Quite often, I've viewed my time working for these sites as being like some extended purge of every single thing I've ever watched, read, played or listened to. Every cartoon, every movie, every comic and every game I've run across - - it's all proven to be relevant, in some capacity, to at least one article here. It's been like straightening some pop cultural balance for me.
So here we are, today, with the anime version of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. Like every kid of the 90's, my head was spun by those first three games on the Sega Genesis. I also watched both of the Saturday morning cartoons - - raising an my eyebrow about how Sonic sounded a lot like Urkel in the first series and then scratching my head about the drastic, awesomely-more-serious direction the second series took.
== TEASER ==
But that's really as far it went for Sonic and me. I'll be the last person to say I ever "grew up" and got too mature for anything, but since all discussions in this sphere sort-of demand an assertion of allegiance to any property that's being discussed, I'll simply say that my interest quickly went on to other things, even while I still always kept fairly up-to-speed with what this fleet-footed rodent was up to.
For instance, while I've never read any of the Archie comics, I've run into a lot of kids online for whom that series was their most significant gateway to comics. And I have watched closely enough to find it both surprising and fitting that the franchise ended up developing its own kind of Carl Barks Duckberg-like mythos throughout all its assorted multimedia tie-ins. (Seriously, put the SONIC X Hulu promo of this next to an Uncle Scrooge family portrait and tell me the only major difference is that one has rodents and the other has birds).
I guess I've gone on such a digression here because I feel kind of silly saying anything critical about this episode. The whole set-up of dropping Sonic and his pals into the real world is exactly the sort of premise I would've been amped up about when I was seven or eight. Obviously, I'm far from the target demo, now - - but saying I would've been jacked up about SONIC X back then is still a valid compliment, right?
Watch this episode, "Chaos Control Freaks" here and decide for yourself.
Tom Pinchuk's a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk
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