sonic ova, sonic x or sonic mania adventures

[Meta77]

Which do you prefer and would you like to see continued or brought back.

For me its bo contest. The ova was amazing. Of course the dub is a bit ehhh lol back when I was young I loved the sub but now subs the best  but I enjoyed that universe.

I'd take sonic x back if they killed off Chris 

And mania adventure is cute in IRA shirt format for me.

 

What about you all.

[Diogenes]

Well, definitely not X, I can say that much.

Between the OVA and SMA, though, that's a harder choice. I like both, but with SMA not yet being finished and the different formats and goals of the two it's hard to directly compare them. The OVA is probably better set up for telling larger stories, but its style feels a bit dated and its world is unlike anything else Sonic is doing. SMA probably beats it in charm and is more accurate to the games, but being a series of shorts and lacking any dialogue puts some limits on how it can tell stories. Honestly though I'd be pretty happy if either one got a continuation, so, whichever.

[Marco9966]

SMA but without the word mania because the game contradicts the modern timeline and I hate broken timelines.

An animation about the classic adventures of Sonic, I would like that, but without any contradiction to the modern timeline nor any reference to phantom ruby, Eggrobos.

That's why I prefer the Mega Drive comic, it doesnt contradict anything Modern, so I can consider that SA1, Forces or IDW comics take place after it.

[JezMM]

I mean, I find the three of these totally incomparable.  Sonic Mania Adventures' full runtime is going to be like, barely over 20 minutes when it's all done, essentially a single episode.

Sonic OVA I guess I can imagine being a series, but I will admit I prefer Mania Adventures being consistent with the games.  I feel I'm overwhelmed by the amount of alternate universes for Sonic to occupy so Mania has been a breath of fresh air in that regard.  It's very nice to have an animated series that is actually 100% canon to the games.

Sonic X I'm personally sentimental over - I was a teenager when it aired so the quality of it's stories and melodramas were not quite so offensive to me back then.  I think even if I watched it now, I'd respect it for at least TRYING to tell a more emotional story with the Sonic franchise, which the games have been consistently not bothering with or fucking up for a while now.  I don't think I really need a continuation at this point though.  Episode 52 was a perfect ending as is, and while season 2 kind of undid that... it still finished on a fairly conclusive note.

[Tracker_TD]

OVA personally, with Mania in close second. X is a downright miserable watch, and no amount of 'watch the JP dub' can fix it. I tried to marathon it but I gave up barely halfway through the first season. 

Mania would probably be first, but I do prefer the more longform Adventure format of the OVA - that and the English voice acting is one of my guilty pleasures. I genuinely love Martin Burke as Sonic. 

[Marco9966]

1 minute ago, JezMM said:

Sonic OVA I guess I can imagine being a series, but I will admit I prefer Mania Adventures being consistent with the games.  I feel I'm overwhelmed by the amount of alternate universes for Sonic to occupy so Mania has been a breath of fresh air in that regard.  It's very nice to have an animated series that is actually 100% canon to the games.

Canon to Sonic Mania but not the modern games, it throws me off very much.

[JezMM]

5 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

Canon to Sonic Mania but not the modern games, it throws me off very much.

Sonic Team made that bed by tying Mania into Forces instead of just letting it be a new untold story between S&K and Sonic 4 or whatever - the Mania Adventures team just simply have to deal with it.

And I mean... technically it IS canon to the modern games.  It continues exactly where Forces left off.  Sure there's a split timeline now but... those two timelines are still part of one canon that is clearly happy to jump between them.  To suggest they're seperate canons would imply that you can get the full story from either, which isn't true.  You have to play Forces to understand what happens between Mania and Mania Adventures, and you have to play Mania to fully understand where Classic and the Phantom Ruby came from in Forces.

I don't like that they went this direction, but this is the direction they went and it is a singular story.

[Marco9966]

1 minute ago, JezMM said:

Sonic Team made that bed by tying Mania into Forces instead of just letting it be a new untold story between S&K and Sonic 4 or whatever - the Mania Adventures team just simply have to deal with it. 

And I mean... technically it IS canon to the modern games.  It continues exactly where Forces left off.  Sure there's a split timeline now but... those two timelines are still part of one canon that is clearly happy to jump between them.

Sonic Team was incredibly lazy in that regards, okay let's accept that the Phantom Ruby is known by Eggman in Mania, why didnt they have Eggman remember it or rediscover it again in Forces, instead of inventing it or discover it (these 2 interpretations are canon to this game choose one of the two, it's THAT bad, just like Infinite having 3 canon origin stories).

So yeah I have to throw Mania under the bus, one of the best classic games, and keep Forces the messy modern game in my timeline, I'm not happy about it but it's that way.

