SONIC X SEASON 2

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionSonic X

REVIEWS

• 

  myvelouria

  65/100
  Fun is infinite with Sega Enterprises.

  This review is spoiler free.

  So 2022 has turned out to be an interesting year for Sonic, hasn’t it? Over the course of the year we received the movie “Sonic the Hedgehog 2”, gamers got “Sonic Frontiers”, and “Sonic Prime” at the time of this review has just released its first batch of episodes on Netflix. 2022 feels like a good moment for the franchise all things considered, it certainly had an impact on me as my long-time interest in the Blue Blur has been rejuvenated thanks to the movies. This is what brought me to revisit and review the 1996 OVA and the first two seasons of “Sonic X”. Due to the way Anilist currently has “Sonic X” broken up, and the amount of people I saw calling the remaining season disappointing, is why it was only those first 52 episodes I discussed last time. It was due to some persuasion that I was convinced to give the rest of it a shot and I don’t regret that decision. Today we are going to be looking at the remaining 26 episodes of “Sonic X”, The Metarex Saga.

  

  Before I get into it, I want to recommend my first “Sonic X” review to those who may have not read it yet. There you will have better context for how I feel about the overall “Sonic X” package, especially its production values and adaptations of the “Adventure” games. To briefly summarize: the anime rushed through the game content and spent too much time on Chris Thorndyke for my liking. The 4Kids dub had some talented people and the Japanese is worth checking out even at a passing glance, especially because of Junichi Kanemaru as Sonic. The way 4Kids would chop the anime for western audiences is in line with what they did with all the other anime they touched. Unfortunately. And the animation is very disappointing. My issues with the animation and localization remain consistent throughout The Metarex Saga and I will do my best not to linger on them for very long. What I can add to all of this is the unusual way this season would be released to the public. “Sonic X” was not a success in Japan and it would be cancelled before these episodes hit Japanese TVs. They were localized to a western audience, but in Japan they were only released to streaming platforms and wouldn’t hit airwaves until 2020 as a tie in to the first live action movie. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never encountered this with an anime before. I’ve seen some fans claim this season only exists because 4Kids requested it, I can’t find anything to verify this and find it difficult to believe. Regardless it is a strange situation, one that is made stranger by the fact that these episodes aren’t on American Netflix with the rest of “Sonic X”. I was able to watch them through the official TMS Youtube channel, but its exclusion from Netflix is a mystery to me.

  So, what is the Metarex Saga? The Metarex Saga occurs after the events of “Sonic X” season two. Time has passed and a teenage Chris Thorndyke is working on a machine that could allow him to access Sonic’s home planet. Sonic, his friends, and Dr. Eggman have all returned to their usual routine on their world until Sonic almost faces defeat at the hands of the new enemy named Dark Oak. To prevent Dark Oak from abusing the power of the Chaos Emeralds Sonic uses Chaos Control to scatter them across the galaxy, effectively ending the fight. But not before Dark Oak sends a robot to steal the Planet Egg that gives the planet life. Shortly thereafter a mysterious plant-like alien named Cosmo crosses paths with our heroes in search of someone who can use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to put an end to their new enemy the Metarex, a large cyborg army led by Dark Oak that seeks to steal Planet Eggs leaving countless worlds uninhabitable. Meanwhile, Chris manages to get his machine operating and is finally reunited with Sonic after six years. Except he immediately regresses to his child form and is now trapped on Sonic’s planet. Together they all agree to traverse the galaxy, find the Chaos Emeralds, and put an end to the Metarex before it’s too late.

