Interview With Scott Dreier and David Humphrey SoCal Gaming Expo 2024

How I got fooled twice by purists of Japan, plus what was like being a purist (this time of America, but is also true for Japan too.

Episode 1 - Fooled by purist of Japan

I started to get seriously interested in anime stuffs when i was 11 years old. I grew up watching both Japanese, American and Italian cartoons (yes, back then Italy did cartoons too. Aosth and Sonic SatAM are Italian/American. Topo Gigio is Italian/Japanese), but I shifted comletely toward Japanese cartoon when I was 11 years old.

Some Sonic Generations vibes, uh?

Unfortunately, I had to wait to be 15 before getting more serious into anime.

I used to read Kappa Magazine (I discovered the serie 'Genzo', recommended as itself, not from KM). There was all I wanted, comics and curious fact about anime, including those I saw in Italy. And once there was one that caught my attention. It was about the last episode of Sailor Moon (episode 200, I think). It describled the censorship and the localization. There were also few pictures, but nothing to compare by my own, unfortunately.

Sorry for the censorship. but I don't want this blog getting the same treatment of my main blog, where I can't even have an avatar.

I stopped to read Kappa magazine when it shifted to 18+.

Years later I could finally watch the episode 200 of Sailor Moon the way it was. Yes it was censored. But a good part about localization was a lie.

Fooled once!

Part 2 - Choose to be a purist of America.

As purist of Japan, I must say I was tame. I was not like the one who call all American enternaiment estimators 'bunch of idots who lack of sense of aestetic and good product'. There are far worse purists around.

But as purist of America I was fierce, even obnoxious. At the point of bordering the troll territory (I trolled with other three purists once and I got banned). All what was outside the circle was shit. I also fought against miself to purge myself from all japanese influcences i had, especially in drawing style

It was fun at first, but after a while it becomes stale, the standards get impossible. This is what a purist feel. At certain point you start to hate your own fandom, I moved from being a purist of Japan to be a purist of America because of this.

Then I chose to be neither. Just liking what I like, regardless. Fuck elithism.

A panel of my original manga. I already stopped to be a purist for a while when I drew this. Usually I don't share my drawing, they're not worth. Do you recognize the place?

The story takes place in 2001, so Key Arena is.

3 - Fooled by a purist of Japan for the second time.

About 2 years ago I came back to Sonic fandom for the third time. I started to follow a blog of a Sonic fan on Tumblr, I still hadn't open Sonic Just Beacuse blog.

This person seemed an expert. She wasn't so extreme at the start. She mostly talked about Sonic's personality, about what she enjoyed, mostly light hearted. She showed her collection of Sonic merchandising, including Archies and IDW comics.

But one day everything changed. 'This blog is Japanese only'. 'SoA Evil!' 'Ian Flynn evil' 'Takashi Iizuka the only god' 'Don't call me SoJ purist, U RaSSists!' (of course not near this level of stupidity, just to show the kind of mentality. The racist one was truly explictily said, though).

Ian Flynn according to SoJ purist

The blog had became a collection of boring repeated posts against Sonic Prime (five times a day, for two week straight), suicidal though because of a umpteenth disappointing Sonic product (maybe even written by her dear Iizuka - it was getting messy), against Ian Flynn (this was damaging, because of her I learned to mistrust Ian Flynn abilities as a writer for a while, she share all the bad examples. I had to go through both his good and bad stories to make my opinion and clean the idea of him I had. This was the worst disservice).

Also, she showed the differences between some lines in Japanese VS English (it was mostly the wording, like Cheers/Thanx/Thank you), completely removed from their context, deliberately missing part, it was close to a scam. And for the racism part, she (like many SoJ purists) describled the SoA members like the tyrannic black arms and the SoJ members like many little confused amnesiac Shadows who can't still properly defend theriselves and are forced to succumb against the tirannical black arms). Half way between paternalism and conspiracy theorist.

I can't picture, for example, Iizuka like that. I'm not a fan of the guy and his views but one thing I learned he certainly is not somebody you can bury or trample. Also SoJ and SoA work togheter for two decades or more nowadays, way before Iizuka. They're not enemies.

