This page contains an episode guide for episodes 27-38.

This was certainly a shocker for me, to find out that Sonic X was adapting two of the most popular Sonic games into the show! This was the first time a Sonic show had ever bothered to adapt a Sonic game (unless you count the rather vague Sonic Spinball one featured in The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog). The twelve episodes you see here turned out to be some of the best-and worst- respectively, in the entire series, and both adaptations are loved (and in some cases hated) widely by the fanbase.
On one of the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! DVDs, Fright to the Finish!, it was in true movie format. That is, the theme song and credits only played at the beginning and end of the movie respectively rather than playing before and after each episode, the commercial break spots were removed, and there was no way to select individual episodes. It ran very smoothly; I couldn't tell where one episode ended and another began even though I've seen all the episodes prior to the DVD. Too bad nothing like that was implemented here.

Other Related Pages:Episodes 1-14 Episodes 15-26 Episodes 39-52 Guide Episodes 53-64 Episodes 65-76

Episode 27: Pure Chaos (English)
The Beginning of the Disaster (Japanese)
The Commencement of the Disaster (French)
Premiered: September 18, 2004
Summary: Big the Cat's (who was seen last 26 episodes ago in a cameo) friend Froggy get possessed by Chaos, swallows a Chaos Emerald and grows a tail. Knuckles is guarding the Master Emerald on Angel Island (which got warped by the second Chaos Control) when Chaos shatters the Master Emerald. Dr. Eggman releases a new line of animal-powered robots: The E-Series. At Chris' mansion, Cream receives a Chaos Emerald from Chris' mom. Later, while walking in the city, Chris and Cream run into Big (I find it strange that no one noticed a huge 5-foot-plus purple cat in the middle of a city). They find Froggy but he disappears. That night as they head home, they discover a strange puddle that morphs into Chaos. Chaos starts destroying that part of the city, Sonic comes to fight Chaos. He defeats Chaos, but then Eggman gives Chaos the Emerald that he took from Cream and it becomes stronger. Knuckles arrives, and he helps defeat Chaos 2.
Review: This was a so-so episode. While it did a good job setting up the situation, it wasn't really that interesting. 7/10
Effort: This doesn't actually have to do with the episode itself, but since I was watching the DVD when reviewing this, I have one major complaint. On the first Sonic X DVD, A Super Sonic Hero, this episode was included as a bonus/preview. When the SA adaptation came out, 4kids (probably to avoid redundancy) did not include this episode. I wouldn't have minded otherwise, but I had an awful time trying to review this, as I had to do it completely from memory. Much later, when this episode re-aired, I added on much more to it. Since the above problem was just placement and did not detract from the episode itself, I won't include it in my rating. Chaos' animation is great, and it only improves as the series goes on. Froggy's voice acting gets a little annoying after a while, but that was probably intended. It's not like he has a lot of lines(?) anyways. Still, this episode was better than the rest of the episodes, and when a starter is better than the rest, that's never a good sign. 7/10
Effort 2: There's not a lot here, but there weren't any opportunities for it, either. 6/10

Episode 28: A Chaotic Day (Enough with the Chaos puns already!; English) The Mystery of the Liquid Life Form Chaos (Japanese) The Appearance of the Chaos (French) Premiered: September 25, 2004
Summary:Chris, Sonic, Knuckles, Big, and Chuck are discussing Chaos and making plans. After, they each go their own ways. Chris and Big go looking for Froggy, Knuckles goes looking for the pieces of the Master Emerald, and Sonic goes looking for Tails so they can look for Chaos Emeralds together. When Sonic meets up with Tails, he finds out Tails was already looking for Chaos Emeralds and has found one. They set off to find another one. Knuckles finds a piece of the Master Emerald in what is, judging by its appearance, Casinopolis. Probably due to the Chaos attack in the prior episode, it's in much worse condition than the game version. Either that, or it's in construction. He then receives a flashback on Tikal (who is red-orange rather than nectarine like her game incarnation; in addition, she also have purple eyes here-though now and then they appear cyan) telling her father that his greed will only bring disaster and that gain at other's loss is wrong. Sonic and Tails find the next Chaos Emerald, but Dr. Eggman arrives and takes it from them (how he got there so fast is beyond me). Sonic and Eggman fight, but Eggman throws the emeralds into a nearby pond where Chaos is (in fact, Chaos may even be the pond). Chaos now has 4 Chaos Emeralds and fights Sonic. Sonic beats it, but Eggman gets away. They pursue him in the X-Tornado, but later get shot down. Tails dreams about another time where he and Sonic fought robots and then he wakes up. Amy and Cream are out shopping in Station Square when the sky becomes dark. A small bird falls on her head and Amy names it Lily. Then a robot that looks kind of like a green trash can descends and captures Amy and Lily, but weirdly enough it leaves behind Cream.
