Discover who Satoshi Okano is and how their artwork paved the way for the modern Sonic redesign
UPDATED JANUARY 2024
After the release of Sonic & Knuckles in 1994 the series itself would lay low for a while. During that period there would only be releases of spinoffs like Sonic Triple Trouble, Knuckles Chaotix, Tails Adventures, and Tails’ Skypatrol. Sonic Team itself would move on to create Nights into Dreams for the Sega Saturn in 1996. In that same year Sonic 3D Blast, developed by Traveler’s Tales, was released for the Sega Genesis.
The next mainline Sonic game was supposed to be Sonic X-treme and was being developed at Sega Technical Institute (STI). However, after several development issues and delays the game had to ultimately be cancelled. In its place a Sega Saturn version of 3D Blast was quickly developed. The special stages were completely rehauled and would actually have input from some Sonic Team members.
While Japan would not get 3D Blast for the Mega Drive until compilation re-releases like Sonic Mega Collection, for whatever reason the Saturn release wouldn’t be until 1999, three years later. To be more specific it was on October 14 1999 the same day Sonic Adventure International was also released as shown in this archived webpage:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200129152624/http://sonic.sega.jp/sonic3d/
Sonic Adventure International‘s release was archived here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140804130633/http://sega.jp/dc/990010/
As for 3D Blast it would receive entirely new art of the characters that is featured on its cover and manual.
Here’s how Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Dr. Eggman look like:
Here’s the art for the four different Flickies in the game:
For the longest time it was pretty safe to assume this art was created by Yuji Uekawa, the person responsible for the modern Adventure redesigns, as 3D Blast‘s Japanese release was right after Adventure’s and just the fact that the art in both games looked rather similar. However, around 2019 an individual stepped up to finally take credit for what’s theirs. Their name, Satoshi Okano.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220122145605/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1484901319672762370
In one of the earliest instances of Okano commenting he decided to reply to a Twitter post made by the account (@VGDensetsu) which showed off a particular art piece with only a vague, guessed credit towards Yuji Uekawa.
Promotional illustration for Sonic Jam (1997), probably made by Sonic Adventure illustrator Yuji Uekawa / 上川祐司
https://web.archive.org/web/20190713120255/https://videogamesdensetsu.tumblr.com/post/150978288450/promotional-illustration-for-sonic-jam-probably
While this post was from 2016 it looks like it got to Okano’s attention just three years later in 2019. He made a reply urging the account to post the correct information as he made the art contained within.
No.This is my illustration.Check on magazine credit.Please tweet the correct information.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1123088237935783941
He would make a seperate post on taking credit along with Sachiko Kawamura for making the background. Okano wrote out his post in Japanese and was also kind enough to provide an English translation along with it as well.
これは上川祐司さんの仕事じゃなくて私、岡野聡の仕事です。３Ｄのコピーもね。背景の青い３Ｄを作ったのは川村幸子さんです。
This isn’t Mr. Yuji Uekawa’s work. This work is Satoshi Okano’s work. and then,Ms. Sachiko Kawamura was making blue/3D background :)
He would then make another post which has a link to a site for cover art where it solely credits Yuji Uekawa.
これも上川さんじゃなくてぼくなのよね＾＾
This is my creation too. It’s not Yuji Uekawa-san :) Everyone like him…I Know.I Know ;D
https://web.archive.org/web/20190601192859/http://boxequalsart.com/sonicpage.html
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1123201125648224256
Now who exactly is Satoshi Okano? What role did he have with the Sonic games? Prior to being at SEGA Okano had worked at KAZe on a few games with his first seeming to be the 1990 Famicom game Abarenbou Tengu (Renamed Zombie Nation in North America) where he would just have a “Special Thanks” credit for the game. He did the artwork which would appear in the games manual.
https://twitter.com/tian_liang/status/708964678748123136
According to Okano it was a role that was just a part-time job. Apparently he also had worked at HAL Laboratories as mentioned in this post:
Yes. The title was zombie nation. I was engaged by a part-time job for the first time. I’ll continue just making the game of the Meldac.
I changed my job in HAL Laboratory, Inc. The interview official at that time ware Satoru Iwata&Shigeru Miyamoto&Shigesato Itoi.😀
Responding to this from (@gosokkyu):
anytime!
by the way, I looked at your portfolio… you worked on Abarenbou Tengu too?! amazing, you’re a very versatile designer
Meldac was the publisher for KAZe’s games.
Wanting to learn more information about his involvement at HAL I decided to ask him some questions about it. He was generous enough to take the time to answer all the questions I wanted to ask.
こんにちは 岡野！@okanotion
「HAL Laboratory」在籍中に何をされていたのか、もっと知りたいです。
https://web.archive.org/web/20190927175551/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1171766823043223554
正確にいつ彼らと合流したのですか?
Hello Okano! @okanotion
I’d like to know more about what you did while you were at HAL Laboratory.
When exactly did you join them?
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1735495628283589092
95年9月に神田の任天堂ビルのワンフロアを改装して徐々に集まりました。
ゲーム制作の初心者も何名もいらして、ステップアップを目指して移った私は少しガッカリした記憶があります。
3 Dツールを勉強させてもらった以外はあんまりお話しする事は無いんですよね。ごめんなさいね…🙇🙇♀️
In September 1995, one floor of the Nintendo Building in Kanda was renovated and we gradually gathered together.
There were also a number of beginners in game production, and I remember that I was “dreaming too much” when I moved there to step up my game production skills.
There’s not much to talk about other than learning about 3D tools. Sorry…
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1735519923093569847
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1735546011974865099
3Dを覚えてリタイヤしたので岩田社長や宮本さん、周りの皆様にはご迷惑をお掛けしました💦
その後も岩田さんと1人だけ(この方はプロジェクト解散のあと株式会社KAZeに入りました)と連絡は続きました。
岩田社長は年賀状に「宮本さんも、サンバ DEアミーゴ褒めてましたよ！」書いてくれました😊
I learned 3D and quit, so I apologize for the inconvenience caused to President Iwata, Mr. Miyamoto, and everyone around me
After that, contact continued with Mr. Iwata and one other person (this person joined KAZe Inc. after the dissolution of the project).
President Iwata wrote in his New Year’s card, “Mr. Miyamoto also praised Samba DE Amigo!”
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1735534407895937199
I asked him why he wanted to work at HAL and how he was able to get a job there
「HAL」で働こうと思ったきっかけは何ですか?
どうやってそこで働く機会を得ることができたのですか?
What made you want to work at HAL?
How did you get the opportunity to work there?
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1736838860816994575
KAZeのデザイナーだった頃にファミコン通信という一番売れていたゲーム雑誌の裏表紙に募集広告があったのです。
ヒットという販売本数に無縁だった私は一念発起して、応募する事にしました。たぶんジャックの豆の樹プロジェクトで探すとどこかにあるかもしれません。
返事は直ぐには来ませんでした。
When I was a designer for KAZe, there was a recruitment advertisement on the back cover of the best-selling game magazine called Famicom Tsushin.
I had no interest in selling a hit, so I decided to take a leap of faith and apply. Maybe you can find it somewhere if you look for it in Jack’s Beanstalk Project.
The reply did not come immediately.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1736901471042785629
Famicom Tsushin was the former name of the magazine now known as Famitsu.
Famitsu is actually a shortening of the former name, Fami[com] Tsu[shin]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famitsu
https://segaretro.org/Weekly_Famitsu
I was able to find the actual recruit advertisement that he was talking about. It was in issue No. 321 which was dated February 1995
It was on the back of the magazine
https://web.archive.org/web/20231219172834/https://www.yugiyahiranonetshop.com/product/32463
Here is a better look at it
The other thing Okano mentioned in his response was “Jack’s Beanstalk Project”
This refers to the codename of a photography game that eventually became Pokemon Snap. The development period of that game was long and full of issues as they struggled with the concept of a game involving photography and most of the people who got hired through the recruit ad were very new to the gaming industry. If you would like to know more about the development then here is a page talking about it. It is in Japanese only:
https://www.1101.com/nintendo/nin5/nin5-1.htm
The page has Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata describing how the process went.
That page also contains a link to a digital transcript of the recruit ad as well
https://www.1101.com/nintendo/nin5/nin5-jack.htm
There are actually five other parts for that page which can be found on this index list
https://www.1101.com/nintendo/nin5/index.htm
Parts 5 and 6 also involve Shigesato Itoi
I then asked him what made him leave HAL and how long he lasted there
「HAL」にはどのくらい在籍しましたか?
どうして彼らと離れる決心をしたのか聞いてもよろしいでしょうか?
How long did you work at HAL?
May I ask why you decided to leave them?
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1737567465905791046
丸一年です。その一年をかけて、私は彼らと仲間になれなかったんです。それは今でも整理できません。
岩田さんから食事に連れ出されて「このチームで上手くやれないなら、山梨の本社で働くか、辞めるの選択肢しかないです。」の答えに、後者を選んだんです😊👍
A whole year. Over the course of that year, I couldn’t make friends with them. I still can’t sort that out.
Mr. Iwata took me out to dinner and said, “If you can’t get along with this team, your only options are to work at the headquarters in Yamanashi or quit.” I chose the latter
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1737646704227496243
Meanwhile back in his time at KAZe he would work as an artist for other games. Here’s his art in a 1991 Gameboy game titled Battle of Kingdom:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220504080603/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1521762949097943041
https://web.archive.org/web/20220504081600/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1521765494860132352
Here’s another Gameboy game titled Yomihon Yumegoyomi Tenjin Kaisen 2 released in 1992 where his art is on the cover:
Image sourced from:
https://twitter.com/game_tanteidan/status/1505178443063115780
https://web.archive.org/web/20220504081600/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1521765494860132352
https://web.archive.org/web/20220504082343/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1521767399715794944
Here’s his art on a Super Famicom game titled Uchuu Race: Astro Go! Go! which was released in 1994:
Here is some additional material for this game:
The source for the images above, including the concept art for the other games, comes from a series of tweets he made with this being one of them as an example:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220504083247/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1521769653961297920
If you have noticed one of the images above has “Astro Go! Go! 2” on it so he was asked if a sequel was planned and he confirmed that that was as far as it went. It was only ever planned:
I love your work on Astro Go Go! So colorful and fun!
Was there really a Astro Go Go 2 planned?
https://web.archive.org/web/20220504084132/https://twitter.com/RanenWise/status/1521771782214144000
Response from Satoshi Okano (@okanotion)
Thank you very much. 🙇
I had the something to discuss. But that was only a plan.😊👍
https://web.archive.org/web/20220504090420/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1521777484470964224
Here’s one other image of intrigue:
The corner of the image says “star child TV for Nintendo satellite system” which was likely in reference to the Nintendo Satellaview which was a Japanese exclusive peripheral for the Super Nintendo, or rather Super Famicom as it was called over there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview
After attempting to find additional information from that image and failing to do so I just asked him myself to see if he will answer and he did. I provided my question in both English and Japanese.
これは何ですか？任天堂のサテラビューは知っているが、これは知らない。調べてみても、これについては何も出てきません。
What is this? I know about the Nintendo Satellaview but not this. I tried looking this up and found nothing about it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220505034151/https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1522058876320952325
The president of KAZe Net Co.,Ltd. was interested besides the game. He wanted to use the system of Nintendo. And he wanted to build a karaoke system.
