I've been a big Sonic fan (well, more of a Tails fan actually) since the Saturday Morning (SatAm) cartoon series that ABC used to show. Everyone remembers that one with Sally, Bunny, Antoine, Tails, Rotor, Snively and Robotnic. Well don't expect it from this show.
Well.. Sonic X is made by the Japanese, of course its not going to follow the story lines of the >>AMERICAN<< Archie Sonic comics, plus the animation style is a lot more streamline. Sonic X blends computer cgi with super-realistic hand-drawn animation. And we all know how much better the Japanese are at animating than we are, as evidenced by Dexter's Lab and Power Puff Girls.
This show is produced by Sonic Team, so it's no surprise that most of the episodes will coincide with familiar events in the Sonic Adventure games. The idea to throw Sonic and pals into the human world allows for much more interaction and excitement than when he was stuck on Mobius and the only two humans were Snively and Robotnik. Now Sonic gets to meet a variety of interesting and strange characters.
I thought it was rather humorous when Chris's grandfather thought Sonic was a robot and he tried to stick a screwdriver into his nether regions. 0.o
This really is a great show, its just that I really don't like how 4Kids Entertainment went about "Americanizing" it. If you've ever watched one of the Sonic X translated fansubs by WolfPac or Team Artail you'll notice that the Japanese used actual gun sounds instead of the more friendly laser fire sounds that are heard in the US dub.
Also most of the Japanese voice actors in Sonic X also did the voices for the same characters in the Japanese Sonic games.
Amy Palanth is the voice of Tails in the 4Kids dub? No wonder he sounds like Ash Ketchum from Pokemon... how degrading. Seriously guys, the English voice acting is enough to make my ears bleed! Give me the original Japanese voices with English subtitles any day so long as I don't have to hear that stupid Ninja Turtle-ish theme song. Gotta go faster, faster, faster, faster, faster! Uggghhh -.- Why'd they replace a perfectly good J-Pop song with such lame surf-rock garbage?
What would've been so wrong with keeping Hironobu & Hideaki's "Sonic Drive" as the opening theme? So what if your kids don't understand Japanese, let them have a little culture in their TV diet anyway! And it utterly disgusts me how when an anime gets dubbed for kiddy TV its almost completely stripped of all its individuality and anything that may've made it unique.
In the original Sonic X, episode 2, Sonic says in plain English the word "sh*t" as he is trying to sneak past the Area 99 security cameras. In another episode where Eggman (Robotnik) tricks Sonic and Knuckles into fighting each other, Knuckles calls Sonic a b*stard. Hey, they do it in the English dub of Inuyasha all the time.. and they kept the J-Pop songs too. =P
Before being "Americanized" two of the young male digi-mon trainers in the original Japanese Digimon were in love. The Japanese don't have as much of a problem with homosexuality as we do in the states. So in the American re-dub they just make the excuse that the two boys are "Really good friends." Sure... two really good friends who just happen to hold each other's hands and blush when they're scared ^.^
These poor little animes get butchered and dumbed down for the American youth, when in actuality your kids really aren't as dumb as you think. We try to keep the children away from swear words, violence, and sexuality when most of the time they've already seen it in the last movie they went to see with their parents.
-Sonikuu kawaii desu ^_^
