This review is spoiler free. So 2022 has turned out to be an interesting year for Sonic hasnt it? Over the course of the year we received the movie Sonic the Hedgehog 2 gamers got Sonic Frontiers and Sonic Prime at the time of this review has just released its first batch of episodes on Netflix. 2022 feels like a good moment for the franchise all things considered it certainly had an impact on me as my longtime interest in the Blue Blur has been rejuvenated thanks to the movies. This is what brought me to revisit and review the 1996 OVA and the first two seasons of Sonic X. Due to the way Anilist currently has Sonic X broken up and the amount of people I saw calling the remaining season disappointing is why it was only those first 52 episodes I discussed last time. It was due to some persuasion that I was convinced to give the rest of it a shot and I dont regret that decision. Today we are going to be looking at the remaining 26 episodes of Sonic X The Metarex Saga. 600https://i.ur.com/Hm2dyE9.png Before I get into it I want to recommend my first Sonic Xhttps://anilist.co/review/17896 review to those who may have not read it yet. There you will have better context for how I feel about the overall Sonic X package especially its production values and adaptations of the Adventure games. To briefly summarize: the anime rushed through the game content and spent too much time on Chris Thorndyke for my liking. The 4Kids dub had some talented people and the Japanese is worth checking out even at a passing glance especially because of Junichi Kanemaru as Sonic. The way 4Kids would chop the anime for western audiences is in line with what they did with all the other anime they touched. Unfortunately. And the animation is very disappointing. My issues with the animation and localization remain consistent throughout The Metarex Saga and I will do my best not to linger on them for very long. What I can add to all of this is the unusual way this season would be released to the public. Sonic X was not a success in Japan and it would be cancelled before these episodes hit Japanese TVs. They were localized to a western audience but in Japan they were only released to streaming platforms and wouldnt hit airwaves until 2020 as a tie in to the first live action movie. I dont know about you but Ive never encountered this with an anime before. Ive seen some fans claim this season only exists because 4Kids requested it I cant find anything to verify this and find it difficult to believe. Regardless it is a strange situation one that is made stranger by the fact that these episodes arent on American Netflix with the rest of Sonic X. I was able to watch them through the official TMS Youtube channel but its exclusion from Netflix is a mystery to me. So what is the Metarex Saga? The Metarex Saga occurs after the events of Sonic X season two. Time has passed and a teenage Chris Thorndyke is working on a machine that could allow him to access Sonics home planet. Sonic his friends and Dr. Eggman have all returned to their usual routine on their world until Sonic almost faces defeat at the hands of the new enemy named Dark Oak. To prevent Dark Oak from abusing the power of the Chaos Emeralds Sonic uses Chaos Control to scatter them across the galaxy effectively ending the fight. But not before Dark Oak sends a robot to steal the Planet Egg that gives the planet life. Shortly thereafter a mysterious plantlike alien named Cosmo crosses paths with our heroes in search of someone who can use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to put an end to their new enemy the Metarex a large cyborg army led by Dark Oak that seeks to steal Planet Eggs leaving countless worlds uninhabitable. Meanwhile Chris manages to get his machine operating and is finally reunited with Sonic after six years. Except he immediately regresses to his child form and is now trapped on Sonics planet. Together they all agree to traverse the galaxy find the Chaos Emeralds and put an end to the Metarex before its too late. 600https://i.ur.com/qSG3xiV.png Now the first thing people might tell you about the Metarex Saga is that it is all anime original content. Many would even call it filler. And I can understand why this would be deemed non canon in the same way that the movies are independent from the game canon. However that doesnt mean this season is inherently bad. In fact I felt this season helped remedy certain issues I had with the previous ones. Chris is far less annoying and doesnt rob characters of their moments from the video games in order to appear more important than he is. Sonic actually feels like the protagonist this time. I felt the screen time as a whole was far better distributed among the cast during these episodes. Tails was given a prominent role in the story characters like Team Chaotix who only appeared once in the prior series get recurring roles Eggman isnt sidelined in favor of the Metarex and while Rouges reasoning for being involved in the story is rather dumb Im always happy to have more of her. Because we arent on Earth it means we dont have to waste time on Chriss everyday activities like school or moping about how busy his parents are. I even think the overall concept to the Metarex and the Planet Eggs feels in line with something the games would do. I can imagine a game where Sonic travels through space retrieving Planet Eggs at the end of a stage to advance the plot. And with the Metarex we were able to bring back the environmentalist themes that have been a part of the Sonic franchise from its inception. I really was expecting this to be an unbearable anime to sit through due to its reputation. While its flawed and we will get to that I can come away saying it was built on a good foundation and helped remedy some of my grievances. Unfortunately that also came with some new issues. 600https://i.ur.com/2rG7ppF.png The anime does a better job at giving the various characters more presence. That said I would be lying if I said everybody was used effectively. I enjoy this iteration of Sonic I liked seeing Tails develop his special relationship with Cosmo but what about the rest? Regrettably I believe this to be the beginning of a frustrating downward spiral for Amy Rose and Knuckles the Echidna. The most common complaints lobbied at Amy are usually focused on her obsessive often one sided crush on Sonic. In this part of Sonic X that is cranked up to a highly disappointing degree. Shes immediately jealous of Cosmo for having a simple conversation with Sonic she continuously tries to force her feelings onto him in ways that leave him highly uncomfortable shes also just straight up mean to the other characters sometimes. There were more than a few moments where she just seemed angrier this time around and I dont blame Lisa Ortiz for this it feels like this is what 4Kids wanted her to be. It feels like such a stark contrast to the Amy who was unafraid to stand up to Sonic in order to protect Gamma. Where is the empathy and