(株)カゼの社長はゲーム以外にも構想をお持ちでした。おそらく任天堂の衛星システムでカラオケを作るプラン、と記憶しています。
https://web.archive.org/web/20220505042330/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1522069388798488577
His answer is much clearer in Japanese so I will translate that portion. I have used an online translator called “DeepL” which is a much better translation alternative to Google Translate.
Translation via: https://www.deepl.com/translator
The president of Kaze Inc. had other ideas besides games. Perhaps a plan to create karaoke with Nintendo’s satellite system, as I recall.
So this was supposed to be something involving karaoke then. That explains the musical note which appears on one of the characters in the image. Here’s one last project that was scrapped but went much further then the previous two above. There was a Sega CD titled Burning Fists: Force Striker that was nearly completed but was still cancelled regardless. More information for this game can be found here:
Here is a video of it in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv2bvT2AWqM
Since this was developed by KAZe someone asked if Okano was involved with this game.
@okanotion Were you involved with this unreleased game at KAZe? Thank you.
https://twitter.com/gdri/status/1522728372807290882
He would answer and provide illustrations of two characters he made. One of them was previously shown in the batch of artwork in one of the other posts above.
私はこのスト2に対抗するはずだった格闘ゲームのボスをデザインしドット絵を作りました。
Sega was the one of the landing net in opposition to Street Fighter for this title. But I was said to be by which this wasn’t sold. I had designed the boss of this game and had developed a game.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220507001133/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1522730684808253443
Translation via DeepL
I designed and made dots of the fighting game bosses that were supposed to compete with this Sto. 2.
Dots is just another way to say pixels by the way. From what I understand “Sto. 2” is a way they abbreviate or shorten the name Street Fighter 2 in Japanese.
Additional information about this cancelled game can be found in these two other posts from other developers if you’re curious:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220507010238/https://twitter.com/nkgt5/status/1522743499963400193
https://web.archive.org/web/20220507020837/https://twitter.com/takami/status/1522760173290287104
One last thing to show off is this Christmas card which was made around 1992 according to the information he posted along with it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220504075815/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1521760996380987393
According to Okano he was just an art school student during this period at KAZe and some time after graduating would get to work at SEGA:
学生時代にゲーム会社でアルバイトをした経験から、美術大学卒業後、株式会社セガゲームスに就職し、ゲーム『ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ』シリーズに携わりました。
Translation via DeepL
I worked part-time at a game company when I was a student, and after graduating from art college, I started working at Sega Games Inc. and was involved in the “Sonic the Hedgehog” game series.
Business Plus, 経営者インタビュー [Management Interview] by Kaoru Sugita. June 2019
https://web.archive.org/web/20210116104959/http://www.business-plus.net/interview/1906/k4826.html
Date not shown on page. Obtained from this post:
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1136083625546461184
https://archive.vn/c2du2
To be more specific he attended Musashino Art University as seen in this profile page:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210823194144/https://i.fileweb.jp/okn/profile/
I asked him for some more details about being involved at KAZe
「KAZe」に入社した経緯は何ですか?
あなたはインタビューで、美術学校に通っていたときにその会社にいたと述べていました。
インターンシップのようなものでしたか?
How did you join KAZe?
You mentioned in an interview that you were at the company when you were in art school.
Was it like an internship?
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1741164491646087230
大学の三年生からKAZeでアルバイト(イラストを描いたりゲーム画面描く)のデザイナーをしていました。その募集は美術大学で見つけました。
すぐ社員になる事を進められましたが、
幼児向け雑誌のイラストも描きながら、93年5月にKAZeの社員になりました。
I was a part-time (illustrating and drawing game screens) designer at KAZe since my junior year of college. I found the position at art college.
I was immediately offered the position as an employee, I became an employee of KAZe in May 1993, while also drawing illustrations for magazines for young children.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1741432870777004362
KAZeには3年弱勤めて、96年2月か3月に辞めました。
HAL Lab.の返事が遅かったので先に合格通知が来たある会社に2ヶ月だけ正社員で勤めましたが、「任天堂陣営に行きたい。」と無理を言ってジャックの豆の木プロジェクトに参加しました。
結果その会社とHALでは何のタイトルもリリースしていません。😅
I worked at KAZe for a little under three years and quit in February or March 1996.
HAL Lab. was slow to respond, so I went to work full-time for two months at a company that had sent me an acceptance letter, but I insisted, “I want to go to Nintendo” I joined the Jack’s Beanstalk Project.
As a result, that company and HAL have not released any titles.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1741438409019969640
Okano would join SEGA sometime around 1996.
Image source:
Burning Rangers Guide
(Page 81 in PDF)
According to him one of the first jobs he did was debugging “Christmas Nights”.
1 –
I know it’s a long shot, but while you’re here posting concept art from old game prototypes, do you by any chance have any pictures of the deleted hidden boss named “Self”/”Selph” from Nights into Dreams?
https://twitter.com/HyperlightSparx/status/1729423827216540139
2 –
I’m joining the company mid-career. My first job was debugging Christmas Nights. So I don’t know the details. Sorry.😅
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1729424489560334444
https://segaretro.org/Christmas_NiGHTS_into_Dreams
I asked him how he managed to join SEGA
どうやって「SEGA」で働く機会を得ることができたのでしょうか?
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1738037257557156176
はい。9月退社で10月から働きました。セガの募集もファミ通の広告で見つけたんです😅その時点で「ポケモンになりそう」な流れでした。
私は宇宙レースアストロゴー！ゴー！で”蝙蝠のキャラクター”をデザインしたのを思い出したんです。
任天堂への憧れより”カッコかわいいゲームが作りたい❗️“と。
Yes. I left the company in September and started working in October. I found out about Sega’s recruitment through a Famitsu ad, and at that point I thought it was going to be Pokemon.
I’m “Space Race Astro Go! Go!” I remembered that I designed a “bat character” for the game.
Rather than admiring Nintendo, I said, “I want to make cool and cute games.”
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1738043999817273663
This means he left HAL in September 1996 and then joined SEGA around October 1996
For clarification since he mentioned Pokemon in that response I asked him if he was referring to the fact that the Jack’s Beanstalk Project became Pokemon Snap.
そのコメントで「ポケモン」について触れたのは、「HAL」に参加して「ジャックの豆の木プロジェクト」に取り組むための同じプロセスを思い出したからですか?
そのプロジェクト自体が最終的に「ポケモンスナップ」になりました。
Did you mention “Pokemon” in that comment because it reminded you of the same process you went through to join “HAL” and work on “Jack’s Beanstalk Project”?
That project itself eventually became “Pokémon Snap”
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1738423880300007838
「９６年」に「セガの募集広告」で探すと、これも広告がネットにあります。
これを見つけた時、神田のフロアの企画は「この企画はポケモンにしよう」という流れになっていました。
私はそのコンテンツには理解が無いし、仲間を作れなかったのでセガに応募する と決めました。
If you look for “Sega recruitment ad” in “96” you’ll find this ad online, too.
When I discovered this, the plan for Kanda’s floor was “Let’s make this project about Pokemon.”
I didn’t understand the content and couldn’t make friends, so I decided to apply to Sega.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1738436896169361801
I followed his suggestion and was able to find the recruit ad for SEGA. I asked him if I found the correct one. I found a sale listing page of the recruit ad which I included in the question
これが正しい「SEGA」のリクルート広告でしょうか?
Is this the correct “SEGA” recruitment advertisement?
https://web.archive.org/web/20231223063701/https://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/h1096290190/
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1738630414510506183
The image for the recruit ad itself was taken from here
https://twitter.com/retro_ko/status/1068961947033325569
Here is his response
This is it. My life has been changed twice by Famitsu.🕹️🎲📚
Those are Hal Laboratory/Jack and BeansProject,& joining SEGA/Sonic Team.
これですね。私の人生はファミ通によって二度変えられていますね🕹️🎲📚
ハル研 /ジャックの豆の木プロジェクトとセガへの入社です。
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1738701077212807659
I wasn’t able to find what exact issue of Famitsu the SEGA recruit ad came from but the sales list page says it was in Sega Saturn Magazine so I went through issues of that magazine from 1996 and was also able to find it there. I provide the exact source in a response
「Sega Saturn Magazine」にもそのリクルート広告が掲載されていたようです。 私がリンクしたページには、そこからのものであると記載されています。
何巻に登場するか正確な出典を見つけました。
It seems that the recruitment advertisement was also published in “Sega Saturn Magazine”. The page I linked to [the sales listing page]says it’s from there.
I found the exact source for which volume it appears in.
1996 8/9 Vol. 13
https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:SSM_JP_19960809_1996-13.pdf&page=8
https://retrocdn.net/images/4/47/SSM_JP_19960809_1996-13.pdf
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1739418979666383316
Here was his response
全ページ観ました。期待する特集の前に広告があったと記憶しています。それは「ナイツ」。これかも！ありがとうございます。💏
I watched every page of the Magazine. I remember there was an ad before the feature I expected to see. It is “Knights”. Maybe this is it! Thank you very much.🥰
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1739789984058782118
I asked him if the experience of learning how to use 3D tools helped him out for the work he would then do at SEGA. He responded through a quote tweet
「HAL」で3Dツールの使い方を学んだ経験が、その後の「SEGA」での仕事にも役立っていると言えますよね?
You can say that the experience you gained in learning how to use 3D tools at HAL was useful in your later work at SEGA, right?
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1740091794694816005
はい。私がHAL研で学んだツール(ソフトイマージ)はセガと同じでした。
岩田さんのプログラマー的な答えの導き方も私には目から鱗が落ちる様でした。
YES.The tool (soft merge) I learned at HAL Lab was the same as Sega.
Mr. Iwata’s programmer-style judge also seemed to fall from my eyes.
Translation of the Japanese portion as it gives a much clearer response:
Yes. The tools I learned at HAL Lab (Soft Image) were the same as SEGA.
Mr. Iwata’s way of coming up with answers like a programmer was also eye-opening to me.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1740901035512897755
He would also write an additional quote tweet about Iwata
彼が亡くなった後に奥様から菩提寺を手紙で教えて頂きまして、次に関西に行ったら墓前に手を合わそうと決めています。
After he died, his wife mailed me about family temple, & the next time I went to Kansai, I decided to put my hands together in front of the grave…
Translation of the Japanese portion as it gives a much clearer response:
After he passed away, his wife told me about his family temple in a letter, and I have decided to join hands in front of his grave the next time I go to Kansai.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1740904235301318882
SoftImage was a 3D rendering tool used by many companies during the 90’s
https://segaretro.org/Softimage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softimage_3D
Page from EDGE Magazine (UK), August 1996 Issue #35
https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:Edge_UK_035.pdf&page=97
https://retrocdn.net/images/0/09/Edge_UK_035.pdf
While at SEGA he would be assigned to make art for Sonic. In a 2020 interview on Fanbyte with Sean Aitchison he recounts:
“My dream was to make a new Sonic companion after I joined SEGA. However, the opportunity I first sought when I joined was just to draw Sonic.”