  

  Now the first thing people might tell you about the Metarex Saga is that it is all anime original content. Many would even call it filler. And I can understand why this would be deemed non canon in the same way that the movies are independent from the game canon. However, that doesn’t mean this season is inherently bad. In fact, I felt this season helped remedy certain issues I had with the previous ones. Chris is far less annoying and doesn’t rob characters of their moments from the video games in order to appear more important than he is. Sonic actually feels like the protagonist this time. I felt the screen time as a whole was far better distributed among the cast during these episodes. Tails was given a prominent role in the story, characters like Team Chaotix who only appeared once in the prior series get recurring roles, Eggman isn’t sidelined in favor of the Metarex, and while Rouge’s reasoning for being involved in the story is rather dumb, I’m always happy to have more of her. Because we aren’t on Earth it means we don’t have to waste time on Chris’s everyday activities like school or moping about how busy his parents are. I even think the overall concept to the Metarex and the Planet Eggs feels in line with something the games would do. I can imagine a game where Sonic travels through space retrieving Planet Eggs at the end of a stage to advance the plot. And with the Metarex we were able to bring back the environmentalist themes that have been a part of the Sonic franchise from its inception. I really was expecting this to be an unbearable anime to sit through due to its reputation. While it’s flawed, and we will get to that, I can come away saying it was built on a good foundation and helped remedy some of my grievances. Unfortunately, that also came with some new issues.

  

  The anime does a better job at giving the various characters more presence. That said I would be lying if I said everybody was used effectively. I enjoy this iteration of Sonic, I liked seeing Tails develop his special relationship with Cosmo, but what about the rest? Regrettably, I believe this to be the beginning of a frustrating downward spiral for Amy Rose and Knuckles the Echidna. The most common complaints lobbied at Amy are usually focused on her obsessive, often one sided, crush on Sonic. In this part of “Sonic X” that is cranked up to a highly disappointing degree. She’s immediately jealous of Cosmo for having a simple conversation with Sonic, she continuously tries to force her feelings onto him in ways that leave him highly uncomfortable, she’s also just straight up mean to the other characters sometimes. There were more than a few moments where she just seemed angrier this time around and I don’t blame Lisa Ortiz for this, it feels like this is what 4Kids wanted her to be. It feels like such a stark contrast to the Amy who was unafraid to stand up to Sonic in order to protect Gamma. Where is the empathy and compassion that helped define her in the “Adventure” titles? It feels so downplayed in favor of making her a thin skinned, lovesick brat. And with Knuckles the anime seemed to make him progressively stupider the longer it went on. They had an episode where Eggman tricks him after having already done that within the first few episodes of season one. There is no good reason for him to fall for Eggman’s manipulation again. This season also just seemed to like having him say something foolish for the sake of a gag, but it was never funny. We aren’t in “Sonic Boom” territory yet, but watching these episodes did feel like I was seeing the ground work laid for it. As previously stated, Rouge isn’t given much of a reason to be involved this time. I’m always happy for more Rouge, but it’s strange seeing an otherwise cunning character blackmail Bokkun with the threat of revealing he has a crush on Cream the Rabbit. It isn’t something 4Kids made up to conceal a more mature element in the plot either, its consistent with the Japanese version. While I enjoyed seeing Team Chaotix be more than a one-off cameo, I didn’t love their episodes because they felt unimportant in the grand scheme of things. And Cream felt like she didn’t have any reason to be here this time. Maybe she’s here because of “Sonic Heroes”? But then how come Omega is left out of the anime? The hit or miss treatment of the characters is one of the weaknesses to “Sonic X”. And speaking of characters…

  

