The skyes of New Yoke (Sonic Speed Simulator bug)

A forgotten quirk that some fans remembered

It was funny when in Archie Comics, Shadow kept mistaking Marine's name with several variants of 'Maria'. Unfortunately that never stuck outside the 'Living weapon' chapter from Sonic Universe.

But it stuck among some fans...

Sonic Multiverse

The quirks, like in Sonic Universe, is not overused, but is memorable. I think is cute.

Modern VS Boom

Another example is with Boom Shadow mistaking regular Shadow's name... Sinic, is hilarious (Shadow759 does a Thornton like voice when he dubs Boom Shadow). All male hedgehogs are named Sinic, according to Boom Shadow since he also calls regular Sonic this way.

Sonic Multiverse

Shadow759

Shadow incarnations

My three favourites

Maekawa's (especially SA2)

Original Shadow, unlike the others, was just cool. He didn't try. He was aware of this but he didn't try to be cool. Being cool came natural from him. Probably the only incarnation who was able to lie (I don't remember him lying outside SA2), despite this, the most genuine Shadow of all, because he just acted the way he felt like at the moment, like the kid he was, and just like Sonic does. Sulking? Having fun? Sending death treat? Celebrate his victories? Fist bumping? He just did all.

Is also true that his fleshed out personality was all compressed in a tiny space of 9 hours, because he was meant to die, so you had to slowly know him, and is beautiful how it gets unfolded. First you judged him wrongly (through hero story), then play with him, learning about his past and getting to love him (This Shadow is shown to be friendly in the latest part of the game when he finally opens up and actually not much an introvert. In all games written by Maekawa, he is always hanging on with somebody, usually Rouge but also Knuckles and Blaze in Sonic and the Black Knight, and Maria in Sonic Adventure 2. He is just quiet and reserved), then, when happiness is finally handy, he dies. Is tragic.

If Sonic is like the wind, Shadow is like water. In Italy, subtle personality like his are compared to water. Water is calming and serene on surface, but it hides dangers in the depths, is dark and it can suddenly become dangerous. That's Shadow. He is subdued and never gets angry, the dangers are always below the surface. He is dangerous because he is insane due to his traumatic past, his loneliness, his intense sadness and his suicidal tendencies. Unfortunately he doesn't want to die alone, he wants to bring the whole world with him. All of this can be spiced up by his stubborn and melancholy nature that makes the whole thing more explosive. He's very dark and scary (In current -edgelord - characterization, where he is presented as always angry, he is less intimidating. Simply because too much is too much, for the same reason Sonic's glares are way more effective than Shadow's because unusual).

Original Shadow is calm, intelligent, he might be a bit of a science fanatic. In his description of the Eclipse cannon, he resemble the most classic of the mad scientist villain, including some Mr.Burns postures with his hands, his voice was lively.

He's not an actual villain. Before the tragedies of his past he had a gentle and caring nature. But then his family was destroyed and he survived, he was feared, betrayed, brainwashed, captured, sealed. He became mistrustful, cynical, apparently cold, showing his qualities only to his closest friends.

And an interesting detail there, he never opened up to Rouge in SA2. He opened up to Sonic and Amy.

Unlike many future incarnation, the original Shadow was not particularly violent. He greatly favored brain power, leaving brute force for emergencies. Thinking about the games of that period, he virtually spared all his foes, or at least the very same foes Sonic would have spared and took down foes that Sonic also would have take down.

He is soft spoken and quiet. I especially love his VA of that time, David Humphrey, smoother juvenile and engaging, even cute voice. He shows a large range of emotions and attitude on Shadow. Jason was not bad either.

Archie (Universe)

The most expressive Shadow. (I should talk about the problems in Sonic's expressions and where I think they come from) more gruff compared to the original Shadow, aloof and more violent, but also very soft with his friends. I think is based on Adventure Shadow.

Enemies such as Eclipse and Metal Sonic help to reveal many aspect of his personality that Shadow himself might not be fully aware about.

Eclipse, bad design yet compelling and great personality, is his main foe. He shows how dangerous and ruthless Shadow can be when he gets serious/focused. Despite being a villain Eclipse cares sincerely for his friends and family and tries the diplomatic way with Shadow, similar to what an hero would do, with no success.

