Clearing up the confusion in the fanbase regarding Sonic 06
For years in the English speaking Sonic fandom there’s been tons of confusion regarding 06′s place in the series, and collectively everyone seems to have come to the opinion that 06 isn’t canon so we must disregard it.
But I have some news for you;
06 is most definitely canon in the mainline series of games, and Shiro Maekawa confirmed it.
I specifically said “English speaking Sonic fandom” there, because the Japanese fanbase have always considered 06 canon in the mainline series, unlike the west.
“But it retconned itself, it erased itself from canon!” First, we must discuss the very definition of what “retcon” means. “Retroactive continuity, (or retcon for short) is a literary device in which established facts in a fictional work are adjusted, ignored, or contradicted by a subsequently published work which breaks continuity with the former.”
In Sonic 06′s case, sure, the timeline was erased. However, the events must have had to happen in the first place for them to even have been erased. This does not make it “non canon”, the creators have never said “please disregard this entry from the series”. In fact, if you’ve been paying attention, Sonic 06 is one of the most referenced games in the entire series.
But before I get in to that, I want to talk about something that happened recently. Shiro Maekawa (a past main writer for the Sonic series) recently held a Q&A livestream, however he answered a few questions directly on twitter with Japanese fans. I already translated these on twitter but I wanted to share them here too;
Manaita: “As Maekawa-san is Blaze’s creator, I think it’d be interesting to hear about how Rush and 06 fit together (chronologically).”
Maekawa: “No no, Blaze’s creator is Nishiyama-san who wrote Sonic Adventure 1’s story*~. The truth is, when writing Sonic 06 we wanted to add the sense of a connection between Sonic Rush and Sonic 06, but I don’t think that’s ever been officially stated.”
(*He said Nishiyama actually wrote the scenario for SA1, but it was easier on twitter to translate it as story because character space is limited).
If you’re unsure what Maekawa is referring to here, it’s this;
That different dimension Blaze gets sealed to? You guessed it. It’s the Sol Dimension.
In other words; he just said Blaze originally came from the future.
(Manaita replied to Maekawa confirming this https://twitter.com/mana_ita/status/1010665857536614400 saying this is what she always believed, that Rush/06 were written intentionally with a connection to each other).
This actually makes perfect sense because when the timeline is reset Blaze does not come back (even though she should) and she does not recognise Sonic in 06, nor does Sonic recognise her. (Before someone says “but she mentions blue hedgehog!” that’s a translation error. The word for “Blue” in Japanese can also mean “Naive”; yes, when she ponders over “the blue hedgehog is the Iblis Trigger”, she’s actually pondering “the NAIVE hedgehog is the Iblis Trigger”. It’s supposed to be a clever play on words and how it’s foreshadowing that Silver is going to be the one who will cause the ruination of the future. In this instance she is always talking about Silver, but this got lost in translation and they decided to translate it literally which caused a lot of confusion).
I came to this conclusion myself years ago as it’s the only way things can make any sense. My Timeline is a bit outdated but for now I think it’ll suffice to give the general idea of how It works;
Another interesting thing to note is; did you know that depending on which region you’re in, Silver actually debuted in Sonic Rivals, NOT Sonic 06?
These games came out within extremely close proximity to each other, which means that they were written at the same time.
You want to know something very interesting about that fact? Eggman Nega is Silver’s antagonist in Sonic Rivals and stated as being Eggman’s descendant.
That, and? Iblis is also in Sonic Rivals (as Ifrit);
Meanwhile, in Sonic Rush’s case, Blaze was not in any original promotion of it while it was in beta as “Sonic DS”. I was reading gaming magazines religiously at this time and was eagerly awaiting this game, but she was not there during this stage at all. In fact it seems that she was added to Rush later on. Sonic 06 and Sonic Rush were also being shown off together at a games expo in 2005; this means Sonic Rush, Sonic 06 and Sonic Rivals were all being produced at very close proximity to each other.
