The Jet Black Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog (Manga)

Yes but also no

It spoils the main points -which are obvious from beginning- and all bosses so you should stay away anyway

But also how the story plays out is very different in lot of key ways, even from the very beginning -spoiling when they took place a bit-, + - the game runs parallel to Sonic Generations, while the manga actually starts from 50 years ago and details Shadow's life at the ark for a bit   , so the manga have been surprising actually even after playing the game, basically a different take on the same premise

 

Thank you. Guess I'll leave it for later then.

 

Uh oh, seems like I mixed something up – chapter 6, the final chapter, is out!

What a blast. The build-up to Neo Devil Doom's defeat, Maria's farewell, Shadow's awakening was insanely good.

If you're a Shadow fan, do NOT sleep on this comic.

Only in the manga:

Spoiler: T_T

 

This was awesome, it was written pretty well, the differences between this and the game's story are very satisfying, and it makes me wish the game's story was a tad more like this manga. Maria has a satisfying central role in this that would've been really great to have in the actual game itself. The way that this uses amnesia and mind/memory control and what does that mean for Shadow's character was really really good, the best we've seen that be deployed for Shadow. Really fantastic finale. Shadow is a litttle too over-the-top angry in this mangaka's interpretation of him, and there are times where stuff isn't quite too well-drawn, but I think these are my only real issues with this. Even when stuff doesn't look as well-drawn as it should, I think the compositions and poses look great! What a fun read, I hope this gets released outside of Japan.

 

It's very funny to me that Black Doom essentially fooled the readers as well as Shadow with that "pretend I caused the ARK raid and Maria's death" illusion.

 

Looks like our chances for a western release have increased by a whopping 1%. Shadow is getting its own comic book later this month!

Currently up for pre-order. Check the links at the bottom here: https://www.shogakukan.co.jp/purchase/paper/books/09154030

Do not feed the repulord.

 

It's not just a collection of the whole story?

 

These appear to be the CoroCoro comics of Shikkoku no Harinezumi: Shadow the Hedgehog as a standalone book!

No word of new stories!

 

Now that the volume is out, there is 4 extra pages you can read at the end -it's translated-, it's cute little flashback

Gotta say that i loved this manga overall and it's one of my favorite depictions of shadow and maria

 

That's-a so nice!

I've placed an order on Amazon JP for the paper version of it. According to them, I'll receive it in two weeks. Gotta wait a little longer, but I'm already looking forward to it.

Though shipping costs are quite expensive, something told me I'd regret not adding one to my collection, so I bit.

 

Hey, my copy arrived today:

Yahoo!

Scans can be found here.

Now all we can do is wait and hope for an official localization...

 

So, after the success of Shadow manga, corocoro will actually make a brand new Sonic manga! It appears to be original and not tied to any particular game so that’s interesting, will start next month! Preview in the tweet

https://x.com/soniccitynet/status/1922691331966607716?s=46&t=bZJC18OhbZ2zy_1P_NLvSA

 

If that doesn't sound epic, I don't know what does. Hopefully, they do a bit more with him than just, "OK, and now for Sonic. Remember, Shadow and Sonic are nothing alike!"

Back to BookWalker, I guess

 

"For our readers overseas, we are making every effort to prepare overseas editions of Imada’s previous series, Shikkoku no Harinezumi: Shadow the Hedgehog, and his new series Sonic to Yuki no Tsurugi. We will let you know when we have more information about these."

A slightly non-committal phrasing, but we may finally be seeing localizations of Shadow and this!

The rest is more "mad about scanlations and piracy" waffle. I still recommend not giving a shit about that.

 

No company will admit that, but part of success of series was the piracy. Good they´re working on localizations.

Also... apparently the new manga is released!

 

Chris confirms the localization, just in case anyone was still doubtful like me.

 

The comic is out! Who's reading it? I just had a quick flick through it, and even without understanding every word, found it has some interesting stuff in it. I think the world and the characters give off a bit of a Sonic X vibe, but not necessarily in a bad way. Sonic himself seems to be inspired by his early Dreamcast days self (!)

 

Read the chapter. It was okay I guess. Really does feel like it was ripped right from the early 2000s, with the entirely-generic human city, Sonic being completely infallible and Insert Human Boy Here. I guess Sonic does eat a chili dog though, that's an anachronism.

Fine if you've got Sonic X nostalgia I suppose, but I sure don't. I think I just like a Sonic who can be shown struggling, really. Online Western/JP Sonic discourse is massively massively overblown but this is already doing the "Sonic is so much better here than in IDW" rounds, and it's become increasingly funny to me how a lot of the same people crying out for a more expressive face on Sonic's model also demand writing that has him expressing less emotion.

 

Zero issue taken with a softer Sonic. I wouldn't exactly call this guy (that's who he reminded me of in the comic) a vulnerable person, though!

 

I found Sonic in the issue to be very good, actually. Him being mischievous and whimsical is the kind of thing I've missed from Sonic in recent years. I also like that he's depicted as the town weirdo, plus he gets some actual "cool" moments in a way he hasn't in a long while.

Him doing motivational speeches to the kid does seem very Sonic X-esque though (especially alongside the rest of the manga's concept), which I'm not super keen on, but I'm also lukewarm with when IDW has Sonic do a similar sort of grandstanding. So maybe I'm not really feeling the culture war as much as someone deep in the Sonic Twitter trenches.

Regardless, I don't see a Sonic like this as infallible or "perfect", especially when he's so unserious and getting into shenanigans. He's a lot of fun here! It's nice to see this kind of whimsy from Sonic in an era where he hardly emotes at all. Maybe the bar is just extremely low, idk.