Le createur de Sonic - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Megaforce, December 1992)

I am interested in the comic page in the second scan. What are the origins of that?

 

It's been three years since my last french class. Here are the questions in order: "What were your motivations for creating Sonic?" "Why did you pick the color blue?" "Could you have imagined the success of Sonic?""Did you come up with tails?" "Is sonic going to have a girlfriend"(0.0) "how many people work on the games?""Have you worked on any other sonic games?""Thank you or your time"

 

Lors de notre dernier passage chez Sega au Japon, le mois dernier, nous avons eu la chance de pouvoir rencontrer Mr. Kanari, le créateur de Sonic. Pour être plus précis, il convient toutefois de signaler que Mr. Kanari a dirigé l'equipe qui a réalisé ce grand classique, car une bonne quinzaine de personnes ont collaboré à ce projet, comprenant graphistes, concepteurs, programmeurs et aussi musiciens. Cela dit, c'est Mr. Kanari qui est l'âme de cette équipe et il a suivi la réalisation de ce projet de bout en bout.

During our visit with Sega in Japan last month, we had the chance to meet Mr. Kanari, the creator of Sonic. To be more precise, it should be noted that Mr. Kanari led the team that produced this classic, because a good fifteen people worked on this project, including graphic designers, programmers, and musicians. However, it is Mr. Kanari that is the soul of this team and he has followed this project from start to finish.

Mega Force : Mr. Kanari, pouvez-vous nous dire quelles ont été vos motivations lorsque vouse avez créé Sonic?

Mega Force: Mr. Kanari, can you tell us what your motivations were when you created Sonic?

Mr. Kanari : Nous avions déjà créé des héros Sega sur la Master System, comme Alex Kidd, Wonderboy ou encore Shinobi, et il est évident que de tels personnages ont contribué au succès de cette console. Avec l'arrivée de la Megadrive, il nous a semblé important de créer un nouveau personnage que le public pourrait identifier à cette console et c'est Sonic qui a été choisi.

Mr. Kanari: We had already created heroes on the Sega Master System, such as Alex Kidd, Wonderboy, and Shinobi, and it is obvious that such characters have contributed to the success of this console. With the arrival of the Genesis, it seemed important to create a new character that the audience could identify with this console, and it is Sonic that has been chosen.

M-F : Pourquoi avoir choisi e hérisson bleu?

M-F: Why did you choose a blue hedgehog?

Mr. K. : Il est clair que les jeunes voulaient un personnage mignon, alors nous avons mis nos graphistes au travail et ils ont créé des tas de personnages nouveaux, don't certains seront sans doute les héros de futurs jeux. Il y avait toutes sortes d'animaux, ainsi que des humains. Finalement, nous avons choisi le hérisson parce qu'il symbolisait bien l'idée de vitesse qui collait avec la Megadrive. Quant à la couleur de Sonic, le choix était évident car le bleu est la couleur de Sega.

Mr. K. : It is clear that young people wanted a cute character, so we put our designers to work and they created lots of new characters, some of which are probably the heroes of future games. There were all sorts of animals and humans. Finally, we chose the hedgehog because it symbolized the idea of speed that symbolized the Megadrive. As for the color of Sonic, the choice was obvious because the blue is the color of Sega.

M-F : Imaginiez-vous que Sonic remporterait un tel succès ?

M-F: Did you imagine that Sonic would be such a success?

Mr. K. : Nous étions sûrs que Sonic plairait au public, mais nous avons quand même été surpris du fantastique succès qu'a remporté ce nouveau personnage. Maintenant, Sonic est une véritable star qui fait beaucoup pour l'image de Sega.

Mr. K. : We were sure that Sonic would please the public, but we've still been surprised by the fantastic success that this new character has brought. Sonic is a real star who did a lot for Sega's image.

M-F : Est-ce vous qui avez eu l'idée d'adjoindre un ami à Sonic, le sympathique renard de Sonic 2?

M-F : Is it you who had the idea to add a friend for Sonic, the friendly fox in Sonic 2?

Mr. K. : Non, ce n'est pas moi et il faut préciser que contrairement au jeu précédent, Sonic 2 n'a pas été développé au Japon mais aux Etats-Unis par les équipes de Sega US.

Mr. K. : No, not me. And it should be noted that unlike the previous game, Sonic 2 has not been developed in Japan, but in the United States by Sega of America.

M-F : De nombreux lecteurs de Mega Force ont souhaité que Sonic ait une petite amie. Est-ce que cela est envisagé et est-il prévu que de nouveaux personnages rejoignent Sonic par la suite?

M-F : Many readers of Mega Force wished that Sonic had a girlfriend. Is this what is envisioned, and is it expected that new characters will join Sonic in the future?

