Storyline
Timeline »
Believe it or not, in the very start for about two years or so, Sonic
the Hedgehog had a pretty stable continuity. The only plotholes in the
years of 1991-1992 were where the hell Sonic came from (indisputably),
the number of Chaos Emeralds, and the manual translations between the
English and Japanese versions (which, even then, were slight). This
was because Sonic was under the full control of Sonic Team.
But then, 1993 rolled by and was what could be considered the fatal
year for the Sonic the Hedgehog storyline. 1993 was when Sonic the Hedgehog
began to get real famous in the media. Having to give Sonic a more indepth
storyline was now a priority to keep fans interested. This is technically
when the authentic storyline dispute in the series begun. So without
further ado, I present the timeline:
1991
1991 was a pretty easy year for Sonic. All that was released this year
was Sonic's first video game and the 8-bit version of it on the Game
Gear/Master System; both of which had the same storyline. The storyline
was written first for the US release, but luckily they are both pretty
much the same, except the Japanese translation adds in a bit more details
such as describing where the game takes place (South Island) and Dr.
Eggman's motives. The only questionable asset is how the English manual
says how Sonic's shoes give him super speed. There is no true proof
of that in Sonic Team's game storyline. Let's not forget the first staple
plothole in the series regarding how in the Japanese translation, he
is named Dr. Eggman while in the American version he is Dr. Robotnik.
Storylines of this year: 2, the Japanese translation, and the English
1992
1992 was a fairly smooth year for Sonic as well. This is when
his popularity slowly began to rise up, particularly in America. (In
fact, Sonic was never that famous in Japan at all.) But nonetheless,
this year went pretty smoothly regarding Sonic's continuity. Both Sonic
2s (16 and 8 bit versions) were released this year. Sonic 2 introduced
the first actual plothole: 7 Chaos Emeralds, when Sonic 1 and even Sonic
2's 8-bit counterpart had only six Chaos Emeralds. For the most part,
this was ignored. 1992 was also the year the first additional portrayal
of Sonic was made which came in the form of the Shogaku Yonensei Sonic
manga comic which portrayed Sonic as a young hedgehog boy by the name
of Nikki who could transform into Sonic the Hedgehog and stop the plans
of the evil Dr. Eggman. In this portrayal, Nikki had a sister named
Anita and his parents Paul and Brenda. The continuity for this manga
is most definitely not canonical to the game storyline considering its
outlandishness.
Storylines of this year: 3, the Japanese translation, the English
translation, and the Shogaku Yonensei storyline
1993
Because of the exclusiveness of the Shogaku Yonensei manga,
its storyline can now be deducted from the continuity count, leaving
us with only two portrayals of Sonic: the Japanese game portrayal and
the English game portrayal (which at the time had little differences).
By 1993, Sonic began to become very popular along with the Mega Drive/Genesis
itself. His steep increase in popularity in America pressured Sega of
America to begin to flesh out their blue hero of a character even more.
Using the Sonic license, Sega of America takes the general assets of
Sonic's plotline from before and creates the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog
comics, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog TV show, and SatAM TV show.
Each of these three pieces of media contribute to the same general plot
that Sonic comes from the planet Mobius and is always putting a stop
to Dr. Robotnik's evil schemes, which contrasts heavily to the original
plot that the Japanese provided. Archie, AoStH and SatAM soon influenced
the rest of the English video game manual translations in the respect
that Sonic was on the planet Mobius, and of course the cross promotion
of Princess Sally in the English Sonic CD manual translation.
Sega
of Japan, however, stuck to their continuity while Sega of America began
to make their own. This is what truly made the divide in the two storylines.
By this time, Japan had its own plot while America had another. Neither
of them had anything to do with each other. In Japan, Sonic was an easygoing
drifter with a knack for adventure, but always had to stop Dr. Eggman's
plots to take over the world (which was referred to as Earth). While,
in America, Sonic was a freedom fighter with his friends Sally, Tails,
Rotor, Bunnie, and Antoine while they always tried to save Mobius from
Dr. Robotnik's fiendish ploys.
This year, Sega of Europe also began the publishing of their own comic
series, Sonic the Comic by Egmont Fleetway. The series adopted storyline
assets from the American portrayal but was more faithful to the Japanese
plot. Ultimately, it is a series all on its own. 1993 is what gave birth
to the three Sonic plotlines of their day.
Storylines of this year: 3
1. Sega of Japan's storyline, which was portrayed in the Japanese translations
of the games, and various Japanese Sonic media.