compassion that helped define her in the Adventure titles? It feels so downplayed in favor of making her a thin skinned lovesick brat. And with Knuckles the anime seemed to make him progressively stupider the longer it went on. They had an episode where Eggman tricks him after having already done that within the first few episodes of season one. There is no good reason for him to fall for Eggmans manipulation again. This season also just seemed to like having him say something foolish for the sake of a gag but it was never funny. We arent in Sonic Boom territory yet but watching these episodes did feel like I was seeing the ground work laid for it. As previously stated Rouge isnt given much of a reason to be involved this time. Im always happy for more Rouge but its strange seeing an otherwise cunning character blackmail Bokkun with the threat of revealing he has a crush on Cream the Rabbit. It isnt something 4Kids made up to conceal a more mature element in the plot either its consistent with the Japanese version. While I enjoyed seeing Team Chaotix be more than a oneoff cameo I didnt love their episodes because they felt unimportant in the grand scheme of things. And Cream felt like she didnt have any reason to be here this time. Maybe shes here because of Sonic Heroes? But then how come Omega is left out of the anime? The hit or miss treatment of the characters is one of the weaknesses to Sonic X. And speaking of characters 600https://i.ur.com/m7tIjZi.png Hey Shadow long time no see One of the things I spent the most time complaining about in my last review is how insignificant Shadows presence was in Sonic X especially given how much he was used to promote the anime in the west and Japan. Simply getting to have more of him is an improvement in my eyes. But what did they do with him now that the Sonic Adventure 2 arc was finished? Give him amnesia. This isnt surprising considering Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog did the same thing. It isnt the most creative way to work him back into the story but it is one that I accept and may have been their way of weaving some inspiration from the games into the mix. Fortunately we dont have to see him stand around pondering if he might be a robot. Instead Eggman uses his amnesia to his own advantage and tries to use him throughout the season. It isnt genius storytelling but it does work. My issue is the lack of closure he seems to receive in the end the anime leaves things extremely vague with Shadow. Its implied Eggman knows more about him than he lets on but I felt there was very little payoff to this amnesia arc. He does get to feature as the star to one of my favorite episodes this season episode 68 which I watched in both English and Japanese. It is an episode best seen with its original cut because those 4Kids razor blades know their way around a Shadow the Hedgehog episode but I did enjoy myself. It tied back into his history with Maria and the themes about if hes a killer or a savior. The dub made things strange in between almost creating a romantic vibe in it and then changing the ending in a way that unintentionally recalls the famous Poochie episode of The Simpsons. Once more Shadows role in the anime is not without flaws but this is a case where my enjoyment trumps the problems within. 600https://i.ur.com/SYqFsX5.png Something I want to discuss that left me with many mixed emotions is the onetime phenomenon that was Dark Sonic. Dark Sonic as a concept had a lot of potential. He isnt possessed instead the negative aspects of Sonics character are being forced out by the power of some fake Chaos Emeralds and seeing those he cares about in danger. Under the influence of this transformation Sonic takes real pleasure in destroying the Metarex to the point that Eggman doesnt want to see him this way. It makes one curious to see how far this could go how much of Sonics character and even psychology could be discovered through this concept. Too bad that never happens leaving it an empty promise of bigger things. It happens suddenly and then it ends suddenly never to be addressed again. Unsurprisingly many fans enjoyed this people like seeing heroic characters inverted or pushed to their limits. Its similar to why I like the shonen anime style moments Sonic gets in the live actions films where his power goes haywire as his emotions flare up. There it is an important piece to his character and the first films plot here in the actual Sonic shonen anime its more like an Easter egg. It feels random when it happens which is just a shame. Now I cant prove this but I wonder if the people involved in the animes production wanted to make this into something more significant and were denied it by people from Sega. Its just a theory but maybe somebody higher up thought it was taking Sonics character too far in a direction they didnt like so it got scrapped. Well likely never know. Instead what we have is an interesting yet undeveloped blip in the characters history. But one the fans will never forget. 600https://i.ur.com/QvobikH.png The Metarex Saga much like the rest of my time with Sonic X is a mixed bag. The way it uses certain characters isnt ideal the poor animation is consistent while Chris is used in a far less intrusive way I still didnt jump for joy when he came back and the overall story to it has its fair share of hiccups. I wished there was more creativity within the different worlds they visit and that episodes focused on certain characters werent there to be an obvious detour from the plot. Cosmo herself is a fine character shes not especially interesting or exciting. However I enjoyed seeing Tails build a relationship with somebody. You would think the other episodes would have done something with him becoming friends with Chris and his grandfather but there he started to feel more like a glorified babysitter. Despite all the issues I have throughout Sonic X its still an anime I dont regret watching and I genuinely respect the fact that it connected with so many others. Not everybody was there in the early 90s watching Jaleel Whites Sonic like I was for the kids of the 2000s this was their show and I can appreciate that. And I did have some honest fun with it anyway. Finding a general consensus with Sonic fans can be difficult after all there are people who dislike spinoffs I enjoy like the live action films and Sonic Prime but it does at times feel as though this season of Sonic X left many people cold. On some level I do see where theyre coming from but I also cant help but feel like its in some ways an improvement over the earlier parts. If youre a Sonic fan and feel curious about Sonic X and the Metarex Saga I do encourage giving both a try. Would I like to see another anime adaptation of these characters? Definitely. I dont know if its likely well ever see one again but it would be great if somebody gave it another go. Until then I can rest easy knowing the ones we got were able to connect with people across the world.