Review: Another so-so episode. In fact, I'll just state the facts here and say all the SA adaptation episodes are so-so. The main problem with this episode (and with the rest of the SA episodes other than the first and last) is that the plot is too disorganized. Because there are so many unnessecary miniplots that really aren't too interesting (there were in the game too, I'm not exclusively blaming Sonic X) there can't be a sole very large plot, only lots of mini ones making up a large plot. 5.5/10
Effort: Though Tikal's eye/jewel color change, was off, she was only in for about 30 seconds, so I won't let it take away much from the score. While I'm on the topic of Tikal, she has a great voice actor, though I think she (Tikal's voice actor,Bella Hudson) does even better with Maria. Also, is it just me or does Tikal sound a tiny bit like Nurse Joy (the constantly-recurring literal red-headed nurse from Pokemon, which was also dubbed by 4kids)? Speaking of voices, (and other shows dubbed by 4kids) Pachamac(Tikal's father) on the other hand sounds awful. If you want an idea of what he sounds like, picture Yugi's and Chef Kamisake's voices combined. You'll get a real laugh out of it. Zero sounds very good; it's a shame he only has 2 lines in the entire adaptation. The way Lily sounds makes me think of Sparx, Spyro's dragonfly sidekick, before he got a full voiceover in A Hero's Tail. 6.5/10
Effort 2: While I was a little annoyed Amy's kidnapping was squeezed in at the last second, it didn't exactly get much emphasis in the games, either, and merely served as a plot point. Other than that, the only bit of Effort was in Tikal's brief scene (which is also covered in later episodes, so I can pardon that, too) 6.5/10

Episode 29: A Robot Rebels (English) Amy The Captive (Japanese) The Capture of Amy (French)
Premiered:
Summary:Sonic and Tails go to rescue Amy. Meanwhile, Eggman has sent the E-Series out to find Froggy. Knuckles manages to find another piece of the Master Emerald. He receives a vision which places him at the Master Emerald shrine in the past. Tikal (whose eye color is STILL inconsistent) pays the chao a visit and asks Chaos to help the echidnas. Knuckles repairs the Master Emerald mostly. He sees a picture of the Egg Carrier reflected and takes this as an omen. Chris and Big are searching for Froggy, and they find him. (the comic timing in this next moment is great). Big then says "Hey look, I found Froggy!" and holds him up, then Gamma takes it from him. Gamma returns to the Egg Carrier and gives Dr. Eggman Froggy so he can extract the Emerald from him. Chris and Big somehow managed to sneak on board the Egg Carrier and almost get caught by Gamma. Gamma heads to the cell where Amy and Lily are and orders Amy to give him Lily. Amy refuses and asks Gamma to let her go, but Lily flies out of the cell. Gamma goes into overload (?) and releases them. Tails, Sonic and Knuckles (who has hitched a ride with them) evade the missiles shot at them by Eggman and prepare to land on the Egg Carrier. Too bad for them that Tails forgot to put on landing gear.
