Mr L
Great Teacher
I felt compelled to talk about this OVA after seeing it featured on the Nostalgia Critic's latest video. It was produced by Pierrot, known these days for Tokyo Ghoul and Black Clover, and released in 1999 in the west by ADV.
I watched this quite a few times as I tended it get a lot of use out of my VHS collection. We never had premium TV and were stuck with the four basic analogue channels. The Internet still wasn't common in every home and I didn't own a home gaming system until 2001. I would often have on a video while I either played around with toys or my Game Boy' often I found myself playing the same tapes over and over.
This was my first and only anime VHS, excluding mainstream shows like Pokémon and Digimon. I remember a few of the trailers that played before the movie included some kind of Teeken anime and a show that featured two young women in combat gear who were both holding guns and painting with a pile of destruction behind then, no idea what it was! I often found myself re-watching these as I was the type of person who worried about damaging the tape through constant winding and forwarding, One detail I found odd was how none of these trailers featured any voices, just typical 90s anime background music. Perhaps they weren't confident in their dubs? That industry. Was still in its infancy so you can't exactly blame them.
Speaking of the dubbing, its fine, especially fir the time it was made. Sonic's voice fits okay even if he has a bit of a southern tinge. Could it be described as the worst of Sonic's voices? Yes but I feel he'z been fortunate enough to never have had a truky 'bad' voice over the years. Tauls' voice is rarher 'gender confused' (not the first time this would happen) and of all the performances its the only one that comes close to being truly annoying, Knuckles' is fairly bland (though still better than his Sonic Underground voice) and I'd say Robotnik's (as he was still being called at the time) actor is probably the strongest overall, giving a good blend of the more serious and goofy sides of the character we're used today. Given SEGA likely gave a lot of oversight, ADV were likely very focused on ensuring this didn't turn out badly.
I always liked the animation and art direction for the environments. Robotropolis has a particularly nice vibe and I greatly enjoy has theg reoresent SonIc's speed. A pity they had to go with weird human-animal hybrids for the original characters, including that of the hedgehog's female admirer (an idea SEGA wouldn't let die!) This OVA was the closest representation we had of classic-era Sonic (as the western cartoons of the era really did their own thing) until the recent Sonic Mania shorts.?
The plot is both simple and confusing' Sonic fights Metal Sonic, sounds straightforward right? Unfortunately the movie like to exposit tons of information on plot elements that didn't need to exist in the first place such as having the two lands split into two dimensions (and none of these things are anywhere in the source material).
I actualky really enjoy the music in this anime. Its very 90s but I honestly feel such music suits Sonic perfectly with it being as dated as the character himself. The end credits theme 'Look-a-like' is an interesting one. This was the first 'ingrish' J-Pop song I was ever exposed to. I can hear what the lyrics are going for but the verses get rather bizarre and you'll probably want to look those words up as the singers pronunciation leaves something to be desired. Its kind of weirdly charming in the way sometimes these songs are and the tune is decent at least.
Anyway, that's my ramble on the Sonic OVA/Movie. If you have any memories of it yourself, please share. I'm well aware I may have just wasted jy time but oh well.
I watched this quite a few times as I tended it get a lot of use out of my VHS collection. We never had premium TV and were stuck with the four basic analogue channels. The Internet still wasn't common in every home and I didn't own a home gaming system until 2001. I would often have on a video while I either played around with toys or my Game Boy' often I found myself playing the same tapes over and over.
This was my first and only anime VHS, excluding mainstream shows like Pokémon and Digimon. I remember a few of the trailers that played before the movie included some kind of Teeken anime and a show that featured two young women in combat gear who were both holding guns and painting with a pile of destruction behind then, no idea what it was! I often found myself re-watching these as I was the type of person who worried about damaging the tape through constant winding and forwarding, One detail I found odd was how none of these trailers featured any voices, just typical 90s anime background music. Perhaps they weren't confident in their dubs? That industry. Was still in its infancy so you can't exactly blame them.
Speaking of the dubbing, its fine, especially fir the time it was made. Sonic's voice fits okay even if he has a bit of a southern tinge. Could it be described as the worst of Sonic's voices? Yes but I feel he'z been fortunate enough to never have had a truky 'bad' voice over the years. Tauls' voice is rarher 'gender confused' (not the first time this would happen) and of all the performances its the only one that comes close to being truly annoying, Knuckles' is fairly bland (though still better than his Sonic Underground voice) and I'd say Robotnik's (as he was still being called at the time) actor is probably the strongest overall, giving a good blend of the more serious and goofy sides of the character we're used today. Given SEGA likely gave a lot of oversight, ADV were likely very focused on ensuring this didn't turn out badly.
I always liked the animation and art direction for the environments. Robotropolis has a particularly nice vibe and I greatly enjoy has theg reoresent SonIc's speed. A pity they had to go with weird human-animal hybrids for the original characters, including that of the hedgehog's female admirer (an idea SEGA wouldn't let die!) This OVA was the closest representation we had of classic-era Sonic (as the western cartoons of the era really did their own thing) until the recent Sonic Mania shorts.?
The plot is both simple and confusing' Sonic fights Metal Sonic, sounds straightforward right? Unfortunately the movie like to exposit tons of information on plot elements that didn't need to exist in the first place such as having the two lands split into two dimensions (and none of these things are anywhere in the source material).
I actualky really enjoy the music in this anime. Its very 90s but I honestly feel such music suits Sonic perfectly with it being as dated as the character himself. The end credits theme 'Look-a-like' is an interesting one. This was the first 'ingrish' J-Pop song I was ever exposed to. I can hear what the lyrics are going for but the verses get rather bizarre and you'll probably want to look those words up as the singers pronunciation leaves something to be desired. Its kind of weirdly charming in the way sometimes these songs are and the tune is decent at least.
Anyway, that's my ramble on the Sonic OVA/Movie. If you have any memories of it yourself, please share. I'm well aware I may have just wasted jy time but oh well.