Metal Sonic instead helped to show Shadow's lack of free will. Yes, Shadow can still be compared with water there too. Unlike the wind that is boundless (and Sonic with his total freedom), water is always contained in some way (dams, bottles etc), controlled and follows a fixed path. When not following the path it can get destructive. If Shadow is not contained, he can cause mass destruction (everything about him is controlled, his path, the rings he wears to control his power, even his will). He is like an organic android, made in flesh instead of metal, his intelligence is AI, programmed twice by a human. But he has a heart, for this he suffers. A lot.

I think Shadow's peculiar speech pattern also shows his artificial nature.

Prime

Is one of the less gloomy versions of Shadow. I would say in Sonic Prime, Shadow is healing. He is mentally strong and more self confident. He still doesn't trust people but he is hopeful for the future. His strenght also helps Sonic to not sink (metaphorically).

Like Sonic, he has a lot of flaws and he is well aware of them. Unlike Sonic, he has a better attention span and has a better control on himself (he sighs a lot when upset or uneasy and this helps him to calm down).

He is outspoken with Sonic as well as he is awkward and shy toward strangers and extremely introverted. He is also so elusive at the point of feeling like some sort of mystical creature. Half of the times is not his fault.

He can be playful, mischievous and knows how to have fun.

The VA is Ian Hanlin. His voice is deeper than David's but is still youthful and soft.

Humans are hard to include in worlds filled by anthros (Sonic aestetic analysis)

Aestetic... a word I like.

This kinda work. Both of them have about same cartoonish proportions, similar head size, similar hands and feet size. The human girl has a thicker body and is bigger, but humans are tricky to include in a world with anthros.

The fact is, since we are humans, the specie is particularly familiar with us. What we are is written in our DNA. If you ask to a blind person to draw a fellow human, the drawing will turn out correct, the very same a person with normal sight woyld do.

So is tricky to avoid the uncanny valley and keeping them recognizable as humans. Humans are also rather large overall compared to hedgehogs and other beasts as specie. In fact we are included in the great apes group. Alongside the gorillas we are the also the tallest so pretty much big animals (but we are also slim).

Actual hedgehogs are as big as human hand, or so. Sonic doesn't need to be this small. Just more balanced.

Humans are always been a presence in Sonic world. Eggman is the most well known. And he has large hands and feet, like Sonic and the other. But his proportions are quite realistic and I think he should look bigger because actually, his head is smaller than Sonic's and the other...

In this scene from Sonic X it works well. Eggman's human features are exaggerated (like the typical human long nose compared to the flat noses of the other apes), and his head is about as large as Sonic's, making him fit the enviroment.

Those are very a little bit awkward. When I complain that the size are awkward is because of Eggman's small head.

This is no-no! She just doesn't match in the universe. Like, she belong somewhere else. Small hands and feet, anime proportions, vintage Italian style doll face...

Back in the '80s I saw some that were even closer to what Maria looks like. There were even drawings of girls who just looked like Maria around, some hanged on walls in my granparents home, I just can't find them not even online (the last time I saw them I was 16).

(Shadow likes those pictures...)

Surprisling Mario fits greatly despite being part of a completely different universe.

With modern style...

And even with SatAM style

Both in Sonic and Mario, humans tend to have small eyes.

Roundish head, large hands and feet, noodle limbs just like the beasts... Eggman obioulsy has small eyes. I figure them being about roundish, like Mario's.

Now, we see some human eyes there. A western aestetic just look better within Sonic world (the aestetic is pretty much western overall, being based on rubber hose style). Maybe hands and feet size could be more balanced...

I don't like Eggman having Majin Bu style eyes like in SatAM and AoStH. I've read somewhere he has regular human eyes. There (Archie) he looks as if he is possessed by an entity, so I wonder, Sonic should try to save him at this point? I imagine is to show that Eggman is a psychopath, but it doesn't do the job. The shape and size of the eyes is fine.

This is a joke... 'never mix styles' I was told 'Characters should look like they're part of the same universe!'...

Even Eggman was changed to have a realistic look, and it sucked.

Elise should be with Cloud Strife and Sephirot, not with Sonic, if we are talking about the style.

Outside Sonic series...

Top Cat

A human and six cats. They fit perfectly in their universe. Like Sonic, the cats are bigger than real cat, still smaller than humans. Heads look perfectly in proportions.

Now, here we are in the opposite territory. The feline is bigger than a human. In fact he is a puma.

Just to show how well human and anthro blend togheter in Hanna&Barbera works. In addition they also have actual four legged beasts, like Scooby Doo.

