Mobius

Mobius is the planet that the Sonic the Hedgehog characters are from in the comic book series made by Archie Comics (United States) and Fleetway (UK), and in all three American cartoons, including the light-hearted Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, the ABC cartoon Sonic the Hedgehog (known as "SatAM" by the Sonic community) and Sonic Underground. Mobius is currently not used in any other continuities of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

The games
Sonic the Hedgehog was created as a mascot for Sega, replacing their former mascot Alex Kidd. In order to maximise the appeal of the new character, his background (and the planet on which he lived) was given no detailed information in any of the initial games of the series (from the first game through to Sonic 3D Blast). This allowed the separate branches of the company (Sega of Japan, Sega of America and Sega of Europe) to each create their own stories to fit third party sponsors such as comics and TV series. In the games Mobius is a tropical planet which contains islands (South Island, Westside Island, Angel Island, Flicky Island) with no humans. The population is just animals.

Whereas Sega of Japan considered the setting of the games to be Earth, the English-speaking versions of the games considered the setting to be a fictional planet. The name Mobius was adopted as canon by Western shows and comics. However, since the release of Sonic Adventure and its sequels, which were set on Earth and featured more human interaction, the Japanese backstory has internationally been accepted as canon. Now most gamers consider that all of the games took place on Earth and that Mobius has been retconned out of existence. The name "Mobius" is sometimes believed to have originated from a mistranslation of a 1992 Yuji Naka interview, but Sega of America had been using the name since at least 1991.

Some fans believe that Earth, as adopted in the Japanese canon, is actually a future Earth or Earth in an alternate universe (this is typical in anime). This is partly backed up in the Shadow the Hedgehog game because the world map in the background of the GUN headquarters is similar to Earth but the shape of the landmass is slightly changed. However, with the release of Sonic Riders, the future Earth theory have virtually been proven impossible. This is due to the fact that the Babylon Rogues, a group of anthropomorphic birds that appear in the game, are said to hail from the ancient Babylonians, who lived over a thousand years prior to our time. In other words, anthropomorphic animals have existed since ancient times in the Sonic universe, and thus cannot be evolved versions of animals from our time. The alternate universe theory is still quite plausible however.

As the games are now internationally assumed to be taking place on Earth, as per traditional Japanese canon, Mobius has, in recent years, begun to adopt a slightly different and more abstract meaning for many Sonic fans, as despite whatever world Sonic may officially reside, Mobius is sometimes used to refer to the aesthetically-bound and all-encompassing universe of Sonic the Hedgehog, understood by some to be a purely emotional construct of each individual fan. Even many who adamantly adhere to the idea that Sonic the Hedgehog can be tied only to Earth have begun to accept Mobius as a term denoting "the special feeling we got when we first played the games in the early 1990s". (as first quoted from an online exchange on the subject.)

Other groups of fans of the Japanese and Western fictions alike have concluded that for Sonic's world to be an Earth of the near future/Earth in an alternate universe or for it to be Mobius would mean the exact same thing (See SatAM and Archie Continuities).

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
The animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog provided one of the earliest versions of the planet Mobius. The overall look of the planet was cartoony and the population ranged from the series standard humans and anthropomorphic animals to sausage people and other oddities.

In this continuity, as in the Japanese version, the place is completely free, with Dr. Ivo Robotnik just trying time and again to take it over (and usually failing miserably).

Sonic the Comic
Sonic the Comic, a UK-based comic published by Fleetway, and certain other books, provided a Mobius backdrop far more consistent with the style of the first few games. Once again, the inhabitants of the planet were anthropomorphic animals. Sonic the Comic notably divided the planet up into "zones", each with its own distinctive landscape and climate, in a similar manner to the early games. Key Zones were the Emerald Hill Zone, home of Sonic and a frequent target for Robotnik; the Metropolis Zone, here a capital city (with its skyline looking much like Mega-City One) for the planet and Robotnik's base of operations, via his Citadel Robotnik building; Casino Night Zone, given residential areas and the haunt of recurring gangster villain Max Gamble; Chemical Plant Zone, setting for the Tails 'Zonerunner' stories; and Mushroom Hill Zone, where the Emerald Hill folk hid to escape Robotnik. Original Zones, like Stone Tower and the upper-class El Dorado Zone, were also created,

In this version, Robotnik eventually took over the planet and ruled as dictator for years, using his subjects as slaves and forcibly turning them into Badniks. He was eventually overthrown and went into hiding, however. A recurring theme through the latter half of the comic's run was that there had once been a war on Mobius between an ancient echidna race (of which Knuckles is one of the last survivors) and the Drakon Empire. The Chaos Emeralds (important in this continuity, as in the games) were a product of that ancient war, and both the Aquatic Ruin Zone and Flickies' Island were old Drakon outposts.

In one issue of the comic, Amy Rose and her friend Tekno travelled to the dawn of life on Mobius, here shown to be caused by a team of scientific dinosaurs in spacesuits who worked for what was hinted to be God. Amy & Tekno also travelled to the planet Earth, and as a result of this story, rogue British military forces subsequently invaded Mobius before being hurled out by the spirit of the planet itself. A later story showed that, due to their highly similar ecosystems, Earth & Mobius were twin planets.

The subsequent fusing of the energies of Mobius with the enlarged sub-atomic world of Shanazar caused portals to open to various worlds and dimensions on Mobius, including various points in time in Earth's history. The comic ceased its run after adapting Sonic Adventure, though judging by the way they dealt with the events of that game, it is unlikely the writers would have done anything to change this view of the planet.

SatAM and Archie continuities
Although it was never mentioned in the SatAM show itself, Season 2 head writer Ben Hurst mentioned that he had intended for later seasons to establish Mobius as a future Earth but the series was canceled before such plans would be solidified. The society of SatAM's Mobius consists of anthropomorphic animals called Mobians, ruled by a dictator known as Dr. Robotnik (formerly called Julian) who aims to replace Mobian life with robots via roboticization.

