Is the Sonic OAV canon? »

          Attempting to figure out the canonical assets of the old Sonic OAV movie released in 1996 is a bit harder than Sonic X since the OAV doesn't show any immediate connections with the games. Even the planet they are on has a different name.

           This article won't supply any pieces of evidence that it is or isn't canon like the Sonic X one did, but will instead just be nothing but my words in paragraph form. So prepare for some reading… unless, of course, this page is actually pretty small. There is no reason it should be big since this subject isn't a particularly debatable one. So now its time to get to it.

           The Sonic OAV: The Sonic OAV's plot elements are based off of that of the games what with Sonic's personality, the classic land structure, the zone-running, and even the overall design and conception. But several plot elements contrast heavily from those seen in the games, such as the Planet Freedom. First off, the name. Earth has been known as the name of Sonic's world in the games, and supposedly, Earth is also what it was called in the Japanese version of the movie. But if you listen at the beginning of the movie very closely, you'll notice that it is mentioned as Freedom in the Japanese version. Some speculate Freedom is the name of Sonic's homeworld in Sonic X. But anyway, the name is only half of the problem.

           In the movie, Freedom is made up of two parts: the land of darkness and the land of the sky. The land of the sky is where all of the civilization is located for the most part, and is composed entirely of hundreds of floating islands and continents, hence the name. The land of darkness is basically the actual surface of the planet filled with ancient ruins and nothing but uncharted and unmarked terra. First off, in the games, we are all well under the impression that there is no land of the sky, since Angel Island has gone down as the only distinctive piece of land with the capability to float in the sky, much less continents of floating islands.

           And last but not least with the Sonic OAV is Metal Sonic. Metal Sonic's presence in the film comes off kind of as if this was his first ever debut when taking into account Eggman's announcement and Sonic's surprised reaction and dismay as to who or what he is. That puts forth the possibility that the Sonic OAV is nothing more than a separate adaptation to Sonic CD, which took place before this movie was ever released and is when Sonic & Metal Sonic officially met in the game continuity.

           So far, the Sonic OAV movie seems pretty damn separate from the game continuity, doesn't it? We haven't seen any land of the sky in the games, and we already know how Sonic & Metal Sonic's true confrontation went about. But what about the anime does show that it could be tied very closely to the games? For one, the land structure of the planet Freedom is very similar to the structure seen in Sonic zones. Even springs and badniks were present in the movie! Two: references were made to South Island in Sonic OAV near the end when Freedom was about to be dismantled. And in the Japanese version, references were made to Eggmanland, a very common plot element in Sonic games: new and old since Eggman always has some motive to try to build himself an Eggmanland or something along those lines.

           So what have we learned? Other than minor references to some official landmarks, the Sonic OAV doesn't seem to be all that based off of the games, and seems to be no more than separate adaptation to Sonic CD. So we have two solutions:

Solution #1: Since we're talking about the game storyline here, and in the game storyline, Sonic CD was Sonic & Metal Sonic's official first meeting, not to mention the game storyline has clearly confirmed that Sonic does not come from a world that is covered by floating islands, this solution proposes that it is fully safe to assume that the Sonic OAV is non-canon and is ultimately its own plotline. So simply ignore it.

Solution #2: If you like the OAV so much that you insist it should go with the games, then my only solution would be that the planet Freedom is a totally different world and that is where the movie took place. However, this is a pretty drastic solution and is not encouraged when you can just as easily go with the first one and get better results.