Fanbyte, The Unsung Artist Who Defined the Look of Sonic the Hedgehog by Sean Aitchison. April 2020
At the time Okano would talk with Kazuyuki Hoshino on music and in particular street culture as Hoshino understood it too. This would make Hoshino give him the opportunity to make new art.
I talked with Kazuyuki Hoshino -san about music and the culture in those days, he had understanding in street culture.
That is why he would nominate for me “Would you describe a new art of Sega Saturn magazine and sonic jam?”.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1373502527400906753
Image source:
Marukatsu Mega Drive magazine supplement
(Page 40 in PDF)
Hoshino had been a part of Sonic Team since at least 1993 starting with Sonic CD where he was credited in various roles like Character Designer, Special Stage Designer, Visual Design, Illustrations, and Sprite Design. Most notably he was the character designer for both Metal Sonic and Amy Rose.
Image source:
Sonic Mania Plus – Dev Diary 1 (Art and Design)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BUGPG4CrE0&t=31s
Sonic CD itself contained hidden images put in by certain developers that were seen by inputting certain number combinations in the sound test. It’s where the rather infamous “Majin” image comes from which was put in by Masato Nishimura.
The understanding of street culture is very evident in the image Hoshino put in:
Okano tells Aitchison that he was excited about the new opportunity:
“I thought ‘I’ll never have a chance like this again! How lucky!’”
https://archive.vn/E91fw#selection-407.16-407.82
And so he would create this piece:
Source: Sonic Jam Japanese Strategy Guide Page 130
https://retrocdn.net/images/5/57/SonicJamOfficialGuide_Book_JP.pdf
He may have not known it at the time but this piece would become influential to the series moving forward. As Okano mentioned in the tweet above this would appear in the SEGA Saturn Magazine as the cover for “Vol. 22 1997 07/04” and in Sonic Jam as a viewable bonus image when the disc is inserted into a PC.
https://retrocdn.net/images/0/0d/SSM_JP_19970704_1997-22.pdf
When Okano made this Sonic he wanted to create a certain image for him. From the Fanbyte interview:
“I wanted to give Sonic a timeless, cutting-edge image, I was raised on and inspired by American Sci-Fi movies, New York hip-hop, sneaker and street culture, and UK industrial rock music. My inspirations were George Lucas and Steven Spielburg movies, Nike basketball shoes, the Adidas tracksuits RUN DMC wore in their 1988 photoshoots, Flavor Flav’s clock and glasses, De la Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers lyrics, Björk, Underworld, and other music, music videos, and artwork like that.”
https://archive.vn/E91fw#selection-417.0-428.0
Similar to what Hoshino had in his hidden Sonic CD image, Okano would incorporate the phrase “Kick It Jam!” in the piece. Others at the company would not understand what the phrase meant.
I drew with a in 3d in ‘kick it jam!’ sonic illustration in ’96. But that couldn’t get understanding at the inside of the company. It was the slang which is often used in HIPHOP.
Some additional information was written in the Sonic Jam strategy guide page.
Translated by GreenyVertekins
COMMENT FROM SONIC TEAM
We produced this image of Sonic with the wish that he’d always be provocative, always be ahead of its time. For the back pattern, we tried to make the initial “S” look like the mark of a hero. (Designer – Okano)
The “S” would stand for Sonic of course.
You must see blue CG of the background well. Then you can find a mark of ‘S’. This is S in sonic. Will it be like a superman❓😄
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1249864541120262144
This art would also appear in postcards:
Okano says that these postcards would even inspire someone to join SEGA upon seeing it.
“A junior employee had said ‘I wanted to join SEGA after seeing your illustration postcards at the store!’”
https://archive.vn/E91fw#selection-431.130-431.329
Here’s a tweet remarking the same story:
These are free advertising cards. There was such a younger student in the sonic team. “I entered SEGA on seeing this. “Project sonic means the secret name of sonic adventure & new sonic🦔🦔🦔
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1249698609710288898
Scan of postcard from here:
https://www.segadriven.com/promotional-material/
Satoshi Okano’s influence off of street culture and the use of the “Kick It Jam!” phrase would seep into the upcoming Sonic game at the time as he would be the one to give it a new name. The name he chose, Sonic Jam.
“The “Sonic Jam” title was my idea. My SEGA coworkers would ask me ‘what does that mean?’ I would politely turn and explain it to them like this: ‘The jam is like the jam in a jazz session. It means it’s packed with cool stuff.’”
https://archive.vn/E91fw#selection-411.40-411.286
Interestingly enough, Sonic Jam had another name that was being considered and that was Sonic Ages. Special thanks to Sonic Retro user (@Vertekins), yes the same Vertekins who provided the translation above, for pointing out this information here:
According to the above, one of Sonic Team’s original titles they had in mind for Sonic Jam was “Sonic Ages” (“ソニックエイジス” “Sonikku Eijisu”)
https://archive.ph/Y2X8R#selection-1667.1-1666.2
Translated by GreenyVertekins
Sega Saturn Magazine ■ “So the first is “Sonic Jam”, a 4-pack of classics?”
Naka ■ “Yes. At first, we talked about wanting to do something like “Sonic Ages”. But Hamano here is the main person working on the project whilst me and Ohshima are doing other jobs. So we’re mainly providing advice.”
Source: Sega Saturn Magazine 1997 04/25 Vol 13 Page 29
https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File:SSM_JP_19970425_1997-13.pdf&page=31
It seems like this name was supposed to tie in to the Sega Ages line of games that were on the Saturn as pointed out by user (@Ted618) on the same thread just a post below from the one (@Vertekins) wrote.
IIRC it was also going to be named under the Sega Ages series of Saturn ports at some point, which gives that more sense.
*IIRC means “If I Recall Correctly”
https://archive.fo/Y2X8R#selection-1889.0-1890.0
https://segaretro.org/Category:Sega_Ages
Sega Ages is a line of re-released games that began on the Sega Saturn with the first game under this line being Sega Ages Vol. 1 Syukudai ga Tant-R which had a release date of May 24 1996.
To go even further, according to Okano Sonic Jam was also going to possibly be named Sonic Mania. Yes that’s right, Sonic Mania! It was a name that apparently came from Kazuyuki Hoshino and given that he is still at SEGA to this day it’s possible he may have been the one to give the name to the 2017 game, which itself was initially being named Sonic Discovery, especially given as Mania contains reimagined levels of the mainline classic games.
By the way, my idea adopted the title called ‘SONIC JAM”. Hoshino-san showed an idea called ‘SONIC MANIA’. He carried out the idea after 20 years passed ❗️👍
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1169261857246343171
By the way, the idea to implement reimagined levels from the classic games was also something the Sonic Team, specifically Takashi Iizuka, suggested:
Mania’s dev story is pretty neat actually, and I’m sure we’ll discuss it in the fullness of time but the short of it is this:
Our initial proposal was actually to do a rather modest little original 2D game & bundle in the remasters to sweeten the deal. Iizuka-san then suggested the “Mania” concept of re-imagining the classic Zones along with our new Zones as one cohesive game, and our team went to work coming up with a new story and ideas to go with it. So yeah, we’ve really been able to run with it, and produce something considerably more grandiose (classic zones have new BGs, layouts, bosses & gimmicks after all).
Anyway, it’s back to work for me!
https://archive.vn/QGPjl#selection-4623.0-4631.34
Christian Whitehead described the instance that he first saw the Sonic Mania name during their process of pitching the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K6hU14wero&t=850s
“So we get to the end of our presentation meeting. We had the game up on the screen and then Iizuka-san just casually turns to us and just says ‘I have many questions.’ and then that was it. We were kind of like herded out the room. We went to lunch. And we were sort of like ‘What’s going to happen?'”
“We were brought back in about an hour later and then Iizuka-san rolls in this whiteboard and starts writing a list of games down. He starts writing Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic CD, Sonic & Knuckles. And I’m like ‘Where is this going?’ and then it ends with two words, Sonic Mania.”
Sonic Mania Comic Con Panel July 22 2017
Timestamp: 14:10
Title: Sonic Mania: Behind the Scenes Panel SDCC 2017 by The Sonic Stadium
Upload Date: July 24 2017
I don’t like to personally add conjecture to writings intended to be purely informative but is it possible during this meeting when they were taken to lunch in that hour that Iizuka consulted with other members of Sonic Team, specifically Hoshino, and the name Sonic Mania was thrown out there again to which Iizuka then showed to Christian Whitehead’s team which was then ultimately accepted. Just a thought. Then again Iizuka was also the director for Sonic Jam so he may have just recalled the name himself when they were going through their own naming process for that game.
One of the reasons Sonic Jam was even greenlit in the first place was to make a concerted effort to create more awareness of the Sonic brand in Japan. This brand awareness campaign would be called Project Sonic.
SEGA Saturn Magazine Vol. 22 1997 07/04 Page 2
https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:SSM_JP_19970704_1997-22.pdf&page=2
Something to note about this logo is that it was also used in Sonic Pocket Adventure, which was released in 1999 for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, as it’s title cards for acts.
In 2022 a new campaign was made and it would carry on the name of this campaign as it is called Project Sonic ’22. This one is to promote Sonic Frontiers and the sequel to the Sonic movie from 2020. This campaign even uses the same type of logo but with Modern Sonic instead.
A new render of Modern Sonic is also doing the same pose:
You can visit the 2022 campaign here: https://web.archive.org/web/20220207015018/https://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/topics/information/20220121_002804/
Despite being a Japanese creation, Sonic has always been more popular in the west as opposed to the country of his origin. This seemed to be a part of the goal however as Sonic’s creation focused on trying to appeal more towards western audiences with the releases of the mainline classic games even being prioritized to come out first in those markets before Japan.
Returning back to the original campaign, Naoto Ohshima and Yuji Naka in an interview with the magazine Saturn Power, (No. 2) the July 1997 issue page 9, explained the origins of Project Sonic.
https://retrocdn.net/images/b/b3/SaturnPower_UK_02.pdf
Q: What can you tell us about Project Sonic?
A: Initially this project started as a company project. One of the games which the Sonic Team did was Jam. This game’s been written for people who’ve never played a Sonic game before.
When we made NiGHTS we received a lot of letters asking us what the Sonic Team was and who Sonic was. That’s why we started this project; we wanted to introduce those people to Sonic.
https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File%3ASaturnPower_UK_02.pdf&page=9
The Project Sonic label would span three games. Sonic Jam, Sonic R, and Sonic 3D Blast in that order. The logos could be seen on the back of each game’s case and disc itself.
During this period the next mainline Sonic game, Sonic Adventure, was being developed as well. It turned out that Sonic Jam’s 3D “Sonic World” was the remnants of what little was worked on for the Sega Saturn until Adventure was moved on to the Dreamcast due to the Saturn already reaching the end of its lifespan.
In an interview with Retro Gamer in the December 2007 issue Iizuka describes these events
“Yes, we’d been developing our own full 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure. However, due to technical issues and the timing of the upcoming Dreamcast project, we had to end it and instead incorporated it into the Saturn’s Sonic Jam. We then moved development for Sonic Adventure on to the Dreamcast.”