And I'm trying to enjoy Mania Adventures without being pissed off, but then they reference the EggRobo again and remind me that it's impossible to enjoy a consistent timeline.

[Tracker_TD]

4 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

Sonic Team was incredibly lazy in that regards, okay let's accept that the Phantom Ruby is known by Eggman in Mania, why didnt they have Eggman remember it or rediscover it again in Forces, instead of inventing it or discover it (these 2 interpretations are canon to this game choose one of the two, it's THAT bad, just like Infinite having 3 canon origin stories).

So yeah I have to throw Mania under the bus, one of the best classic games, and keep Forces the messy modern game in my timeline, I'm not happy about it but it's that way.

And I'm trying to enjoy Mania Adventures without being pissed off, but then they reference the EggRobo again and remind me that it's impossible to enjoy a consistent timeline.

I don't see why a hypothetical timeline matters enough to override enjoyment of the media itself. 

I care about a 'timeline' about as much as Sonic Team do. 

[Marco9966]

4 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

I don't see why a hypothetical timeline matters enough to override enjoyment of the media itself. 

I care about a 'timeline' about as much as Sonic Team do. 

I want the timeline to be consistent, I want to care about the world building, the lore. Butchering the timeline forces me to choose what media I can enjoy.

Look, I LOVE the Medga Drive comic because it has no contradictions to the modern timeline, I can't say the same about Mania and Mania Adventures.

All they had to do was having the characters already know about the phantom ruby in Forces, Eggman decides to use it again but this time with Infinite. That's it (and have classic Sonic from the past not being the other guy from the parallel universe)

To give you an example of another franchise, I love to watch the Daredevil TV show because it's canon to the marvel movies division, now if it was not canon to the movies I love, I would not even bother watching one episode of it. I like my fandoms's universe coherent and consistent

[Diogenes]

The timeline's about as consistent as it's always been, it's just not singular anymore.

I mean if you were really that insistent on a consistent timeline you should've ditched the series around '06 where they butchered Blaze's backstory anyway.

e: if you wouldn't watch Daredevil if it wasn't canon to the movies, what were the movies canon to that got you to watch them in the first place?

[Marco9966]

3 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

The timeline's about as consistent as it's always been, it's just not singular anymore.

I mean if you were really that insistent on a consistent timeline you should've ditched the series around '06 where they butchered Blaze's backstory anyway.

The way I take it for '06 and Blaze: 06 never happened anyways, and Sonic Rivals is the first canon introduction of Silver.

So Sonic Rush and Sonic Rivals have their place secured. 06 doesn't exist.

Quote

e: if you wouldn't watch Daredevil if it wasn't canon to the movies, what were the movies canon to that got you to watch them in the first place?

To the previous movies which were great too.

[Tracker_TD]

10 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

I want the timeline to be consistent, I want to care about the world building, the lore. Butchering the timeline forces me to choose what media I can enjoy.

Look, I LOVE the Medga Drive comic because it has no contradictions to the modern timeline, I can't say the same about Mania and Mania Adventures.

All they had to do was having the characters already know about the phantom ruby in Forces, Eggman decides to use it again but this time with Infinite. That's it (and have classic Sonic from the past not being the other guy from the parallel universe)

To give you an example of another franchise, I love to watch the Daredevil TV show because it's canon to the marvel movies division, now if it was not canon to the movies I love, I would not even bother watching one episode of it. I like my fandoms's universe coherent and consistent

So you'd miss out on potentially great storylines, characters, settings etc... because of some canon nonsense? 

I'm fairly sure Sonic 1 on Master System doesn't strictly fit into 'Sonic canon', but it's a fun game so I'll still play it. I can't fathom going into a thing like Mania and thinking "well the game's fun, the animation's good, the mus- BUT THE CANOOOOOON!" Those are some downright bizarre priorities, even moreso for a series like Sonic. 

[Diogenes]

Just now, Marco9966 said:

The way I take it for '06 and Blaze: 06 never happened anyways, and Sonic Rivals is the first canon introduction of Silver.

So Sonic Rush and Sonic Rivals have their place secured. 06 doesn't exist.

So why not just headcanon your way around this problem too, if you're just gonna make stuff up?

Just now, Marco9966 said:

To the previous movies which were great too.

That just pushes it back a step. At some point you started watching/reading/playing/whatever a thing without it having a canon connection to something you already enjoyed.

It's not even as if the classic dimension isn't canon to the modern dimension anyway. They're just separate timelines within one larger canon.

[Marco9966]

13 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

So you'd miss out on potentially great storylines, characters, settings etc... because of some canon nonsense? 

I'm fairly sure Sonic 1 on Master System doesn't strictly fit into 'Sonic canon', but it's a fun game so I'll still play it. I can't fathom going into a thing like Mania and thinking "well the game's fun, the animation's good, the mus- BUT THE CANOOOOOON!" Those are some downright bizarre priorities, even moreso for a series like Sonic. 

