Sonic X



Sonic X is an anime based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series, mainly the Sonic Adventure series. It is the first (and so far only) non-American Sonic animated series to have made it past the first two episodes. It is also the spinoff series closest to the game canon.

The series' first two seasons focus on Sonic and friends being transported to Earth, where they meet and befriend a boy named Chris. The second season mostly focuses on the re-tellings of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, except with a few new human characters involved in the stories. The third season is Darker and Edgier and involves Sonic's crew trying to save the universe from the evil Metarex.

The series adapted into a 40 issue American comic book by Archie Comics, set somewhere before the end of the second season. Chronicling the further adventures of Sonic and friends, and introduces the shadowy anti-Sonic organization: The Society for Observing and Neutralizing Interdimensional Creatures and Xenomorphs.

Dubbed and Subbed versions are available on Hulu and Youtube, but only for those in the US.

Not to be confused with any of the three other shows based on Sonic the Hedgehog - all of which were western animated shows - or the OVA Sonic the Hedgehog The Movie.

Sonic X provides examples of:
"Sonic: "Why do we have to play by the rules now? This is an anime.""
 * Aborted Arc: A small character arc involved Bocoe and Decoe getting sick of Robotnik's evil crap and doing a Heel Face Turn, aligning themselves with Sonic and his friends. The episode after this suitibly showed the two living at the Thorndyke mansion with the rest of the gang and helping out around the house. After that episode this was pretty much abandoned for no clear reason. The closest thing to an explanation was a line or two somewhat implying that Robotnik convinced them to come back.
 * Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male: Amy's behaviour to her unwilling crush (and later nearly everyone else) leans into this (Eggman scoffs at the likes of Sonic constantly but is amusingly terrified of Amy and her mallet). Knuckles has also faced heavy verbal and physical abuse from almost every female cast member at least once in the series (and yes, that's including Cream and Cosmo).
 * Added Alliterative Appeal: In the dub, every "Previously On..." is a mass of alliterations.
 * Aloof Ally: A rare case that is also the main hero. Sonic, though a lot friendlier than regular examples, usually keeps to himself, and doesn't get into the action until the situation truly becomes dire.
 * Animation Bump: The first few episodes have noticably smoother, more expressive and consistently on-model animation compared to later on.
 * The season finales and the last episode or so of every adaptation arc also had this.
 * Anti-Villain: Dr.Eggman. Arguably more an Affably Evil villain early on, but by the third season his role as true villain is all but gone.
 * Affably Evil: Dr. Eggman is perhaps the most kind-hearted evil tyrant around. The 'evil' part is nearly non-existant by the end of the show's run.
 * All Is Well That Ends Well
 * Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The English dub used "Gotta Go Fast" as its theme song instead of "Sonic Drive".
 * The Anime of the Game: Sonic Adventure, its sequel, and Sonic Battle, while still taking liberties with the plot.
 * Antagonist in Mourning: When Sonic seems to be gone for good in "A New Start," Eggman takes the Egg Fort to the skies loudly and obnoxiously trying to find him, ostensibly so he can finally make sure he's dead and start his empire safely. When Sonic returns, Eggman is notably ecstatic even though he had just been thoroughly defeated, and gleefully goes off to plot his revenge, laughing all the way.
 * Ash Face: This happens to various characters at various times, usually whenever Bokkun delivers a (self-destructing) message/bomb
 * As Long as It Sounds Foreign: If it wasn't important to the plot, signs in the background would have arbitrary Roman Letters written on them. They didn't even try to make them spell anything meaningful.
 * Audience Surrogate: Chris Thorndyke.
 * Badass Mustache: Dr. Eggman.
 * Bad Boss: Eggman at times, to the point Decoe and Bocoe did a brief Heel Face Turn after too much abuse from the doctor. Granted however it's usually in a much more harmless and slapstick manner than, say, his SatAM counterpart. His minions also seem to be the nearest he has to actual friends (something which does show on occasion).
 * Baseball Episode: Episode 10.
 * Beach Episode: Episode 9.
 * Because Destiny Says So: Cosmo.
 * Becoming the Mask: While a competent agent, Stuart seems much happier as a teacher, and even abandons his duties to protect the kids on occasion.
 * Berserk Button: For Cream, calling Cheese her pet. She's her friend.
 * Ella gets one in Episode 20 when Bokkun pulls a prank on her. This causes her to flip out, board the X-Tornado, chase Bokkun to Eggman and let loose
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Cream, while often an overly pleasant and caring Moe, does show a surprisingly calculating and snarky side on rare occasions (since it is nearly always played for laughs however, usually against a Butt Monkey character, it may lean more towards Comedic Sociopathy).
 * Big Bad: Dr. Eggman in the first two seasons and Dark Oak in the final season.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Sonic himself pulls this off in nearly every episode
 * Bittersweet Ending: Season 3 tries to pull this off with  leaving the Sonic characters in their world, possibly never able to return but Eggman planning to Take Over the World and Sonic and friends getting ready to stop him.
 * Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The Seedrians.
 * Break the Cutie: That's what happens when you make Tails execute the girl he loves.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Not much in the dub, but plenty in the original, though even so much more frequently in the beginning of the show than towards the end. For example, in "Cruise Blues", Decoe and Bocoe explain that it took them two weeks to repair the EggFort because they weren't in the previous episode, though in the dub, it's because Decoe kept complaining. Also, after the EggFort 2's (very far away) transformation, Eggman gets calls from Sonic X viewers saying that they couldn't see it. Eggman then tells them to get bigger TVs. (This was changed in the dub to someone complaining through the phone that the EggFort 2 "isn't all that", and Eggman exclaims, "I'm getting an unlisted number!")
 * From the dub: "Kids, don't use Formula One race-cars to catch hedgehogs!"
 * In the dub of the episode where Eggman blocks out the sun and "helps" people by giving them Solar Balls, when Eggman starts fantasizing about what it'd be like if he had his own TV show called "Eggman X." He even announces to the audience to stay tuned for next week's installment.
 * In the sub of episode 10, during the baseball game against Eggman Sonic catches a home run ball outside the fence and is told by Chuck that it's against the rules.