Unfortunately, I could not find an actual scan of the full magazine as the only source for this snippet was found here:
http://info.sonicretro.org/index.php?title=Sonic_World_(level)&oldid=330224
The only other remnants from this period are conceptual images that contain Sonic and Tails models from that game.
These images were first shown at the 2016 Sonic Adventure Music Experience event:
To give credit where it’s due (also because it seems as time passes it will get lost) according to posts over on Sonic Retro and Sonic Stadium the images were taken by (@namineahtellai)
Sonic Retro post:
https://archive.vn/q3QrQ#selection-3843.1-3842.3
Sonic Stadium post:
https://board.sonicstadium.org/topic/20865-sonic-adventure-concert/?tab=comments#comment-1022506
By the way (@namineahtellai) now goes by TheEmuEmi, which is a name that might be more familiar to some. If you’re not familiar though she is a fan who sings about Sonic. Here is a sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjswPUexm1g
She actually appeared in the official Sonic YouTube channel as a part of a video promoting a Monopoly set themed around Sonic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O071tfgRbqw
Just another example of SEGA connecting with the community I suppose. Enough sidetracking though.
A clean image of the one that had multiple images in it was finally fully revealed in 2020 during an official Sonic charity stream for the “Extra Life” organization.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH1S8iIWHxw&t=13536s
Timestamp: 3:45:36
Title: Sonic Official – Season 4 Extra Life 2020 Special! by Sonic the Hedgehog ✔️
Upload Date: November 14 2020
It was at this point that a redesign for the entire series was decided from several factors. One being the proportions and the visibility of body language from Sonic as he was too short all around. From the Sonic The Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Art Book by Cook & Becker Kazuyuki Hoshino discusses this aspect of the redesign process.
“A lot of things happened at once when we started work on Adventure,” remembers Kazuyuki Hoshino. To his mind, the newly styled Sonic was born from necessity, after the move from 2D to 3D.
“For instance, the third-person camera would follow Sonic from behind and from a certain height, to give the player an idea of the area in front of him,” Hoshino continues. “But when we used our existing character models, which were very short in size, Sonic’s head suddenly looked so big you did not really see anything below. His body was obscured, and you could hardly see his arms and feet. To us it was clear we needed to change Sonic’s basic design, make him taller, change his head-to-body proportions.”
Other things became clear, too. With 2D pixels, and with a character animation seen from the side, there had never been a necessity to draw details like the undersides of Sonic’s shoes. With 3D, you could see much more of the character than before, so Sonic Team needed to fill in things that had been left to players’ imaginations in the 2D days.
Excerpts of the Sonic The Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Art Book by Cook & Becker taken from a Polygon article published on April 17 2017
The book can be purchased here:
An updated version of the book containing art from Sonic Mania, Sonic Forces, and Sonic Team Racing can be found here:
Another reason for change being Sonic’s image was already reaching a point of being considered too cute and “Japanese”. From the same book there is another excerpt with some words from Yuji Uekawa.
Sega’s marketers informed Sonic Team of new fashion and merchandise trends they wanted to target, and indicated they were looking for something that was more ‘mature’ compared to how classic Sonic was perceived.
Also, there was a growing unease at Sega about Sonic being perceived as a ‘Japanese’ character. Although none of the Japanese members of Sonic Team ever expressed concerns about this, there was a general feeling the mascot could perhaps benefit from a more ‘American’, more ‘Western’ design — a distinction that is “kinda hard to explain,” Uekawa admits, but nevertheless is there.
“When you print a cute, Japanese-styled character like (the robotic anime cat) Doraemon on a T-shirt, it will look very childish, and most adults won’t wear it,” Uekawa explains.
“But a Western cartoon character like Mickey Mouse doesn’t look unnatural on an adult’s shirt. What we tried to do is to lean the Sonic character design towards a Western ‘design art’ style, rather than the typical ‘cute’ or ‘kawaii’ style that is more Japanese, to aim for a more adult and cool ‘American’ style of expression, to enhance his international appeal.”
*Kawaii is Japanese for the word “cute”. The word itself has become associated as a part of a subculture:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawaii
It’s amusing that Sonic was being viewed as such given that he was always designed to appeal more to a Western audience anyways.
In a different interview from 2018 with Retro Gamer magazine on issue #189 both Takashi Iizuka and Kazuyuki Hoshino would also talk about the redesign process and how the redesigns could fit into shirts. Here’s excerpts of the parts where they mention these topics:
“My impression was that Sonic had lost that fresh, new image he had when the character debuted. Almost all of that was gone and the character felt very safe, boring and conservative,” explains Sonic Adventure art director Kazuyuki Hoshino.
The existing characters had been tricky to represent well in 3D. However, the feeling that Sonic’s design was dated allowed the art team to give the entire cast a refresh. “Space Invaders and Pac-man were becoming popular again as retro games and characters, and they were popping up in indie music and urban ‘street’ fashion, so they were very interesting and attractive,” Hoshino recalls.
“It made us jealous, and we wanted Sonic to also become popular with this edge of subculture, or at least have some cool T-shirts being made with Sonic on them. I was thinking that, and there were other designers that were thinking the same thing, so we all got together to try and find this new graphic style for Sonic.” New illustrations were produced, with characters sporting longer limbs and twisted styles. “What it boiled down to be was a graphic style and pose that was more aware of the fashion trends. The artwork was a good fit for the club music I was really into at the time,” says the art director.
Though the illustrations were 2D drawings, their new style helped when representing the characters in 3D. “The new Sonic design had longer arms and legs, but one could say the bigger solution to the problem was the ability to pose the character where everything looked good from a variety of angles,” says Hoshino. This is a common issue when adapting character designs into full 3D. “Characters posing in 2D can be very easily faked to look cool, but there are a lot of instances where you try and represent the same pose with a 3D model and it really can’t be reproduced,” he explains. “An example would be Sonic crossing his arms. That was so difficult.”
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/retro-gamer/20181228/281659666135596
It looks like the Sonic Team was able to fulfill their vision of wanting to see the Modern Sonic design on T-shirts as there was actually a store that was in Japan opened some time around 2001 that was dedicated to selling Sonic merchandise and there was a lot of shirt designs.
Images sourced from here:
Here is the website page section of Sonic Team where they mention the store which was apparently called “R-MIX”
https://web.archive.org/web/20011006161945/https://www.sonicteam.com/goods/apparel/r_mix.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20011202105114/http://www.sonicteam.com/goods/f_goods.html
There are also images of 2 people wearing the shirts that were sold at the store:
Apparently one of the shirts that was sold in this store was found by user (@AbelMunizJr) which contained a pose of Sonic that wasn’t seen anywhere else.
Today I bring you a little piece of Sonic history with this piece of artwork.
Yes, this is official and from the Sonic Adventure days. It was featured in a shirt that was sold in the “Sonic The Hedgehog Store” in Japan.
They even included their own recreation of that pose:
Yuji Naka would go back to that “Kick It Jam!” piece and would ask who made it. Much like the creative process for Sonic’s creation, it would prompt an internal competition to see who could make the next redesign for Sonic and the rest of the characters. From a 2019 Game Developer, formerly Gamasutra, interview Okano discusses this:
“As an example, when Sonic Jam came out, I drew a cover for Sega Saturn Magazine, which was well received. Yuji Naka was going around asking, who did this? He was working on the plans for a new Sonic for Dreamcast, and wanted to give him a new style, so they held an internal competition. There was me, Naoto Ohshima [original Sonic designer], [Takumi] Miyake-san who was in charge of drawing “Nights,” and [Yuji] Uekawa-san. I was working as a 3D map designer at the time, so I didn’t have much time to prepare, and I got second place to Uekawa-san. I was disappointed, but it was because of my drawing that the competition happened at all, which wound up setting the direction of the new Sonic, so it’s a bittersweet memory.“
Game Developer, Dreamcast 20th anniversary interview extravaganza by Brandon Sheffield. September 2019
Archived version of article when it was still Gamasutra:
It seems that he not only took interest in this art in particular but that he suggested a minor revision to it as well. Going back to that Twitter post including the postcards, user (@ArcadeMegamix) pointed out that the shoes were different in the postcard.
Okano would respond saying that the reason it’s different is because of Naka intervening.
(@ArcadeMegamix)
Oh! The shoes are different. The white and yellow pattern is missing. 靴は違います。 白と黄色のパターンがありません。:o
https://twitter.com/ArcadeMegamix/status/1249795923472977920
Satoshi Okano (@okanotion)
Yuji Naka-san said. “You don’t need to make sonic a strange design. Please control you a little😀”
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1249854196909658112
As for the competition, as Okano stated it was Yuji Uekawa’s submission that made him the winner. It wouldn’t be until August 2020 that the designs from each of the four artists would be revealed when the website SEGADriven obtained a scan from a Sega Harmony Magazine. More specifically it was Volume 154 (November-December 1997). Only this specific page was scanned and not the complete magazine for whatever reason.
New Updates to Hardware and Merchandise Sections:
A fresh selection of updates have now gone live in the hardware and merchandise sections. See below for a full list of additions and direct links to each entry:
Merchandise Updates
– Harmony issue 154 …
Magazine section from link above:
https://twitter.com/segadriven/status/1292860277940277249
Sega Harmony was an internal company magazine given only to employees and for that reason documentation of the magazine is scarce due to its rarity:
The scan for this was done by Mark Hughes (@thesketchsector)
(@AbelMunizJr)
Yo thank you for this @segadriven!
I’ve seen the two images on the right, but the ones on the left are new to me. They’re so cool! 😍
https://twitter.com/segadriven/status/1292860277940277249 [https://archive.vn/zZ5Er]
https://twitter.com/AbelMunizJr/status/1293228950408138752
(@segadriven)
Not a problem! All credit to @thesketchsector for scanning these!
https://twitter.com/segadriven/status/1293231020955836417
Mark Hughes has actually done art for the official Sonic social media account. Here is an example of one of his artworks:
https://twitter.com/thesketchsector/status/1318952705587544066
Anyways, here’s the page of importance showcasing each of the designs:
Translated by GreenyVertekins
FOR PROJECT SONIC CHARACTER IMAGE SURVEY
This illustration is to be used for Q.18 on page 7.
From the interviews we can determine which design belongs to who by process of elimination.
Number four is Takumi Miyake. They had previously worked on other Sonic titles like Sonic CD and Knuckles’ Chaotix. Miyake apparently was also the character designer for Espio:
https://segaretro.org/Takumi_Miyake
Number three is Naoto Ohshima. We can determine this is Ohshima’s design since it has actually appeared in some places. Burning Rangers was a Sega Saturn title developed by Sonic Team and released in February 1998. With that in mind, in the game you can rescue several Sonic Team developers and they’ll send you a thank you message. For Naoto Ohshima’s message it includes an image of Sonic with a similar design.
I discovered this information here:
Here is a video that demonstrates Ohshima’s in-game character being rescued:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdQJ9qFi1_Q&t=980s
Timestamp: 16:20
Later on in the video you can see Ohshima’s message and the included image which are at 34:30 in that video.
Spikeout: Digital Battle Online was an arcade game released in September 1998 and it also includes an image of this design but this time it’s not just similar. It’s the exact same image.