Mr. K. : En effet, nous avons constaté que le public souhaitait que Sonic ait des amis. Plusieurs projets sont actuellement à l'étude et il n'est pas exclu que Sonic ait une petite amie par la suite. Du reste, un magazine de bandes dessinées japonaises publie régulièrement une série consacrée à Sonic. Dans cette B.D., Sonic a une famille et des amis, alors pourquoi ne pas faire de même dans un jeu?

Mr. K. : Indeed, we found that the public wanted Sonic to have more friends. Several projects are currently underway and it is possible that Sonic may have a girlfriend in the future. Moreover, a comic book in Japan publishes a regular series on Sonic. In this comic, Sonic has a family and friends, so why not do the same in a game?

M-F : Combien de personnes ont travaillé sur Sonic et combien de temps a duré le développement de ce jeu?

M-F : How many people have worked on Sonic and how long was the development of this game?

Mr. K. : Plus d'une quinzaine de personnes ont participé à la réalisation du jeu. En tout, le développement de Sonic a pris près d'un an et demi, nettement plus que pour la plupart des jeux Sega.

Mr. K. : More than a dozen people participated in the realization of the game while the development of Sonic took nearly a year and a half, far more than most Sega games.

M-F : Préparez-vous déjà d'autres jeux consacrés à notre hérisson préféré?

M-F : Are you already preparing other games devoted to our favorite hedgehog?

Mr. K. : La branche Arcade du service Recherche et Développement de Sega est actuellement en train de terminer un jeu consacré à Sonic. Ce n'est pas la reprise d'un jeu existant sur console, mais un programme entièrement nouveu qui est réalisé spécialement pour les salles d'arcade. Il faut signaler que cette démarche est très inhabituelle, car ce sont toujours les jeux d'arcade Sega qui sont convertis sur console et pour la première fois c'est l'inverse qui se produit. Mais la notoriété de Sonic est telle qu'il se devait de fair son entrée dans les salles d'arcade.

Mr. K. : The Arcade Service Research and Development branch of Sega is currently completing a game devoted to Sonic. This is not the continuation of an existing console game but a fully new program designed specifically for arcades. Note that this approach is very unusual because it has always been the arcade games that are translated to Sega consoles, and for the first time the reverse is occurring. But Sonic's popularity is such that he is making his entrance into the arcade.

[drawing caption]

Ces dessins ont été réalisés par les concepteurs de Sonic, avant que le développement du jeu ne commence, et on y découvre déjà l'esprit du jeu, ainsi que son graphisme.

These drawings were created by the developers of Sonic before the development of the game began, and already we can discover the spirit of the game and it's graphics.

 

...I find it odd that some random Kanari bloke is being credited with creating Sonic the Hedgehog, and not Naoto Ohshima (hell, not even Yuji Naka, as he's so often incorrectly attributed).

I mean, sure, he may have been the producer of Sonic CD, but that's hardly even the same thing! Talk about not doing one's research.

 

Indeed, notice how he is never asked with a question that would eventually bring up with him trying to correct the interviewer in that. I assume he never knew that he was gonna get credited as the creator, at least before the interview was published.

 

Wow I had this issue for ages. Brings back memories :P

 

I was wondering, where did you find such scans?

 

I think it's implying he created the sonic game rather than sonic himself.

 

But he didn't create any Sonic games other than Sonic CD, as stated above.

All those concepts, Tom Payne had. Did we know about them all before?

O_O

 

The question is, who is this "Mr. Kanari" and what is he doing claiming he created Sonic? =P

I'm actually frightened to hear that back then people wanted Sonic to have more friends.

 

We only knew about the concepts featured in this article, precisely.

 

Well... too late.

 

Looks like they took the 'Sonic needs more friends' thing too literally.

Also yes, I am curious about the origins of that Japanese comic. Are those Sonic's siblings?

 

I believe that comic has been on the internet since forever... Can't remember the site's name, sorry.

 

It's the manga with Nikki (the hedgehog with glasses) who could transform into Sonic. The girl is Amy Rose (yes, a prototype version of her, before her redesign for Sonic CD) and the fat hedgehog is called Little John. An early design of Charmy Bee was also in this manga.
On the next picture, under Tails are Sonic's parents and his little sister. I can't remember their names, nor those lizard's names. I can't read japanese ^^;



Bigger version of the page:

 

Just found <a href="http://www.clavis.ne.jp/~sonic/segasonic/act1/sbook1.htm" target="_blank">the other comic</a> with prehistoric Sonic, in an old topic.

I guess that's the only one from that series that's been fully scanned.


EDIT: Wait a second, perhaps this guy is the creator of these comics? That would explain Amy and Charmy appearing later in the games.

 

There was another one, more like a storybook, where Nikki transformed as Sonic with a stripped outfit, against a medievalesque Robotnik to save Amy. I'll try to find it.

EDIT: These mangas were drawn by Tanaka Kouichi. Apparently, Solly has it, but the scans are unavailable: http://lists.franken.de/pipermail/sonic-po...ary/012798.html

EDIT 2: I didn't find the scans BUT I remembered I printed them, so I've scanned them.