"Charmy: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Delusional Thinking With Vector! Just look at him go, ladies and gentlemen, he's out of control! There's no stopping him!""
 * Another one that made it into the dub, in "Countdown To Chaos" the military attacks Eggman with tanks copied off of his designs. As he rants about it, Decoe cheerfully holds up pictures of the robots in question from previous episodes for the audience.
 * Broken Aesop: See The Complainer Is Always Wrong example.
 * But Now I Must Go: The first series finale, where our heroes have finally built a portal that will send them all home.
 * Butt Monkey: Knuckles gets this a lot in later episodes, as do the Chaotix in most of their few appearances. Eggman and his cronies also often play this role in a villainous sense.
 * Members of Chaotix even become Butt Monkeys to each other.

"*Eggman uses a more powerful than average explosive*
 * Catch a Falling Star
 * Cheerful Child: Cream, Charmy Bee, and Tails to some extent.
 * Collapsed Mid-Speech: Sonic in episode 54 likely due to a combination of exhaustion and an arm injury.
 * Combining Mecha: Decoe and Bocoe, although the first occasion of this happening was subverted. Also, Eggman's ship, the EggFort 2, was actually three separate creations that also combine into the Eggsterminator (E-99 Egg Emperor), although the actual combination to the EggFort 2 was ridiculously zoomed out.
 * Comedic Sociopathy: A lot of Knuckles' abuse seemed to revolve around this, be it dished from Eggman, Amy or even Cream.
 * Some of the Chaotix's treatment leaned towards this too. The occasion they attempted to come on board the Blue Typhoon happened to be the one occasion the heroes decided to attack an alien intruder unprovoked, unarmed or even without the knowledge they were actually Metarex (though granted they felt kinda bad about this when they figured it out).
 * The Comically Serious: Easily the most obvious reason Knuckles is something of a Butt Monkey. You can literally gauge how badly a scene will go for him based on how humorless or stiffly he acts before things go south.
 * Comic Book Time: The series lasts chronologically long enough for characters to have at least aged a year, as such the series avoids the issue of ages in the Meterex arc, being no longer shown on Eye Catches.
 * The Complainer Is Always Wrong: This seemed to become a running gag in Sonic X, a recurring situation would come in which Knuckles would object to a team mission plan, usually leading the gang to use peer pressure and goad his ego and bravery until he gave in. In the Metarex arc they instead just physically threatened him. Also led to Moral Dissonance since the gang also spent a lot of time explaining to Knuckles how he shouldn't constantly fall for Eggman manipulating or tricking him into working for him.
 * In Episode 57, Knuckles' arguing with the others (once again warning of how Eggman abuses him) leads to a planet egg getting stolen; he attempts to retrieve it but it turns out the one he collected was a fake, with Sonic and Chris using Knuckles as a distraction while they protect the real thing. After Knuckles is shown to be humiliated by this they give him a somewhat condescending pat on the back, the basic moral seeming to be, "You're better off being a patsy for us than thinking stupid ideas yourself." Ironically the dub subverted this somewhat in this scene, in which Cosmo comforts Knuckles (humiliated about Eggman using him) claiming he only believes the doctor's lies because he believes in peace and that anyone is capable of good.
 * Cool Old Guy: Chuck Thorndyke.
 * Cool Plane: The Tornado, the X-Cyclone.
 * Cool Starship: The Blue Typhoon.
 * Cowboy Bebop at His Computer: The dub writers, who reportedly have not played any of the games and thus Did Not Do the Research, thought Chaos Control was the name of Eggman's base.
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: Chris, Charmy, and Tails are voiced by women. Genderflipped: Ella is voiced by Mike Pollock.
 * Cry Into Chest:
 * Cultural Translation: In the first Chaotix episode, Vector's references to Detective Conan are changed in the dub to references to Sherlock Holmes and Columbo -- and yet, the dub edits the cigar out of Vector's hand, which would have strongly accentuated the reference.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Super Sonic dished these out frequently (most notably against Perfect Chaos). Dark Oak made his malace known by being the one Worthy Opponent Sonic's super form had in the anime.
 * And then Cosmo, who had until then been practically useless in a fight, takes him out.
 * Curb Stomp Cushion: A bad guy variant by Eggman was often the nearest he had to proving his worth against Sonic. He could knock Sonic down a few times, but the latter usually quickly recovered and quickly left the doctor's mech of the week in scraps.
 * Arguably Shadow vs Knuckles, the former very quickly leaves the latter on the floor two bouts in a row, however within that time Knuckles is able to throw Shadow's rolling form smack into a wall. The second scuffle also drains Shadow to the point he nearly faints from exhaustion (oddly 4Kids cuts out this scene making it more on par with a Curb Stomp Battle).
