Sonic Prime (Netflix Animated Series)

I'll admit there was one point (during the two pirate episodes) where things started to feel a bit filler-y. We basically had two episodes cover the same ground with little progress.

Spoiler: Pirate Episodes

Not sure it's really a spoiler, but the shard swapping between the Chaos Council, then Sonic, then the pirate crew, then back to Sonic, then the Chaos Council... over and over... It definitely got repetitive.

 

There was definitely a lot of action, and under different circumstances I might be inclined to agree it was "too much", but dangit, the Sonic series has potential for a lot more well-choreographed, well-animated action sequences than it actually gets. I'll happily watch them stack the plate for as long as the buffet of opportunity is open.

 

Finally managed to watch all of Batch2 of Prime.

With all the build-up done in Batch1, it was time to let all chaos run amok (pun totally intended ^^")
Tons of nice action, silly banters and irksome one-liners. Still, seems to me they took their sweet time with each episode.
I wonder if the plot of these 8eps couldn't have been trimmed to 4eps and still work nicely.
Heck, maybe the whole story could've worked as a 1-cour series rather than a 2-cour series.
Even so, the whole story managing to stick to the gameverse rules (somehow) helps a little.

And again, this totally showed me this Sonic's the kind of Sonic I can't stomach well.
A bit too snarky and much of a rash, selfish prick without much head on his shoulders.

Spoiler

Chaos Sonic kinda showed him who he is, and even he agreed it was annoying as heck.

Rusty Rose flipped sides quite fast, Dread got too Smeargle, single-minded.
Nine played along, but too late he understood Sonic. That outcome was expectable.
Shadow warned Sonic more than once, but he didn't listen, didn't care at all.
He only cares about himself, that's what irks me about this version's characterization.
The Chaos Council has equal doses of victories and failures, they ARE capable.

Having come this far, I'll stick to the end, but I'm just watching it, not fully enjoying it.
I may be a bit too focused on the gameverse; any alternate story won't do me much...

 

I'm not really enjoying it to be honest. From what we've seen so far, and guessing where it's going, this feels like it could've been 12 episodes instead of 24.

As it was mentioned, seems like the action is just there to fill time. You can always tell with these kind of shows when the grunt enemies are made out of crystal, and out of nowhere in the same fight they're made out of the hardest material in the universe and they start to overwhelm the heroes so they can have a setback.

Doesn't help that its circling around the same locations and characters so it starts to feel repetitive.

My age definitely plays a role since this aimed mostly for kids but I feel like that sort of story structure worked more when you used to watch cartoons every Saturday morning.

Gave you more time to cool down. But in the streaming age it can start weighing down a show when you can watch several episodes at once.

I do feel like they almost hit gold with Sonic characterization in this. A hero that became too arrogant, annoying and selfish after many victories is an interesting angle to explore. But I feel like Prime is missing something that it's making it not click with a lot of people.

 

Going back to my opinion of Sonic's characterization...
I think I know what might be rubbing me the wrong way about him in Prime.

Sonic as we see him in Prime is kinda like in the games, following the beat of his own drum.
It's just that the producers magnified his traits and made the setting more like "we're a team of guardians rather than occasional heroes", working Sonic's traits in his detriment.
What works in the games due to them depicting casual incidents, in Prime becomes cause for deep character development.

At least, this is the conclusion I just reached, after thinking a nice bit about how Sonic acts in Prime and the games.

 

After the first couple of episodes of S1 got off to such a great start, this show unfortunately just couldn't keep it going. It's become repetitive, predictable and, frankly, more frustrating than it is entertaining. The highlight of S2 was watching Shadow beat the shit out of Sonic.

I can't be bothered to get into the what's and why's right now, but suffice to say this show just isn't very good.

 

The show's onto something. "Avoid the Void" felt like the midpoint of an RPG, but knowing that there's still something to come. I like its focus on the characters. You grow to like them, but something's wrong. I think Sonic Prime can stand on its own next to Boom and Sonic X. Looking forward to the next season. Their take on Shadow's character isn't half bad.

 

What I think it's off in this show is the multiverse thing. Those other realities are just not interesting. More than that, they are very boring. I kinda like New Yoke, but the jungle world and the pirate world I just don't care for them at all.

And even if there is some focus on the characters, they are not the characters we want to see. Nine is fine and all, but he's not Tails. I like Rusty Rose but she's not Amy. And these are the good characters, because I really don't like the 5 Eggmans and the pirate Knuckles.

 

Yeah... I was fine with Dread before, but now he's starting to become kinda annoying with that "my beauty" talk all the time.

I still like the show, it's genuily good, but I think it would automatically become 300% better if they'd include Blaze the Cat.

 

I think what disinterests me the most about this series is that this doesn't feel like Sonic's world, the only non shaterspace area we see is green hill and that's it. Doesn't feel like there's anything of interest in the "real" reality, so why do we care about it. There's not even a reason for the characters to care. Sonic being upset by a loop and hedgehogs pass being gone just feels forced, there's no connection of these seemingly generic places to his character, he's just upset because we are told it's his home and that just strikes me as lazy.

We are just supposed to accept that these characters enjoy living in endless green hill that has literally nothing in it.

 

I'm still very much enjoying this show and I really like Nine as alternate take on Tails who grew up without Sonic, adds some much needed edge to their dynamic and it makes me invested what will happen in Season 3, even though it's likely he'll eventually see reason.