Plot: It's official: Multi-perspecitve writing is like fire-walking. If you can do it, good for you. If you can't, don't even try; you'll only get burned. When used correctly (something that neither Sega, TMS or 4kids can accomplish) it serves as an excellent storytelling device and lets the reader, watcher,et cetera see into the character's thoughts. When misused, it only makes the plot more confusing and sets up plotholes. While the latter didn't happen so much here, it did make the story more confusing, and I've played the game, too. Though the plot was bland, I kind of liked the ending. It was a cliffhanger of sorts, and considering 4kids do one episode a week that worked really well with their format. This episode became funnier as it ended (the "welcome scene" was hilarious) which is unusual. 6.5/10
Effort: When will TMS realize that Tikal has blue eyes, not purple ones?! I wouldn't mind it so much if they just left her eyes purple, but the constant shift between blue and purple is almost jarring. This is one of the few episodes where all the names only reference a little of the episode and not the entire episode. Gamma and the E-Series sound so obnoxious. Their voices make Vector seem tolerable. 2/10 Effort 2: The Gamma-Amy scene was the only sign of Effort 2 in the entire episode. Despite my opinion on Gamma (and his abhorrent voice in Sonic X) it was a charming scene, no better or worse than its game counterpart. The only difference? In game, Amy had a lousy VA and Gamma had a great one, here it's vice versa. The brief Tikal encounter with the chao was also cute, and added on as well. 8.5/10

Episode 30: Heads Up, Tails! (English) Egg Carrier Battle (For once the Japanese episode has a practical name) Robotnik Surpasses Himself (Whoever named this didn't)
Premiered: October 9, 2004 (this episode premiered late; usually the episodes premiere once a week)
Summary: Sonic, Tails and Knuckles land on the Egg Carrier. Knuckles goes looking for the pieces of the Master Emerald, and Sonic and Tails go find Amy. Eggman finds her first, however. He takes the Chaos Emerald that Lily had and stows it away. Gamma comes out with her. He and Sonic fight, but Amy tells Gamma to stop. He leaves, thanking Amy. Tails then grabs Amy and flies off. In the hull, Chris and Big find Froggy. Knuckles finds the last bits of the Master Emerald and receives a vision. Tikal tells him that she tried to stop her father but failed. Chris and Big head to the deck, but get stopped by Eggman and Chaos. Eggman causes Froggy to cough up the Emerald (literally) and throws Lily's and Froggy's Emeralds into Chaos. Sonic and Knuckles defeat Chaos 6 together. The Egg Carrier sustains enough damage, so it begins to fall out of the sky. Sonic sees Eggman escaping and attacks him. Decoe and Bocoe parachute off. Big starts up the Tornado, much to Knuckles and Chris' chagrin, and takes off (which was a nice touch). How they end up on land later in the episode is beyond me; maybe Knuckles glided with Chris on his back. Eggman, once free of Sonic, drops a giant missile that will detonate in two minutes into Station Square. Tails stops the missile from detonating and saves Station Square. Meanwhile, Chris, Knuckles and Big have landed on a beach. Knuckles heads back to Angel Island. Big heads back home with Froggy. Chris finds the last Chaos Emerald.
Plot: This episode was a bit more exciting that the rest of them, excluding the last one. It also wrapped up a lot of loose ends, which leaves the next episode's plot free-er. Hopefully the writing will improve now that they're free of those frivolous plot-points. 7/10
Effort: Chaos 6's SPFX have improved quite a bit. Not that they were bad to start with, but here they exceed the original game's ,but not the (far-superior) remake, SADX (Director's Cut). 7/10
Effort 2: Like with the game, I'm very pleased to see some emphasis placed on Tails' lack of confidence. Here, we get a glimpse of his own insecurities, which help along the plot very well. The Tikal and Amy-Gamma moments helped this along as well. 10/10

Episode 31: Revenge of the Robot (English) Gamma the Wanderer (Sometimes called "Wandering Gamma";Japanese) A Good Robot (French)
Premiered: October 16, 2004
Summary:Chris and Tails return to Chris' mansion. Ella tells him that he's now famous for saving Station Square. Tails says he needs to head back to Sonic to find the last Emerald. Ella says that won't be easy since a huge crowd of people have gathered in front of the Thorndyke mansion to see Tails. (the next part was a brilliant gag) Ella pushes a baby carriage through the crowd. They get suspicious and demand to see what's in the carriage. Ella gladly shows them, revealing Mr. Tanaka in a baby costume. Later on, Tails comes out of hiding (he was under Ella's skirt, which makes me wonder...). Gamma decides that Eggman is his enemy and plans to reprogram the other robots to think so, too. Sonic finds a temple (note:this is not the same temple from The Adventures of Knuckles and Hawk or the same one from the game; many people think it is). He follows a bright light orb inside and it leads him to a mural of Chaos. Tikal briefly explains Chaos then Sonic gets warped out. He sees Eggman overhead and follows him to his base. After evading some traps, he finds Eggman. Eggman fights Sonic in the Egg Viper (it's never mentioned as the Egg Viper in the show, but it is in the game). Inside the Egg Carrier, Amy gets spotted by Decoe, Bocoe and Zero, and gets chased into the room holding Beta. Gamma and Beta fight, and they both "die", releasing the birds inside them. Sonic meets up with Knuckles and Tails, who noticed the sky is darkening. Chaos attacks Eggman.