And, what’s interesting about this is; while people presumed that Eggman Nega is a native to the Sol Dimension (and Eggman’s counterpart), Sonic Rush never ever says Eggman Nega is from the Sol Dimension, ever. It says Blaze and Nega have been fighting a long time, but that’s all.
In other words… These three games had stories that were planned to fit this way from the very beginning.
Something else of interest to note, when Blaze is getting “sealed to a different dimension” in 06 while using the Chaos Emeralds, for a split second something happens;
Yes, she becomes Burning Blaze before fading away!
The fact Blaze/the Sol Dimension exist and Maekawa confirmed that Blaze came from the future first mean that they are evidence of that timeline once existing; ergo, 06 is canon.
Now now, you might be thinking “why would this plot exist, only for it to not be addressed afterwards?”
I remember watching an interview many years ago when one of the developers of 06 said something along the lines of “we named Silver “Silver” so that when we made a “Silver the Hedgehog” game, it would line up in store shelves beside the rest of the Sonic series”.
The mainline title before 06 was “Shadow the Hedgehog”. 06 was branded as “Sonic the Hedgehog”. My speculation? This was possibly going to be a plot point that was explored in a “Silver the Hedgehog” game they wanted to produce. However due to the failure of 06, the direction of the series changed and they decided to completely take focus off any of Sonic’s extra cast so this never came to fruition.
This is also probably why Silver and Blaze have been together in pretty much every game and appearance since (even in SATBK, Galahad is not in the story mode yet is still listed as Percival’s close companion!).
You might also be interested to know about Silver and Blaze’s continuous matching sets on Sonic Channel (where they share a similar pose), something that’s exclusive to just them.
but see this last one here?
It specifically references Sonic 06 as well.
Blaze is making the shape of a maple leaf with her flames, which is what silver’s quill style is based on.
Silver is throwing a Tanzaku in the air, referencing the Tanabata festival.
And what is Tanabata? To put it simply, Tanabata festival is a Japanese summer holiday which revolves around the famous story of lonely Princess Orihime and Hikoboshi, two lovers who get separated across space on opposite ends of the milky way and can’t see each other anymore. During Tanabata we hope that they will be able to see each other again.
… now, that sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?
In other words, I don’t believe Sonic Team have forgotten about this plot point at all. I can’t say I know what they are planning to do, but it’s not something they’ve abandoned either it seems. It’s hard to say what with the complete lack of attention they’ve been paying to anyone except Sonic for the last decade (Forces aside).
Which brings me to my next point; 06 being referenced in other games. If you’d been paying attention, 06 has always been referenced.
Sonic and the Secret Rings talks about Iblis;
Sonic Unleashed;
Sonic Colors;
(should be noted that in Japanese, Silver says “why does it feel like this isn’t the first time you and I have fought together”)
Sonic Runners;
And I’m sure I don’t need to mention Sonic Generations, where Blaze says she remembers Crisis City; "I never thought I’d find myself in Crisis City again. This world is full of surprises", and I’ve already mentioned the reference to partnership between Galahad and Percival in SATBK.
Silver also talks about the “青空 (blue sky)”, it’s a phrase that comes up in his dialogue often
You know what this is referring to?
(Sonic Forces’ original script also had Mephiles in it, and according to Maekawa? He thinks the reason Blaze isn’t in Sonic Forces is because it’s related to the ending of 06; https://twitter.com/SonicJPNews/status/930896302325592064 https://twitter.com/SonicJPNews/status/930897199407554561 )
At this point, it’s a little delusional to keep insisting 06 is not a canon game in the series. Everything points to the exact opposite, that it very much is part of the mainline. I’ve always thought it was very strange how the western fandom has been in collective denial regarding it’s canon status while the JP fandom have never doubted it’s inclusion (and hand waves everything about it as “that’s just a reference!” when it continuously happens again and again).
Anyway! I hope this info has educated you some. I’ve had these thoughts for a long time now, but have been discouraged from discussing it as every attempt is met with “but it’s not canon, shut up about it”. I felt now with Maekawa’s confirmation, people might be more willing to actually see what’s been right in front of them the entire time.