Also, Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Sonic X - Episode 2: Infiltrate! Area 99
AKA area 51 isn't that hard to break into you guys, not if you're super sonic racing
AKA 4Kids title: Sonic to the Rescue!
First of all: That OP song is really really really catchy. I'm starting to like it a lot in its context; it feels like it fits better than GOTTA GO FAST GOTTA GO FAST GOTTA GO FASTER FASTER FASTERFASTERFASTER. And I'm generally into
these kind of OP songs, haha. It's very fun, and I wouldn't expect less from who did it.
As with a lot of anime, the episode begins with the ending scenes from the first episode. I don't think the English version did this because they wanted to cut down on time to sell crap. Chris is really psyched to meet Sonic. "僕... 僕 Chris!!" And then we get the title card and the pan to the front of the mansion. Man now I'm really wishing that Ufotable did all of the animation for this. It looks boring. Why do I talk about Ufotable so much? They apparently did the CG for Sonic X. Here's some other cool stuff Ufotable did:
one (Fate/Zero),
two (Xillia 1),
three (God Eater Burst),
four (Black Rock Shooter PSP)! They are awesome, know how to shade well, know good colour palettes, have great scene direction, and the animation's generally great.
Anyway, enough tangents. This is about Sonic. Well, no... instead I'm greeted with someone talking about how it's been raining and filming's been cancelled so they can't get back? I don't know. I'm going to guess it's Chris's mom because she's promising presents. She sounds much nicer and less spoiled/extravagant than the English version. She's even promising to bring cotton candy! BEST MOM. D'aww, Chris is calling her mama and saying that he needs to apologize for
burning the house down with the crazy hedgehog breaking two rules: going out after midnight (how old is this kid?) and going into the adult pool! also there's a butler. "You went swimming at that time?! D:" No, it's not that; Chris makes the excuse that there was a cat drowning and he saved it! Hedgehogs aren't cats! Oh you silly child. Awww... that's so cute. He kisses the phone. :3 Also, the mother yammers more in the English version than the Japanese version. The Japanese version is straight and to-the-point.
Sonic's offended that he's being called a cat. Well, he's not Big the Cat, but maybe he could be mistaken for Blaze the Cat because of his and her playstyles? I don't know. Chris is all like, "dude, I couldn't tell her that I was saving a hedgehog cuz hedgehogs are tiny and they poop when they run (well, not that part)!" Chris is still PUMPED that Sonic speaks. Chris also looks a
lot like Sora to me. Then Chris gets a call from his Papa because his Mama tattled on him about a cat drowning in the pool. Then he rants and raves about the shitty security. Grampa, Era and Mr. Tanaka are here to take care of Chris so there shouldn't be any worries! Chris's dad sounds a lot like a salaryman. He fits the criteria anyway. Sonic's mouth is just a buncha scribbles at this point because he doesn't know wtf a phone is.
Now it's breakfast time. Sonic wants to know what hedgehogs around here eat so he could eat it. Chris gives him cat food and I think he decided that Sonic's a cat from now on. He's played too much Sonic Rush you guys. Sonic kicks the food away and runs away for some gourmet food just as Chris is suggesting that he eat dry grass. Yup. You know, Sonic's kind of an asshole. Then we see a news report with some scientist guy holding a monkey that's trying to screw around with his glasses. He says that Sonic's a UMA. I don't know. Then he says that Sonic's a machine. Guy can't make up his damn mind!
Then Doc Brown from Back to the Future comes into Chris's house and spouts something about the S team finding a machine. Sonic's kinda like a child in this scene. Almost unlikeable. It's amazing how they're getting the audience to sympathize with the humans rather than the star of the show. Or perhaps my child self would want Sonic to do whatever he wants. and OH SHIT Doc Brown's going to take Sonic to the OR and jam a screwdriver into his belly someone stop him. That's Chris's ojiichan. He's a crackpot.
Then we hear Sayaka Aoki's voice coming from the TV. Chris must be watching either Baccano! or Shuffle! but he's definitely not old enough for either of those!! Oh wait, it's Cream the Rabbit on a billboard and she's going to get arrested. Or something. Somehow Doc Brown's buddy-buddy with the police and finds out that Cream and Cheese were transferred to Area 51. Chris knows that's a military laboratory so maybe the mad scientist from Independence Day works there. We're also talking about biological weaponry.
Chris's kooky grandpa decides to drag everyone to Area 99 because he's bored and he's clearly been neglecting his medication. He also gives Sonic a Saiyan scanner. But we all know that everyone's power levels are super-low around here.
This lab must be expensive as crap because they have
retina scanners. All the cool ones I've been around need card keys. By the way, the music's been really decent in this episode. I can't remember what the English one sounded like, but I expect it to have music where there isn't any music in the original version, poor music which finishes at an inopportune time, music that is paced poorly, etc. Sonic's pretending he's a speedier version of Solid Snake. Also, wow, some of this experimentation is kind of cruel and seems to go against some sort of ethical guidelines for research here. >.>
Someone fucked with the systems in the lab and even though Cream and Cheese don't shut the hell up, they somehow are able to escape from the testing room. Sonic said shit in English, then 行くぞ! (Ikuzo! Let's go now!"). I... don't really understand why he doesn't just pick Cream and Cheese up and dash away. Sonic uses a laser to take out all of the cameras. Then they're saved by little airplanes. I have to say that some of the animation is straight-up lazy here. Some of the angles are used multiple times in the same scene, a lot of the backgrounds feel boring, and the only thing that looks decent is the animation on Sonic and Cream/Cheese. A lot of the human animation kind of feels like they phoned it home sometimes. One of the staircases falls and Cream's about to die. Well, to be fair, the only thing she did was heal in Sonic Chronicles, but who remembers Sonic Chronicles? Sonic FINALLY does the smart thing and carries her the rest of the way. "BABY, were you afraid?!
" oh my... i think they're trying to say that sonic has swag or something.
Tails comes outta nowhere and does something decent for once and saves everyone. I think we all know who the real hero is and who the adult out of everyone else is. And he's only 10. Tails's animation is kind of weird. Especially when he talks. Chris's grandpa is being reeeeally weird... Then they realize that if they were sent to the world, the others were too... including Robuttnik! Aw shit! Cut to Eggman. "With Chaos Control, we came to this world! In this world, I'll build my own Eggman Kingdom! I will conquer this other world! Ahuahuahuahua!"
Then the next episode is supposed to have Eggman building a robot to kill things and Amy's in the episode somewhere but no one cares about her.