 * Cut and Paste Translation: Another "unfortunate" victim of 4Kids' editing, dub writing, and voice direction.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Cosmo and the female Seedrians, in comparison to their large, brutish male counterparts.
 * Captain's Log: Cream's diary in The black trap
 * A Day in the Limelight
 * Deadpan Snarker: Bocoe and Decoe
 * Deliberately Cute Child: Cream, though usually genuinely innocent, is suggested to exploit this trait a couple odd occasions, perhaps most triumphantly against one of Eggman's sentient mooks in a baseball game.
 * Demoted to Extra: Sonic due to being converted to The Ace and Aloof Ally, gets a lot less Character Development and spotlight than the rest of the cast, with the perspective often being played from Chris or another protagonist.
 * Designated Monkey: Knuckles (due to aforementioned The Complainer Is Always Wrong and Anvilicious role bordered into this at times, though granted it was occasionally justified by him being an unhelpful Jerkass at times.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: In the first season finale, Rouge gives Knuckles the mother of all No Holds Barred Beatdowns after annoying her with his self aborbed whining. It shortly degrades into more playful fighting however.
 * Distressed Damsel: Played and subverted at whim with Amy; played straight once or twice with Cosmo and Cream.
 * Don't Try This At Home: See Dub Induced Plot Hole below.
 * Also, in episode 1, Sonic jumps on top of an S-Team race car during a chase, causing the driver to protest that they don't want any kids copying him. In the Japanese version, Sonic duly warns the kids in the audience never to stand on moving cars. The dub parodies this: Sonic instead tells them not to chase hedgehogs with F-1 race cars.
 * Dub Induced Plot Hole: In Episode 16, Chris twice holds up a sign telling good kids not to attempt his latest scheme. Sonic also holds up a sign sarcastically asking if he's saying Sonic isn't a good kid. 4Kids blanked out the signs, making it look very awkward as Sonic and Chris are standing there holding up blank signs to the audience. Okay, so it's not really a plot hole, but it's still really stupid for a dub.
 * There are plenty of these throughout the series, for instance, 4Kids blanking out Vector's name on the handkerchief that Tails picks up in a series 3 episode (itself a scheme to try to hook Cosmo up with Tails by having him pick her handkerchief up, a plot point 4Kids also cut out.)
 * The blank signs are probably the fault of TMS (the animators), rather than 4Kids. They're known to "pre-airbrush" their other anime too.
 * This "airbrushing" was once done rather reasonably. In one episode an Artifact of Doom had a crescent moon and star on it in the Japanese dub, but the star was gone when broadcast in English because the crescent moon and star is a common symbol and Islam. It was done to avoid offending anybody.
 * Dub Name Change: Lucas to Luke, Hertia to Earthia.
 * Early-Bird Cameo: Rouge and Big appear in the first episode. Rouge is introduced eleven episodes later, and Big has to wait two story arcs.
 * Enemy Mine: Frequently Eggman ends up working with Sonic after another more dangerous foe becomes a threat to them both.
 * Emo Kid: Cosmo
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: In-Universe example with Knuckles, despite his frequent role as the team's Butt Monkey and embitterment about Sonic's endless popularity, he is in fact revealed to have a large base of fans around the world (something the others exploit to coax him into a promotional Battle Tournament).
 * Even Evil Has Standards: From the 4Kids dub: "It's one thing to take them prisoner and threaten them but when you actually hurt somebody, that's going too far".
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Dark Oak/.
 * Eyecatch: Cut out from the 4Kids dub, but surprisingly left in the references to them in the Chaotix's debut episode.
 * Falling Into His Arms: Happens on a few occasions with Chris and at least once or twice with Amy, Cream, and Cosmo.
 * Family-Friendly Firearms: In the 4Kids dub, the guns fire lasers instead of bullets. The strangest thing is, they still look EXACTLY like guns; the sound effects were just altered.
 * Except the dub also left in the bullet casings being ejected.
 * On occasion this actually made more sense than the Japanese sound effects however. In a reverse situation to the dub for example, E-102 Gamma's laser fire makes bullet fire noises in certain episodes of the original edit, while the dub sounds more accurate with it's usual laser noises.
 * Five-Bad Band: The Metarex Commanders
 * Big Bad: Dark Oak
 * The Dragon: Pale Bay Leaf
 * Evil Genius: Black Narcissus
 * The Brute: Yellow Zelkova
 * Dark Chick: Red Pine
 * Sixth Ranger Traitors: Dr. Eggman, Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun
 * Foreshadowing: In the first season finale of the dub, we get this exchange, which gains a bit more impact when you realize this show later featured an adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2.

