic's world (such as Angel Island) has joined with Earth.

Chaos Saga
The series focused on an adaption of Sonic Adventure, introducing characters such as Chaos and Tikal. Eggman befriended Chaos so he could utilize its potential powers to achieve world domination and to Sonic and his friends' shock, Chaos grew more powerful every time he is fed a Chaos Emerald. While Sonic and his friends attempt to collect each Chaos Emerald they can find to prevent Chaos from growing stronger, Knuckles began to discover the history of his own tribe of Echidnas that lived on Angel Island as he found the pieces of the Master Emerald since it was shattered when Dr. Eggman awakened Chaos.

Eventually, Chaos betrayed Eggman, wanting the seven Chaos Emeralds for its own purposes and began to destroy and flood Station Square by assuming the form of Perfect Chaos. Tikal appeared, wanting to stop Chaos from destroying the world like it did several millennia ago so Sonic harnessed the Chaos Emeralds that Chaos discarded to transform into Super Sonic, not knowing that the emeralds weren't completely drained of its powers and defeated Chaos who became sentinent once more.

Shadow Saga
The series focused on an adaption of Sonic Adventure 2, introducing Shadow the Hedgehog, a new arch-rival to Sonic. Authorities mistook Shadow as Sonic as a fugitive for various crimes. As an act of revenge for the death of his close friend, Maria, Shadow wanted to destroy the humans and Eggman hones a powerful weapon called the Eclipse Cannon in order to threaten the world. It needed the power of the Chaos Emeralds so Shadow, Eggman and mysteriously Rouge went to gather the Chaos Emeralds. Although the trio only collected six of the emeralds, Eggman demonstrated the Eclipse Cannon's power by blowing half of the moon. Seeing that the source of the weapon and the emeralds are up in Space Colony ARK, Sonic and his friends traveled there to stop Eggman from achieving his goals.

Eventually, Eggman discovered that the heroes had the seventh Chaos Emerald and stole it to harness the full power of the Eclipse Cannon but this triggered a new program devised by Eggman's grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, who planned to collide the Space Colony ARK with Earth in order to seek vengeance at the humans when all seven Chaos Emeralds are used in the Eclipse Cannon. Sonic, his friends and Eggman set aside their differences in order to prevent this doomsday from happening by disabling the Chaos Emerald's energy. Shadow was reluctant to help the heroes but was convinced by Chris to remember Maria's true promise and aided the heroes in distracting the Bio Lizard that attacked Sonic and his friends, allowing Knuckles to nullify the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald but the doomsday was not over yet as the Bio Lizard merged with the ARK, determined to keep on its collision course. Sonic and Shadow used the emeralds to transform into Super Sonic and Super Shadow and together, they defeated the Bio Lizard (then known as the Final Lizard) and teleported the ARK back to its spot, saving the world from doomsday. This however cost the life of Shadow and everyone remembered him for being a hero.

Egg Moon Saga
Following from the doomsday, more guests from Sonic's world began to arrive on Earth, most notably the Chaotix and Cream's mother Vanilla the Rabbit (although it is seen in the comics that the former somehow were transported back to Sonic's world under unknown reasons). All the while, Eggman wanted to repair the Moon as an act of remorse for his evil deeds during the Shadow Saga and does it so in a short amount of time, forming the Egg Moon.

Later, it was seen that Earth was seemingly under a permanent solar eclipse due to the fact that the Egg Moon malfunctioned (or Eggman claimed so anyway). To make up for this, Eggman began advertising Sunshine Balls which could replicate sunlight. Soon, the citizens started hailing Eggman as a hero but Sonic didn't trust Eggman and began sabotaging the Sunshine Balls' source, creating a major disruption within the public and demanded Sonic to be arrested.

Everyone wanted to know why Sonic was doing this until the hedgehog himself told authorities of Eggman's true motives. Now being informed of this, the authorities now swayed their decision to arrest Eggman and with Sonic and his friends' help, they were successful in handcuffing Eggman and escorting him behind bars. Sonic was hailed as the true hero once more.