In Japan antros are rare, yet it can still work it the style is consistent. In Dragon Ball and Dr Slump we have plenty of anthro characters who blend well with humans. And there are also actual four legged beasts.

Some Japanese anthros

I watched some Sonic games (Adventures) in English, but I perceived the characters as they're perceived from Japanese media. I think is not really the language but is possibly how hig or low context is the culture you come from.

If a culture is high or low context may change among people who talk the same language and even in work places. Italy is considered high context, while most native English speaker are from low context cultures. So, I imagine is possible that my culture influences me on how I perceive Sonic characters (I look for their action and their reactions), so it doesn't change much if is Japanese or English. For those from a low context culture things might be different and more jarring, they may experiece things more differently than I do...

Below Wikipedia explains about high and low context cultures and how they change our perception.

Anyway. Sonic media I saw in English only

Sonic Adventure Sonic Adventure 2

It was early in the '01's and I and my brother could not talk English at all. We figured all out from the context. I remember when my brother, who was still a kid back then, said: 'Shadow is not evil, he is one of the good guys!'

Sonic Heroes Sonic 06 Sonic Chronicles (Italian, actually) Sonic Forces (Italian - so boring I only remember Infinite's voice because his Italian voice is so beautiful). Sonic Lost World (boring too)

Both English and Japanese Sonic Unleashed Sonic Frontiers (Italian and Japanese actually)

Japanese only

Sonic X - Saw in italian long ago, I don't remember the details. The only thing is remember is...

Then I rewatched all episodes in Japanese (with subs of course) few years ago, some episodes more than once.

Sonic OVA

He is alive 😌...

This follows this one.

Sonic and Shadow: somewhat, they're twins.

Even before Shadow was a concept, Sonic's past was the most mysterious one. We knew about tails past, Amy past and Knuckles past. But about Sonic we only knew his personality, that he fought Eggman and that liked to run.

One of first attempt to give Sonic a past was in Fleetway comics...

Human father and scientist... bigh moustache, somewhat slim... Gerard vibes. Sonic himself, like Shadow is somewhat enginered. And like Shadow Sonic is going to lose his father.

Not far different, even more similar to Shadow past. Longclaw is Sonic's adoptive howl mother and a female figure. And like Maria she is the supporting figure to the little one. Both Maria and Longclaw sacrificed theirselves to save their adoptive brother/son. Both Sonic and Shadow saw their loved ones getting hurt but they didn't see them actually die, they just figured out.

Now, I don't know if this is a rumor of if this was a scrapped idea, but I've read a theory about that originally SA2 would have explored Shadow AND Sonic past, hinting they were actual brothers and not just two identical hedgehogs. Thinking about this, Shadow's original personality had some traits that are also part of Sonic's: exicted by speed, playful and mischievous and even uses some Sonic's catchprhases (no problem, piece of cake with his iconic quiet voice), though they were toned down by his way calmer nature.

Anyway, in Sonic movie Shadow's past will be the one we know and Sonic in the movie had a very similar past. It would be interesting to see how this will work.

Is like they truly wanted Sonic anc Shadow being twins (like Mario and Luigi) but they didn't wanted to mess to much with the lore and wanted to avoid to retcon. Also because here and there they insist on underline Sonic and Shadow likeness, showing characters around them confused, switching their names and so on...

Shadow and physical affection...

Except for Amy and Sonic (in Sonic Prime only), Cream and Cheese, most Sonic character don't seem fond in hugs, not even the friendliest ones. They mostly try to escape from hugs. Running away, pushing away the hugger etc...

With one exception:

Shadow

He clearly dislikes physical affection. But unlike the others, he just either stiffens or goes limp, seldom he try to escape or to push away the hugger. This suits well his calmer version (the one of Adventure/Heroes/06) and is kinda surprising seeing him like this in Sonic X where he is more bold (the only one he pushes away and badly is the snottynosed spoiled brat Thorndyke. No surprise).

Notice how he goes floppy, following Amy movements like a doll... not all people who dislike hugs attempt to run away. Some freeze and wait.

Also in Sonic Prime when he is not particularly in bad mood.

He is floppy but his face tells how he feels...

Archie comics. Here Shadow stiffens (instead of follow the hugger like a doll, he leans away, like 'please don't touch me', still does nothing to avoid the hug)...

The only time he reacts... after getting stiff...

The best Shadow can do (could, when he still was not characterized as an edgelord) to show affection:

If Prime Shadow is so loved, there is a reason...