Bocoe: "One of these days you're going to blow up the whole planet."

Eggman: "It's a distinct possibility.""

"Kids, don't use formula one racecars to chase hedgehogs!"
 * Five-Token Band: Well, four. Chris' circle of friends managed to fit in one black kid, one tomboy, and one disabled kid.
 * Flanderization: Eggman, initially a goofy yet still formidable Affably Evil villain became more bumbling and good natured (to the point of giving fellow villains lectures about being merciful to their captives). The way he acts is appropriately mocked in the last short here.
 * and here.
 * Amy started off as a genuinely high-spirited and kind-natured girl with occasional Tsundere mood swings. This element of her persona eclipsed her character until she became a bratty Bitch in Sheep's Clothing that the cast was either irritated by or outright terrified of.
 * After becoming a more active member of Sonic's team, Knuckles became more incompetent and dim-witted as well as evolving into the team's personal Chew Toy,
 * Sonic, originally a wackier and more bumbling hero, became more of an Ace and Invincible Hero as the spotlight drifted away from him and more towards Chris.
 * It is perhaps worth noting that most of these cases mirror the evolutions of their games counterparts at the time, albeit Up to Eleven.
 * Freeze Sneeze: Sonic does this after jumping into the ocean to save Amy presumably due to getting soaked.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Several moments when Rouge flirts with Knuckles: "I hope you're active at night..." and "I hope we share a cell together..." come to mind...
 * Similarly, in the dub, concepts like love are considered inappropriate for American children, but having Rouge pull a locket out of her cleavage is A-okay.
 * A blink-and-you'll-miss-it one from "Countdown to Chaos" that doubles as a Funny Background Event. At one point, the story briefly cuts to Chris' three friends from school, Danny, Helen and Francis, while Sonic speeds past them. While the focus is on Francis wondering what Sonic is doing, off to the side you can see Danny taking a peek when Helen's skirt blows up, and Helen's appropriate response when she catches him.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: E-105 Zeta. In Sonic Adventure, he appears about as early as during E-102 Gamma's mission to capture Froggy. In the anime, he doesn't appear until Gamma goes to the Hot Shelter in "Revenge of the Robot", and even then Zeta's appearance was too brief to make any lasting impressions.
 * The King Boom Boo episode.
 * Gratuitous English: Sonic would say at least one phrase in English about Once Per Episode. It helps that his actor, Junichi Kanemaru, is an English teacher.
 * So much English, so little time...
 * Groin Attack: Happens to Sonic during the Sonic Battle adaptation courtesy of Emerl.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: Amy, especially as the series went on. Knuckles in a couple episodes as well, though usually he has more of a slow temper that is very easy to rekindle once it gets going.
 * Harmless Villain: Eggman as time passed became less and less effective as a villain (though granted Sonic's own Invincible Hero qualities didn't help). Curiously however the doctor had Laser-Guided Karma on his side and his savviness and competance increased much more on the odd occasion he was working on the side of good.
 * Heel Face Turn: Decoe and Bocoe after repeated mistreatment from Eggman (and being shown empathy from the heroes) briefly turn side, acting as butlers of sorts for Chris. It lasts only two episodes with them rejoining Eggman to assist in preventing the spacetime destruction formed from Earth and Sonic's world merging (along with the subtle implication that Eggman actually misses them).
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Cosmo performs this in the second-to-last episode of the second series.
 * Holding Your Shoulder Means Injury: Sonic tends to do this quite a bit when left worse-for-wear.
 * Hostage Situation: Most involving Chris. If not him, then Amy.
 * Hostile Show Takeover: Eggman at the end of the episode "Sunblock Solution".
 * Hot Mom: Lindsay Thorndyke.
 * Human-Focused Adaptation: The anime seems to be more focused on Chris Thorndyke as well as the humans in the anime.
 * Humongous Mecha: E-99 in Episode 26.
 * I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Sonic in episode 53 was comatose for a week in Eggman's base after a fight with Dark Oak and has a wound on his upper arm throughout the entirety of the episode. He hardly ever pays attention to it until Knuckles points it out to him.
 * I Warned You: Often issued to Knuckles each time his truce with Eggman turns out to be a trick. Interestingly Knuckles never uses the trope the several occasions the team's plans go haywire (as he sometimes predicts, and is ignored), something that can be considered somewhat out of character for him.
 * Improbable Age: Tails and Chris most definitely.
 * Ineffectual Loner: Knuckles has a strong rivalry with Sonic and notes his preference to do things alone. He also rarely (if ever) wins a battle without team efforts or some outside intervention.
 * Inner Monologue
 * Interspecies Romance: Tails and Cosmo.
 * Invincible Hero: Sonic on occasion really leans into this trope. The majority of times he beats Eggman and other villains rather handily and generally treats the whole thing as a fun little game. Shadow leans even further into this (and it's villainous twin earlier on) Sonic at least had problems with the Meterax, even in his Super form, Shadow on the other hand beat an entire army of them in one swoop.