Review: The name is kind of misleading, since only a tiny bit of the episode is about Gamma, and he never really gets revenge on Eggman. Also, the entire adaptation is called that on the DVD collection. I liked the cliffhanger at the end of this episode. It does a good job of seeting the mood for the next episode. 6/10
Effort: The temple itself is gorgeous, inside and out. The chao and the water SPFX were nice touches. Beta, like his ill-fated counterpart, also sounds terrible. 6.5/10
Effort 2: Gamma's death was done as a robot's should be, concise, brief, and midly dramatic. In the game, it was done the same way, but for some reason, it felt more...heartwarming. Okay, that sounded wrong. I don't hate Gamma that much. I can't put my finger on it, but I was close to crying a bit during the in-game scene (and it wasn't the "Good riddance!" tears of joy, either). Still, they were happy tears. Here, it just isn't the same way, and it's not the dialogue, acting or scene itself. 7/10

Episode 32: Flood Fight (English) The Scream of Perfect Chaos (Japanese) The Total Chaos (French)
Premiered: October 23, 2004
Summary: Knuckles finds Eggman laying unconsious on the ground and Tails wakes him up. Knuckles then puts his knuckle-spikes at Eggman's throat and threatens him to tell them what's happening (it's a little bit surprising the dub left this in, considering they take out other similar scenes). Eggman says he honestly doesn't know, then Decoe and Bocoe conveniently appear and pull him up in a hot air balloon. Knuckles says that it's good the 7th Chaos Emerald is missing, but then (the irony of this is funny) Chris runs in yelling that he found the Chaos Emerald, waving it around at the same time. A water spout then picks him up and flings him into the air. Sonic and Knuckles manage to save him, but Chaos gets the Emerald and disappears. They head back to Station Square, where a flood is beginning. The flood scene remains identical to the game scene in both versions, which is nice. The military comes in to fight, but their weapons have no effect on Chaos. Haven't they ever watched the Sci-fi Channel? City-devouring monsters can only be destroyed by the main hero through improbable circumstances/hack writing. Eggman uses the Egg Carrier 2 to attack Chaos, but the ship gets destroyed. Tikal appears and tells Sonic (her dialogue is great here) that she tried to keep Chaos under control, but "some fiend" set him free (that "some fiend" being Eggman). She says Chaos has to be sealed in the Master Emerald again, but Sonic says it will only happen again. Cream, Chris, Big, Amy, Tails, Knuckles and suprisingly even Eggman appear with the Chaos Emeralds, which have been devoided of their power. Eggman reluctantly hands over his Chaos Emerald when Knuckles orders him to. Then with the "power of friendship" the Chaos Emeralds gain their power and Sonic becomes Super Sonic. He defeats Chaos and it returns to its normal state. A whole bunch of chao appear. Tikal says Chaos is no longer angry and they will once again be sealed in the Master Emerald.
Review: TMS really need to work on their climaxes (thankfully, they improve on this later on). Considering it was the last episode of the adaptation, it was nowhere near as good it should've been. Still, it was better than many of the episodes in it. 6.5/10
Effort: Thank goodness 4kids ditched the "power of friendship" crud that made up the ending of the game. The Chaos animation was fantastic, though Chaos looks less serpentlike and more Loch Ness Monster-like in Sonic X. I preferred the game appearance by far. Its Sonic X design was enough of an eyesore for me to drop half a point, too. Also, I noticed they draw the flood's beginning close to perfectly. Either way, this is probaly the best-drawn episode in all of Sonic X. Even though this adaptation was okay, the SA2 adaptation makes up for this one. 9.5/10
Effort 2: I was personally pleased to see some emphasis on the citizens of Station Square, and their reaction towards the sudden flood. More on this in a later review. Tikal's dialogue had a certain...power to it, I just can't describe it. 8.5/10

Episode 33: Project Shadow (English) The Mystery of Project Shadow (Japanese) The Project Shadow (For once all the episode names are alike;French)
Premiered: October 30 (Halloween) 2004
Summary: Dr. Eggman hacks into a military database and finds out about his grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik and a weapon he created, Project Shadow. Eggman then realizes that he was born in "this world". A few days later, the president is assigning Rouge and Topaz a mission to find out why Eggman wanted the file. Rouge tells Topaz that the only way Eggman will meet with them is if they offer him a Chaos Emerald. Mr Stuart had earlier been assigned to finding out what the file contained. He allies with Scarlet Garcia, and together they try to find out. Rouge suceeds at stealing the Master Emerald. However Knuckles chases after her, but fails to catch her. Eggman breaks into Prison Island's base and finds Project Shadow in a capsule. Eggman eagerly opens the capsule and (through the fog) sees what looks like Sonic's silhouette.