As it turns out Ohshima wasn’t even aware of this game’s existence let alone the appearance of his design in it.
1- (@Tracker_TD)
I mentioned this a while back, but a piece of Sonic art in Ohshima’s distinct style shows up in SEGA’s SpikeOut. Not seen it anywhere else.
https://twitter.com/Tracker_TD/status/854732038531932168
2 – (@NaotoOhshima)
What is this? Game?
https://twitter.com/NaotoOhshima/status/854847873044762624
3 – (@Tracker_TD)
It is SpikeOut, a 1998 fighting game for arcades. Sonic appears in one stage!
https://twitter.com/Tracker_TD/status/854848481168683008
4 – (@NaotoOhshima)
Thank you very much!!!
https://twitter.com/NaotoOhshima/status/854849357966745600
This sonic was drawn for the test of minor change.
Therefore, it was unpublished. I was surprised.lol.
https://twitter.com/NaotoOhshima/status/854847597441306624
There will be more to be seen from Spikeout in just a bit but for now here’s a drawing Ohshima made of Nights and Sonic appearing again with that same style.
Not entirely sure when exactly this was drawn but the earliest source I could find of it was for this Nights fan site where Ohshima actually provided a lot of high resolution images of concept art including the drawing above:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210401142758/http://www.nightsintodreams.com/?p=1641
I think this design is a bit of a departure from how Ohshima initially drew Sonic but I suppose he just wanted to evolve his style at that point in time. This is particularly seen with the spindly fingers and sharp teeth.
It has been said that fangs were initially a part of Sonic’s original design and that they were scrapped during the whole process of removing other early aspects that included the music band members and Sonic’s human girlfriend, Madonna. Although, it has been a point of contention on whether or not Sonic actually having fangs is true. No concept art showing this alleged feature has ever cropped up and the only people who have ever made such claims were from the Sega of America branch which include Tom Kalinske, Madeline Schroeder, and Al Nilsen. It’s quite possible they may be misremembering things given that it has now been decades at this point or they may even be blatantly lying but I don’t want to make accusations so who knows. An example of this discourse can be seen here:
https://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?29801-Is-Tom-Kalinske-full-of-it
Something of interest in regards to this is a 1991 manga called “Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic” where he was drawn with fangs:
More info on the manga can be found here:
https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Story_Comic
As far as I know, the only time Sonic has had fangs in any game was in Sonic Adventure and its DX re-release.
I didn’t know about this until researching for this article but here’s how a real life hedgehog’s teeth look like:
The sharp teeth did come back in one of Ohshima’s later original designs for a brand new character in a mobile game, Terra Battle. The corresponding character’s name would be Knack.
This particular pose looks to be taken from this Sonic one
Ohshima would create other characters for this game all with clear influences from Sonic.
Wukong is based on Sun Wukong who is actually one of the main characters from “Journey to the West” which in itself is what the story of the original “Dragon Ball” by Akira Toriyama was loosely based on along with their own main character, Son Goku. The Sonic series has always had comparisons made with Dragon Ball, what with Super Sonic being a blatant reference to the Super Saiyan form, and this is just one more to add to the list.
Another thing I would like to bring up is this other design that was seen on this jacket that also bares sharp teeth:
What’s special about this jacket is that this was made only for members of the Sonic 3 team. Here is Yuji Naka wearing it in a 1995 interview from Sega Saturn Magazine:
Translated interview can be read here:
Here is another image where he may possibly be wearing the same jacket given that it looks to have been taken around the same period of time with Naka seemingly working with Mega Drive development equipment and a Sonic 3 cap in the background.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2699065823453866&set=t.100000514240758&type=3
It looks like owning a leather jacket is a prerequisite for being the lead developer for 2D Classic Sonic games.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180731135601/https://twitter.com/CFWhitehead/status/774169797135245316
It’s unknown whether or not Ohshima drew the design in the jacket but the distinctive sharp teeth are reminiscent of his style.
Linkabel (@Abelmunizjr) has shown off that they own one of these jackets over on Twitter:
Here’s a piece of Sonic history I got earlier this year. It’s the “Blue Gale” bomber jacket that members of Sonic Team wore when they were making Sonic 3!
For those who know Sonic’s history will recognize it’s based off the jacket wore by the test pilot in the Mary Garnet story.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210630210250/https://twitter.com/abelmunizjr/status/943895294961336320
The last image is actually of Ohshima wearing his own jacket:
Unfortunately, the original source for the image was deleted from his account but a Tumblr post managed to mirror them with the source which is how I was able to find this out:
https://vgjackets.tumblr.com/post/161204577054/naoto-ohshima-s-sonic-jacket
If you want to learn more about the Mary Garnet story then you can read it here
http://info.sonicretro.org/Original_Story
Linkabel (@AbelMunizJr) has provided additional information over on Sonic Retro and even mentioned the fact that they managed to have a discussion with Ohshima himself:
I talked about it with Ohshima some years ago when he reached out to ask about stuff from my collection.
So I took the opportunity to ask him about it since I knew fans were going to be curious about it.
That leather jacket is not sold. It has only major members of the Sonic Team. Wow!!
When I asked him if he drew the emblem/plane nose art he said:
It was made in Sega of America. Illustrations are not mine. I designed the patch. I have that leather jacket.
https://archive.fo/fd9tW#selection-1453.0-1400.6
So I guess that closes the case on that one. He only designed the patch for it. Moving on now.
Number two is Satoshi Okano. Just imagine in an alternate universe this was the design that won.
Number one and the winner of the contest, Yuji Uekawa. It’s quite clear to see why it won. This piece would eventually evolve into this one:
The initial design has actually appeared in a few places. One of the more notable being in Sonic Generations as a piece of unlockable concept art.
It appeared in the aforementioned arcade game Spikeout along with Ohshima’s design:
A rip of the exact texture can be seen here:
The art of Sonic sitting that is placed on the cloud also looks like it has a green color in his eye
The two images above along with the rest of the other information about Spikeout including the tweet involving Ohshima were all sourced from here:
It also looks like Uekawa’s design appeared at Sega’s Japanese arcade, Joypolis.
Unfortunately the exact date of when this image was taken is unknown as the only source I could currently find was this article from 2014:
However, even for how small the image is I think I could recognize that the art on the buttons were from the SegaSonic line of artwork from the late 90’s so that narrows it down to that period:
The DJ Sonic artwork will be of interest for later. If you would like to see the images above in a larger size then follow these image links that correspond to the order they appear above:
To see more about the SegaSonic brand you can visit here:
https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/SegaSonic_the_Hedgehog_(brand)
Ever wonder why they even had to specifically call him SegaSonic for a certain period in the 1990’s? Well it apparently spans from a trademark dispute between another game company. You can read more about that here:
Now who exactly is Yuji Uekawa though?
Prior to making the Modern redesign he had worked on the 1995 Mega Drive game Ristar as the character designer.
It’s quite clear that Ristar has influences from Sonic and even earlier concepts show when the character was called “Feel” that they had red shoes that looked quite reminiscent to Sonic’s.
It looks like Uekawa’s first role in the Sonic series would be on Sonic Jam where he drew Sonic. So the modern redesign wouldn’t actually be the first time he drew him as I had always assumed. Here’s how his design for Classic Sonic looks like:
Okano would confirm that these were done by Uekawa as he answered a question that came from Sonic Youtuber, chaomix.
(@chaomix)
岡野さん、すみません。ちょっと、僕の質問を確認できてくれませんか？こんなクラシックぽいな絵誰が描きましたか。岡野さんの絵ですか。上川さんの？昔から、岡野さんの絵だと思いましたけど、実は全然知らないんです。ありがとうございますよ！😁
Translation via Deepl
Okano-san, I’m sorry. I was wondering if you could help me with my question. Who drew this classic-looking picture? Is it Okano-san’s picture? Mr. Uekawa’s? I’ve always thought it was Okano-san’s work, but I don’t know anything about it. Thank you very much! 😁
https://twitter.com/chaomix/status/1391595530896224256
Satoshi Okano (@okanotion)
はじめまして。
この可愛いソニックは全て偉大なアーティストの上川さんの仕事ですよ💖
Translation via Deepl
Nice to meet you.
All this lovely sonic stuff is the work of a great artist, Mr. Uekawa!💖
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1391604921330401281
Going back to that Sonic Jam strategy guide and that excerpt that was translated thanks to Vertekins I was able to confirm for myself that these drawings including two others were done by Uekawa. Again going back to the initial description from Okano’s Kick It Jam! piece:
Since the translation shows that the last part of the text in parenthesis is credits for the art I could determine by looking up Yuji Uekawa’s name in Japanese that the rest of the others shown in the strategy guide were done by him.
Here’s the other two pieces in the strategy guide credited to him:
In 2016 in order to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sonic in Japan an event was held at Tokyo Joypolis with Takashi Iizuka, Jun Senoue (one of their prominent music producers for the games), and Yuji Uekawa. As a part of the event they revealed never before seen art for most of the characters including designs for Modern Sonic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_0Smuksrqo&t=1035s
Timestamp: 17:15
Title: 『ソニック25周年 アニバーサリーパーティー』生放送
by ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ【公式】
Upload Date: June 25 2016
Unfortunately, I don’t understand Japanese and there are no subtitles so I am interested to know what they are saying in case there might be more information to learn from them.
I would like to point out one of these in the batch
This one actually appeared in the front cover for Sonic R‘s soundtrack album:
This is interesting because this album predates Sonic Adventure by a few months with a January 1998 release. This information was obtained here:
http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_R_(album)
While it does have a copyright for the year 1997 the date is apparently the section that is boxed in with the sequence [98•1•21] or in other words, 1998•January•21.
The Japanese Sonic R Official Guide Book which was released in December 1997 also shows the album cover with that artwork
Image from:
https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File%3ASonicROfficialGuide_Book_JP.pdf&page=116
That artwork would eventually evolve into this piece adding in the gray soles of his shoes
The modern redesign was teased to the public with this image showcasing a silhouette of only Sonic’s eyes and grin:
Why was the color green chosen for Sonic’s eyes?
Going back to that Polygon article’s excerpt on the 25th anniversary art book:
“Sonic now had irises around his pupils instead of the basic black dots he sported as a 2D character. Uekawa made them green to contrast with the other colors on his body and clothes, and also “because he is always seeing these green pastures around him, like in Green Hill Zone. I thought it would be nice to reflect that in his eyes.”
https://archive.ph/JpmTb#selection-1205.108-1205.443
Sonic Adventure itself was unveiled publicly on August 22 1998 at the Tokyo International Forum. Here is an advertisement of the event that was seen on a train using that silhouette of Sonic.
Here is a VHS video that was made detailing the event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEriV_g_Glc
Subtitles for English are available in case they are not automatically activated under the CC button.
There was a booklet handed out for the people who went to the event which contains a lot of development information.
Page 19 offers information on the redesign of Sonic:
Images obtained here were scanned by Sonic Retro user (@Orengefox):
https://archive.org/details/SonicAdventureTokyoInternationalForumUnveiling19980822BookPage30
Forum Thread:
A translation of this page, along with three others, was made by Sonic Retro user (@Windii):
https://archive.ph/lDAii#selection-3937.0-3940.0
The theme is “Back to Basics”! Cool Sonic has returned!
