Complimenting Sonic X

Funnily enough, I always felt that Boom had the exact opposite problem regarding background music; that show always felt like it was only half-finished in the audio department. There were a few royalty-free versions of famous tracks here and there as well as some guitar and drums during battles, but the audio always seemed so empty. No ambiant music or background noise where it was really needed. On average, X and Boom had just the right level of background noise between them.

But yeah, 4Kids really did a nasty number on the dub's soundtrack. And I say that having not watched the original Japanese version at all. Sonic was followed around by a his own personal entourage of generi-horns, whilst the same six "sexy sax" notes played every time Rouge came into frame Eggman got the same treatment with his grungy theme, and there was even an sound-effect/piece of music every time Sonic did a spin. It was awful. The soundtrack was so limited and uninteresting, which was only compounded by the fact that it just never stopped. You can really care how much 4Kids just didn't give a damn when they wouldn't tracks like Live and Learn for the SA2 arc.

 

Stop exaggerating. Underground had one redeeming quality: The intro music rocks.

 

The Japanese version of Sonic X is probably my favorite adaptation of the series to date behind the OVA. If you remotely liked Sonic X in any capacity, I highly recommend watching the Japanese version over the shitty English Dub. If you liked the Adventure Era of Sonic, it's a pretty fun watch, even though the animation can get really bad at times.

The Japanese version has:
-A better soundtrack (They even used some music from the games a few times, like Live and Learn showing up in Episode 38).
-Better opening and ending sequences.
-Better voice acting.
-A better tone/atmosphere (music isn't blaring constantly).
-Better humor (there's a lot of adult jokes that the dub cut out).
-Better sound effects (4Kids replaced gunshots with lasers and replaced most of the cool sounds Sonic makes with shitty techno music in the dub).
-It's uncensored (Characters are allowed to die in Japan).
-Better dialogue (Characters aren't making puns every 5 seconds).
-Chris is somewhat less annoying, and a tad more sympathetic (Japanese version does a better job at explaining his parental issues and that he only sees his parents a few times a year and building up to him trying to run away with Sonic in S2's finale).

 

I've only seen it dubbed and and I don't really complain, opening music aside. It's that opening what makes me think I watched the 4kids version, because I watched it in spanish and I didn't care about a lot of things you seem to find that bad. I think it would be the other way, I would have complained about the dub if I also watched the original version back in the day. I don't have a reason to watch either version now.

 

IIRC, most of the dubs of Sonic X were based off of the 4Kids English version of the show. Only exceptions were the French and Korean dubs, which were faithful to the Japanese release.

 

4Kids in general was a cancer in the anime industry I'm happy we didn't get in France. At least not for Sonic X, which got some of the worst censorship these guys did (Yu-Gi-Oh aside).

 

The one thing I liked the most in Sonic X is that sequence in the very first episode, when Sonic runs backwards.

Overall, a nice show, far from my favourites, but enjoyable enough from time to time.

 

HAH, I loved that, too. That, along with, "Kids, don't use Formula-1 race cars to chase hedgehogs," was one of the rare instances we got around that time of Sonic acting like a cocky jackass. Ooh, or when he breaks the sound barrier, ESPECIALLY in the Japanese version where the music cues up with it. I agree with what @Pengi said on the last page, the show would've been a lot better-remembered if it had hit the quality of the first episode more consistently.

Also, "S-O-N-I-C, GO!" was a bop.

 

When I was a kid I watched Sonic Underground and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

My poor parents, sitting through that awful cartoon.

 

I tried to watch Sonic Underground on Amazon Prime this summer because it was the only cartoon I didn't know about until I years later; worst it had the worst parts of SatAM and AoStH together and then it added some more of its own. Couldn't finish the first episode.

 

Not that the 4Kids dub isn't really awkward at tmes (and I do agree the Japanese version of the SA1 adaptation is brilliant) but I don't think all issues are linked to just the dub edit. In fact in some cases it feels like the dub tries to downplay the issues (eg. Knuckles is much more an insecure wimp in the Japanese edit and some of the others' quips towards him are flat out gratuitously nasty, while the dub tries to make the teasing more blatantly playful sometimes while giving Knuckles a more provocatively snide attitude).

I also remember a Sonic Channel bio actually borrowing a bit of dialogue from the dub version inexplicably, the bit from Cosmo about Knuckles only being gullible because he wants to see the good in Eggman. The Japanese version of the same bit is more or less the group going "It's bad Eggman tricks Knuckles, but it's fine if WE butter you up"....Yeah....

Also while I can understand the annoyances with censorship, I can see why it happened, since the Japanese version has some downright jarring mood whiplash. It almost felt like they made Season Three just to give 4Kids a middle finger, it's that gratuitously dark in areas. While it doesn't justify what 4Kids done, Cosmo's death is just.....morbid.

I admit this is maybe why I think the comic book version of Sonic X is better, since it trims most of the rotten excess from the anime and takes more advantage of the premise, which leads to some rather fun moments actually.

 

I will say that while Underground is....weird and barely even a Sonic cartoon, I do think it did try to refine on SatAm's premise a bit more and gave a bit more development to the core premise so it relies less on suspension of disbelief. The Sonic siblings drift the world, compared to the Sonic/Sally/Antoine dynamic always being used over a large unit for.....reasons, and the dynamic is more even handed with less of a strict hierarchy of competence, justifying all three siblings' presence, with the one shot characters also feeling more important. Robotnik is also shown to be a savvy ruler that tries to keep people willingly under his thumb, rather than just a one note evil for evil's sake type that wants to pollute everything and make himself the only sentient being on the planet.