  Hey Shadow, long time no see! One of the things I spent the most time complaining about in my last review is how insignificant Shadow’s presence was in “Sonic X”, especially given how much he was used to promote the anime in the west and Japan. Simply getting to have more of him is an improvement in my eyes. But what did they do with him now that the “Sonic Adventure 2” arc was finished? Give him amnesia. This isn’t surprising considering “Sonic Heroes” and “Shadow the Hedgehog” did the same thing. It isn’t the most creative way to work him back into the story, but it is one that I accept and may have been their way of weaving some inspiration from the games into the mix. Fortunately, we don’t have to see him stand around pondering if he might be a robot. Instead Eggman uses his amnesia to his own advantage and tries to use him throughout the season. It isn’t genius storytelling, but it does work. My issue is the lack of closure he seems to receive in the end, the anime leaves things extremely vague with Shadow. It’s implied Eggman knows more about him than he lets on, but I felt there was very little payoff to this amnesia arc. He does get to feature as the star to one of my favorite episodes this season, episode 68 which I watched in both English and Japanese. It is an episode best seen with its original cut because those 4Kids razor blades know their way around a Shadow the Hedgehog episode, but I did enjoy myself. It tied back into his history with Maria and the themes about if he’s a killer or a savior. The dub made things strange in between almost creating a romantic vibe in it and then changing the ending in a way that unintentionally recalls the famous Poochie episode of “The Simpsons”. Once more, Shadow’s role in the anime is not without flaws but this is a case where my enjoyment trumps the problems within.

  

  Something I want to discuss that left me with many mixed emotions is the one-time phenomenon that was Dark Sonic. Dark Sonic as a concept had a lot of potential. He isn’t possessed, instead the negative aspects of Sonic’s character are being forced out by the power of some fake Chaos Emeralds and seeing those he cares about in danger. Under the influence of this transformation Sonic takes real pleasure in destroying the Metarex to the point that Eggman doesn’t want to see him this way. It makes one curious to see how far this could go, how much of Sonic’s character and even psychology could be discovered through this concept. Too bad that never happens leaving it an empty promise of bigger things. It happens suddenly and then it ends suddenly never to be addressed again. Unsurprisingly many fans enjoyed this, people like seeing heroic characters inverted or pushed to their limits. It’s similar to why I like the shonen anime style moments Sonic gets in the live actions films where his power goes haywire as his emotions flare up. There it is an important piece to his character and the first film’s plot, here in the actual Sonic shonen anime it’s more like an Easter egg. It feels random when it happens which is just a shame. Now I can’t prove this, but I wonder if the people involved in the anime’s production wanted to make this into something more significant and were denied it by people from Sega. It’s just a theory, but maybe somebody higher up thought it was taking Sonic’s character too far in a direction they didn’t like so it got scrapped. We’ll likely never know. Instead, what we have is an interesting, yet undeveloped blip in the character’s history. But one the fans will never forget.

  

  The Metarex Saga, much like the rest of my time with “Sonic X”, is a mixed bag. The way it uses certain characters isn’t ideal, the poor animation is consistent, while Chris is used in a far less intrusive way I still didn’t jump for joy when he came back, and the overall story to it has its fair share of hiccups. I wished there was more creativity within the different worlds they visit and that episodes focused on certain characters weren’t there to be an obvious detour from the plot. Cosmo herself is a fine character, she’s not especially interesting or exciting. However, I enjoyed seeing Tails build a relationship with somebody. You would think the other episodes would have done something with him becoming friends with Chris and his grandfather, but there he started to feel more like a glorified babysitter. Despite all the issues I have throughout “Sonic X” it’s still an anime I don’t regret watching and I genuinely respect the fact that it connected with so many others. Not everybody was there in the early 90s watching Jaleel White’s Sonic like I was, for the kids of the 2000s this was their show and I can appreciate that. And I did have some honest fun with it anyway. Finding a general consensus with Sonic fans can be difficult, after all there are people who dislike spinoffs I enjoy like the live action films and “Sonic Prime”, but it does at times feel as though this season of “Sonic X” left many people cold. On some level I do see where they’re coming from, but I also can’t help but feel like it’s in some ways an improvement over the earlier parts. If you’re a Sonic fan and feel curious about “Sonic X” and the Metarex Saga I do encourage giving both a try. Would I like to see another anime adaptation of these characters? Definitely. I don’t know if it’s likely we’ll ever see one again, but it would be great if somebody gave it another go. Until then I can rest easy knowing the ones we got were able to connect with people across the world.

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