Like it or not, they are not enemies!

But if you like, this is also named Takashi Iizuka, and this one will break your bones.

How this ended? This person had a discussion with another Sonic Fan on YT. One who watch Sonic as a whole, Japanese, English, IDW comics, Sonic Prime, everything. One who definitely is not a purist. And contraddicted her vision, using Japanese material no less. At the start she answered to him, the discussion seemed fine, no insults, no trolling, it was mostly like two adults talking about two different point of view. But in the end she first erased all the discussion she had with him. Later she denied the possibility to comment to her post. And finally, after few days, she erased all her blogs, accounts, everything, retreating. Is 6 months and she can't bee seen nowhere. Not really trustworthy, but what I can't truly forgive her is making me hate Ian Flynn when I still had no cleal idea about his writings.

Fooled twice!

No love no hate, Ian has his high and lows, certainly I prefer him other writers, boyth American and Japanese. The one I like most was Shiro Maekawa, but Ian gives lots of satisfactions too. There are downsides but is worth.

A dream team but the picture is not mine.

Conclusions:

Do I still follow SoJ purists? Actually some people i follow are purists. I avoid those that focus only on analysis, but there are a couple of people I follow because they do really cute and enjoyable creative stuffs and they care for the quality. But I don't trust their opinion anymore. I take them as what they are. Opinions.

Chousoku Sonic...

I remember, when I first aknowledged it's existence, I searched for it and luckily i found it. My reaction in short was like:

"Oh no, gonna be some Kuro Chan garbage!"...

"Oh... is cool, actually"

and I ended up to read all pages that were translated in English. Is Japanese humor. I enjoy it but many fellow Westerners think is childish.

The art

Although the art is deliberately crude, I like the balance in proportions in most panels.

In the first pages we still see those looong legs, not very balanced (in main game they make the silhouette easily readable, but they also make harder to move the figure...)

Here some more balanced pictures... shortened legs, longer torso, smaller feet and hands for more flexible poses... I would like to try to attempt this on Sonic orignal and more polished style.

Unlike sonic and his friends, Eggman doesn't come out always good. Here one of my favourite panel. In many other panels he is on AoStH level.

And here is why I don't really bother about Sonic continuity, canon and so on. I never did. It get skewed constantly, every 5 years.

Naturally I have my own preferences, that's normal. But I try to enjoy whatever I like and ignore whatever I dislike.

The site where this come from is dedicated to Sonic SatAM, but the link below mention the whole lore until last decade. Still valid today and in the future.

'You're a colourful bunch' said the calico.

A though on skills (Sonic and the others)

One thing I don't like about Sonic is that all character seems to have about the same skills and downfalls, and this make them less unique. Maybe an approach in the right direction was made in Sonic adventure 2, but that was all.

Considering that I only like few characters from Sonic (In short a little more than all those appeared in Sonic Prime, who luckily were all characters I already like), I only will talk about them and not even all of them.

Sonic and Shadow

(the twins.... not literally, but they truly have twins vibe)

I think they should keep their iconic skills. High speed, spindash etc. With a slight difference though. Surely the spindash and all related rolling into a ball thing should be identical, no difference.

In particular circumstance and for short amount of time thy both can reach the speed of light.

About speed, I like to think Shadow is sligtly slower than Sonic without his shoes. Anyway those two are the fastest and the difference between them and all the rest should be noticeable.

Physical strenght and stamina favour Sonic. Shadow is tied to his inibitor rings. Without them he is way stronger than Sonic but his stamina decreases fast. Also Shadow can't hold the super transformation as long as Sonic.

Shadow, unlike Sonic, can swim, but I don't see him having a particular tecnique.

He also can perform chaos control better and easily and has full control of the chaos power. Sonic can do chaos control, but it looks diffcult when he does that.

Being left handed can also be one of his advantages. Most people are right handed so unless you aren't a trained warrior (see Knuckles), Shadow attacks may be more unpredictable.

Tails

I really like his flight abilities thanks to his two tails mutation (do you know that the two tails mutation is real?)