Plot: And after the disjointed mass of intertwining storylines they call "Sonic Adventure" (or the adaptation at least), we finally get a simple and effective episode that does what it's supposed to and still be interesting. It's not quite as good as the other episodes in the adaptation, but it does a great job getting the story started. The ending was fantastically done. 8.5/10
Effort: In this review, the two Efforts are pretty much one and the same. Still, I think a little more emphasis was placed on the latter here. 9/10
Effort 2: One thing that bugged me about Sonic Adventure (the game) was that the focus was entirely on the action. No importance was placed on the damage that must have happened. In SA2, the entire Chaos incident is negated, and everyone gets on with their normal lives. While I'm not sure how soon SA2 happened after SA, I was irritated they skipped over the entire plot point and act as if nothing happened. The city is fully-repaired as well. I'm glad TMS/4kids placed some emphasis on how the city got repaired and the effect the flood had on its citizens. 8.5/10

Episode 34: Shadow Knows (English) What evil lurks in the hearts of 4kids? The shadow knows...(sorry about that)
Sonic the Fugitive (Japanese)I've also seen it as Fugitive Sonic, but more sources use "Sonic the Fugitive".
One Research: Sonic (French)
Premiered: November 6, 2004
Summary: Sonic is being held aboard a helicopter by GUN troops. He manages to escape, though, and hides in the sewer. At the museum (the same one Rouge robbed in Fly Spy) a dark hedgehog breaks in, steals the Chaos Emerald, and flees. Sonic fights off a horde of GUN robots. Then on the ruins of the biggest robot, another hedgehog appears, oddly he knows Sonic's name. Sonic then realizes the new hedgehog got him in trouble with the government and attacks him. The new hedgehog reappears on the roof of a building saying he's no imposter. Sonic then follows him up, but he teleports off to another rooftop. He runs off, and Sonic pursues. Chris and Chuck head downtown to find Sonic. Sonic and his new adversary start to fight. Eggman watches them and says he's not surprised Sonic is confused about Shadow.. He thens has a flashback to when he released Shadow and he pledged his loyalty. Sonic wonders how Shadow can use Chaos Control with only one Emerald. Shadow knocks Sonic to the ground and says that he wasn't using his full strength. He also says Professor Gerald Robotnik gave him the power to use Chaos Control. Shadow hears sirens and teleports off. The police take Sonic prisoner. Eggman receives a message from Bukkon that Rouge has a Chaos Emerald and wants to make a deal with him. When Rouge arrives, she is surprised that Shadow is there.
Plot: This is easily the best episode in the second season. The ending was great. You can disagree all you want with me on this, but I think this episode did a much better job with Sonic and Shadow's first encounter than SA2 did. 10/10
Effort: Shadow has an amazing voice actor. At first I didn't notice a difference between his game and show voice actors, but I must say Jason Griffith does a much, much MUCH better job. I personally disliked David Humphrey (who was Shadow's VA for SA2 and Sonic Heroes, and also in Sonic Battle; though he and the other English VAs weren't credited) Maybe this is just me, but he sounds a little better in this episode than in the other episodes in the adaptation. His theme music is a darker version of the hero theme, which was very fitting and was well-composed. 10/10
Effort 2: Considering this episode focused mainly on the three "tions": action, exposition, and preparation, both 4kids and TMS managed to work quite a bit of Effort 2 into the episode. Rather than appearing in full scenes as it did in "Party Hardly", it shows through little 10-second-or-less moments, such as Shadow's musings towards the end, Chris' mid/post-battle outbursts, Sonic's arrest, and Cream's and the human's reactions towards "Sonic's" crimes. Though these moments were very brief (often too brief), they add up throughout the entire episode. 10/10

Episode 35: Sonic's Big Break (English)
The Escape from Prison Island (Japanese)For once the Japanese name is good.
The Evasion of Sonic (French)
Premiered: November 13, 2004
Summary: Tails and Amy go to Prison Island to free Sonic. Unbeknownst to them, Chris and Mr. Tanaka are going as well. Eggman, Shadow and Rouge are planning to break in to steal the Chaos Emeralds. Eggman tells Shadow to set off a bomb that will destroy the island and tells Rouge to steal the Chaos Emeralds. Amy sees Shadow and, mistaking him for Sonic, runs up and hugs him. She soon realizes he's not Sonic and is surprised by Eggman's sudden appearance. Tails and Eggman then fight. Amy runs into the base to find Sonic. Shadow sets the bomb so it goes off in 15 minutes, so Rouge can get the emeralds. Amy finds Sonic and frees him. Sonic then runs off to find Shadow after meeting up with Tails and Mr. Tanaka. Rouge gets the third emerald and is attacked by Flying Dog, a GUN robot. She defeats it, only to find out the safe closed on her. Sonic and Shadow meet up and fight. During the fight, Rouge calls Shadow for help. Obviously her timing was horrible, and Shadow couldn't go at the moment. Eggman then calls Shadow telling him he has only a few more minutes to leave before the island blows up. Chris sees Shadow and at first mistakes him for Sonic, before trying to catch him by tackling him mid-Chaos Control. Inside the safe, Shadow gets the emeralds from Rouge and they Chaos Control out.