Emerl Saga
With Dr. Eggman behind bars, he sends Bokkun to wake up Emerl in his abandoned base. Afterwords Bokkun goes to fight Sonic in a giant tank with Emerl inside. Sonic beats him, and the tank self-destructs launching Emerl far away. Bokkun explains to Sonic that he was a distraction while another robot is sent to break Eggman out of prison. But the robot is stopped by Sam Speed and Amy Rose. Emerl is later found by Cream and Cheese outside the Thorndyke Mansion hidden in the bushes, in a very serious condition.

Eggman, desperate to break out of prison, decides to work his way out via community service as a mechanic repairing old machines but as he repairs the machines he implants a device that makes them become alive and activate other machines to do his will. While Sonic is busy neutralizing the machines, Bokkun breaks Eggman out of jail.

To counteract Eggman's escape, the President makes a tournament and offers a grand prize of the red Chaos Emerald. Sonic, Knuckles and Rouge are persuaded to enter once they hear about the prize and because the tournament is open for anyone to join. Mr. Thorndyke enters Tails, Amy, Ella, Mr. Tanaka, Chris and Chuck. Along with them, Lucky, Decoe, Bocoe, The President, Hawk, Danny, Sam Speed, Big the Cat, Mr. Stewart, Topaz, "The Black Knight" and Emerl enter.

Emerl is declared the winner of the tournament, and is given the Chaos Emerald. But he becomes violent from the power of the emerald reawakening his old coding and his loyalty to Dr. Eggman. Sonic and his friends try to stop him but Emerl, using his ability to copy moves stops them and begins to wreck havoc on the arena and then the city.

Cream and Cheese then decide to persuade Emerl to stop attacking, Emerl thinks for a second, but the Chaos Emerald's energy was too powerful to change his mind and Cream and cheese attack him together. As Emerl tries to copy one of their abilities the other gets in the way and strikes him. Emerl falls into the ocean and as he sinks down he begins to cry.

Homebound Saga
After hearing a battleship of G.U.N. soldiers disappear, Sonic and his friends set off to rescue them. They are eventually led to the remnant of the lost continent of Murasia and discovered that Dr. Eggman was behind the disappearance of the soldiers and is planning to activate a hotspot there. Other members of G.U.N. also accompany the heroes in their attack against Eggman but were driven off. Sonic and the others managed to defeat the ship and landed an island of Murasia. Still intent on setting of the hotspot, Eggman explores the island to find it while Sonic and the heroes try to locate him. Unfortunately, they awakened native large robots that attack them but after a heated battle, Sonic and the others are victorious and escaped as the island begins to sink.

Back at Station Square, everyone appears to enjoy having carefree lives until Sonic and the others heard that their home planet and Earth, once two separate planets, are beginning to join together as one which could potentially cause the timelines of both planets to freeze. As a result, Sonic and all of his other inhabitants of their home planet have no choice but to return back. Tails and Chuck spent the remainder of their time together to build a machine capable of initiating Chaos Control and successfully send everyone but Sonic to which Chris stops the machine, who can't bear with the fact that Sonic has to leave.

Chris and Sonic run away to a distant location while Chris' parents are desperate to find him. At the end of their journey, Chris comes to terms with his feelings and admits to Sonic that he is lonely before Sonic came to Earth and is afraid that he might be lonely again. Sonic expresses hope that the two will see each other again. Back in Sonic's home planet, everyone notices that Sonic has not returned back yet. Eggman sees this as an opportunity to take over the world but admits that even wants Sonic to return back. After a battle between Sonic's friends and the doctor, Sonic charges into the scene and stops Eggman; everyone is glad to have the hedgehog back. Six years later, an older Chris is now developing a project in attempt to travel to Sonic's world.