Even more important than the world view was the direction of the new Sonic’s image change. Dozens of ideas were considered by the team, and after repeated research, the design for the new Sonic was chosen. “We kept the original traits, but raised the age of his appearance, making it easier for the design to express the parts of his character that have grown, his movement, and his facial expression. (Uekawa)”
The new Sonic is a modern version and return to the original image of the old Sonic, which was becoming more family-oriented. The green eyes, mouth expression, and moving pose are the key points.
Pages 24 and 25 have an interview with Yuji Naka who would express his thoughts on the redesign where he also mentioned Sonic started becoming a cute character.
Another translated page from (@Windii)
Q: It seems that Sonic has a new look?
A: Actually, this time, we rehauled Sonic himself with an eye to the timing of the announcement of the Dreamcast, Sega’s new generation hardware. If you look at the character illustrations, you’ll see that we changed Sonic’s touch drastically. We did this because we thought that the character of Sonic has been perceived as a “cute guy” by people lately. To us, Sonic has always been a “cool, cocky guy who doesn’t butter up to anyone.” That’s why we thought that Sonic was going to be a little different.
It was a milestone for us as we entered the new era of Dreamcast, but we wanted everyone to look at Sonic with new eyes by daring to go back to the basics. All future Sonic games from Sega will have this touch.
If you would like to see the other two pages (@Windii) translated then here they are:
Uekawa would go into further detail of the process for the modern redesign once more in that excerpt from the 25th anniversary art book:
Designing a Sonic that answered the many challenges was left to Uekawa. He kicked things off with examining what made the classic Sonic design great. “His iconic image, I reasoned, mainly stems from the unique eye shape, and the strong impression of his big quills: they make Sonic recognizable just by his silhouette, even when in motion. So, for the new illustration style, I prioritized the lines of the quills, always showing their beautiful curve, independent of Sonic’s posture. To further express his dynamism and strength, I used a calligraphic ‘line’ expression you see in a lot of comics. This may well be the reason why to many people Sonic looks ‘graphical’, ‘graffiti’, or ‘street styled’.”
Uekawa’s designs went back and forth with the rest of the team, until everyone approved of the new art direction. “Uekawa-san’s final designs convinced us, yes, this is it,” Hoshino says. “Next, he changed the other characters in the Sonic universe to fit the same design sense and style. Once the basic design was locked in, there were no problems for us adjusting the other characters.”
Uekawa remembers the process as a ‘refining’ of Sonic, in which the character evolved to go with the times.
https://archive.ph/JpmTb#selection-1189.0-1205.107
As a finishing touch, the color of the modernized Sonic changed to a deeper blue “Although his age didn’t change, his proportions were improved upon, to the effect that a more grown-up Sonic emerged,” Uekawa explains. “His previous light blue color did not match with the new image, so I changed it to a more mature navy blue. Importantly, when confirming the new degree of blue, I considered the color of a new overseas [Sega of America] logo, too. Sonic’s skin color parts were adjusted too, by the way, to keep the overall color balance.”
https://archive.ph/JpmTb#selection-1209.0-1220.3
Uekawa is referring to the change to a darker blue from the fact that the SEGA logo itself is actually two different shades of blue depending on what region it’s in.
The official Japanese SEGA Twitter account confirms this in a 2015 post they made where they show documents of the logos with the two different colors.
おはセガ！ヽ(・∀・)ノ 今日は1/6、色の日！
「セガ・ブルー/SEGA BLUE」と呼ばれるコーポレートカラーはセガが目指す、先進技術による安全で明るい未来、エンタテインメントの楽しさ、そして安らぎを表してます。ご存じでした？
Translation via Deepl
Good morning Sega! I wish you all the best, and today is 1/6, Color Day!
The corporate color “SEGA BLUE” represents SEGA’s vision of a safe and bright future with advanced technology, fun entertainment, and peace of mind. Did you know that?
It reveals that the official name for this color is “Sega Blue” along with a classification of “Toyo Ink CF10382”
Another image was found that shows these documents much better showing that each of the logos correspond to the regions of Europe and Japan.
The only source I could find for this image was from here:
https://twitter.com/HI_Ricky/status/1165123232669696000
https://segaretro.org/Sega_logo#Official_guidelines
The Japanese logo has a RGB hexadecimal of #008dd0
Meanwhile the international logo has a RGB hexadecimal of #0060a8
Sonic Generations had the Classic and Modern designs of Sonic have two different shades of blue as a way to differentiate each of them.
Classic Sonic was given the lighter shade of blue and every appearance afterwards, including Sonic Mania, has him with this shade of color. This can be seen as a baffling, unnecessary decision to some given that Classic Sonic was usually colored in with darker blues in older art like this one from Sonic 3 for example:
However, the lighter shade of blue has always been intended as a part of his design as Ohshima shared a color chart that was used for the original Sonic the Hedgehog:
ソニック1のカラーセッティング。
Sonic 1 color setting.
This chart is following the CMYK model for assigning colors for printing purposes. CMYK meaning Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and the K stands for Key but it’s basically Black.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK_color_model
So Sonic initially had a color value of C100 and M60 but that was indecisive as it became M40 then M30 (at least I think it’s 30) and then finally back to M40. The reason the values for Yellow and Black (K) aren’t written down is because they aren’t used to make that specific shade of blue. In other words, they would both have a color value of zero for each so there is no point to write them down.
The Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog manual contains some artwork where Sonic does have a lighter blue color to him:
https://info.sonicretro.org/index.php?title=File:Sonic1_MD_JP_SonicJam_manual.pdf&page=23
Out of curiosity I decided to see how each of the shades of blue proposed looked like.
↑ M60 with a hexadecimal value of #0066ff
============================
↑ M30 with a hexadecimal value of #00b3ff
============================
↑ Lastly, M40 with a hexadecimal value of #0099ff
============================
The CMYK calculator was used from here:
https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_cmyk.asp
I suppose they chose M40 then went to M30 and realized it was too light and then finally went back to M40.
This color chart lines up with another later color chart that was found in the “Sonic Art Assets” DVD where it also has Sonic’s blue with a color value of C100 and M40.
This DVD was used as a guideline for merchandising and promotional purposes. The DVD became publicly available in 2009 when Sonic Retro user (@drx) obtained a copy and shared its contents:
http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_art_assets_DVD
Back to Modern Sonic, there was also a style guide book made along the Sonic Adventure period which shows the color values for Modern Sonic:
The color values for his blue here are C100 and M70:
One of the pages even includes a sheet for an illustrated version of the in game 3D model:
If you would like to see the rest of the book which has all the other characters then you can see it here:
https://info.sonicretro.org/images/c/cd/Sonic_Adventure_Stylebook.pdf
For comparison, the actual 3D model:
Images re-edited from an image sourced here:
All this talk surrounding the game, and now finally on to the actual game itself. Okano would help be involved in its development being credited as one of the “Field Artists”. From the Game Developer/Gamasutra interview I think it is fair to assume that the title of the role is just another way to say he was a map designer. Again from the interview:
“I was working as a 3D map designer at the time, so I didn’t have much time to prepare, and I got second place to Uekawa-san.”
https://archive.ph/TzGCa#selection-2363.409-2363.533
He would also mention that he was involved with texture work on the game.
はい。当時はコンセプトを描く人とモデリング、テクスチャー、アニメーションを作る人は同じでした。😊
Yes. At that time, people who draw concepts and people who make modeling, textures, and animations were the same.😊
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1732032259065323834
Quote Tweeting – From this thread: https://archive.is/4Znuv
Fantastic artwork as always! Mr. Satoshi Okano, did you also inolved in the texture mapping of the Sonic Adventure levels?
https://twitter.com/Leonard85026417/status/1732018699039609082
These weren’t just his only role with this game however. He would also still partake in doing artwork. According to Okano himself, he was the one responsible for the Modern Eggman logo. If you don’t know what it looks like then here it is:
Oh! There is the egg man mark in PS5! I designed this icon at the making of sonic adventure in 1998😁
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1274584091866718209
Responding to this from (@Trickster____):
PLAYSTATION 5
CREATED BY EGGMAN INDUSTRIES.
https://twitter.com/Trickster____/status/1271212101105856514
Okano would also apparently still be semi-involved with the Sonic artwork for this game as he has stated that some of them were done as a two person effort with him and Uekawa:
I drafted these sonic. And great Uekawa-san finished it. hands and feet aren’t joints like the human being. The reason is because I love and respect Oshima-san’s classic sonic. There are the sonic which two artists made a coproduct elsewhere. However, I can’t remember now😓
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1169254966680145920
From what I can gather from this post Okano is saying that there are more than these two artworks that he worked on along with Uekawa but he can’t remember which ones they are. Here are high resolution images of both of them:
This definitely explains why some of the art from the first Adventure game still retains some of those bendy “noodle” limbs that Okano’s art had as he had influence working on some of these and also why Uekawa’s artwork for the games afterward no longer had this look.
Ohshima’s original artwork of Sonic did also have this type of look with bendy limbs as Okano mentioned.
One of the pages even includes another color chart for Sonic with the same values of C100 and M40:
Images obtained from a document that is called “Sonic the Hedgehog Settei Shiryoushuu”:
https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Settei_Shiryoushuu
There is a clear influence to old “rubberhose” style cartoons in these and if you don’t know what that means then you can learn more about that term here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_hose_animation
Even one of the poses in here looks like it was based off of Felix the Cat a character that made their debut in 1919:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_the_Cat
Not only did he like Ohshima’s design of Classic Sonic but he also likes the design of Greg Martin. This is the design that appeared in the box art of the classic games in North America.
I like the classic style of Oshima-san and Greg Martin. That’s why the modern sonic I drew has a round belly. And the arms and legs are round joints.
Sonic is becoming more and more serious anime style. I like the mischievous cartoon style.😋👍
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1732731606031626407
Quote Tweeting – From this thread:
https://ia804609.us.archive.org/26/items/okano-tweets/96-Ohshima_Greg_Martin_Thread_Source.png
yea. It’s really hard to get an upright stance to look unique to a character’s personality. I think I’d draw Sonic more often if I knew how to do it more easily. there’s a lot of times where i started drawing his face and head but had to stop because thinking of a stance is hard
https://twitter.com/CyanHyprPsychic/status/1732730577038766293
Here is an older post where he mentions this:
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1355843832164745223
Okano also showed that the DJ Sonic artwork has a similar pose to his 3D Blast artwork
As for the old sonic of ‘SONIC 3D BLAST/SONIC 3D FLICKIE’S ISLAND’, most of the poses are the same as this DJ SONIC(new sonic). Would you understand it?🤗
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1169396591288938496
What does this mean though? Was the 3D Blast artwork made first or after this one since Sonic Adventure came out in 1998 while that game’s Japanese release was in 1999. Somebody actually asked him when did he make that 3D Blast artwork and he would respond.