Although annoying in game, I appreciate the fact Tails can't fly forever. Foxed aren't supposed to fly after all. But he can fly long enough to make his level easier to finish. He also can swim but he lacks tecnique.

I like that in SA2 he uses mechanics. But I like more if he uses custom made weapons.

I don't like Tails being as fast as Sonic or using the spin dash. Foxes don't have a mantle and quills. They're like dogs who have a convergent evolution toward cats, so they tend to have typical cat skills rather than dogs skills. I like when he attacks his enemies with his two tails, that look strong.

Knuckles

I don't see Knuckles as particularly fast, but he is strong and a skilled warrior enough to nullyfy Shadow's left handed advantages and to force him to fight without inibitor rings. He can also free climb easily. I remember in Sonic OVA he just fly just like Goku or Superman, but I don't like that as I'm not fond on his gliding ability. He also can swim, and unlike Shadow and Tails he has a tecnique. Like overall a warrior but pretty much well trained in overall all sports. Of course he should not be able to roll up. But he has quills, he should be able to use them in some creative way.

Amy Rose

I like her skills actually. The Piko Piko Hammer is a nice touch. Plus she can summon it like magical girls can sum their sceptre, as seen in Sonic X. One thing she should do more is rolling up and the spin dash. She should not be able to do all the attack Sonic and Shadow can do, but she is still a hedgehog so she should be able to roll up.

She can swim, too. Not as good as Knuckles but better than Tails and Shadow.

The tarot card doesn't count. This is a think she likes to do for fun, but I don't see it as a part of her fighting skills.

Rouge

One thing is obvious, Rouge arms and legs look really thick, like Knuckles', and this does means she is muscular, so she is a good fighter. Plus she is a natural flyer, being a bat. This does means she is supposed to be able to fly as long as you want, unlike Tails and this gives her the ability to go everywhere, without limits. Plus she can swim as well as Knuckles.

Eggman

I think, since he is a human, our specie, it was somewhat easy to enhance the typical human skill, intelligence, but at the same time is harder to run with creativity in other skills. Suspension of belief is harder when we are familiar with something. All Eggman skills come from brain indeeed and his mechanics is very creative and dangerous. Eggman is able to swim (apparently only Sonic can't swim), but mostly he floats. He possess quite a good strenght and athletic abilities considering how out of shape he is.

Where there's light...

Cheeck Pixelrush shorts, They’re fun. They features a bit of game lore, a bit of Archie lore, a bit of IDW lore... TEAM DARK!!! Left handed Shadow, compelling personalities for all characters.

Sonic - English, Japanese version - my impression as somebody who doesn't speak any of the two languages.

First - my experience with the two languages, to explain how I perceived thing as a total foreigner.

English - I truly can't speak English. My written English sucks. I don't know if you can read/understand my posts. I can read English, both British and American (I usually use British English but I use American when I want to be more concise), overall I can read all kind of topics, but I don't like slangs. My listenings skills are bad, it depends who is speaking. I could listen and understand enough Sonic Prime without subtitles, but in other occasion the language is too different from Italian and I need the subs.

Japanese - Mostly I watch anime in Japanese. I don't speak the language at all and I can count all the japanese words I know in one hand. The sound of the language is sillabic so is as clear as Italian. As for Sonic, I watched Sonic X in Japanese version (Italian and English version long ago, I don't even remember a lot), the two adventure in English, Unleashed in both version, Frontiers in Italian and Japanese.

Sonic Force is boring, I was unable to pay attention. I saw it not long ago and I quickly forgot everything. The only good thing was Infinite's Italian voice, is very beautiful.

OK, my impression of the character from English version was not like it was describled there. I perceived it more how is perceived in the Japanese version. Many times I said our personal experience make us perceive a character in a certain way, maybe the language I speak is part of it. Italian is more contextual than English, or maybe is how character act (that does't change whathever language they speak), I don't know... I remember perceiving Sonic as a aloof, slightly grumpy but kind hearted and happy character before watching the Japanese version (that just confirmed that). Current Sonic - even in Japanese, is more outgoing and sullen.

Flanderization happened in the Japanese version too and is undeniable (I said i watched the Japanese versions too).

