I always read them as socks that buched up around his ankles because his legs were so scrawny. (And also, leg warmers were a thing during the time of his creation). Knowing they are part of his shoes, I wonder is they were inspired an old Krazy Kat cartoon, Russian Dressing. Which I guess would make them fur trimmed... Or considering the colors were lifted from Santa Claus, then his fur trimming could be as well:
Hm, I see where this is going. Maybe they're part of a costume? I mean, they're not just shoes, they're shiny shoes. ^^
The Sonic statue from Sega World London has been found to still exist! https://twitter.com/DaveLuty/status/1153070889845628929 Currently in contact with the people who have it to see if we can get more pics. I can't reveal much about where it is and who has it right now, but it's safe with them so it probably isn't going to be sold anytime soon.
That sucks. I wish that'd be on display somewhere and not just buried under a pile of garbage. Like they don't seem to care about it, why not sell it to someone who does and clear up this room that seems to indicate a hoarding problem?
It's not being hoarded- like the Sonic statue in the woods in Japan, it has significance to the owners, though in this case they are still alive. They do care about it, its just that its found itself under all of that in the almost 20 years of being there. Like I said, I can't reveal much right now, but this statue has better chance of survival than others recently located.
Well least they care about it I guess. Gotta wonder what's up with that storage dump they have there though.
Looking through more JP magazines a while back, I found this interesting little tidbit; According to the above, one of Sonic Team's original titles they had in mind for Sonic Jam was "Sonic Ages" (" ソニックエイジス" "Sonikku Eijisu")
IIRC it was also going to be named under the Sega Ages series of Saturn ports at some point, which gives that more sense.
I was wondering, is this one of you guys? It would kind of suck if it was just somebody taking credit for our findings. https://twitter.com/DaveLuty/status/1151930338362499075 EDIT: Oh, I see he says at 11:19 "Special thanks to members of the Sonic Retro forums who compiled this information. Make sure to give them a little look".
Nah, that ain't me. Truth be told I was mildly annoyed that my Tumblr username was mispelled at the end of the video :|
Not me either. I've no ego about this kind of thing - the whole purpose is to get the information out there - but it would have been nice if he'd linked the relevant forum posts. I am glad he mentioned Retro though. Saw a similar thing happen before, where I'd posted a bit of research on this forum, then a Sonic site picked it up without even mentioning Retro.
I always got credit for the help I gave Dave in his Sega World London videos, so I have no issues with him on that.
I was just a little bothered that he used pics of the Sonic The Hedgehog Story Comic when he was talking about the Shogakukan manga since they're both completely different things. About the credit stuff, it wouldn't hurt to be more precise to link to the original posts/people/sources towards the end, during the video or the descriptions to see where he's getting the info, pics and scans. Like Pengi said, the whole purpose is to get the information out there, but it's just good manners to directly cite the person putting in the work and it's nice to see the source itself if you want to explore the information further. For example, linking directly to Vertekins post here in the thread or tumblr would go a longer way than just "thanks Sonic Retro, and here's the tumblr name." Or "here's where I got the pics of the mangas if you want to read and learn more about them." But sometimes it happens, I know in the past I've posted something from other sources and after the fact I think I should've been more clear or done something differently.
You know, you can find some genuinely fascinating things in those very old Japanese SEGA magazines. There was an interview with Sonic in a magazine article that slightly pre-dated Sonic 1's release and even back then it seems that SEGA/Sonic Team were thinking about making a film or comic based on the Mary Garnet story; Translated; Yumiko: There’s an episode on which you saved a female photographer who was wearing Sonic’s flight jacket who was in a pinch. His wife was a writer of fairy tales. Sonic: Well, that story will be the next work, explaining it in movie or comic in a while. But when I am in a Mega Drive ROM, when I am doing the vocals in a band, when I break the sound barrier, anyway anytime anywhere, I am myself. I do not change. Also, not related to the above but what I find mildly interesting is that in some pre-Sonic 1 interviews with Sonic, he uses the pronoun "Boku". Which is distinctly different to the pronoun he uses in the actual series ("Ore"). In the above interview, he uses "Ore" - It's a slightly rude pronoun for one to use in conversation whilst by comparison, "Boku" is more polite. I guess they wanted Sonic to come-off as more mild-mannered early on and ramped-up his attitude later on.