I still watch Mania Adventures, but not with the same enjoyment as reading the IDW comics or playing Team Sonic Racing (which do some effort to stay consistent to the modern timeline and have many references to the classic AND modern elements, not say hey we're in a parallel universe unrelated to most of the stories you spent 2 decades being passionate about).

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I mean to be fair, I don't believe there's anything technically contradictory that stops Mania from tying into the later stuff in the series. The only thing is one line from Tails in a script filled with localization mistakes (including the infamous torture line) saying Classic is from an alternative dimension.

Beyond that, there's literally nothing stopping it from being the next canon entry from S3&K and possibly just erasing 4 out of the canon altogether. It's not like Adventure or even anything up to Generations references the classic series anyway, so it's not that huge a deal. If you were really complaining about Mania Adventures, you might as well point at Generations for insisting that the classic stuff ends after S3&K and progresses into Adventure. 

But then, that's being to veer into off topic. All I say is trying to make anything out of the already entangled destructive mess that is the Sonic timeline and it's canon with alternative dimensions, different worlds and all this that and the other, you're offending yourself for practically no reason whatsoever.

----------------------------------------------------

Anyways, I don't think the three are really comparable, each of them have their own various purposes, issues, pros, and cons and I think you'd watch them for different reasons. If I'm watching Mania Adventures, it's because I want a charming, well-animated love letter to the game canon and fully embraces it. 

If I'm watching X...which do not get me wrong, has fallen off the deep end in terms of quality and is a mediocre anime in of itself. But there's a few entertaining slice of life episodes that plays on the characters, and for all it's faults, to give it some credit - it did manage a good adaption of Adventure while adding a few cool unique details like Tails breaking his arm and such. We also got alright adaptions of Adventure 2 and Battle, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't find some of the original arcs entertaining - especially for the Eggman redemption arc because of how crazy it gets with Eggman straight up stealing the show while becoming president. 

The OVA though, for it's issues like a few goofy and awkward line deliveries and Sonic being slightly out of character at a few points, I fucking adore. I find it to be an immensely charming and decent attempt to tie into the Classic canon while doing a few new things on it's own, and while the new characters aren't great, they do manage to deliver a few funny lines. It's like if you made a Sonic anime and tried to take inspiration from the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, you get a lot of funny and somewhat riskier jokes compared to what the series was known for, especially with the final scenes. 

But I love how it does the characters. Sonic is a bit grumpy and arrogant, but still likeable and cocky for the most part, Knuckles is starting to show shades of his Adventure characterization but still shooting our moments of instantly goofy and quoteable lines ("My hat is on fire" is probably one of the best things I've ever heard in the series and usually ends up making me chuckle every time I see it), Eggman is delightfully hammy and goofy, jumping between threatening, childish, angry, goofy and so much more, and Tails is shown as an energetic kid inventor who gets on Sonic's nerves at points, but has ended up taking some of his taunting and attitude from him.

If I had to choose, it probably would be the OVA, I just love it too much and even with how good SMA is, I still prefer it a lot.

[Marco9966]

7 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

So why not just headcanon your way around this problem too, if you're just gonna make stuff up?

I tried to headcanon my way around it, like having Eggman forget completely about the phantom ruby when he discovers again it in Forces, but that's nonsense, or considering the phantom ruby as transporting Classic Sonic to the future and not to the parallel universe.

But that's not true to the nature of Eggman, I mean he wouldnt forget something like that unless he went in an egg grape!!!! So I decided to consider that Classic Sonic travels one more time to the furutre in Sonic CD after saving Amy, he decides to help modern Sonic fight Eggman, then returns and liberate little planet.

I also wanted to consider Mania Adventures fully canon, but then this fucking EggRobo appears, and it's not gonna work. It's so frustrating. Why can't Sonic Team make it enjoyable for us and correct some script lines and correct some story issues...

[Tracker_TD]

One thing that puzzles me - why so hung up on Egg-Robo in particular? I don't even recall one showing up in Mania Adventures so far. 

[Marco9966]

3 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

One thing that puzzles me - why so hung up on Egg-Robo in particular? I don't even recall one showing up in Mania Adventures so far. 

It was about Knuckles imagining who could steal the master  emerald, and it's clearly the EggRobo that appeard in Sonic Mania (the Heavy King).

[Tracker_TD]

Just now, Marco9966 said:

It was about Knuckles imagining who could steal the master  emerald, and it's clearly the EggRobo that appeard in Sonic Mania.

...oh.

I mean... yeah? Why wouldn't a series named SONIC MANIA ADVENTURES take place in the same world as SONIC MANIA? So the fact that it's not right according to your personal canon isn't so much the issue as much as it is that it... reminds you that it doesn't fit into your personal canon?

