Besides the world of video games, Sonic the Hedgehog has had numerous adaptations. These include both comic books and recent hit Hollywood movies, but cartoons were the Blue Blur’s first venture away from Sega consoles. However, the best of these shows wouldn’t come out until the 2000s.
Sonic X was an anime that ran during the early 2000s, combining the stories of recent Sonic games with its own plot. Both funny and serious when needed, the show, in spite of its questionable dub, was perhaps the best distillation of Sonic yet. Here’s what made this series the best Sonic cartoon to date.
Sonic X Combined Original Stories With Game Adaptations
Produced by TMS Entertainment in conjunction with Sega and Sonic Team, the anime Sonic X ran from 2003 to 2006. Sonic X’s premise has Dr. Eggman using the Chaos Emeralds to initiate planet-wide Chaos Control, inadvertently transporting himself, Sonic and many of the hedgehog’s friends to Earth. There, Sonic becomes something of a hero against Eggman’s mechanical machinations. Sonic, Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit and Tails move in with the rich Thorndyke family, with Sonic particularly befriending the young boy Chris, all while forming a rivalry with his high speed-obsessed uncle.
The first season of Sonic X featured fairly typical “robot of the week” stories, these mostly centered around randomly finding the Chaos Emeralds and keeping them out of Eggman’s hands. The second season, however, introduced more characters and plot events directly from the more recent games. For example, Season 2 of Sonic X brought in the Team Chaotix detective agency, as well as adapted the storylines of Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and to a lesser extent, Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3.
Combining original stories and adaptations made things fresh for fans of the Sonic games, all while acting as a sort of entry point for kids who had never played them. Thus, Sonic X became something of a refuge as the game series began spiraling downhill in quality. This, along with its various banger songs -- namely the aptly titled “Gotta Go Fast” -- has helped it stand the test of time almost two decades after its debut.
Sonic X Had the Best Balance of Fun and Drama
Many other Sonic cartoons were far too comedic, rendering the hedgehog something of a joke. For instance, the original The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon was an entirely goofy affair, becoming mostly known for pure weirdness and memes about Sonic warning kids about stranger danger. Likewise, the more recent show Sonic Boom, while light years better than the game subseries it was based on, still leans far more toward comedy and meme-worthy jokes than true adventure and action. The 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, also known as Sonic SatAM, was a much darker and more serious affair, making the series feel almost post-apocalyptic. Then there’s Sonic Underground, of which the less that's said about the show, the better.
Sonic X knew when to be fun and when to be serious, with the former mainly being concentrated in its initial season before the series truly started adapting the games. Even with all the censorship in the 4Kids English version, elements such as Shadow the Hedgehog’s origin story and the later death of Cosmo hit incredibly hard for young children watching. The third season especially shifted into being a pretty dark space opera, making the second season a sort of transitional one.
This balance was also met with a fusion of original characters alongside those hailing from the games. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream, Knuckles, Team Chaotix, Shadow, Rouge, Eggman and a few others were straight from Sega, while almost all the human characters were original creations. Even still, there were homages to other Sonic continuities, such as Chris’s grandfather Chuck likely being a reference to Sonic’s uncle from the old Archie comic books. On the comic relief front were Eggman’s robot flunkies Decoe and Bocoe, as well as the bomb-leaving Bokkun, who acted somewhat like Team Rocket from the Pokémon anime.
Sadly, the show never got a fourth season, leaving newer games like Sonic Heroes unadapted. Sonic Prime is the next planned Sonic animated series, and although it should be great given Sega’s closer handling of the franchise’s adaptations, it has big, Sonic X-sized speed shoes to fill.