Characters: Shadow the Hedgehog, Maria Robotnik
Canon Status: Canon (as Family Bond and Sibling-likes)
Relationship: ARK Siblings, adopted brother on Shadow’s side
Other Ship Names: Shadaria, Shadow x Maria
Official “Canon” Interactions between Shadow and Maria in the Games:
Shadow the Hedgehog and Maria Robotnik’s official interactions are best-friends as sibling-likes and they lived together as siblings back in the ARK Colony five decades ago.
Shadow and Maria are not blood related but they saw each other as siblings and it was officially acknowledged around 2000s back in Shadow the Hedgehog manual book.
And in Sonic Team Japan’s official website states with using sibling word in Maria’s official description both Japanese and English.
In Japanese, “きょうだい” (kyōudai) word means “sibling” and regardless of gender, it is also used both as brothers and sisters.
Even in Japanese sibling word きょうだい used few times in the games Japanese version.
Even in Sonic x Shadow Generations states that Shadow and Maria’s relationship are/were sibling-likes since Maria says Shadow as family love in both English and Japanese.
It was also stated they lived like siblings on the opening Shadow Generations theme in Sonic x Shadow Generations Japanese version and in actual English translation from Japanese.
(English translation is translated from Japanese by Windii Gaylord (Gitlord))
So as a result, Sibling-like relationship is/was going on between Shadow and Maria.
However, there is a small misunderstanding on Shadow the Hedgehog manga version on issue 2, where Maria says “I love you”.
In the actual original version says “大好き” (daisuki) means “I love you” or “I really like you” but it is not limited to romance unlike “愛してる “ (aishiteru), which is limited to romance. In English “love” word uses everything besides for siblings but “daisuki” generally uses for sibling or hobbies and food that one likes. Daisuki also uses for romance to their partners use on their daily lives but it was already acknowledged that Shadow and Maria are ARK Siblings, so things could be really different if Maria was used 愛してる instead. Since Maria used 大好, this means, she meant she loves Shadow as sibling or to thank him being part of her life as a sibling.
Shiro Maekawa who used to work at SEGA and Sonic Team, made a romantic manga about Shadow and Maria but he is not working at SEGA or Sonic Team anymore, so his opinion on his own and SEGA had already made a final conclusion that Shadow and Maria are sibling-likes on the manual game book and their official website like in Sonic Channel.
Even game helpers of Shadow Generations like Chris Hernandez stated that Shadow and Maria are sibling-likes and includes Shadow as being part of Egg Family on his Twitter account.
1.https://x.com/MisterCrits/status/1846387434872836203
2.https://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/character/shadow.html
3.https://browniehideout.wordpress.com/characters/shadow/
4.https://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/character/maria.html
5.https://browniehideout.wordpress.com/characters/maria/
6.https://romajidesu.com/dictionary/meaning-of-%E5%A4%A7%E5%A5%BD%E3%81%8D.html
7.https://www.japandict.com/%E5%A4%A7%E5%A5%BD%E3%81%8D
8.https://jisho.org/search/%E5%85%84%E5%BC%9F
9.https://context.reverso.net/translation/japanese-english/%E3%81%8D%E3%82%87%E3%81%86%E3%81%A0%E3%81%84
10.https://romajidesu.com/dictionary/meaning-of-%E3%81%8D%E3%82%87%E3%81%86%E3%81%A0%E3%81%84.html
11.https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-vocabulary/%E5%85%84%E5%BC%9F-kyoudai-meaning-siblings%E2%80%8B/
12.https://archive.org/details/shadow-the-hedgehog-usa/page/n4/mode/1up