 * Is This What Anger Feels Like?: Cream.
 * Jerkass Has a Point: In some of his disputes with the team, Knuckles actually had good points as to why the team's strategy was flawed (eg. why a baseball game against Eggman for a Chaos Emerald may not use legitimate tactics) and in some cases predicted right. It didn't help that the others usually gave no real defense against his argument, except that he was a gutless hack for not wanting to go through with their plans. Add to that at one point Vector implies that maybe Cream is too young to venture out into space and fight against dangerous aliens. Even before he resorts to rather overzealous methods, the team are rather hostile towards this implication (despite the fact Cream often did get in trouble and her actual involvement to the team was rather minimal) and tell him to butt out. Making any suggestions against the team's standards tended to make the heroes turn rather nasty.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Knuckles.
 * Kawaiiko: Cream and Cheese, though Your Mileage May Vary.
 * Keet: Charmy Bee
 * Knight of Cerebus: The Meterax, especially Dark Oak, are established as much more demonic and powerful villains Sonic has ever faced before, giving the usually untrouncable hero a hard time even in his super form (that said their validity into this trope ranges due to individual armies and members having different lengths of evil, ranging from Laughably Evil Yellow Zelkova to emotionless Complete Monsters such as Pale Bay Leaf to even the Tragic Villain Magnificent Bastard Dark Oak himself).
 * Lampshade Hanging: "I see you have a brain, so why don't you use it?"
 * The final comic also does it when Shadow from the main Archie comics ends up in the Sonic X comic through Chaos Control. Many an Aside Glance is cast.
 * Large Ham: Shadow, Knuckles,and Chris's uncle, Sam Speed.
 * Last of Her Kind: Cosmo, again.
 * Left Hanging: The series ended with a LOT of loose ends left untied.
 * Leitmotif
 * Limited Animation: It's even more obvious here in this show than it is in most anime. However, the show was produced on a much smaller budget than a typical anime, mostly due in part to Sonic's general lack of popularity in Japan.
 * Literal Minded: When the X tornado is coming in for a landing on the Egg Carrier, Eggman says "let's give them a warm welcome, shall we?" Cue one of Eggman's robots pressing a button that disperses confetti and activates robot cheerleaders that flatly cheer "hip hip hooray!" Another robot does a Face Palm in reponse to this.
 * An arguable case of Woolseyism in the dub, in the Japanese edit this non-sensical mechanism is activated due to a lack of ammo (though ironically the Japanese edit of the parade is actually cheering "Welcome").
 * Lonely Rich Kid: Chris.
 * Loners Are Freaks: Played straight with Knuckles, to the point of bordering into Designated Monkey territory.
 * Love Redeems:.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father:
 * Lull Destruction: In the English dub.
 * Mass Hypnosis: Eggman tries a particularly convoluted one of these.
 * Minion with an F In Evil: Decoe and Bocoe, despite being loyal to Eggman, are meek cowardly droids that resent some of their more callous orders from the doctor (in the anime's Sonic Adventure adaption for example, they are charged with disposing of the more incompetent E-100 Series models) and actually enjoy doing kindly deeds for people. They actually show enthusiasm when the doctor appears to turn a new leaf, only for it to usually be revealed as a another scam. That said it helped that by the final season Eggman himself had essentially became a Big Bad With An F In Evil.
 * Monster of the Week: The first 26 episodes used the show-exclusive E-Series robots in this role. Then we have the Metarex.
 * Mecha-Mooks: Decoe and Bocoe mostly cater to Eggman's every whim, while Bokkun acts as his messenger.
 * Men Don't Cry: When Sonic leaves Chris's world in the series one finale, you can tell that he's crying, you just can't see his eyes.
 * Mood Whiplash: Perhaps one of the most emphasised examples in most forms of Sonic media. Comparing the cartoony, harmless fun of the first few episodes to the somewhat grim finale certainly shows an uneasy shift in tone.
 * Mysterious Waif: Cosmo, upon her first appearance.
 * Mythology Gag: Chris's grandfather is an inventor named Chuck. In the old cartoons and comic, Sonic had an uncle named Chuck, and Chuck was also an inventor. Sonic can also be seen eating a chili dog in one scene, his favourite food in the cartoons and comic.
 * Sonic has an extreme fear of water.
 * Also the fact that Sonic and friends aren't of Earth are a Shout-Out to Mobius, which only existed outside of Japan until around Adventure.
 * Never Say "Die": In the dub, to the point where Maria Robotnik (who is explicitly said to have died in the original game) is changed to having been captured.
 * Molly in season three, instead of making a Heroic Sacrifice like in the Japanese version, she "flies her ship into space to help other planets to fight the Metarex".
 * Noblewoman's Laugh: Dr. Eggman.
 * Nobody Calls Me Chicken: Knuckles can often be swayed into a plan he initially shows disapproval or disinterest in by stroking or insulting his pride. At times this is exploited to ludicarous lengths by friends or foes alike.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: The President bears an uncanny resemblence to Bill Clinton
 * No Fourth Wall: Frequently, usually Sonic himself, but occasionally Rouge and once Chris as well. Mostly averted in the dub version, with the exception of the first episode.