2. Sega of America's storyline, which was portrayed in the American
translations of the games, the Archie comic book series, Adventures
of Sonic the Hedgehog TV show, and the Saturday AM Sonic the Hedgehog
TV series.
3. Sega of Europe's storyline, which was portrayed in the Egmont Fleetway
Sonic the Comic series.
1994-1998
In 1994, Sonic's popularity quickly exhausted. From 1994-1998, Sonic
games were simply released to each country and the storyline of the
games were made to conform to their corresponding country's portrayal
of Sonic. Europe's video game manual translations were the same as the
English ones. So while Japan continued dishing out its games sticking
to its same simple and vague, but admirably unchanged plotline, America
translated the game's storylines to instead conform to their own detailed
storyline. During these years, only one separate plot was made, and
that was the Japanese Sonic OAV movie. Its faithfulness to the Japanese
game storyline is questionable and these days by many fans is considered
a totally separate plotline and is not canon to the games. Whether or
not is unknown.
1999
Even though Sonic Adventure was technically released at the
very end of 1998, its official release date is 1999 for all countries.
Sonic Adventure marked the beginning of a new era of Sonic. Sonic Adventure
was made in Japan and was released there first. But the odd thing about
it is this: the storyline was NOT edited for the US release. So needless
to say, most US Sonic gamers were baffled when they all of a sudden
heard their beloved Dr. Robotnik be called "Eggman" and when
the world they were on was called Earth instead of Mobius. It was at
this time that the online Sonic fanbase began to form as a whole and
when long time fans finally began to investigate the storyline and see
just what the hell went wrong. Most US Sonic fans didn't know Japan
had a totally different continuity and vice versa! 1999 was also the
year the short-lived SOA TV series Sonic Underground was aired, starring
Sonic the Hedgehog and his brother and sister Manic and Sonia in their
quest to find their mother, Queen Aleena, all the while warming the
hearts of the citizens of Mobius with their underground music band.
A later issue of Archie comics officially confirmed Sonic Underground
as part of the SOA continuity with how Sonic Underground's storyline
actually takes place in another parallel dimension where Sonic has a
brother and sister. The AoStH, SatAM, and Sonic Underground shows all
had fairly short air times (in fact, the first two stopped airing within
3 years of their debut, WAY before this date), so when they died out,
they left only the Archie comics with SOA's original storyline since
the game translations now adopted the Japanese plot. Shortly after the
release of Sonic Adventure, the SOE Fleetway Comic had finally discontinued
at issue 201, kicking down the overall plotline count to two. From Sonic
Adventure to this very day, the game storylines have remained unchanged
throughout all nations, which is why the Sonic with green eyes
and a more streamlined physique is known as the International
Sonic. This move was definitely for the better, but made what
is probably the biggest plothole of all time: how does this new Sonic
mesh with the hectic past of the old Sonic games?
Storylines of this year: 2
1. The Game storyline - the storyline portrayed in the Sonic games
2. The Archie storyline - the only surviving remnant of SOA's own original
storyline, portrayed in the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic series
2000- Now
All Sonic games have so far stuck to the Sonic Adventure formula
regarding how the storyline remains the same throughout all nations.
The only differences between the Japanese and English releases are slight
character portrayal differences, but the storyline stayed the same.
2001 was also a staple year for the continuity since the name Robotnik
was finally recognized in Japan as well with the release of Sonic Adventure
2, making Dr. Ivo Robotnik his true name while his common alias is Dr.
Eggman. 2003 was the year Sonic's popularity finally began to slowly
yet surely make its comeback, especially with the release of the new
anime TV series, Sonic X. Sonic Team's heavy involvement with Sonic
X, along with its accurate adaptations to the games and its sensible
solutions to some of the plotholes in the games suggests that Sonic
X is a canon source and is faithful to the games, but some fans beg
to differ. Whether or not Sonic X is game-continuity faithful remains
to be seen for sure. Currently, the game storyline is universal throughout
all countries and the only other separate storyline left is Archie's
(unless you count Sonic X as its own continuity).
Current amount of storylines in Sonic the Hedgehog: 3 (or 2 if you
think Sonic X is canon)
1. The Game storyline - the storyline portrayed in the Sonic games,
and *perhaps* Sonic X
2. The Archie storyline - the only surviving remnant of SOA's own original
storyline, portrayed in the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic series
3. The Sonic X storyline - the storyline portrayed in the Sonic
X anime cartoon series and the Sonic X comic by Archie
