Favorite alternative Sonic media form.

[Oompa Star]

<img src="http://www.dontfeedthewriter.com/11t/nowhy.jpg">

MY VIRGIN EYES!!!

Oh, and OVA for me.

[JessicaPadkin]

Isuka, myself and a couple of the guys at Sonic CulT are working on translating that CoroCoro manga. The really crappy one, that is! The finished chapters are here: http://ryoga.heypoorplayer.org/sonicmanga/

Sonic the Comic, when it was 'on form' --ie pretty much everything that wasn't a dodgy Lew Stringer 'comedy' strip-- was awesome, IMO. The stories were compelling and inventive, and the art was (mostly) excellent and stylish. You could actually tell by reading it that it was a labour of love for the creators, I thought.

I also have a real soft spot for the Martin Adams books published by Virgin. Man, they were quality! The storylines were very tounge-in-cheek and the nineties dude-speak was a bit much, but the writing was surprisingly witty, they were probably as faithful to the games as they possibly could be and the characterisation was excellent. It was one of the few examples of Sonic media wherein Robotnik actually seemed to be, y'know, a mad scientist. =(

[Dasher]

Those Aoi comics are the best of them all!

[Frieza2000]

Is anyone going to translate that one by Koushi Rikudo? I mean, he wrote Excel Saga. It's got to be at least decent.

[Koosh Koosh!]

Sonic the Comic is vastly overrated. People hype it to the point where the legend of it outweighs the actual material. And if those who read it as a child, actually glanced at it now, only the game adaptations stand the test of time.

I mean, Elson did a nice job in the olden days, though I felt that his style strayed in later years to something I didn't like as much.

Anyway, my favourite is the OAV, hands down. It retains the "spirit" and "heart" of the original games, despite being quite unfaithful to the source material. Something that SatAM, Sonic Underground and even Sonic X never came close to.

Second is probably AoStH. Robotnik = heee hee hee.

[UCHU]

Definitely Sonic OVA. Robotnik was so fuckin' awesome in it. I do have cherished childhood memories of AoStH, as well. Archie is lame. SatAM is lame, too.

[Black Rook]

Sonic the Comic is vastly overrated. People hype it to the point where the legend of it outweighs the actual material. And if those who read it as a child, actually glanced at it now, only the game adaptations stand the test of time.

Seconded. Having read a majority of StC and a good deal of Archie's run, I'm still baffled that StC doesn't get as much flack as Archie. Both are equally "WTF?" in terms of staying close to the feel of the games, but StC seems to get a free pass just because it has loop-de-loops in the background and too many gameplay devices given in-story explanations (hell, they even came up with an explanation for super emeralds... sort of). In all fairness, though, StC didn't push it's original characters nearly as much as Archie does (or did), and the stories were more thought-out. Still, a lot of the later run felt less like a Sonic comic and more like some other comic book that incidentally featured Sonic. Regardless, I still think its strange that Archie and SatAM get such flack for deviating from the tone of the games when StC is just as guilty.

Maybe it's because SatAM is now closely linked to furries...

[Segaholic2]

I don't understand the widespread love for the anime. It wasn't that good, nor was it that faithful to the games either. The animation wasn't that great, and there wasn't nearly enough action to counter all the worthless plot and annoying human characters. I really hated how most of the Sonic/Metal fight was just two fluorescent dots bouncing off each other.

Sure, I loved it when I was a little kid and managed to find a copy at some video store. But it really isn't that great.

I'd say Sonic X is better, as the animation style is more appealing to me and the action is better, in general. Plus Chris is actually less annoying than Sera or however you spell it.

Of the American cartoons, AoStH is obviously the best. SatAM has aged horribly, and Underground is just terrible.

[Xigz]

Disregard what I said about the OVA, this is the best.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Never cared for SatAM or Underground, or either comic book series. I also don't like the Sonic OAVs or Sonic X (man did they fuck up nearly every Sonic character).

[FlashTHD]

I didn't care about the games until I owned a Genesis in 1998, so my fandom was glued exclusively to SatAM and the Archie comic until then. But, it's been over half a decade since i've seen a single ep of SatAM and Archie became so unreadable I blew it off somewhere around #140 (I still haven't been able to bring myself to so much as look at 175, even though I have copies of it), so as it stands now i'm gonna say none.

The OVA...ehh, that's something I haven't watched in a long time either, and Sonic X was killer potential that was never put to use.

[Xigz]

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Never cared for SatAM or Underground, or either comic book series. I also don't like the Sonic OAVs or Sonic X (man did they fuck up nearly every Sonic character).

There has only been one OAV.

[Shadow Hog]

Well, technically they were two half-hour OVAs combined into one overall story... the Western releases just went ahead and did the combining for us.

[Isuka]

I don't understand the widespread love for the anime. It wasn't that good, nor was it that faithful to the games either. The animation wasn't that great, and there wasn't nearly enough action to counter all the worthless plot and annoying human characters. I really hated how most of the Sonic/Metal fight was just two fluorescent dots bouncing off each other.

Sure, I loved it when I was a little kid and managed to find a copy at some video store. But it really isn't that great.

Maybe it's because of Eggman's sexy voice.
All seriousness aside, my first impression with it was it's obvious similarity with the Sonic CD cutscenes only a little shittier, that's a big drawing point. And contrary to Sonic X, the human characters of the OVAs aren't annoying because they don't get enough screentime (with the only exception of the end), and while the fight between Sonic and Metal isn't precisely memorable I can't think of any other way in which it could be made, plus, if you look closely, it's pretty similar to some boss fights in Sonic Adventure.

I'd say Sonic X is better, as the animation style is more appealing to me and the action is better, in general. Plus Chris is actually less annoying than Sera or however you spell it.

I second the animation point and the fact that all the mechanical and crafts designs are really great, but again the humans here are more in number and more annoying. Sera has nothing on lil' Thorndyke.

Of the American cartoons, AoStH is obviously the best. SatAM has aged horribly, and Underground is just terrible.

Totally right. While I couldn't watch more than two or three episodes of SatAM due to horribly bad local syndication, and the same goes for Underground, I could tell those were pretty sucky. AoStH managed to be an overall good cartoon for it's humorous slapstick situations, independently of but aided by the characters in it.

Oh, and I can't get enough fucking free time to check out throughly that manga, but I gave it a quick glance and... well, I must be sincere and it does look crappy, like classic cultural Japanese comedy with badly drawn Sonic characters thrown in it; if that's your bag, fine, but it's not precisely quality stuff. Like that Saber Marionette J comic by Yumisuke Kotoyoshi. On the other hand, those Aoi 4komas are brilliant.

Is anyone going to translate that one by Koushi Rikudo? I mean, he wrote Excel Saga. It's got to be at least decent.

Don't know that one, maybe it's a doujinshi? I have to look for it later.

[Delphine]

TSS v2!

[Locit]

Oh, come on. He's got to collapse in a devastated mound of self-pity at least once before you go throwing that title around.

[gr4yJ4Y]

I read issue 175 of StC yesterday. I was surprised to find that I actually liked it. Eggman is still actually evil. At first I thought, "There's way too many umm... hero characters here." Thankfully the writer heard my thoughts and killed off a bunch of them. Or put them in the grape sacks at least.

"For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
and cut down and take away the spreading branches.

They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey
and to the wild animals;
the birds will feed on them all summer,
the wild animals all winter. "
-Isaiah 18:5-6