Metarex Saga
In Sonic's world, a new girl named Cosmo arrives on Sonic's planet, looking for the legendary one who can wield the powers of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Sonic, having been nearly defeated in outer space by a new enemy called Dark Oak, scatters the Chaos Emeralds across the galaxy in order to prevent Dark Oak from using their power. When Chris uses the dimensional portal, he suddenly finds himself in Sonic's world. His age has regressed all the way back to the age he was when he first met Sonic.

Chris learns that to Sonic, only six months had passed. During their reunion, Dark Oak and his Metarex Army attack Sonic's planet and steals the "Planet Egg" from it. Without the Planet Egg, all the trees and plants on Sonic's planet will wither and die. Sonic and his friends decide that Dark Oak and his schemes must be stopped, and they venture into space to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds.

This series uses elements from Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog such as Shadow surviving and being released with amnesia for the former and the common Metarex resembling the common Black Arms for the latter. After many run-ins with Dr. Eggman, and the pursuing Metarex Army, Cosmo's dark secret is eventually unveiled: she has been an unwilling spy for the Metarex all along and the Metarex themselves are actually part of the same race of autonomous, anthropomorphic plants that Cosmo is of, having twisted and modified their bodies for combat after war overtook their planet. They now must depend on the energy of the Planet Eggs to stay alive. When the Metarex enact a plan that could destroy the entire universe, Cosmo sacrifices herself in order to save everybody with the help of Super Sonic and Super Shadow; much to the grief of Tails, who had fallen in love with Cosmo during the course of their adventure. It is Tails himself who must kill Cosmo in order to release her power, which would halt the advance of Dark Oak and return him to his benevolent form. Her essence is manifested in the form of a seed, which Tails later cultivates.

With the Metarex destroyed, Eggman builds an invention that sends Chris home and Chris accepts, willing to leave all his friends to return home. Soon thereafter, Dr. Eggman revives his previous rivalry with Sonic, albeit a lighthearted one. The series ends with unresolved cliffhangers, such as the whereabouts of Chris, Cosmo's true fate (in the Japanese version) and Shadow (although the Japanese version reveals Shadow is alive, depicting him looking at Molly's memorial).

Production notes
In late 2004, production sketches, model sheets, storyboards and episode scripts of a supposed Series 2 began surfacing. Many dismissed them as a fan-made hoax as neither Sega nor TMS had officially announced continuing Sonic X beyond the original 52 episodes. It was not until early 2005 that Jetix France began to air the 26-episode "Series 2" shortly followed by a Taiwanese station and on 10 September 2005, 4Kids Entertainment began to air "Series 2" calling it "Season 3". Despite being made in Japan and dubbed into Japanese the show has not yet been aired there; in fact, currently, the only way to view "Series 2" in its original native language (Japanese) is to purchase the Chinese video CDs, which feature Japanese dialogue with Chinese subtitles. This video CD uses the second version of the Japanese opening theme, "SONIC DRIVE", and the second version of the Japanese ending theme, "The Shining Road", as well as a new ending sequence with the song "T.O.P."

Unproduced Series 3 (Season 4)
Rumors have also circulated 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 had not yet been broadcast in Japan). The ending of episode 78 has also fueled speculation; 4Kids TV has also marketed that episode as the season finale. 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 (or even Cosmo herself according to the Japanese version). 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 as implied by Eggman. There are other details to support another season, including how TMS' site says "78+ episodes", but TMS said at SonicAnime.net that there are no new episodes being produced.

Recurring Sonic characters

 * Sonic the Hedgehog (Super Sonic)
 * Miles &quot;Tails&quot; Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Cheese
 * Shadow the Hedgehog (Super Shadow)
 * Rouge the Bat
 * Doctor Eggman

Minor Sonic characters

 * Vector the Crocodile
 * Espio the Chameleon
 * Charmy Bee
 * Vanilla the Rabbit
 * E-102 Gamma
 * Tikal
 * Chaos
 * Emerl
 * Maria Robotnik
 * Big the Cat

Season 1, 2 & 3 (Series 1 & 2)

 * Christopher Thorndyke
 * Chuck Thorndyke
 * Ella
 * Mister Tanaka
 * Danny
 * Francis
 * Helen
 * Decoe
 * Bocoe
 * Bokkun