Shadow is fun, although he's very clearly being intentionally downplayed so that he doesn't overtake the plot from Sonic. Understandable but it makes me wonder why even use him then, but I really do like his dynamic with Sonic here.


But I can understand the criticisms I've seen. This show feels like it's caught between being for casual and new fans and for long time fan.

The setting is vague enough where you don't really need prior knowledge of Sonic lore to enjoy this series, but then it gives no context for why you should care either; the show assumes you know all of the characters and their relationships before shoving them aside for alternate versions of them. Add that to how underdeveloped all of the universes are, even New Yoke City, then it just leaves the whole thing feeling hollow.


On the other hand, while the show assumes you know the basics of Sonic, it never really tries to delve any deeper than that, so longtime and diehard fans are left with a series that doesn't really reach its full potential as a multiversal series. The producers claim the show is canon, but don't give any elaboration on the specific details. Which is probably intentional and meant to just shut people up asking, but it just makes it all feel half-asses, because without knowing specifically what these characters have been through, it's hard to Guage how to feel about them.


Overall, this show is a pretty solid 7/10 so far. I'm enjoying, but mostly off it's actions and Shadow and Nine are carrying pretty hard. I'd say it's a mixed bag overall.

 

The biggest thing that's off for me is the design of the Eggforcers.

 

The Eggforces are fine for me, but why they HAD to include that baby? Ugh.

 

Out of all criticisms about this show that i can understand, this is actually the weirdest one

One being upset that his hometown is gone is such a natural feeling that lot of people experience, doesn't matter if it's old shack, old small town in middle of nowhere or whatever, lot of people grow attached to where they lived that they feel this little thing called "being homesick" when they live away from there, even if they are better places, that's just a part of the human nature, or a lot of living animals in fact

....not that a dystopian future, a jungle, a waterfilled planet are such better alternatives that you can be like "what are you even UPSET about? you should just accept that your home is gone, it was boring anyway"

Sorry but this line of thinking is dangerously close to a lot of danger ideologies out there.

 

It might turn into a mistake, but I'll jump in anyway.

To my understanding, @Childish's opinion was more setting-related than something closer to home or reality.
Prime having Green Hill as base setting, to me, screams SEGA meddling. Sonic's world resumes to that, pure nostalgia-pandering...again...
It also served as an excuse for the whole main cast to be together at the time the incident happened, but that, to me, felt a bit hollow and forced.
Surely there was a way to make the cast get together without making it "Green Hill Rangers at action!" or something...
But anything else might've needed a longer and more complex premise, something that might confuse kids and newcomers, which they wouldn't want.
Sonic also taking personally losing Green Hill and his group of pals felt a bit forced, for the sake of overdramatizing and character development.

At the end of the day, the story has limitations, simplicity and lack of criativity regarding the overall thing.

 

Don't see how being upset at losing your home or friends is "forced", it's really simple premise and relatable to about anyone, showing all his friends being in the same place was a way to make it more simple how his "regular everyday" life is really lost - and familiarizing new audience with characters by showing them here first- but i would imagine his reaction would be the same if he lost friends that were "far-away" at the time of the incident, i mean really, he lost his whole original world here

That and don't see what's wrong with setting the "original world" at GHZ first, it's familiar "base" location, it's where the shattering incident occurred in the first place so of course they are gonna go back to it a lot, and really, nothing is more natural to call a "sonic home" than a place like green hill zone with all the nature intact, may as well use it, not like the industrial Chemical Plant being his favorite place in the world would be any better, or another GHZ-like zone where it would serve the same purpose anyway

That and i don't think the original comment were criticism of the lack of creativity or how it's GHZ again, but they talked precisely about the characters feeling to the place

How losing your whole world is "not a reason to care"? it's straight forward, a theme explored in any similar story about losing your world/going to another world, if anything, characters not caring is usually a red flag, maybe they hated their old life and more than happy to start anew, maybe they are just apathetic and the writer just didn't care to explore this side of their character

But nobody who loses his own home would be like "oh it was SO GENERIC, i have NO reason to care about it actually ,it's not like i lived my whole life here and made connections and memories in this place anyway, they are of no value to me, my favorite loop-de-loop? pffft who care about that"

That would be like if you lived in "generic" city with regular looking homes are regular looking buildings, it gets invaded, you see your home gets destroyed, your favorite cafe who you used to visit a lot get obliterated, and be like "it was generic city anyway, i shouldn't be upset cause that would be forced for some reason"

Sorry but i can't relate to this train of thought AT ALL

 

Indeed, all of my prior reasoning you just contested may be fair ground.
But...

I kinda stated it might've all been for the sole sake of making things easier to settle on and follow through.
The palmtree, the loop-de-loop, the hedgehog's pass...
They went as far as pointing specific simple landmarks so as to trigger Sonic on dramatic moments.

I think the issue here is that you can accept how they went with the setting and premise, but some people may not be all that easily accepting of it, feeling such things as "forced" for plot's sake alone.

 

I'm not suggesting that Sonic being upset about his world is an inherently bad idea, I'm saying that the way they did it makes it feel like an after thought. My point is that the world is so generic and uninspired that a generic loop is deemed important. I think "wait that's a mechanised and polluted version of big's fishing lake" or something would have been better.

 

So you rather find the issue with the execution than the idea itself, that's fine with me, i read it all wrong

 

Sonic Prime is featured in this trailer. Basically a trailer for a trailer coming later this month.