Man, I'm so confused right now. 

[Marco9966]

3 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

...oh.

I mean... yeah? Why wouldn't a series named SONIC MANIA ADVENTURES take place in the same world as SONIC MANIA? So the fact that it's not right according to your personal canon isn't so much the issue as much as it is that it... reminds you that it doesn't fit into your personal canon?

Man, I'm so confused right now. 

I tried my best but there's no way to headcanon my way around it and it shows how much Sonic Team butchered the canon with stupid mistakes and overlooking the most basic stuff.

[Strickerx5]

SatAM

 

Ok, well out of the three I'll honestly say that, with a few changes of course, I could see all of them working. Each of the three has something good going for them that I'd love to see brought back in some capacity.

X is one of the hardest drives we've seen in adapting the actual game world into an action series so I appreciate it for that. I think if they outright dropped the human world, things for it could start to fall into place.

The OVA is a bit weird for me as its world is so off from the normal Sonic media we get. Not to mention its story being verily self contained. Though, if they were to incorporate more of the actual cast into it I could see it working out.

SMA is probably the hardest sale for me. While the animation is great, the rest of it is bland at best. It's very foundation runs as deep as a puddle. To form that into something more would take a lot more work imo. The only reason I don't rule it out completely is because the framework for such a thing has already been set. The Megadrive comics demonstrates perfectly how a world like this could evolve into a more humorous, character driven, and meaningful show. If they were to simply follow it when working off SMA, it'd probably turn out great. Though, again, SMA is already through and through basic (right down to keeping the characters voiceless yet again which further hinders where they can actually go with it) so seeing it move forward might not even be on the table.

But yeah, I could see any of them working out. I've said this a plethora of times but it all really comes down to the writing and effort put behind it. There are very few things that can't work if they have those elements behind them. Personally, if I had to choose just one it'd be X because that's the first one I watched fully and would love to see a show like it that actually worked but hey.

[JezMM]

39 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

But that's not true to the nature of Eggman, I mean he wouldnt forget something like that

Of course not, because Mania doesn't lead into the modern games, it's a new timeline created by Classic Eggman's experiences in Generations.  Knowing that his future self failed, Classic Eggman returns to the past and comes up with different ideas to what his future self did... and poof, a new timeline is created in the process.  Original classic sonic stuff still happened in both timelines, but now there's two timelines that extend out from the point after S&K.  And they both exist within the same overall "main Sonic universe" and run parallel to one another, as we know because Classic Sonic has travelled back to the original timeline in Forces due to the Phantom Ruby.

So Forces Eggman wasn't aware of the phantom ruby because that Eggman is from timeline 1 - where Eggman decided to try to turn Little Planet into the Death Egg Mk.II and Sonic 4 happened instead of pursuing whatever research leads Mania Eggman into finding the Phantom Ruby.

 

Now granted, this is my headcanon because that's the only way it makes sense to me.  I'm sure Sonic Team haven't even thought about it and just don't care about the inconsistency.  It's up to you whether you want to headcanon it to try and make sense of it, or just embrace Sonic Team's canon mess and remain frustrated.  It seems you already chose option 1 to sort out the 2006/Rush Blaze mess, so I don't see why there's any need to refuse to do it again here.

[Your Vest Friend]

39 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

It's not like Adventure or even anything up to Generations references the classic series anyway

You what mate.

Anyway, honestly for me all three of these options amount to "Hey, which of these series you don't particularly hold fondness for wold you want back" and to that I'd say "eh, none". 

The Sonic OVA is glacial in pacing and not particularly that exciting to go back and rewatch in retrospective, Sonic X is terrible all around, and I don't like the animation style of the bits I've seen of SMA (the style of humour that people keep posting screencaps of aren't exactly my cup of tea either). 

[Marco9966]

4 minutes ago, JezMM said:

Of course not, because Mania doesn't lead into the modern games, it's a new timeline created by Classic Eggman's experiences in Generations.  Knowing that his future self failed, Classic Eggman returns to the past and comes up with different ideas to what his future self did... and poof, a new timeline is created in the process.  Original classic sonic stuff still happened in both timelines, but now there's two timelines that extend out from the point after S&K.  And they both exist within the same overall "main Sonic universe" and run parallel to one another, as we know because Classic Sonic has travelled back to the original timeline in Forces due to the Phantom Ruby.

So Forces Eggman wasn't aware of the phantom ruby because that Eggman is from timeline 1 - where Eggman decided to try to turn Little Planet into the Death Egg Mk.II and Sonic 4 happened instead of pursuing whatever research leads Mania Eggman into finding the Phantom Ruby.

That's an interesting way of looking at it!!