"Sonic: Shit! Let's go!"
 * Non-Mammal Mammaries: Cosmo gains breasts upon entering Super Mode in the climax of the Metarex arc. The Japanese version has the most gratuitous shots of them, of course.
 * "No Respect" Guy: Knuckles is a Jerkass at times, but genuinely benevolent and skilled. Due to having such outlandish ethics from Sonic however, it's not rare for him to be the butt of some gag.
 * Off-Model: Hooooooo, boy. This is likely because the series had a limited budget.
 * Oh Crap: Eggman gets this quite often, like when he's about to get smacked for one more time by a pissed off Amy in Episode 9, and when his E-18 Guerra-Hard robot is about to explode after Sonic overpowers it thanks to the two Chaos Emeralds he snatched from it in Episode 13.
 * One-Winged Angel
 * Oops I Did It Again
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket: Cosmo's amulet.
 * Our Presidents Are Different
 * Panty Shot: Amy got a few of these. Or occasionally, a lack of them. It's actually surprising how many are snuck in there.
 * Cream gets one in the first Sonic Adventure episode, and also in one episode of the Metarex arc, when she was bringing some treats to the bridge of the Blue Typhoon. Surprisingly, this second one lasts for a good ten seconds, and was kept intact in the 4Kids dub.
 * Plant Aliens: Cosmo and
 * Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Chris and
 * Pragmatic Adaptation
 * Precision F-Strike: Sonic in the Japanese dub of Episode 2, right in front of Cream.