Season 1 & 2 (Series 1)

 * Chuck Thorndyke
 * Nelson Thorndyke
 * Lindsey Thorndyke
 * Topaz
 * Sam Speed
 * Jerome Wise
 * Mister Stewart
 * Scarlet Garcia
 * Hawk

Season 3 (Series 2)

 * Cosmo
 * Metarex
 * Dark Oak
 * Pale Bayleaf
 * Black Narcissus
 * Yellow Zelkova
 * Red Pine
 * Molly
 * Dark Sonic

Nazo
A concept art video/trailer released before Sonic X contains many features which were changed before the show was actually aired. These included a single still picture of a blue-gray hedgehog (the picture to the right). This image was then found on the official Sega website with the name Nazo.jpg. Since he has not appeared in the actual show and Sega has given no more information about him, Sonic fans popularly refer to him as "Nazo", which means "mystery" in Japanese. Also because of the lack of canon information, much debate has followed about who he was to be.

Novel adaptions
Six Sonic X novels based on the first few episodes of the Metarex Saga were published between 2005 and 2007. These are: Aqua Planet, Dr. Eggman Goes to War, Battle at Ice Palace and Desperately Seeking Sonic by Charlotte Fullerton, Meteor Shower Messenger by Paul Ruditis and Spaceship Blue Typhoon by Diana Gallagher.

Comic series
In September 2005, Archie Comics, publishers of the Sonic the Hedgehog comics started a comic book series based on Sonic X. According to writer Joe Edkin, the first nine issues take place in the continuity between episodes 32 and 33, which falls between the Chaos and Shadow Sagas. After this, the stories' chronological positions vary for some time, although in progressively later points in the series, but it never reaches into the events of Season 3. The series is based off the English dub of the anime, though it still fits with most of the aspects of the continuity established in the original Japanese version. The Sonic X comic series only contained 40 issues.

Toy line
The 4Kids version of the show was backed up by a toyline. The early figures in this line were in fact re-releases of an earlier Sonic Adventure toyline, criticized by many for awkward poses and poor sculpting. The line has currently moved onto more accurate and updated figures. Taking a concept from the popular Marvel Legends toys, one wave presents each of the five characters in it with part of a generic E-Series robot. Fans who buy the whole wave can complete the robot as a 'bonus' figure. Further waves include the re-release the first wave with the addition of a special key-chain, the Space Fighters collection and the Chaos Emeralds collection.

McDonald's released a set of Sonic X disk shooters featuring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow as toys for Happy Meals.

Leapster game
An educational game based on the series, also titled Sonic X, was released for the LeapFrog Leapster system.

Browser game
In the Vortex Sonic X website, there is a browser game entitled Sonic X Ring Thing.

Music
There is an album comprising of the music tracks that are each played during certain moments in the Japanese version of the anime entitled Sonic X ~Original Sound Tracks~. There are also short albums that mainly feature the Japanese opening and ending themes.

Differences between American and Japanese versions
Sonic X has numerous edits when the English version was to be dubbed and many items, places, dialogue etc. have been edited from its Japanese version to better suit children and comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) laws (in the U.S. and in rare cases even though at some points not followed, Canada), the TV Networks' regulations, and in other cases, social-factors of Americans, including violence, and a few others. Some of them has been done directly (such as violence, cursing and others) or in-directly (such as music). Because of this, there has numerous differences that has been seen as shown below.
 * In the Japanese version, all firearm sound effects had a bullet sound effect from a gun. In the American version, it was completely replaced with laser sound effects in any use of handguns was removed as well.
 * There are some scenes of blood, violence, death, text and gunfire in the Japanese version that were removed by 4Kids.
 * In the Japanese version, the characters (mostly Sonic) will say lines in Engrish, like "Thank you" or "No way", in which they mention other languages. In the American version, the only mention to other languages is Mr. Inteligente, which is Spanish for smart and Sonic saying "sayonara" which is Japanese for goodbye.
 * During the third season, Rouge blackmails Bokkun with a pendant. In the Japanese version, it was revealed that a picture of Cream is inside the pendant, thus revealing that Bokkun has a crush on Cream. In the English version, the contents were never seen for unknown reasons.
 * The Japanese version features Eyecatch cards at various intervals, displaying details about a character, such as weight, height and age. It even extends to Eggman's various robots. This was removed in the English version for unknown reasons.
 * In the American version, Rouge's cleavage is sometimes edited to make her breasts seem shorter.
 * All instances involving or depicting alcohol were portrayed child-friendly drinks. i.e: Champagne is replaced with Cola while beer is replaced with orange juice.