Indeed...

this remember a old cartoon I used to see in early '90s...

"Cecil, help me!"

Knuckles still does his duty, but I saw him more and more relaxed lately. Like: 'A bit of absence won't hurt!'. The describled flanderization sounds more like the one we saw in Sonic Boom.

Yes, this.

Sonic X is Japanese and she is clearly different from videogames (Right, I've said I watched the Japanese version). In the two adventure Amy was energetic yet gentle. I remember her kind attitude toward Gamma and Shadow. in Sonic X she made me laugh, but yes, she looks also dangerous. Sonic is right to avoid her.

Magical girl Amy. Well - Eggman deserve that.

This poor guy had it the worst. I remember Shadow being overall gloomy but still playful. Is like they just took away all the facets that made Shadow likeable and left only the flaws (inflating them to 'fill' emty spaces) . The Shadow we had during last decade (except for Lance Shadow) is the perfect edgy character that only 15 years old kids like. At 15 I also lingered on edgelords and I though they were the best because they were 'oh, pure serious' and didn't lingered in 'foolish cheerfulness'. I even characterized some of my own characters as edgelords (I'm glad I'm out from it since late teen). My mum made me understand why they suck, calling them 'arm candy' (belle statuine). That was a great and helpful criticism.

I loved funny and evil Eggman. I don't like what Eggman is lately, more than a villain, he seems a mignon.

Though Japanese dialogue might be better and more meaningful (when different from English ones), this doesn't mean Japanese version of Sonic is free of issues. We need to accept that Sonic franchise is flawed, that the fandom is not perfect. The good thing is that all the material we have around can satisfy all palates. Let's enjoy what we like and hope for the better, whathever will be.

Sonic and Amy Squad - Sonic eyes done right (and cute art, too).

Sonic - there are brows, well separated from the center of th eyes, wich only function is underline that the eyes are two, actually.

Amy - fully closed eyes, brow well raised (I like especially that Amy retained her classic eye shape in modern design)

Knuckles eyes - animated like in Sonic Boom. Good.

Sonic again...

Shadow...

Sonic and Shadow with fully open eyes... they understand that Shadow, like Sonic, has round eyes and that the scowl is an expression he holds, not the shape of his eyes.

I think avoiding to draw the wrinkle in the middle (unless really needed) helps a lot.

For a bit of attention for details - Shadow is left handed, yes! I'm happy that many Sonic fans care and still remember this!

Shadow - eyes closed. No need to lower the center.

Knuckles with the expression we are used to.

Tails - the only one that didn't need to be fixed, just to include him once...

Some Amy expressions...

Knuckles...

Shadow and his natural round eyes...

You can find 'Sonic and Amy Squad' on YT.

I do not like this Knuckles design... but I LOVE how his eyes are animated in Boom. It looks natural!

He can even show the classic Knuckles expression we know!

Probably they used the 'muscle system' to animate his eyebrow without destroying the model...

How come I didn't noticed that???

Sonic looks concussed (see his pupils?). I normally look for those details but I didn't except to find a similar accurate medical detail in a scene that is supposed to be light hearted, compared to what comes later... no doubt he had some memory loss for a while.

Talking about visual sign of illness, I also liked pale Sonic from the last episode of Sonic Prime. The paleness was not really to show sickness, but, along his body language, his labored breath and his soft voice (Sonic's italian voice in particular always sounds so gentle) it made me think he was feeling dizzy and his body was cold.

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I like the fact that they choose to colour Sonic this muted tint to make him look legit pale and sick. Adding him being in pain on occasions makes you feel what he is getting through...

My favourite to least favourite character in Sonic prime (though I do not dislike anyone).

I may miss somebody.

1 - Sonic and Shadow

Togheter, they form a well balanced duo. In most part, what Sonic lacks is balanced by what Shadow has, and what Shadow lacks is balanced by what Sonic has. But they also share many flaws and many merits, having more in common than they think. If I must choose who is my favourite, Sonic would win by a tiny bit, he is funnier. But then Shadow comes to balance everything. Is not easy to choose.

