MYPOE: Because I, Mypoe, calling myself Byashiko, will not allow a grasshopper like you to hatch into my director's dojo-shin so easily!
SHINABE: Mypoe, I am only your father in this setup; stay in character!
CHRISTIAN WESTON CHANDLER: Yeah! I'm the director of this anime, not Shinabe.
MYPOE: That doesn't matter! I will win this fight!
MYPOE: And my opponent does not need this weak point! Hyah!
PUNCHY SONICHU: That... really...
PUNCHY SONICHU: ...hurt!!
SHINABE: Wow! You are strong!
SHINABE: I know what Mypoe did was wrong, but if you will let me, I can teach you how to center that power into a much better, less painful-looking style.
PUNCHY SONICHU: I am Punchy, strike ninja! I studied under the G.D.W., Shinabe, and I became the greatest fighter since Goku! I also leaned to keep my temper down by watching TV comedies... Ha, ha! They're so funny!
Mypoe is nominally based upon Poemy Watanabe, the title character of the Excel Saga spin-off Puni Puni Poemy. (However, the character's hairstyle is more reminiscent of Saga's main character, Excel.) In the cartoon, Poemy is Nabeshin's adopted daughter, and is notoriously hyperactive and headstrong. The character calls herself "Kobayashi" (as she is voiced by Yumiko Kobayashi) and openly acknowledges that her father is really the director of the anime.
Hence, just as Nabeshin is bewildered that Mypoe keeps breaking character, Shinabe must gently chide his daughter for doing the same. Curiously, even as he does this he admits that Mypoe is not actually his daughter at all. This is made all the more curious by the author's brief cameo to point out that he is the storyteller, which raises the question of why Shinabe shares his directorial self-awareness. The only reasonable conclusion is that Mr. Chandler is a self-aware author character who has created a self-aware author character, Shinabe, that realizes Mypoe isn't real without also recognizing that he himself is just as imaginary. Not for the first time I would like to note that Grant Morrison has nothing on Christian Weston Chandler.
Chris strangely asserts that he is "the director of this anime," as opposed to "writer/artist of this comic book," which would have the benefit of being true. (OK, technically it's a drawing of Chris claiming credit for the work, and ceci n'est pas une homme enfantin, but you get the idea.) This brings to the fore an underlying fact about Sonichu--it is a story that is only told in the format of sequential art because the author lacks the talent or resources to make it a full-fledged Japanese animated series, as he truly envisioned it.
Mypoe's comparison of Punchy to a grasshopper calls to mind the TV series Kung Fu, in which Shaolin monk Master Po gives the nickname "Grasshopper" to his student Caine. The trope of a great teacher assigning this or similarly diminutive titles to his lowly student has permeated pop culture, so it's not clear if Mr. Chandler has knowingly made a Kung Fu reference or if he simply picked it up from some other work that did.
When Mypoe describes Punchy's tail as a "weak point," she refers to Dragon Ball manga and anime. In Dragon Ball, the extraterrestrial Saiyans are powerful warriors who have a monkeylike tail; this tail is a critical vulnerability as is extremely sensitive, making it an obvious target in combat. In the episode "The True Colors of the Masked Man," Goku, a Saiyan boy, loses his tail while sparring with his grandfather, who quickly suggests that the injury has eliminated Goku's greatest weakness. Here, it is less clear why Mypoe would want to remove a vulnerability of her enemy, but then again it's not even clear why Mypoe is so determined to fight Punchy to begin with.
The casual brutality with which Mypoe tears out Punchy's tail is a harbinger for much more extreme violence in later issues of Sonichu. Although Punchy, like Goku, almost instantly recovers from the wound (there isn't even any bleeding), one cannot help but wonder why this scene was necessary at all. There is no particular need for Punchy to lack a tail--Knuckles the Echidna has a tail, after all, and Punchy's a carbon-copy of him in every other respect. This and even more graphic violence in the series stem from the author's inability to understand that certain acts are unpleasantly gruesome for a comic about cartoon hedgehogs.
The tail-ripping sequence reminds me, ironically enough, of the extremely violent Sonichu parody Fear and Loathing in Cwcville, specifically the scene in which Sonichu's son Robbie is so high on cocaine that he cuts off his own penis with a boxcutter. Although Fear and Loathing seems to juxtapose horrific mutilation with the apparent innocence of Sonichu, the only real difference is that it celebrates and glorifies the gore instead of taking it for granted as Mr. Chandler does.
The agony of being maimed causes Punchy to evolve into his adult form within minutes of hatching. (Remember, all Angelica had to do was pray a lot.) In his Sonichu form, Punchy's distinctly slanted eyes are more evident. If there is a reason why the author rendered Punchy this way, it has not been revealed. Even Mypoe and Shinabe, who are ostensibly Japanese people living in Japan, do not have their eyes drawn this way.
Although Punchy sends Mypoe hurtling through the roof towards parts unknown, her father seems more concerned with Punchy's potential as a student in the martial arts. His remark about teaching Punchy a "less painful-looking style" is odd, considering that inflicting pain is rather the point; perhaps he means that he can show Punchy how to focus his wrath without being dismembered.
Punchy claims to be the greatest fighter since Goku, the aforementioned central character of the Dragon Ball mythos. This is no small claim, as Goku would grow up to become a virtually unbeatable, immortal master of the martial arts. By carrying on the legacies of Goku and Nabeshin, Punchy effectively becomes the lovechild of Superman and Dolemite for people who love terrible Japanese cartoons. In spite of this, Punchy never displays any extraordinary prowess in future Sonichu action sequences; like the rest of Cwcville's hedgehogs, he is little more than a rank-and-file foot soldier in Chris's army.
In a curious epilogue to this origin story, Mr. Chandler would later write that Shinabe was murdered by a former student, forcing Punchy to avenge the Great Director Watanabe.
