Sonic X Uncut Campaign Begins

By
Tristan Oliver
– March 27, 2009

Sonic SceneSave Sonic Has a New Campaign and Cause

Sonic X remains wildly popular domestically, enough so that in spite of not having new episodes produced for some time, the series survived the recent Saturday morning chopping block on FOX, and continues to run on the CW network, over the air.

However, a major sticking point among fans of the series is that American audiences received a heavily edited edition, with plot points and the musical score watered down for young demographics.  It is in that form that the series continues on television.  But online, if Save Sonic can rally enough support, that could change.

After noting 4Kids posts of uncut Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes on YouTube, the site is launching the Sonic X Uncut and Online Campaign, an initiative to convince the company to give Sonic X similar treatment.

But, as the announcement post from Save Sonic notes, this isn’t a campaign that’s launching out of the blue; it stems from what is purported to be official comment from an employee within 4Kids:

On March 17th, 2009, 4Kids Entertainment started uploading uncut Japanese episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! onto their 4KidsTV YouTube channel (with no subtitles and only in the US at the moment, but they claim that they are working on these issues). Seeing this as another rare opportunity for Sonic X to have an uncut release of its own, I, Seriously Funny of the Save Sonic Staff, sent a private message out to the 4Kids employee in charge of the YouTube channel who went by the screen name “The Nameless Cubical Office Guy”. In the message, I asked what would be the best way for us, the fans of Sonic the Hedgehog, to express our interest in seeing 4Kids upload uncut Japanese episodes of Sonic X onto their 4KidsTV YouTube channel like they are doing with Yu-Gi-Oh!. Not too long afterwards, The Nameless Cubical Office Guy replied back to me with this…

The Nameless Cubical Office Guy of 4Kids Entertainment wrote:
Dear Seriously Funny,

THX for the kind words and support. We’d love to put up the Sonic X series in it’s the original form.

If you want it to happen don’t write letters/emails, sign online petitions or make phone calls. It won’t move the needle at all and they are time sucks for everyone involved.

Here’s what it will take:
*Watch what we post – watch it early and often. Then watch it some more. Get your friends to do the same. Repeat.
*Comments and suggestions are nice but not essential.
*Subscribe and friend the channel on YouTube.
*Embed videos, playlist & the channel on your blog or website.
*Write about the channel and shows on message boards, comments sections, etc. Link to the channel, playlists and videos. Do it some more. Repeat.

Feel free to post this response anywhere. THX again and have a good weekend.

Best,

Nameless Cubical Office Guy


Needless to say, the suggestions that are given can be seen as quite easy and straightforward to follow. However, while it might be easy for a select few people to constantly plug every single thing that 4Kids produces, most other people may not be willing to do so. After all, a big chunk of the Sonic online community has been known to be in their teens and twenties–obviously not the age range that 4Kids usually aims for with their shows and products. So what exactly could those of us in the older demographic do if we want to see this happen? Well, we believe that simply visiting the 4KidsTV YouTube channel, watching, supporting, and spreading the word about the uploaded uncut Japanese episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and leaving polite requests (one request per person, please) for them to upload uncut Japanese episodes of Sonic X would more than suffice for those of us in the older demographic who would like to get involved in making this happen.

Now, we know this would mean a lot of us would have to swallow our pride while doing this, as 4Kids has done a lot of…questionable things in the past that have made us all angry at one point or another. And this obviously has little to nothing to do with persuading SEGA to reinstate Ryan Drummond as the official English voice actor of Sonic the Hedgehog (the main cause behind the Save Sonic community). But we are well aware that there are a lot of Sonic fans inside and out of Save Sonic who would love to see the uncut original Japanese version of Sonic X be released legally here in the US in some way, shape, or form. And it has become evident that the people behind the 4Kids YouTube channel are now willing to pay more attention to what the consumers and fans want. So after much consideration, we believe now would be a good time to put aside our grudges against 4Kids and support this new attitude they’re adapting.

We know we can make this happen, but we can’t do it alone. We need as many fans of Sonic X and the Sonic franchise as a whole to help us make our voices heard. The more people there are spreading the word and putting in requests, the more of a chance we’ll have of finally seeing the uncut original Japanese version of Sonic X be released legally here in the United States (and hopefully in other countries down the line as well). Thank you for your time, and we hope to see you all partake in our Sonic X Uncut and Online Campaign!

For more information, you can head to the official announcement.


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