Eyecatch cards
Eyecatch cards are cards with various information about some of the characters and objects appearing during the Japanese version of Sonic X.

Trivia

 * The voice actor for Sonic at the time, Ryan Drummond, offered to voice Sonic for the dub but was rejected by 4Kids for not living in New York. Eventually, Drummond was removed as the voice actor for the Sonic games, after Sega of America decided to replace the entire voice cast for the games with the 4Kids cast shortly before the death of Deem Bristow, the previous voice actor for Dr. Eggman. Allegedly, he was only told when he asked if he would be needed for voice recordings in Shadow the Hedgehog from the beginning. Even though Drummond wanted to continue voicing Sonic, he was declined to voicing him for Shadow the Hedgehog, which resulted in many complaints from fans of the previous voice cast.
 * When the first thirteen episodes of Series 2/Season 3 were released on DVD in the US, they were packaged as the The Complete 5th Season (with thirteen episodes being a "season", and those episodes being the fifth division of thirteen episodes); also, the cover art to the DVD resembles the poster for the movie Firefox, with the Blue Typhoon in the same space as the MiG-31, the movie's titular jet fighter.
 * Sonic X has the most number of episodes among the Sonic television series. (Sonic X has 78 episodes while Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog had 66 episodes counting Christmas Blast, Sonic the Hedgehog had 26 and Sonic Underground had 40.)
 * In episode 20 of the Japanese version, Cream mentions that she was raised in Green Hill Zone, a reference to the classic 16-bit games.
 * The Australian Sonic X DVDs came with a trailer of Sonic Mega Collection Plus.
 * Shadow was seen removing his Inhibitor Rings and receiving a huge power boost as a result in the ending of his story in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), a concept originally used in Sonic X.
 * In an interview, the English writer of Sonic X states that he does not know a thing about Sonic, stating that he never played a single game, watched a single episode from any Sonic show, or even read any of the comics.
 * France was the only European country to dub the complete version of Sonic X without any edits.
 * In an interview, Jason Griffith revealed that he originally auditioned for the part of Chris, but was instead cast as Sonic. He did say that he thought it was exciting to be Sonic's companion but the producers thought his voice was better for Sonic.
 * In a commercial for season 3 of Sonic X, there are four videos of the game Shadow the Hedgehog, most likely an error. In this same commercial, a small clip from the Japanese opening plays. Both can be seen using frame-by-frame views.
 * This is the first Sonic cartoon in America to not have Dr. Eggman referred to as "Dr. Robotnik". The second is Sonic Boom.
 * Sonic X is notable for being one of the continuities of which Sonic and Amy's relationship borders more on romance than most other franchises. While Amy remains roughly the same in her approach to Sonic, he shows more affection that borders on romance, something that doesn't happen in most media aside from optional dialog and optional scenes in various games such as Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and Sonic Unleashed. Another continuity is the Sonic the Hedgheog manga series, where Eimi is the love interest of Nikki whose alter ego is Sonic the Hedgehog.
 * 4Kids had Jason Griffith and Dan Green as Sonic and Knuckles sing along with other 4Kids voice actors singing the American National Anthem.
 * In Mission Mode of Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut, during missions 3 and 12, a Sonic X poster with Sonic and Chris is visible in Station Square.
 * Sonic X was on the air for 11 years (including reruns), making it the longest running Sonic television series.