Satoshi Okano (@okanotion)
Thank you very much. I drew this sonic too.’Sonic 3D: Flickies’ Island ‘ It’s a very nostalgic job. I understand you and all. I don’t mind. Yes,Uekawa-san is a super cool creator ;D
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1123204101527879680
Responding to this image post from (@omgnova)
https://twitter.com/omgnova/status/1123200716976349185
Additional response from (@WisdomNaive)
When did you draw this sonic picture Mr.Okano?💙☺️🦊❓ it’s still very beautiful!!💙😆🦊🙌🏻✨💕💖✨💕💖
https://twitter.com/WisdomNaive/status/1123204620141105154
From what he can recall he says that the art was done in May 1997 so that puts it at the very least before Sonic Adventure‘s release.
If my memory is correct, I drew it around May 1997. Its the instruction of Kazuyuki Hoshino/Sonicteam’s Art Director.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1123208703635640320
Just keep in mind with the way he phrased his answer though as he isn’t too sure himself with his recollection. This is understandable as it was a very long time ago. Memory is a very fickle thing. If he really did make that artwork in 1997 then he probably made it for himself and then when they needed new art for a game he decided to use it for 3D Blast.
Remember that DJ Sonic artwork mentioned awhile back from the SegaSonic line that I briefly showed? You know, this one:
Well Linkabel (@AbelMunizJr) noticed the Adventure DJ Sonic artwork looked similar to this one and asked Okano if it was in reference to it or was if it just a coincidence. Okano seemingly answered that he did reference that artwork for the Adventure one.
Was the DJ artwork a reference to this one or was it just a coincidence?
https://twitter.com/AbelMunizJr/status/1169291053481918466
Response from Satoshi Okano (@okanotion)
I took a look at all documents in the company in those days. This art surely existed. I was stimulated very much and returned it to new sonic. The arts of the oversea sonic of this time/’91-92 are the most splendid👍
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1169292891312644097
The image used in the question comes from the album Sonic Team “PowerPlay”
For more information on this album visit here:
https://segaretro.org/Sonic_Team_%22PowerPlay%22
This album was released in November 6 1998 which makes it interesting because a 12th hidden track that was not listed happens to be the main theme of Sonic Adventure, “Open Your Heart”. Adventure wouldn’t be released until December 23 1998, about one month later. The Japanese Sega website details this here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210316154129/http://sonic.sega.jp/sonicadv/snd/cd_1.html
ジャケットにもどこにも記載はされていないんだけど、実は12曲目にシークレットトラックとして、ソニックアドベンチャーのメインテーマ”Open Your Heart”が収録されているんだよ。
色々なところで、中さんが「一足先に未来を聴けるかも…」と語っていたことも今となっては懐かしいね。
実は”Open Your Heart”の最終的なレコーディングは、1998年の9月中旬にL.A.で行ったので、このCDに収録するためには本当にギリギリなスケジュールだったりしたんだ。
でも、それまでにソニックチーム宛でメインテーマに関する問い合わせを多数頂いていたので、収録出来て本当に良かったなぁ…と思います。
Translation via Deepl
Although it is not mentioned on the jacket or anywhere else, there is actually a secret track, “Open Your Heart,” the main theme of Sonic Adventure, included as the 12th track.
In various places, Mr. Naka has said, “You might be able to hear the future one step ahead of the rest…” I miss it now.
Actually, the final recording of “Open Your Heart” was done in L.A. in mid-September 1998, so we were on a really tight schedule to get it on this CD.
However, we had received many inquiries about the main theme from the Sonic team, so we were very happy to be able to record it… I am very happy that we were able to record it.
To add on to this, an earlier version of “Open Your Heart” was performed at the Tokyo International Forum event where it was sung by Eizo Sakamoto.
The DJ Sonic art from the “Power Play” album also appeared on other kinds of merchandise. It appeared on mousepads:
It also appeared on T-shirts. Linkabel showed off the shirt which they owned that also has this art on it after Naoto Ohshima posted about their own shirt collection.
My T-shirts Collection.
https://twitter.com/NaotoOhshima/status/850982154901143552
Response from (@AbelMunizJr)
I have a couple of shirts and sweaters from the SegaSonic line
https://twitter.com/AbelMunizJr/status/850992154516217856
In 2020 an album titled “Sonic the Hedgehog DJ Style Party” had new art made by Uekawa which had Sonic as a DJ again.
Image sourced from here:
For more information on this album you can visit here:
There was also some other merchandise that went along with this album which can be seen here:
It looks like after some time passed Okano would remember which other art he made after he watched a video from the previously mentioned Sonic Youtuber, chaomix.
I remembered it on seeing his Youtube. I drew ski sonic & laugh sonic of the sonic adventure! Conversely, Kawaii Sonic of SONIC JAM ware work of Great Yuji Ukekawa-san.
Some these Youtube had the mistake, but one step got closer to “the complicated truth”🧐
https://web.archive.org/web/20210509031043/https://twitter.com/chaomix/status/1390828120815583235
https://web.archive.org/web/20210510060102/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1391630526306340864
The laughing Sonic seems to be referring to this one:
There was multiple artwork done of Sonic skiing so he was asked which ones he did being shown three examples. He would answer this question:
Which Ski Sonic was your work?
https://web.archive.org/web/20210510085246/https://twitter.com/Furdman02/status/1391672600208678912
Response from Satoshi Okano (@okanotion)
Left side one❣️
https://web.archive.org/web/20210510094920/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1391673968675889152
So the one he made was apparently this one:
Here is the video chaomix did for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njOi8Q0fxa4
They start talking about Okano at 15:38 and after that they then talk about the Adventure art style.
Now remember in that Fanbyte interview when Okano said he wanted to make a new Sonic companion after joining SEGA? Well it turns out he may have sort of fulfilled that for Adventure even if it was in the most minor way. So which character is it? Well it wasn’t any of the newcomers. It was more of a background character. In the “At Dawn” section of the Speed Highway level there are several kinds of posters throughout and one of these contains this unknown character.
Screenshot taken from this video:
More images of the poster itself:
Image taken from here:
https://twitter.com/GambitoSonic/status/1497201171983118337
Image taken from here:
https://twitter.com/GambitoSonic/status/1497203343349157888
The poster also appears at the burger place in the Station Square hub world:
Screenshot taken from this video:
New information on this would be revealed when Okano mentioned in a post about still having a sketchbook from this time period and was thinking about releasing it or not. Evidently, he decided not to as this post was eventually deleted.
I still store a sketchbook. Everybody will be pleased when I release it. However, I do not intend to be released now. They may be at a loss as it is different from official history of SEGA💙🦔💙🦔
https://web.archive.org/web/20200809095509/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1292398880504438784
Coming off from a response Okano made to someone else the user (@ArcadeMegamix) decided to ask him whether he knew anything about this poster. They asked their question in both English and Japanese so there is no need to translate the Japanese portion.
I’d love to see your sketchbooks!
https://twitter.com/Cookie__Sophie/status/1292404479002910721
Response from Satoshi Okano (@okanotion)
You must wait for time when I open a secret drawer in back of the storeroom sometime without expecting it too much!🙇♂️💙🦔
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1292405492921167873
Additional response from (@ArcadeMegamix)
This may be a strange question. Do you know anything about the girl character on the posters in Speed Highway in Sonic Adventure? Top-left. これは奇妙な質問かもしれません。 ソニックアドベンチャーのスピードハイウェイのポスターの女の子キャラクターについて何か知っていますか？ 左上。
https://twitter.com/ArcadeMegamix/status/1292452446363582466
Here is Okano’s answer:
こんな名の無い仕事を知る人は珍しいですよ👍
This was character of the planned spider which there was not which I used :]
Translation via Deepl
It’s rare for people to know about a job with no name like this👍
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1292455545853448192
(@ArcadeMegamix) would ask for further elaboration as they didn’t understand what a “planned spider” meant. They would ask entirely in Japanese as it is clear Okano is more comfortable with using his native language.
回答ありがとうございます！ すみません、「planned spider」の意味がわかりません。😅日本語で説明してもらえますか？ ご迷惑おかけしました。
ソニックアドベンチャーの世界は細部に溢れています。 当時のハードワークは世界中のファンから高く評価されています。🤩
Translation via Deepl
Thanks for the answer! Sorry, I don’t know what “planned spider” means. Can you explain it in Japanese 😅? Sorry for the inconvenience.
The world of Sonic Adventure is full of details. The hard work of the time is highly appreciated by fans around the world. 🤩
https://twitter.com/ArcadeMegamix/status/1292470898709209088
Response from Satoshi Okano (@okanotion)
はい。私はキャラクターを作る仕事を希望していました。これは、仕事の合間を縫って当時使用していた3Dのツールで自分のスケッチブックにあった蜘蛛の女の子のモデルを作りレンダリングしたものだと記憶しています。
Translation via Deepl
Yes, I am interested in the company. I wanted a job creating characters. I remember this was a model of a spider girl that I made and rendered from my sketchbook with the 3D tools I was using at the time between jobs.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1292606063661862913
So it is now confirmed by him that this character is supposed to be a spider girl and anytime he is questioned about this he asserts his statement on it even mentioning that he still has the sketchbook with her in it which he used during this period.
She is a spider? 🕷️
https://twitter.com/LeeHiley/status/1292526622130737154
Response from Satoshi Okano (@okanotion)
yes it is.😊👍
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1292606273070874624
This was character of the girl of the spider which I created freely.🕷
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1292606937272524800
Responding to this from (@TheDJTC)
Me and my little brother were always fascinated by that poster. Trying to figure out just… who?
https://twitter.com/TheDJTC/status/1292476305896886272
ありがとうございます。
たぶん在職していた時に自費で購入していたスケッチブックが物入れの奥に眠っています😊
Translation via Deepl
Thank you very much.
I have a sketchbook that I probably purchased at my own expense during my tenure that is sitting in the back of my closet😊
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1398068521309851650
Responding to this from (@CelestOrion)
返信が遅くなって申し訳ありませんが、このキャラクターの全身コンセプトアートはありますか？ 彼女のフルデザインを見てみたいです！
Translation via Deepl
Sorry for the late reply, but do you have any full body concept art for this character? I would love to see her full design!
https://twitter.com/CelestOrion/status/1398060795674640393
Yes. I put a sketchbook at the time away in the depths of the storeroom. I may release it sometime.🦔💙
https://web.archive.org/web/20210728052248/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1420253339124523008
Responding to this from (@TikTikKobold)
Is there more art of her?
User (@MainJPW) created an enhanced version of the image, likely through filters, and made some observations on it. They even outlined what they believed the design to look like.
About that spider girl designed by Satoshi Okano in Sonic Adventure’s Speed Highway, if you enhance this it reveals some things. Are those, um…boobs? That looks like a bra. Spikes on her head instead of ears, big ol’ eyes and lips.
What an interesting design.
https://twitter.com/MainJPW/status/1321645851760943104
Additional Post
Probably not a bra, it could be a low cut dress. She’s pretty spiky with the spikes around her shoulder, too. Could be inspired by the Peucetia viridans. I wonder what her full body design looked like.
https://twitter.com/MainJPW/status/1321720756393435136
If you’re curious this is what a Peucetia viridans looks like which they mentioned.
As shown in their first post, they did observe that the character looked like they had breasts and they may have had a point on that as Okano mentioned this too.