2 - Rebel Rouge

Because she is the best part of Rouge's personality (that I like, overall)

3 - Nine

Nine shows that the cute fluffy Tails can be a fine villain that has nothing to envy to the big ones. Best thing is that he didn't started out as villain. He followed Sonic, they worked togheter for 16 full episodes, they had funny and wholesome moments that made me smile. Yet when he discovered the Grim he tasted a sweet poison called power. Too dangerous for an adult, let alone a child. While Sonic and Nine had laught togheter, Nine was already planning everything. His plan was involving Sonic. A common and usually harmless temper tantrum was the visible start of Nine's madness. Also, Sonic is right about his mechanical tails being cool. I love the colorful light their tip emit.

4 - Rusty Rose

Can a so sad character make me laugh so many times? Well, she made me smile and even laugh in several occasions (I wish I was programmed to laugh). From what she said when she was abandoned by the Chaos council she was programmed and controlled like a robot but she still kept her conscience and her personality, though she could not express herself. Joining the crew revealed her real, laid back personality

5 - Thorn

The theme of ecologism done right and this is rare these days. I won't go in deep on this topic. It shows the two sides of the coin and that extremism always will destroy what you want to protect.Thorn herself is also cool.

6 - Dread

A psycopath (if you read what psychopathy is, Dread has many trait of this). He is the opposite of Knuckles. If Knuckles is gullible, Dread is the deceiver. When I watched Sonic prime in English, i though he was going in Gollum mode (my beauty). But in italian he sais exactly: "MY PRECIOUS!"

7 - Chaos Sonic

Chaos Sonic is one of those character who need a brief, (although incisive) part. They say he took Sonic's flaws to extreme, but his blabbering had nothing to do with Sonics. Sonics always talk about the context (palm trees, flickies, chaos council, Shadow etc...). Chaos sonic talks about... nothing. The only useful thing he said was about Sonic's sadness and Nine's real feelings, the rest was contextless chatting. If he had a longer screentime everybody would have hated him and he would be the last to be mentioned.

Nine brought him back at last... mute.

8 - Chaos Council and Eggman

Sonic characters - who I like, who I'm fine with, who I dislike

This is what I wrote yesterday. I want to underline that this is just my opinion and that I have nothing against you. I'm adult for a while right now. Sonic is just a passion that makes me happy, that I enjoy for fun, but is not my life. I say that because knowing what the Sonic fandom may be like, is easy to feel intimidated by different point of view.

Let's start!

Favourites/I love:

SONIC (of course)

I discovered Sonic games in 1991. I was friend with two fraternal twins since kindergarden and we were among the first kids who were able to play videogames (I owned a commodore 64 my uncle gifted me, the twins owned a Sega Master System and a Game Boy). There were not much informations about Sonic's personality, but talking with my friends, we all perceived him being very similar to Shadow. Just openly more gentle.

In 1995 there were Sonic cartoons (Sonic SatAM, AoStH, in collaboration with Italy). Sonic was not like Shadow, but he was 'meh'... I liked him but he wasn't really my favourite. Also the design left me confused (my brother was more into the western design, i was more into the Japanese design).

To be honest I think the western design is cute. I would fix the quills, more classic sonic style instead of the mohawk and the hands, making them with five fingers instead of four. And some little adjustments on the ankles but for the rest is fine.

I loved Sonic in Sonic Adventure 2 and I liked Ryan's voice. I easily tend to imagine his voice if i read some story about him. I like Ryan's, Jason's, Deven's and the italian VA Renato). What I like most about Sonic is his kindness.

TAILS

There was a period were Tails received a lot of hate, maybe just because he is a child. But in early '90s' Tails was loved by player. His ability to fly made the level easier to beat, so everybody played with him. Since he is a fox, I excepted him to be cunning. Of course not toward Sonic (he is his friend after all) but toward Eggman, outsmarting him. I also considered Sonic and Tails being brothers. All of this before knowing him.

When I noticed he had two tails instead of one, I though it was because of an experiment by Eggman. The two tails genetic mutation does exist in nature, although is rare.