"Narrator: Last time on Sonic X..."
 * "Previously On...": In the Japanese version of Episode 39, Charmy gets a Sonic X DVD, and Vector tries to play it on a film projector. Espio then "borrows" a DVD player from a convenience store and the Chaotix watch a montage of footage from the previous episodes. Perhaps because of the Moral Dissonance of Espio stealing a DVD player, this entire scene is cut from the dub, so a longer montage was added to the scene where Vector reads the newspaper to pad out the missing time.
 * The dub does this in every episode anyway:

"Bokkun: It wasn't me who put sleeping powder in your hot chocolate!"
 * Puppy Love: Tails and Cosmo
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: The E-Series robots created for the show.
 * Really Dead Montage:  in the Japanese version.
 * ~Recycled IN SPACE!~: The third season, where our heroes set to outer space when a now teenage Chris becomes a child again and the Chaos Emeralds end up scattered across the universe. Isn't this the basis for the plot of Dragon Ball GT?
 * Retired Monster: Dark Oak acts like a Complete Monster at first until the finale of the second series where.
 * Robo Speak: Decoe and Bocoe talk like this in early episodes of the dub (though gradually become more emotional as the series progresses). Interestingly both language versions give E-102 Gamma this dialect (in comparison to his mellow Machine Monotone in the games).
 * Roger Rabbit Effect: And occasionally multiple worlds.
 * Save Both Worlds
 * Secret Keeper: Chris, Chuck, Mr. Tanaka, and Ella. That is, until Sonic and his friends are known to the public.
 * Sexophone: Every time Rouge showed up.
 * She Cleans Up Nicely: Amy has this effect on Sonic in one episode.
 * Shipper on Deck: Amy is probably the one who made Cosmo realize she had feelings for Tails in the 3rd season when she remarks that the two seem cute together. Team Chaotix tries to actively ship the two in a later episode; though all of their attempts fail Tails and Cosmo still sort of get together on their own (it's never really absolutely official until ).
 * Ship Tease: Sonic and Amy. Especially in the last episode of the first series, where Amy pours her heart out telling Sonic how she was ready to wait forever for him, and insists he admits he loves her.
 * Guess what, THERES MORE!!! They originally had Tails say  to Cosmo! Needless to say, The fans were pissed off...
 * Shout-Out: The Egg-Fort 2 resembles the Enterprise from Star Trek
 * Someone Has to Die
 * Spoiled Sweet: Chris Thorndyke.
 * Standard Bleeding Spots: Contains a few examples;
 * Rouge bleeds from the cheek when Knuckles slashes her there during the SA 2 saga.
 * Sonic appears to have a wound on his upper arm in the first episode of the Metarex saga courtesy of Dark Oak.
 * Shadow gets a cut at the side of one of his eyes after he accidentally crashes into a solid metal door inside the Blue Typhoon whilst pursuing Tails and Cosmo.
 * Stealth Hi Bye
 * Stock Footage: Very noticeable when Knuckles and Sonic first fight Chaos together. Also, the logo from the title is taken from a logo on the side of Sonic Advance's box.
 * The title card for "Chaotix' Electric Shock Love Tactics" uses silhouetted versions of official art for Tails (from Sonic Rush Series Adventure) and Cosmo.
 * Stop Drowning and Stand Up: When Sonic lands in a pond during a fight with Knuckles in episode 5 he instantly starts flailing and yelling in terror as if drowning. That is, until he realizes the water he's landed in is not even half a foot deep.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: Almost anything involving Bokkun, particularly his messages.
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: Sonic in the episode "Teasing Time".
 * Supporting Leader: Tails
 * Survivor Guilt: Cosmo. Like whoa.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial:
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial:


