Sonic Prime--A Lookback at Season 1, Plus Expectations for Season 2

If you're the typical Sonic nerd, you were likely one of hundreds--even thousands--who woke up on December 15 and instantly logged into Netflix to watch the newest Sonic TV series in years (not to mention his second CGI series ever). And how did most of us take Sonic Prime? Well, according to the statistics, most of us LOVED it! And if you've stumbled across my blog of all things Sonic, and you haven't seen Sonic Prime, you must. The storyline, visuals, and animation are mind-blowing--not to mention Sonic's shoes!

SEASON 1: How'd It Do?

Season 1 did very well for itself. It introduced us to Sonic's typical life in Green Hill, surrounded by friends, a certain rival, and a certain arch-nemesis. While the Chaos Emeralds didn't appear in Season 1, a different magical gem did: the Paradox Prism. Well, as usual, nasty ol' Eggman set his sights on the prism and Sonic decided the best way to keep the prism from Eggman was to just destroy it. So he did. And because he destroyed a jewel that apparently keeps the entire world running smoothly, he was the one taken out of reality's equation. Literally. Suddenly, he's in a Sonic Prime version (more on what I mean by that later) of Eggmanland. Green Hill has been turned into a greasy, dreary metropolis, heavily controlled by the Chaos Council (which consists of several versions of Eggman) and their robotic minions. As Sonic slowly pieces together the puzzle, he bounces from reality to reality, realizing each shard of the broken prism resulted in a completely different reality--in all of which, Sonic never existed. Along the way, he re-befriends variants of his friends--the most striking of which, in my opinion, were Rusty Rose (a robotic version of Amy serving the Chaos Council) and Nine (a rough, loner version of Tails, but with seven new robotic tails he attached to himself).

It had parts that were amazingly cool and serious, parts that were beautifully emotional (all you guys just gagged, but as a girl Sonic fan, I appreciate the beautiful emotion), and parts that were absolutely hilarious. It had some more annoying features, though--the baby version of Eggman in the Chaos Council, for one--Dr. Babble. He was humorous for a short while, but his screaming and crying while fighting (and losing) quickly became annoying. Smaller parts that were meant to be funny but came off a little too silly were the pirate versions of Sonic's friends--while they became amazing and serious when Sonic showed them how to be true pirates, beforehand they were pretty much the Sonic version of "the pirates who don't do anything," and not in a cute VeggieTales way. It became goofy, especially with Knuckles as the captain. And while not necessarily annoying, why was the jungle variant of Tails, "Mangey," basically a caveman acting like a scared wild puppy? The others were still civilized (for jungle "scavengers," anyway), but he acted more like their pet than their comrade. No one ever explained why Mangey is like this.

Something I kinda missed was Froggy's ribbit. In Sonic X--the only show we ever heard Froggy's ribbit in detail--Froggy literally said "ribbit," and Big is also well-known for his deep, sweet, stupid-sounding voice. In Sonic Prime, Froggy ribbits like a normal frog, and Big, while he still has a sweet, deep voice and may not be the shiniest ring in Green Hill, doesn't have the same "dum-de-dum" demeanor and way of talking. Perhaps those may not be huge, but personally, I like the "simpler" versions of Big and Froggy.

SEASON 2: What's in Store This Round?

Season 1 ended with no random strings left hanging, but did end with an epic cliffhanger, and it looks like Season 2 will pick up exactly there. According to the first trailer out for Season 2 (which you can view on Netflix or on Sonic's official YouTube channel), Sonic and Shadow are discovering more of what will repair the shattered prism and restore their world. Sonic's glad to do it. Shadow... well, we'll just have to see. It's evident he's angry with Sonic, but that's nothing new. Sonic will be returning to the different realities we were shown in Season 1, and it looks like he'll also be returning to the Grim (the barren wasteland Nine showed him as another reality). I'm hoping that the next few times we meet the Chaos Council, there will be far less battling the baby version of Eggman. With the pirate crew up to fiercer pirate-like standards, there will likely be some epic sea battles in store. Likely, little will change about the variants of Sonic's friends, but maybe some events will come around that show Mangey Tails becoming more person-like than wild puppy-like.

While the trailer never showed much between Sonic and Shadow, except their being in "normal" Green Hill (though it didn't look quite right due to the shattered realities), it would be spectacular to see Shadow go with Sonic to the different realities. Not only would it aid Sonic in his quest and speed up the repairs on reality, but Shadow is often the focal point of emotional scenes he's in. We saw plenty of emotion with Sonic and Nine (and all the other Tails variants), but to add deeper emotion, what if Shadow met all the variants of Rouge? Him and "Renegade" would make quite a pair, but how about if things went between him and her like how they went between Sonic and Nine? Granted, there's little bonding among Team Dark, but all the same....

And then there's Metal Sonic. At the end of the trailer, for about five seconds, we see him. Sonic's metallic twin. And, as part of the five-second snippet somewhat revealed, not only will Sonic and Metal have a speed battle, but it might even be Sonic CD-esque with some metallic glints and looping turns similar to Stardust Speedway. At least, that's what it looked like to me. We'll have to wait and see to really know. But one thing I noticed was Metal's design--it was hardly threatening, with a more AI look than a robotic look. You can read more about Metal's design and my thoughts on it affecting his character's reputation in my post about "Sonic Prime's Metal Sonic."

Overall, the first season of Sonic Prime was a huge success, and I know all us Sonic fans are eager to see what becomes of the Blue Blur's crazy world in the epic second season!