KNUCKLES

I saw knucles in early '90s for the first time but he didn't catch my interest. He was Sonic's opponent. I never had occasions to play Sonic's games until we finally got Sonic Adventure 2. Then I noticed Knuckles was about the stereotype of the cool boy... except he was not so bright and he was quite naive.

SHADOW

I loved his balanced design. The first thing I though is that he could be a great character for graffitis. Early Shadow seemed based on emo kids, it was fashion in early '00s'.

He was also quite depressed, almost suicidal at times. After 2006 Shadow became famous as 'the edgelord', almost an unintentional caricature of himself. Before 2006 Shadow seemed slightly friendlier and laid back at times. That bit that was enough to made him seem more alive. As if he sometimes did things just to have fun like Sonic. And it happened his idea of fun match Sonic's. In later years he seems recovering from his edgelord days.

AMY

Amy didn't caugh my attention earlier but right now is one of the characters I like. Though i miss her fangirling about Sonic. Also because they decided to remove that part of her, it was considered a flaw. Yet Amy could see Sonic's flaws and was honest with him about what she though. All the rest of Amy is there. And she had and has a lot of good qualities.

EGGMAN

Eggman is funny, hilarious. But he is wicked, manipulative, sadistic, cruel and I mean actual cruel towards beasts. And toward kids.

All Eggman's doing.

Also Eggman's doing.

Most Sonic's friends (including Sonic) are teenagers. Eggman has shown to be capable to kill fellow humans too. Without problems.

I like, but they can be better:

ROUGE

Rouge is a female Lupin III. I compare her to Lupin and not to Fujiko because, although she is a thief and a spy, although she may be cunning, she is a loyal friend.

The thing I don't like about her is her original design:

I'm not against her design for political correct bullshit reasons. Simply this design seems somewhat unfinished, heavy and awkward and the pink is overhelming. Rouge herself doesn't look much athletic. Also she looks like a character coming from the middle of the '900 and not a modern character.

I like more the prime design, where her figure is more atletic, muscular and balanced like her job (spy, thief) would suggest.

CHAO

The chao design actually is perfect the way it is. I love all the variants seen in SA and SA2. And the chao's minigame (I raise them only with Sonic and Shadow. They're the only who don't hurt them accidentally). However in a story their role should be about the same role of the flickies. Cheese is a prominent character, but it feels forced.

(Ignore Mario)

CREAM and VANILLA

I think they should be supporting characters when needed. They're nice and all, but I can't see them taking on adventures. They worked well when they took care of Sonic but they're better characters for slice of life or lighter adventures.

BIG

This one is quieter and more a loner than Shadow, yet he is very happy, kind and gentle. He has the natural nice personality most real cats have, especially male cats. Like Cream and Vanilla, i think his role would be more the one of a supporter character. The one who listen and who make all characters feel better after a chat. He doesn't work as protagonist and i think his start was rough. Big is a Siberian cat. Those cats have a cobby bodytype and are long haired

An actual Siberian cat

METAL SONIC

Although a robot, he can work. But he is like radioactive material. He should be used carefully.

Meh... forgettable

BLACK DOOM

I think his ugliness alone was more than enough to made him a laughing stook. He is evil manipulative, sadistic, abusive and all, sharing his flaws with Dr.Eggman. But he lacks Eggman's positive traits. Is not even funny. So fans and even comic writers treat him like one of those mignon who are all words and no substance. It might be unconscious.

Woooh, how treatening... villain's empty words.

Just an example of how people see Black Doom... (Drawn by Ama)

STICKS

Sticks may seem cute, funny, but in the end she's not that memorable. She's nothing more than the caricature of a conspiracy theorists, thin foil hat and such. That can work in another media but not in Sonic.

SILVER

I fail to understand this guy. Is he a blend between Sonic and Shadow? His design keeps leaving me unimpressed and it doesn't suggest me a personality in particular. Redundant.

CHAOTIX

Hate at first sight. Redundant.

MOST I WON'T MENTION, TOO MANY TO REMEMBER.

They're redundant, not much interesting.They seem a blander blend of main characters. Is like wanting to fix the main characters or wanting to create an upgraded version of the main character, instead is only taking away the fun.