 

I don't agree, tbh. I found the snark in the Japanese version much funnier than the dub, personally, and I never cared for the comic book adaptation (or anything that came from Archie in general, tbh). Especially when they tried to tie X to the Archie comic stories with Archie Universe Shadow and Metal hopping over to the X dimension. It just read like a bad fan fiction to me.

 

The dialogue altogether is better in the sub versions, especially with the lack of puns, but I think in terms of sarcasm, maybe due to translation issues, tends to be more just flat out nasty rather than playful snide. Only Decoe and Bocoe tend to get it right, who feel incredibly down to earth and lamenting in the Japanese edit, making them more unique Eggman sidekicks (4Kids could have dropped those robo-puns for one DAMNED SENTENCE), meanwhile Amy is flat out a bitch most of the time, especially in the later episodes.

 

Knuckles gets picked on a bit, but Sonic and the gang aren't outright 'nasty' towards him. In the Japanese version, Cosmo tells Knuckles that even though he's easy to deceive, she tells him that just means that he's an honest guy that won't deceive anyone. They don't rag on him for it in the same episode, and Sonic and the gang even show him some respect, with Sonic even saying that's what he likes about him. Amy has a temper in X, sure, but I wouldn't call her a 'bitch'. She even saved Sonic's life once towards the end of Season 3, and she was willing to wait til as long as she had to (even if she got old) for Sonic to return at the end of Season 2. Amy's completely devoted to Sonic in the Japanese version. I think you're looking too much into it. It's just typical Japanese shounen anime humor.

 

While I don't think the series was all around mean spirited, I think the humour sometimes mixed badly with its parables and ethics. The characters using and peer pressuring Knuckles for everything came off weird against the 'don't let Eggman trick you' moments, with that episode being the epitome of that. Amy wasn't 100% bad but I think the anime was the beginning of them amping up her psycho temper and tendencies to get away with annoying or bullying around anyone not called Sonic (something even Heroes didn't do THAT badly). Then we have other designated villain moments like E-11/Teacher Bot getting smashed up for unwillingly making the kids draw sketches of Eggman.

These moments don't overwhelm the show, but they are annoying niggles, these little moments of out of place nastiness that clash with the otherwise idealistic setup they wanna convey. I get anime does a lot of the 'scary abusive girl' and 'macho guy gets his balls busted' type gags non-stop but usually in shows that wanna be more cynical in the first place and suggest their heroes aren't supposed to be all that nice anyway and usually get their comeuppance, while Sonic X is maybe the one show that wants most of all to convey Sonic's group idealistically. This is maybe why the bad guys are the best part of the show since they work on a different moral standard. Eggman having ANY level of redeeming qualities was new at the time, especially in the west who were used to deplorable evil Robotnik over Team Rocket-esque Eggman.

I think I'm breaking topic by shifting too much into the negative though. One thing I must say is that it was unique having a Sonic cartoon that was at last fairly loyal to the games, using the same art style, a reasonable amount of the characters and in Japan at least, their original voice actors. I also kinda liked how the premise was actually MORE logical than the games aesthetics at the time, since there was a canonical REASON why Sonic's universe was a realistic world dominated by anime humans with a dozen or so candy coloured Felix the Cat lookalikes.

 

Oops, somehow I double posted.

 

Again, you're reading waaaaaay too much into things. Amy acting the way she did is a pretty standard 'tsundere' anime trope. Anime girls are often over the top and beat up the guy the like and are occasionally mean to them, but they have a hidden nice side. That's all there is to She can be mean and over the top, but it's usually played for laughs. It's standard Japanese anime/manga humor. Same deal with Knuckles. It's all treated as a joke, and isn't meant to be taken seriously.

 

Maybe that's the thing that bugs me really. That it's all just handwaved as a gag and forgotten about next scene. I've never been big on gags where characters break their personality just to be uncharacteristically mean, especially when one of their most important endearing qualities is their kinder side (even Cream could be nasty for the sake of a joke). It's even worse when these gags actually do have an effect on the story, making it more jarring they are forgotten about.

I feel this was something Sonic Boom done better, since while it played on the flawed uglier sides of the cast more often in a comedic way, they were often story based which lended to them getting development and being reigned in whenever they risked getting too unlikeable. Boom Sonic and Amy could arrogant and petty as well, but they often ended up paying for it or having to make amends, while in X nearly all their flaws are just hand waved as a quick gag and thus they often get away with it scot free and thus feel more one dimensional and vessels for jokes. X Sonic feels oddly unhumanized without his pride ever getting wounded or reigned in like other incarnations do, and I got kinda sick of Amy's 'scary violent girl' shtick, with even the bad guys scared of her. Yeah it's just a gag, but it's an obnoxious gag done that often.

 

The humor is way better in Japan. Like in the tournament plot when Amy is surprised that Bokkun has a name (where in the dub they just had her say "No way, they let you enter this thing?").

Sonic's "morals" are great too. In the same episode, after Chris tricks his friend to win, Sonic talks with him about it and is totally okay with it. In the dub... ugh... In the Japanese version the characters aren't "breaking" their personalities. That's who they are. Not sure if you realize that real people who are friends are mean to each other. You're expecting characters with snarky attitudes to be nothing but wholesome balls of fluff?

And Cosmo's death is fantastic. The scene is totally ruined by 4Kids' watered down version. Kids can handle death scenes.