Plot: This was an awesome episode. Unlike in the SA adaptation, they finally figured out how to do transitions from character to character well. Of course, it's much easier to do when you only have a few groups rather than five or six individual characters. Here the perspective skips smoothly from character to character, without leaving anything important out from any one perspective. Another thing (that previous to seeing this might be a problem) was that Rouge was introduced prior to this adaptation. 4kids/TMS now had another problem: most the cast already knows Rouge, so many parts of the game had to be rewritten without losing their meaning or causing plotholes. This also placed an ultimatum upon TMS' writers. If Rouge's inclusion was handled poorly, it could ruin quite a bit of the adaptation, almost as much as leaving her out entirely. Thankfully, 4kids/TMS handled her inclusion excellently, and ended up enhancing the episode even more. It'd be a shame if Rouge had to be left out. 10/10
Effort: There's not too much to say here. It wasn't until this episode that I noticed how much Prison Island looked like a guitar. Though it doesn't add or detract from the episode itself, I just thought it was an interesting observation. I like Maria's voice actor, though you'll have to wait until next episode to really hear how good her voice is. There were a couple misdraws here and there, but then again, it is hard to draw Sonic and Shadow from the front. 8.5/10
Effort 2: For an episode that was 90% action, there was much more Effort 2 than I expected. One part that really stuck out in my mind was Rouge's rescue. In the game, it was pretty much a blink-and-you'll-miss-it type scene, but 4kids/TMS flesh it out with excellent results. Not only was the dialogue excellent, but it showed true moral strength in Rouge that's never been present elsewhere. What particularly impressed me about this was that Rouge had no reason to care about what happened to him. Her morals just kicked in. In stark contrast to this, Shadow's cold indifference really shone through in an excellently acted line, "It doesn't matter to me what happens to that boy", proof that sometimes the simplest of lines can have a large impact. 10/10

Episode 36: Shadow World (This time, most of the names don't make much sense;English) Threat From Outer Space (Japanese) The Threat of the Space (This is a mistranslation on the French dubber's part, not on Rhiannon's)
Premiered: November 20, 2004 (a day after my birthday)
Summary: Knuckles finds Eggman's base and tells the others he found it, mentioning that he saw Shadow take Chris into space(this leads me to wonder how he knew who Shadow was, seeing as he never saw him until the next episode). Sonic and friends learn from a news report that everyone made it off safely. Meanwhile aboard the Space Colony, Shadow has a flashback of him and Maria evading the GUN troops, and her getting shot (which was left in, I was a little surprised by that) Okay, let me rephrase that later on. Eggman announces his plan to conquer the world, and he fires the Eclipse Cannon at the moon. Later on Eggman works out a deal with the president saying he will destroy the world unless the military and the president surrender. Tails makes a fake Chaos Emerald to power the X Tornado. Sonic, Knuckles, Tanaka, Amy, Chris, and Cream head off to Eggman's base. Inside they get attacked by the Egg Golem. Cream steals the remote controlling it from Bukkon and sets it on him. Cream stays behind and the others head to Space Colony Ark in a rocket.