In the Archie Comics version of Sonic, the writers eventually revealed a similar "future Earth" idea themselves, presumably as a result of the Western games' decision to do away with Mobius and present it as Earth. Mobians were revealed to be by-products of a genetic bomb dropped many millennia ago by an alien race known as the Xorda. This bomb apparently caused some animals to incorporate a great amount of human DNA. The same bomb also created Overlanders (see below). Contrary to this "Mobius-is-Earth" retcon, earlier comics had stated that Mobius exists in an entirely different universe from our own that can be reached through the Cosmic Interstate, an intergalactic road that connects different universes and realities across time and space. A possible way to rationalize this is to state that the time between the various realities in Sonic is not always in sync. Though, the comics appear to conflict, between Mobius-is-earth or another dimension, you can combine both ideas into one. Mobius IS in another dimension and IS also a future Earth of this particular dimension. In this dimension, Earth had the aforementioned cataclysm and then evolved into Mobius.

Overlanders and humans in Archie
Attempting to reconcile the presence of the obviously human Dr. Robotnik with a planet occupied mostly by Mobians, the Archie writers created the concept of Overlanders, four-fingered humanoids in constant conflict with Mobians. The Overlanders and Mobians famously fought in a Great War, during which the traitor Ovi (see above) helped the Mobians and gained the king's trust. When Mobius was revealed to be Earth, the Overlanders were explained as descendants of human beings who evolved and overcame the Xorda's genetic bomb.

After their defeat in the Great War, a group of overlanders traveled to space seeking out a better life though their journey would eventually take them back to Mobius though not before having a chance encounter with the Xorda which would serve as the cause for the alien's return.

In addition to Overlanders, Mobius has a smaller population of somewhat friendlier humans, who are identical to modern-day human beings who do not share the feelings of racism towards Mobians that seem common to the Overlanders. They survived the Xorda bomb unharmed as they were on board a passenger jet in mid-flight during the attack and crash landed beside a giant mountainous cavern in which would eventually become the human built-city of Station Square. These humans were rediscovered during the time at which the comic's adaptation of Sonic Adventure takes place. Overlanders and humans, despite their minor differences, now occupy a common home in Station Square though as can be pointed out through several appearances in events that proceed the overlander retreat to space, it would appear that the presence of Overlanders on Mobius is not limited to just Station Square. Station Square/the United Federation is currently allied with free Mobians to fight the Eggman Empire.

Sonic Underground
Like in SatAm, Mobius was conquered by Robotnik who polluted and Roboticised most of the planet. Unlike SatAm, most of the Mobian population remained alive (as only those breaking Robotnik's laws were Roboticised). Mobius possesses a large aristocracy, who - outside of taxes - are largely untouched by Robotnik's reign; the vast majority of the population are lower-classes who live in slums & squalor, fearful of being arrested at any time.

Mobian Chronology
This planet bases chronology on four different ages on people.

Physical/Physiological age
This age is based on how a person looks like.

Activity age
This is based on how many years a person has been active.

Existence age
This is the closest to chronological age, but chronological age is a person's real age, based on the amount of time that has gone by in that person's life. If someone is mortal, their existence age agrees with that. But with immortals, like Shadow, existence age shows how long a person has lived, but isn't their real age. An immortal's real age may be 75, but their existence age may be 100,000. Since technically immortals stop at an age, that's what Mobians take into account (Yuji Naka based Shadow's age by Mobian chronology).

True age
This is how old a person really is. For mortals, this is based upon existence age. It is not based on existence age for immortals(see above article).

Sonic X
In this newest Sonic anime, the majority of the action takes place on Earth, though Sonic and co. are transported there from another planet, and return there at the series end. This planet appears to be far more technologically advanced than Earth in some respects (eg Tails's gadgets) and far less so in others (the Chaotix are unfamiliar with DVDs and use a projector and both the Chaotix and Vanilla use old phone models). Only anthropomorphs seem to live on it. It is clearly presented as their home world, leading some to theorize/believe, fairly logically, that this planet is Mobius. The planet is not referred to by name, so there's really nothing to say that it is Mobius, but at the same time, there is nothing to disprove the notion either, besides the circumstantial fact that there has been virtually no mention of Mobius in Japan. It is highly unlikely that Sonic Team has absolutely no familiarity with the Western concept of Mobius however, since a worldwide majority of non-Sonic Team related Sonic paraphernalia has made use of the idea for over a decade.

It has been suggested that the reason for the planet's anonymity has to do with the various legal complications that have separated Western and Japanese canons in the past, but that the intention of the show's creators was to clearly suggest the existence of Mobius without being so specific as to adopt it legally, and also without creating another named world similar enough to be viewed as a knock-off.

Conflict with the games
Some people suggest that the unnamed planet in the anime is also Sonic's home planet in the games. This, however, greatly conflicts with the games. The games Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Battle, Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Riders have obviously human populations, with a human government. Although Sonic X explained this part in the two Adventure adaptations, by having Sonic (and the other characters) transported to Earth by the time the events in those games took place, a faithful adaptation of the newer game Shadow the Hedgehog (video game) would have to mean they would have to go back to Earth.

The planet in the games is still referred to as Earth in the most recent games, but in Sonic X, Sonic and his friends eventually went from Earth back to their planet.

Perhaps most obviously, there is the fact that official Japanese manuals for the Mega Drive games stated several times that those older games took place on Earth, on islands in the Pacific ocean (according to the Sonic X continuity, all games prior to Sonic Adventure would have to take place before Sonic got transported to Earth). One manual even mentioned where on Earth Sonic was born; Christmas Island.