I do wonder what was up with the Mary Garnet story and Sonic's background. It seems like Sonic Team really loved that story, but hesitated using it in the games. For example, in the Shogakukan manga, there's a chapter that I recently scanned where Paulie tells Nicky about how Sonic saved him 20 years before the story during a flight test with a new kind of airplane. This is similar to the pilot that's trying to break the sound barrier, except this time Sonic prevents the tragedy. After this, Paulie starts wearing a jacket with the Sonic emblem like how the Origin story had the pilot wear the Blue Gale jacket. This event is repeated in another issue SonicGenesis89 scanned, but I'm not sure if it goes into more details since it's text heavy and my Japanese is not that good. So maybe that's the comic Sonic was talking about in that interview? It seems like the manga was a place where Sonic Team threw some ideas on since it also had time traveling before Sonic CD and the scrapped Sonic 2 time travel storyline. The Garnet storyline was also reference on merchandise, a while back I found and bought clothes from back in the day that had "Born in 1947, but made for the 90s." Sonic Team also made Blue Gale jackets for key members and Sega higher-ups during Sonic 3's development. I was surprised when I found out that jacket on YJA. So again, not sure what was going on during that era and why that particular origin story is so mysterious. Every time there's an anniversary I just wish interviewers would ask Naka, Oshima, Yasuhara or Hoshino about it instead of the same 10 damn questions.
I think a lot of this stuff was intended for Sonic 1 but was cut for various reasons such as crunch, SoA influence, budget, etc. Time travel would account for Sonic's birth year being 1947 and why he's running around in the '90s as a teenager. And this might be erring on the side of fanwank, but--hear me out--consider that the Mary Garnet story was repackaged with Sonic Adventure 2. 1947 was 54 years before Sonic the Hedgehog was first issued. The events of Shadow's origins were 50 years prior to the events in the game. And since Sonic and Eggman haven't aged in the interim between Sonic 1 and Adventure 2, it would mean the Mary Garnet story likewise take place roughly 50 years ago. Whatever all that could mean--if anything--I'll leave to everyone's discretion. I'm at the very least certain it shaped Shadow's backstory, whether it is canon to the games or not. The female human companion ("Mary" is a close match to "Maria"), the military experiment, the half-century out of context--the essential structure is there.
I actually had the same thought lol. It could be that it did influence Shadow's origin to keep the theme of Sonic's evil twin/doppelganger concept they were going for. Though it's more likely just wishful thinking. Edit: And I mean more during the concept phase than in-game canon.
Mary's surname is worth talking about. In STI's internal documents they translated it as Garnet, but in the Sonic Adventure 2 Birthday Pack her name is officially translated as "Mary Grannet". マリー・グラネット Grannet seems more correct, but maybe someone who knows Japanese can weigh in. Ohshima and Yasuhara talked about this story at GDC last year. The slides show the earliest known incarnation of this story. These are pretty fascinating. Part of the pitch is that an animated Sonic movie could be made from the fairy tale version, whereas a live action movie with humans could be made from the test pilot story. It's also mentioned that there are other animal emblems besides Sonic - a crocodile, a monkey, a bird and a rabbit. These are, of course, the animals that were in Sonic's rock band - Vector, Max, Sharps and Mach. It would be great to see all of this properly translated. I think this is all the forms the story has taken over the years: Ohshima and Yasuhara's original story. Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic Vol. 3 (with alternate art) Shogaku Yonensei and Shogaku Ninensei illustrated stories/manga (test pilot story adapted into the cartoon animal setting) STI's documents (date unknown, but integrates Sonic 1, 2 and 3) Sonic Jam Official Guide (all 3 episodes, with a some commentary) Sonic Adventure 2 Birthday Pack (episode 1 only)
Is it written as マリー・グラネット in the early incarnation that was shown at GDC though? To be honest I've noticed Garnet is more common here in the U.S. than Grannet so maybe that's why they changed it.
