Search - Sonic X: The New World Saga (Season 1) on DVD

Awesome Show, but Where's the rest? (by Laura)

Female Spy | 02/24/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"My title explains a lot about my feelings on this DVD. When I ask, "Where's the rest?" I'm saying that this ISN'T the COMPLETE first season, but only half of it. This is one of the reasons why I rate it four stars instead of five; now I don't know where I can get the rest of the first season, without buying the individual volumes. This fact wasn't clear when I checked this out, so I'm making it clear now: THIS IS NOT THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON! Oh, and I should warn you that this DVD comes in a cheap box, as my box broke in the mail; my discs are okay for right now, but they were loose in a box that I'm not sure how to repair... Now that all of that is off my chest, I shall do my first grading system on the show itself. Think schoolastically, A+ being the best and F- being the worst.

Graphics B+: I'm rating loosely on the graphics because this is a cartoon; therefore, just about anything goes. The characters are done nice, but the backgrounds lacked consistency. One minute, you have a background much like the characters, slightly cartoonish; the next minute you have a background that looks like somebody's picture on their camera... This really clashed with everything else once or twice; you'll probably notice this the most during the episode of "Unfair Ball" when the manager speaks to the guy who manages the field. The people in the audience then look like fake cardboard cutouts of the real thing... The designers should have stuck with the cartoonish looking crowd.

Characters A: This grade is for the characters themselves; how well their personalities were developed, how likable and diverse they are, how often they appeared, and how close they come to their videogame counterparts in terms of personality and voice. They did a great job with the voices; my only complaints are that Sonic's voice was a touch too high, and Chris sounded like a girl... and for the parents, many of the characters have high pitched voice (Cream for example). If this sort of thing aggravates you, then find something else to watch; I didn't notice this but my mom did. Now bear in mind that this is only half of the first season (it goes all the way to Beating Eggman Part II), so I don't know how many times the characters actually appeared during the season; I'm grading strictly on the half of the shows I have seen. Speaking of being seen, Eggman was seen a little too much. One episode is pretty much about him, and it got a little dull after awhile. He, like Sonic, was also virtually seen in every episode. The interesting thing about him, I'd like to note, is that he picks robots randomly with a slot machine-like thing. It drove me crazy, hoping that the last slot would have a lemon, or something random, rather than confirmation on which robot he should use (does that eventually happen?). Sonic was also seen a lot, but he didn't drive me nearly as crazy Eggman. It did get a little tiring that he ALWAYS is the one to save the day; also, most of the time you see him napping on Chris' roof (how did he even get up there to begin with?). All of the characters are lovable in their own way (even Eggman if he's close to someone joking at him), very diverse in personalities, and pertain to the videogames pretty well. My last complaints are that though you see Big (the cat fishing with a frog in his lap) in the first episode, he doesn't speak or even show up again after that. I'm sure that left half of the viewers wondering who he even is. Shadow doesn't even make an appearance, they play the same strange sexy music each time Rouge shows up and carries out a mission (which isn't much), and there's one episode about Amy who has such a mushy crush on Sonic that it made me sick (The "Last Resort" episode)...

Plot and Details A-: Pretty interesting plot. For the time being there's a little too much fighting (don't worry, nothing with blood or anything), but I'm not counting off majorly for that because this is the beginning (how else does one get people's attention?). For the most part, many of the storylines are cause by putting characters with clashing personalities together; thus producing quite comical results. What I counted off the most for was lack of detail; whenever the characters did fight, it wasn't believable that they actually got hurt because they weren't scathed at all. I'm not saying I want blood, but something more along the lines of pokemon injuries. Those who have watched the pokemon cartoons will know what I'm talking about; every time the characters got hurt, a "number" mark would appear on them, or they got a little dirty, or even had redness for stuff like swelling. Again, I'm not saying a like seeing people hurt; what I AM saying, is that I want a more believable fight in a cartoon (I'm sorry, even Tom and Jerry received black eyes and bandages when they were hurt). The fact that Sonic was hit in the face by a robot and not even scratched, is just not believable enough for me.

Overall B+: There aren't any bonus features (besides previews and internet stuff; not really bonus), it comes in a cheap box, and it's not even the COMPLETE first season. If you choose to purchase this, be warned that you're really only buying it for the cartoon material; which can actually be a really good reason to buy it. However, if you can find something that has a little better boxing, bonus features, and is actually complete, then you're wasting your time here."

4Kids Strikes Again!

Coby Sevdy | Osan, South Korea | 07/27/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was living in Japan when Sonic X was first created, so I got to watch it in its original Japanese glory long before America got ahold of it. Unfortunately, 4Kids Entertainment sunk their claws into it, and if you don't know, 4Kids is infamous for butchering anime shows for American audiences. They created an annoying opening song for the American release, as well as casting poor voice actors. And of course, they've edited scenes and dialogue throughout the whole series for no apparent reason. 4Kids doesn't believe in preserving the Japanese culture presented in anime; rather, they re-write it to appeal to American audiences. It's the case of making money over making quality - 4Kids wants more Americans to be able to relate to the media so they can sell more of it to us. But in doing so, they leave us ignorant of the original culture the media emerged from.

Sonic X is my favorite of all the Sonic cartoon series released to date, but I refuse to watch this hacked-up American version (or any work of 4Kids for that matter). I'll stick to watching Sonic X in Japanese with subtitles. Besides, Sonic is originally a Japanese creation, so it feels more authentic to be watching it in Japanese."