Sonic Prime (Netflix Animated Series)

I finally watched all Sonic Prime episodes so far, so I might as well share my thoughts.

The animation and action are pretty good. The comedy, not so much. There is just too much slapstick, at least in the first season. Not that slapstick is inherently bad, but it gets old to see Sonic run into a wall for the 50th time in the same episode. Good call on them toning it down a bit in season 2. Can they please tone down Sonic's preachings about friendship in season 3?

I appreciate that Prime was truer to the games than previous western cartoons. The characters actually looked like in the games, and seeing Green Hill in a cartoon for the first time was a treat. Took them long enough!

Sonic's over the top characterization was disappointing, though. Like previous western cartoons, Prime made him too immature, buffoonish and annoying for me. Though at least he's not as bad as movie!Sonic.

Rouge's outfit change feels unnecessary to me, though her new outfit isn't bad so I don't mind it.

How come Knuckles' counterparts have a more fitting Knuckles voice than his real self? Were they contract-bound to pick a VA that sounded close to Dave B. Mitchell for Knuckles, so they used the excuse that his counterparts aren't technically Knuckles to give them a "better" voice?

The story is fun, though I'm not really feeling the "parallel universes populated with with counterparts to Sonic's friends" angle. Well, the "Sonic's reality was split into multiple parts and needs to be put back together" plot is engaging enough, but I'm finding myself not caring that much about most of the alternate universes or their inhabitants, except maybe for the New Yoke universe. Nine is admittedly interesting, and Rusty has potential. The Chaos Council is kind of lame, though. As for the other universes. Thorn Rose was annoying with her repeated refusal to listen to reason, Dread was too unlikable, and don't get me started on the Scavengers.

Speaking of the alternate universes, I'm guessing the idea is that each counterpart is based on a different facet of the original character's personality, but exaggerated? Not just the universe was shattered in pieces, but also the characters. Like, Thorn is based on Amy's love of nature (which she showed in a few episodes), Nines is based on Tails' angst and loneliness from the days he was bullied, and so on. It seems that all of Eggman's counterparts are concentrated in a single universe for some reason, though. They appear to be based on Eggman's cunning side (Mr Dr Eggman), childishness and immaturity (baby Eggy), eccentricity and flamboyancy (Dr Deep), old wisdom and temper (old Eggy), and his love of games (teen gamer Eggy).

Despite my nitpicks, I'm enjoying Prime so far. It's overall a fun and enjoyable action adventure show. Though I find it frustrating that the first western Sonic cartoon to be closely based on the games isn't centered on the actual Sonic characters (aside from Sonic and Shadow), but a bunch of deliberately flanderized counterparts.

 

Clip from the "next chapter" of Sonic Prime (as Wildbrain put it. Better than calling it a season, I guess.)

I wonder how this will fill out the remaining episodes.

 

It has come to my attention that Sonic Prime Season 1 was watched for more than 82 million hours in this year's first semester, as per the new Netflix engagement report, ranking #138 out of more than 18000 titles in the platform.

Pretty good results!

 

New Sonic Prime promo.

 

This has some of that lame classic energy of "my first edgy fanfic where Sonic DIES and Tails GOES CRAZY".
At this point I'm just along for the ride.

 

This is incredibly ironic given how other Sonic fans are mocking this series for being too juvenile.

 

Juvenile stories also tend to have a good amount of edginess...

 

The definition of each depends entirely on who you speak to as well.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong, it feels silly as a description, but when watching the show I'm about as invested as I can be -- just enough to want to see how it ends. Most things in the show are pretty "whatever" for me but I enjoyed the dimension-hopping riffraff between Sonic and Shadow far more than I expected and Chaos Sonic's riff on Jaleel White's '90s energy is fun if you can see it as that. Props to the writers (and actors) for striking a good balance between silly and serious in those scenes.

 

I legitimately think this is one of the better Sonic shows, but the bar for that is also incredibly low.

It's a very mixed bag, but I'm at least interested enough to see how it ends. When it focuses on the character drama between Sonic, Shadow and Nine I think it becomes a legitimately good show, unfortunately the rest of the show is mostly (admittedly very good) action scenes and slapstick comedy, in a very generic setting.

It makes for a very uneven experience.

 

NCircle Entertainment will release Season 1 (presumably all 24 episodes) on March 12, 2024.
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=33766

 

While neat, if the page is correct about the runtime it will only be the first eight episodes.

However that runtime (198 minutes) also makes no sense since the first episode alone is almost 45 minutes with every other episode being 25 minutes in the least, which means it's about 220 minutes in all just for the first episodes.

I'll probably buy all three volumes anyway (and the complete series) if that is the release schedule though.

 

By "Season 1" you might mean "the whole series", right?
All 24 episodes make 1 single series, not a whole season.
The way it's going, the series may get done on batch 3.

 

I don't know. You'd have to ask NCircle that on twitter or e-mail them and ask.

 

This is a Streaming season, not a network season. Streaming seasons are notoriously short. Could be worse though. You could be paying Anime prices for physical releases.

 

It's up for pre-order on Amazon ($20 USD):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CQTRMSQQ/

 

YouTube dropped new episode!

 

That video is region locked, of course.