 * This Cannot Be!: Yellow Zelkova's reaction to seeing the columns that were obstructing the Blue Typhoon's path tumbling to the ground after Sonic and co. defeat him for the first time with the Sonic Driver, (which, of course, he survives, making him the first Metarex to survive a blast from the Sonic Driver itself) while at the same time beginning the trigger for the tumble of said columns.
 * This is also Amy's reaction to when Serpenter crushes her lucky bracelet made for Sonic by herself in a much earlier episode.
 * This Explains So Much: Sonic says this in Episode 74 after a hologram of Hertia/Earthia relates a story to Amy and Rouge about how Seedrius-Flora/Greengate got destroyed and how the Metarex were born.
 * This Is Unforgivable!: In Episode 9, after Eggman's Serpenter robot crushes Amy's "good-luck" bracelet that she made for Sonic and makes her react to it with a variation of "This Cannot Be!", she cries over its breaking and then flies into a rage with fire in her eyes and shouts "Now you're gonna PAY!!!" before proceeding to charge at Serpenter, shout "Don't mess with me!", give Eggman an Oh Crap moment and pound the robot into submission and then go after Eggman himself, send him flying into the ocean, and then pound him one more time and then pass out and start sinking to the bottom of the ocean afterwards... only for Sonic to save her and recover and repair her bracelet.
 * This is also what Sonic himself says to Eggman at the end of the finale of the third season in the original version, which in the dub was replaced by the line of "Life never stays slow for long. Thank goodness! Watch out Eggman, I'm coming at ya full speed!"
 * This Loser Is You: A commonly accepted explanation for Chris Thorndyke's existence, is that he represents the target audience.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Cream, in Season 3.
 * Believe it or not, Chris also took one in Season 3. Due to his mind being one of an adult he is now a talented inventor and strategist, capable of aiding the team.
 * Took a Level In Jerkass: Amy to an extent as the series progressed (the games version went through a similar evolution at this time though not to the same lengths). Also arguably a key reason for Chris' Scrappy status (though he swerves back in the Third Season).
 * While not nearly as consistently or to the same extent as the former examples, the show on occasion also liked to suggest a slightly darker hidden tint to Cream's persona compared to the games' version (which is usually just sweet through and through).
 * Cream may also be a Type B. She shows in Episode 46 and also in Season 3 that it's not good to make her mad....
 * Theme Tune Cameo: In a few occasions, Eggman hums, and even SINGS, his leitmotif.
 * Through a Face Full of Fur: Tails blushes at one point when he carries Cosmo up to the ceiling by means of his helicopter tails in order to decorate a room for a party.
 * Tails blushes a lot during the latter half of season 3 around Cosmo, really.
 * Tragic Keepsake: In the series finale, Tails recieves
 * Tragic Villain: Again, Dark Oak/.
 * Transforming Mecha
 * Uncanceled: There were originally 52 episodes. After the Grand Finale, they produced 26 more episodes.
 * Universal Universe Time
 * Unstoppable Rage
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Sonic and Knuckles at times. Knuckles and Amy often have this chemistry with a few team mates due to their brashness (especially each other).
 * Vocal Evolution: Decoe and Bocoe's voices in the dub initially are acted in a monotone Robo Speak. While the voices themselves remain the same for the most part, as the show progresses the acting for both gradually fluctuates to sound more emotional and human-like akin to their Japanese counterparts.
 * The cast for characters established for the games also slowly refine to sound more like the original games VAs (though the difference would only really come to show in later games titles for which the 4Kids cast provided voices).
 * Not exactly evolution, but Cream's voice in the dub becomes progressively higher and squeakier until, by the end of the series, it's reached levels that pretty much only a dog can hear.
 * Waking Up Elsewhere: Sonic awakens after his fight with Dark Oak to find himself on a bed inside Dr Eggman's base. Turned out that the good doctor saved him from almost certain death and allowed him to recover his health during the week that he was comatose.
 * Wasn't That Fun?: Helen goes on a wild ride with Sonic in Episode 14 that takes them to and across an island in the middle of a lake where Helen says there is a beautiful patch of white flowers. The two are being chased by government troopers trying to catch them and bring them to the President's annual party honoring Sonic's heroics against Dr. Eggman, and with Sonic's speed and attitude and all that, he and Helen have never had this much fun together in a long time.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Shadow. Regularly.
 * What Could Have Been: Sonic X originally looked like this.
 * While not too different from the how the show actually turned out, there were a few elements that were definitely scrapped or changed from the second pilot.
 * Ryan Drummond was going to be the voice of Sonic in the dub, much like in the games until 2005. But then 4Kids said no.
 * What Measure Is a Non Animal:
 * Wronski Feint: Tails attempts this against Eggman's flying fortress in the Tornado 2 when Eggman launches an extremely accurate missile. It fails.
 * X Makes Anything Cool: We all know Sonic is cool anyway, though.
 * Xtreme Kool Letterz: Captain Obvious
 * Year Inside, Hour Outside: When Chris finally manages to get back to Sonic's world via Knuckles' Master Emerald during the Metarex Arc, he is suprised to learn since in their world, its only been a month since Sonic & Co. Went home. In Chris's world, six entire years have passed. There are side effects...
 * This is made even more confusing given the contradictory example in the first season finale, where Sonic finally arrives in his own world, where six months have already passed.


 * Youtube Poop: A popular source, particularly Knuckles saying "Shut up!"; also the theme tune Gotta Go Fast is played whenever a character is running. Probably inspired by the heavy use of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog in poops.
 * You Won't Like How I Taste: Sonic's excuse to prevent a shark from eating him in H 2 Whoa.