Plot: Just how did Knuckles know Shadow's name? We all knew something like this would happen sooner or later, so it's not too big a deal. It's not like it didn't happen in the game. After the final scene on the Ark (or is it ARK? Make up your mind, Sega!), in Shadow's recap before the Biolizard, he does mention Amy (click hereand it's about 4/5 down), but she never told him her name, and he would have no way of nowing, since no one ever addressed her as Amy in front of him. Still, it's the only thing that detracts from this episode. 9/10
Effort: There's nothing negative to note this episode effort-wise. I'm pleasantly surprised 4kids didn't change "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog" to "Goodbye, Shadow the Hedgehog" or something along those lines. Either they recognized the significance in the line, or it was noted in the script not to change it. It does lead me to the question of what Maria said in the Japanese version. Surely she wouldn't have said "Sayonara", as it wouldn't have the significance it did in the American version. Maybe she said "Farewell." That would be a logical guess. While I'm on that subject, I'm surprised (pleasantly, once again) that the scene before Maria's death wasn't cut out altogether. Maybe they did recognize the significance of it. 10/10
Effort 2: 90% of the Effort 2 in this episode came from the scenes between Shadow and Maria. The other 9% was from the scenes with Chris and/or about him. There are countless examples of Effort 2 in this episode, from the first scene with Sonic and friends to Shadow and Chris' conversations aboard the ARK and in between. 10/10

Episode 37: Robotnik's Revenge (I believe there is a Sonic Undeground episode with the same name, but the "Robotnik" they're referring to is the one we now call Dr. Eggman) Space Colony ARK Battle (Japanese) Fight on the Ark (French)
Premiered: November 27, 2004
Summary: Aboard the Space Colony ARK, Rouge hacks (okay, it wasn't really hacking; Eggman gave her the password) and looks up data on Project Shadow. She becomes suspicious that Shadow is fake. On the rocket, Knuckles gets impatient and takes control of the rocket, nearly crashing it. On the Space Colony, Knuckles goes looking on the Master Emerald and runs into Rouge. They then fight and Rouge falls (I wonder this about the game too, but why didn't she just fly?) and Knuckles saves her. Rouge then gets mad at him for saving her, saying he was trying to be fresh. They briefly argue, and Rouge lets him keep the Master Emerald and walks off (personally I think this scene was done better here than in the game). Eggman captures Amy, telling Sonic that he'll crush her unless Sonic gives him the (fake) Chaos Emerald. Sonic gives him the emerald and is trapped in a capsule. Eggman then launches the capsule and it explodes. Chris and Shadow see the explosion from another part of the Space Colony. They both assume Sonic is dead. Tails fights Eggman. Chris runs through the Colony feeling that Sonic can't be dead. Knuckles finds Sonic, barely concious. Sonic says he's going to put the fake Emerald in the Eclipse Cannon.(Dialogue-wise, this scene is much better done than the game version) Shadow encounters Rouge taking data from the Space Colony and accuses her of being a fake (spy?). Rouge says that's funny coming from him. Tails wins against Eggman, but he takes the real Emerald. Sonic encounters Shadow, who demands to know who Sonic is (which is kind of odd, seeing as he already knows Sonic's name). Sonic introduces himself and they fight. Eggman puts the final Chaos Emerald into the Eclipse Cannon and fires it off. Instead of the cannon firing, a timer appears with Professor Gerald Robotnik appearing on the screen. He says that the ARK will crash into the planet, destroying it.
Review: Once again, another awesome episode is churned out. This episode probably has one of the best endings of any episode in the second season. Though it was good, it wasn't quite as good as the last one. It's no fault of 4kids or TMS, nor is it due to a lack of effort. The only thing that bugged me was Shadow's calling Rouge a fake. Perhaps this was due to a mistranslation on 4kids part, or maybe it was just bad scripting. While I won't mention it in the Plot section, it will crop up under Effort. 8.5/10 Speaking of which...
Effort: According to Rhiannon, the script during Shadow's and Rouge's arguement was nearly identical to the Japanese script. Not that it matters either way, the dialogue was great anyways. I also noticed the animation quality is much better in this episode than in other episodes, for some reason. This was especially noticeable during the scene before Amy's capture. While it wasn't bad in the first place, it was even better here. 10/10
Effort 2: One thing that annoyed me a bit about the game was how quickly Sonic's "death" scene came and went. I was just as annoyed with it in Sonic the Hedgehog (the newer game). Seriously, how often does the main hero "die"? In both the former and the latter, the scenes were literally under a minute each. Like with the games, I was annoyed to see Amy stand off to the side crying, while Tails took on the action. Heck, you'd think she would've beaten Eggman right on the spot. Here, Amy Palant's voice acting certainly brings more to the table than Corey Bringas' did in SA2. Not that I don't like his acting; he does a much better voice, but Amy Palant is a better actress by far. 9.5/10

Episode 38: Showdown in Space (English) Maria's Request, Everyone's Request (Japanese) The Wish of Maria (French)
Premiered: December 4, 2004