The other characters:

Sonic (pushing away)

Accept, yet not fond...

Silver (literally escapes)

Shadow's expressions in Sonic Prime:

Evil smile, good heart...

"What?"

🇮🇹 🇮🇹 🇮🇹 you know what I mean... :D

Curious

Sad

"Stay awayyy!!!"

fighting stance, lowered ears...

Serious

Surprised and he doesn't like that.

Just Shadow

Reaching out

Uncomfortable

Mischievous...

Underwater (The last expression i would ever imagine to see on him...)

Worried, raised brow...

I found more than I excepted...

Sonic Prime: Look what I did find...

I wonder how many polygons they have and if is subdivided.

Despite their not neutral shape, Shadow's eyes are more flexible...

Nine's base model has fluffy tails, but in the show they are mangy.

Lost in translation (general). Unavoidable.

"What girl witch cute". Yes. This is the plain translation. I'll come there later.

I'm not a native English speaker. I can say I know one language and half. Written/spoken Italian (native), written English.

I like to watch shows in Italian and Japanese usually. Seldom I watch them in English. In general i dislike the translation and the voices they choose for characters from foreign shows.

Like, I would watch easily The Simpson in English because is their native show and the voice they choose are good. In the Italian show they went as far as finding VA who have very similar voices to the original VA.

Sonic Prime worked fine with English voice (because they choose canadian VA and not the american ones. Both RCS and Kirk Thorton are... uhmmm... I loved Deven Mack and Ian Hanlin). Is maybe one of the few shows I watched happily in English. And I could somewhat understand what they say because of a clearer pronunciation.

For other shows I often watch them either in Japanese with English sub, or translated in Italian. For Dragon Ball I watched the whole DB and DBZ in Italian, DBS in Japanese with English subs.

I watched my favourites episodes of Dragon Ball Z in Italian, Japanese and English, to see how they differ and how voices work.

Italian in general stay true to the Japanese dialogues (few exception here and there, I'll come later). English? Oh God. The scene with Vegeta being possessed by Babidy made me laugh in English. Something like: 'He is in my head! I'm attacked! I can't! Oh no, I'm not innocent" Talkative Vegeta. The context was the same, the message was about the same (more ambiguous and open to interpretation in Italian and Japanese, more one sided in English) but a dramatic scene like that became a comical scene in English. And the voices... oh no!.

English dubbing! NO! My ears!

Language, context...

Monolingual people think all language are the same. Not the case, languages are influenced by enviroment. Inuit have many ways to say 'snow' with a single word, referring to the different quality of it.

Coming to the language we are referring to, English is known to be a low context language. It has a word for everything and a very rich vocaboulary.

Italian is a mid context language. It has not a so large vocaboulary,

Some words are the same but with different meaning.

Example

Salutare: it does means either 'to greet and' 'healthy' Sale: it does means either "going up" and "salt"

Batteria: 'set' 'drums' and 'battery' Piano: "plan", 'floor' (of a building), 'flat' (like the surface of a table), 'piano'

Those words can be easily translates in English though.

The problem come with figuratve language. Every language has one. I don't speak Japanese so i can make examples using italian and English.

When someone is lucky, we say, vulgarly: "che culo!" But, translated in EWnglish it turns in a "What an ass!". The phrase is the same, litera, the meaning change completely. For this you can't always stay true to the original material.

Another example, still involving luck in Italian might be:

"Avere un culo così".

In English it turns something like

"Having a big ass"

From having luck to being fat. And there it turns even funnier because in Italian you can use the very same phrase to tell that either someone is fat or that a woman looks curvy in the butt area in particular. Though all of them are not nice and can be used only among close freinds. Otherwise there are three distinct phrase for the different things like: "avere fortuna" "essere grassi" "avere un sedere formoso". Context.

Japanese is abnormally high context.

Let's talk about the above monstruosity that make us laugh hard.

Among people who like Japamese stuffs, there are some who are so passionate that they would sacrifice grammar in order to have a product that is true to the original. In Italy we have many translators. Some are better, some are worse. We got cursed by this man in particular:

Gualtiero Cannarsi.

To be honest, is unfortunate. He talks the finest Italian you can hear. But his translations from Japanese to Italian suck. he is one who think the product must be true to itself, so he just change Japanese words into italian words, leaving the Japanese rules, grammars etc. Yes, nothing got lost in traslation. But the result is incomprehensible so to say the truth, everything got lost.