Summary: Sonic and Shadow stop fighting. Shadow runs off and Sonic heads to the Control Room. Eggman tries to take the Chaos Emeralds out of the Eclipse Cannon, but they vanish. In the video, Professor Gerald Robotnik says he wanted revenge for GUN killing Maria. Eggman explains who Professor Gerald is and shows everyone else the journal entry he found. Everyone splits off. Eggman, Tails, and Rouge deactivate the traps so Knuckles and Sonic can get to the Chaos Emeralds. Chris, Amy and Mr. Tanaka are on a different part of the space colony, when Shadow walks in on them, telling them it's too late. Chris pleads with Shadow to help save the world, telling him that he is truly good inside and that's why he saved Chris. Shadow knocks Chris away saying the planet deserves to be destroyed. Chris then says getting revenge won't bring Maria back. Shadow doesn't (seem to) care. Chris then says Shadow has to stop the colony and asks him how can he blame people alive for what happened 50 years ago, and that it's unfair. Shadow gets angry at Chris and goes into a synopsis on how Maria was his only friend, but she got killed. He tried to stop her, but there were too many soldiers. He continues, saying she wasn't a threat to anyone and that all she wanted to do was to visit the planet, but she never got the chance. Chris says that it's true that there are some bad people in the world, but most people are good, and if Shadow only got to know them, he'd agree. Chris also says Maria would want Shadow to help people. Shadow then has a flashback of what Maria really said; that she hoped Shadow would be happy on the planet. Also, she goes on, saying that the people face many problems and that Shadow was created to help people. Chris passes out, and Shadow catches him, with faint tears in his eyes (an awesome touch not seen in the game). (Sorry, I had to go into excess detail on what is one of the best moments in all of Sonic X; now back to the normal summary.) Shadow then agrees to help and finds Sonic, stalling the Biolizard while Knuckles stopped the Chaos Emeralds. The Biolizard merges with the Space Colony and speeds its descent rate. Sonic and Shadow then go into Super form and defeat it. Unfortunately, Shadow runs out of energy. The Space Colony ARK is disabled. Eggman then makes a speech that he had always wanted to be like his grandpa (which is a complete lie; he only recently found out about Professor Gerald in Project Shadow). Eggman later flies off. Chris and the others find out that Shadow died, and leave. Sonic stops and thinks, "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog".
Review: This is easily one of the best ever episodes of Sonic X. I cried during the end, even though I already Shadow would die (I had beaten SA2). The only other time I've cried during a show was in the Pokemon (back when it was good) episode "Pikachu's Goodbye" (which was a great episode, by the way). Despite what many people say, this episode was amazingly done. Chris was a better character than Amy to convince Shadow. That isn't to say I like Chris better; Amy is my third favorite character, but Chris has much more charisma and innocent courage than Amy has, which only added to the already pivotal scene. not to mention the dialogue during that scene was 100+ times better.
And now onto one of the most debated questions in Sonic history: Did Maria die?
I've heard both cases "How dare they! 4kids dubbed out Maria's death!" and "Wow, I can't believe they left it it...THANK YOU, 4KIDS!!!!". Now onto my opinion: She did die, and I have proof.
1. While Shadow didn't explicitly state she was killed, he did say "but your ruler sent soldiers to take her away from me!" (excellently acted line, by the way). To quote from my dictionary "take away: (euph.) to kill (half the town was - by disease). "take" can also be used the same way. Even though it was used euphemistically, it still has the same meaning.
2: Think about what happened to Professor Gerald while we're on this subject. He was taken away, imprisoned, interrogated, and shot. It's extremely likely the same happened to Maria, based on what was implied. Still, some people complain that Maria didn't die in this version, she was "taken away", but when Shadow said this he was speaking metaphorically, so it's not a big deal. I was also (pleasantly) surprised that the flashback with Maria getting shot was left in, considering they could've removed it and gotten away with it. Either way, I'm very glad they didn't. The ending of this was incredible, in fact, I'd say it was a little better than the game ending. Sure, Shadow's whole "see the light" moment was a bit cliched, but it wasn't quite as cliche as it was in the games. 10/10
Effort: The SPFX on Super Sonic/Super Shadow were absolutely gorgeous. In fact, they were many times better than the game (which had lousy graphics for a 2001 game to start with; so it's not saying that much...). The SPFX were completely overshadowed by the exquisitely done voice acting, accompanied by just-as-stunning dialogue. Honestly, this is the 4kids cast at their best! Not that they were bad before, but this was just downright amazing! 10/10
Effort 2: Do I even need to explain? 10/10
And now onto a review by a fellow PhoenixFlaym staff member, Rhiannon, who actually HAS seen the Japanese version: Despite the many cuts, this is easily the best dub episode. In fact, many of the changes were actually improvements, such as the cuts during the Chris-Shadow scene, which changed it from over exaggerated to more akin to the game version. They left out Live and Learn, but considering they left out all the music form the original, I've gotten used to it. The replacement music was very good, to my surprise, though it's not the next Live and Learn.