If transtated in Cannarsi style, Versailles no Bara turns into Versailles di Rosa (The correct translation is 'La rosa di Versailles). For a better understanding of what I'm saying, in English, if I just switch the words, I get 'Versailles of Rose'.

His translation get some... uh, funny results:

Porco Rosso is supposed to be settled in Italy. Then why do they talk like barbarians?

"To stay to have fun to those places you'll end to be kidnappen in company" Is bad I know. I tried to stay true to his awful translations. This is terrible, considering that Gibli tried to write in Italian, as best as they could to create a better atmosphere:

"Non si fa credito" "Le rosse ali si sono spezzate (correct but arcaic) "Vivo o morto?(sounds better) "Di nuovo il canto di trionfo del Porcellino Rosso (perfect)" "Le bambine sane e salve" Still the atmosphere is there, is true!

You have to be fluent in Italian to understand this. Then you can either laugh or facepalm or be disgusted.

We also have good example of translation from Japanese. Luckily we have many good products from Japan that are treated correctly. One that I can think off is from Dragon Ball Super - Broly.

In DBS - Broly, I can feel the Japanese aura/culture/mentality from every phrase, every word they speak. They all sound solemn without sounding the same. But at the same time it is translated in a fine Italian, we all understand what they say just fine. The actor were great at acting and... do you know that the one who dubs Goku is the same VA who dubs Shadow? And the voice sounds different, very silly when he dubs Goku, more serious and mature when he dubs Shadow.

We of course also had some bad translation because there was a period we relied on 4kids. Luckily we still had manga, they came directly from Japan and got translated in italian. Some of them unfortunately went translated by Gualtiero Cannarsi. Dark days for anime. It seems things are getting better right now.

Same VA, different personalities.

3 kinds of narratives (character developments etc).

I'm not criticizing. I'm just pointing what can be best for each storytelling style:

Sonic Boom, AoStH - Episodic, no character development:

Those slice of life episodes in general work well without character development. In a way they leave great freedom to show all sides of a character (if the character is delberately deep), or just few traits of a character and how he deals with different situatuons. Like...

Usually stressful situations are used to reinforce characters trait/weak point rather than letting them overcome their fear. For example in Sonic boom, Sonic was forced to learn to swim and gets to face all his fears in the worst way possible. Concluding with 'No way, I don't go near the ocean anymore!'.

Usually in this style of storytelling, old episodes are never referenced.

Sonic Prime: just a single story, divided by episodes. Character development is the core:

In a single story, character development is mandatory. If in stories like Sonic Boom, we want to see new adventure (and this doesn't means we don't care about the characters but we know what they will do) in shows like Sonic Prime, we want to see how characters overcome their issues. Characters will either learn from their mistakes or they will fall into the darkness. They don't change their base personality but they improve in their worst weak spots. They don't have to overcome all their flaws, just one. We aknowledge in Sonic prime that Sonic fears three things: water, loneliness, Eggman winning.

Sonic does not overcome his fear of water because that is easily avoidable. But he doesn't take in account the other two things can also happen, until they don't truly happen. By the end of Sonic Prime, Sonic still don't like to be lonely or Eggman winning, but is better equipped to not make those things come true.

Sonic X, Sonic SATaM, Sonic Underground: Something in between.

Those shows are hybrid. There are slice of life parts that switch to full sagas and then go back to slice of life style storyttelling. Past episodes may be referenced. They may contain character development or not, they also offer the freedom to develop characters when required only to lock and estabilize them later.

Sonic OVA has elements of single story and hybrid episodes/single story thinghs.

I'm randomly watching some episodes of Sonic Prime, and I want to do a test for this serie. It will take the whole month though. Then, I'll give my considerations, and maybe I will do a better analysis with a fresher mind.

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.

Already shared but I didn't liked it. Now I tried to use better colours and to add a background (The Grim, wow) and blood. I'll not touch it anymore (No A-Grim robots as I drew this before the third part).

Shadow in a very dire situation with all four limiters destroyed and lifeless... Sonic is desperate but won't give up. Nine is somewhere watching...

Shadow with a softer expression... and closed mouth...

January 20 - End of silence!

Today is the last day I'll shut up about details of Sonic Prime 3 to keep the blog spoiler free. From tomorrow I might share screenshot from Sonic Prime 3 and talk in detail about the serie as whole or a single moment including the third part.