The image which performed rendering is composition of the breast enhancement. However, I think that the picture of the girl of the spider is left in the old sketchbook more than my 25 years.🕷
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1292609011003531264
Responding to this from (@Spiral_Senshi)
Is there anything left that shows her full design?
https://twitter.com/Spiral_Senshi/status/1292607534168043520
Admittedly, I don’t know what to make of this post. If it’s not obvious already then Okano does admit himself that his English is not that good.
1 – (@IdsTns)
What is a planned spider?
https://web.archive.org/web/20200809174517/https://twitter.com/IdsTns/status/1292517143393841157
2 – (@NewXity)
A spider that was planned
https://web.archive.org/web/20200809174517/https://twitter.com/IdsTns/status/1292517143393841157
3 – (@IdsTns)
Oh thank you I couldn’t knew it if you didn’t tell me that
https://web.archive.org/web/20200809200919/https://twitter.com/IdsTns/status/1292553486400393216
4 – (@NewXity)
Your welcome
https://web.archive.org/web/20200809201050/https://twitter.com/NewXity/status/1292553869747277827
5 – Satoshi Okano (@okanotion)
My English is not good and is hard to know it. I appreciate your supplement.🕷🕷🕷
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1292607649813471233
The spider girl was also acknowledged officially as a cameo in the IDW 30th anniversary special comic book in the sub story “Sonic Learns to Drive” as a poster just like it appeared in Sonic Adventure.
https://www.idwpublishing.com/product/sonic-the-hedgehog-30th-anniversary-special/
That whole story is brimming with references. The illustrator made a blog post covering all of them if you would like to see it:
https://maurofonseca.tumblr.com/post/656664327351369728/sonic-learns-to-drive-references-guide
In November 2023 Okano would finally show off the full art of the spider girl amongst concept art for the game “Samba de Amigo”
納戸のお宝？発掘。ソニックアドベンチャーのスピードハイウェイの蜘蛛女もあるよ🕷️
Excavated sketches of the storage room! I used to draw analog lines before the Bezier curve. There is also a spider girl on the speed highway/Sonic Adventure.🕷️🦔
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1727508980963188852
Full Images:
He would also post various sketches of Sonic as well.
スケッチの続編です。モダンソニックにコンペの下絵と、そのきっかけになったセガサターンマガジンのソニックですね。🦔
These are the preliminary drawings of the competition for Modern Sonic & Sega Saturn Magazine Sonic that triggered it.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1727510951774306557
Full Images:
There’s two images that would be used for Sonic 3D Blast
On the left side of this Sonic sketch there seemed to be a page showing a room where E-102 Gamma receives one of their upgrades
There is a sketch version for the Kick It Jam! pose
There is also a sketch version for the drawing that was for the redesign contest
This date lines up with the finalized version appearing in the November-December issue of Harmony.
You can even see another drawing behind it that seems to have never been seen before.
Since most people are unfamiliar with Astro Go Go he had to clear up that the two characters shown in that post are from that game:
彼らは私が携わった宇宙レース アストロGO! GO!のキャラクターです。
They are the space races I’ve been involved in, Astro GO! GO! These are the characters.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1727529534315258162
Quote Tweeting – From this thread: https://archive.is/7aT32
Who are these characters?
https://twitter.com/AfroluffyX/status/1727513978308272408
Okano took a photo showing that he had many other sketchbooks that contained more concept art.
自費のスケッチブック群。今日は働きます。また今度！😊👍
A group of self-funded sketchbooks. I’m working today. See you next time!😊👍
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1727513839615590545
For those into Samba de Amigo he also posted one other page of artwork
はい。彼は古いフィアット500を運転します。鉛筆スケッチが出てきました。🪇
Yes. Amigo can probably drive an old FIAT500. A pencil sketch came out.🪇
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1727604056158527866
Quote Tweeting – From this thread: https://archive.is/VqFk9
i have seen some of these drawings in samba de amigo
they’re very good, honestly. your style was incredible😭
oh, it seems Amigo can drive haha
https://twitter.com/strawbelemonade/status/1727600073205228015
He would also post a sketched version of the spider girl art and even another character alongside it with the name of Fly the Vampire
ありましたよ！🕷️
There was!🕷️
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1727610208363667752
Quote Tweeting – From this thread: https://archive.is/Zfd1B
返信が遅くなって申し訳ありませんが、このキャラクターの全身コンセプトアートはありますか？ 彼女のフルデザインを見てみたいです！
Sorry for the late reply, but do you have any full body concept art for this character? I would love to see her full design!
https://twitter.com/CelestOrion/status/1398060795674640393
Notice how he wrote the name as Fly the Bampire. This will be a point that I will mention later.
With a naming structure that is like that of a Sonic character there were people questioning if this was going to be a character that was planned to appear in Adventure.
I didn’t really think about that. The reason was that Sonic was a clean IP at the time.🦇🦔
I thought this character with the pig nose would be scary.😅
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1727637148457939067
Quote Tweeting – From this thread:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220504083954/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1521771354822832130
On pictures 2 and 3, is that Fly the Vampire ? Was he planned for Sonic Adventure ?
https://twitter.com/AdamisFox/status/1727630905169018903
Here is an additional comment he made about the character from a response
このキャラクターは私自身の投影なのでスケッチはまぁまぁありますよ🦇
The sketch is so-so because this character is a projection of myself🦇
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1727952857205526552
Quote Tweeting – From this thread: https://archive.ph/Qwxbc
Oh, can you tell us the story behind Fly the Vampire? It seems his design was very sonic-y!
https://twitter.com/Sephys00/status/1727734906594181530
Okano mentioned that he was given no requests to make new characters for Adventure as shown in this response
1 –
While this is a cool discovery I do 100% understand why this design didn’t get used, she really doesn’t fit the artstyle Modern Sonic evolved into
https://twitter.com/PersonthePerso2/status/1727516611114914131
2 –
You are correct.😊👍
I was making this completely as a hobby. At that time, I was a 3D background designer.
So there was no order for me to design a new character.😳
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1728038205499556001
By the way, the spider girl character was never given an actual name as Okano suggests that everybody should come up with their own name for her here:
Everybody please give name to her🕷️💜
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1727689805042176375
Quote Tweeting – From this thread: https://archive.is/VqFk9
Nice design of the spider girl.
Does she have a name?
https://twitter.com/marcosvargas97/status/1727686833608307189
He did particularly like one certain name that was thrown out there. That name being Aracne
You gave me an idea of a wonderful name. It’s really nice. Thank you.🕷️🕸️🩷
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1734205410402558272
Quote Tweeting – From this thread: https://archive.ph/um5tX
I would call her Aracne, the name Aracne is in reference to a character from Greek mythology who had a great talent for weaving linen fabrics and nets who was transformed into a spider by the Goddess Athena.
https://twitter.com/Dhora27969492/status/1734196161890623754
The name of the mythological character is actually Arachne so maybe that user made a typo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachne
Okano would keep posting more concept art from his sketchbooks. Here is a second batch that he posted
納戸のスケッチ公開2！
01ミスティックルーイン
02セガサターンマガジンソニック
03,04ソニックジャムエクストラステージ
Sketch of the storage room released 2!
01 Mystic Ruin
02 Sega Saturn Magazine Sonic
03,04 Sonic Jam Extra Stage
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1729050621054214159
Here’s some concept art for the Kick It Jam! artwork that would appear on the cover of the Sega Saturn Magazine.
Something I had noticed in one of the sketches for the Kick It Jam! artwork was that he wrote “Me Company” on the side of one of them
Me Company is a UK based graphic design company that also utilized 3D modeling for their work.
Here is their website:
They were also the ones who did the European cover for Sonic 3D Blast
This was found when a photo of it appeared showing the process the company did of creating physical models to then digitize into 3D computer models.
This photo was sourced from here:
I asked Okano if he was inspired by them when he wrote Me Company on that sketch since the Kick It Jam! artwork did utilize 3D in the background and the phrase itself was also modeled in 3D. I even mentioned the fact that they were the ones who did the European cover for 3D Blast.
あるスケッチに「ME COMPANY」と書いたみたいですね。
それは「Sonic 3D Blast」のヨーロッパでのリリースのカバーを作成したのと同じ会社でした。
https://web.archive.org/web/20191020012824/https://twitter.com/y2k_aesthetic/status/1185707174384685056
彼らの会社名を書いたのは「Sega Saturn Magazine」のアートワークを制作中に彼らにインスピレーションを得たからですか?
It looks like you wrote “ME COMPANY” in one of your sketches.
That was the same company that created the cover for the European release of “Sonic 3D Blast”.
Did you write their company name because you were inspired by them while creating the artwork for Sega Saturn Magazine?
Here is his answer:
はい。そうです。3dブラストのPAL版の事は知りませんでした。彼らの仕事はビョークのアートワークで知っていました🦔🔵
Yes. That’s right. I didn’t know about the PAL version of 3D Blast. I knew their work from Björk’s artwork
*PAL means European. It commonly refers to the television standard that is used in that region
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL_region
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1730805208924795276
Me Company did a lot of work for Björk back in the 90’s
From the image collage showing the models they did here are the two that appeared in it
Continuing on from the rest of the concept art Okano posted
05ソニックジャムエクストラステージ
06ソニックADVエッグマンプール
07ソニックADV貯水槽？
08プール2 ソニックナイキシューズ
05 Sonic Jam Extra Stage
06 Sonic ADV Eggman Pool
07 Sonic ADV water tank?
08 Pool 2 Sonic Nike Shoes
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1729052719992963578
The first image in this post is a repeat from the previous batch so there is no reason to put it here again
09ソニックADVエッグマン色々
10ソニックADVエッグマンスピーチルーム
11 E-102ブースタールーム
12 色々と頼まれてないキャラ(スペルミス)
09 Sonic ADV Eggman Various
10 Sonic ADV Eggman Speech Room
11 E-102 Booster Room
12 Various & chara not asked(ADB→ADV🤣💦)
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1729058696842662271
Also they are paired up with Sonic, Tails, & Knuckles
It looks like he also wrote Sonic ADB
If you noticed in the post Okano wrote ADB→ADV. ADV is supposed to be an abbreviation for Adventure. Why did he write it as ADB in the first place though?
You see in the Japanese language there really isn’t a pronunciation for the letter “V” so it is instead said like the letter “B”. Here are two pages where they discuss this:
https://www.garyjwolff.com/english-pronunciation-mini-course-for-japanese-learners-page3.html
https://www.japanconsultingoffice.com/japanese-colleagues-pronounce-elevator-as-erebeetaa/
So the Japanese word [アドベンチャー] is translated as [Adventure] but it is pronounced as [Adobenchā]
This is also why he wrote Fly the Bampire in that other sketch of the character.
13頼まれないステージ
14エッグマン部屋
15エッグマン部屋2
16モダンソニックコンペティション🦔🔵バーニングレンジャーの少女
13 Unreliable Stage
14 Eggman room
15 Eggman Room 2
16 Modern Sonic Competition🦔🔵 #BurningRangers Girl
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1729060158586986906
There were some other people who were also asking questions about the Fly character to which Okano responded to.
Thread response from here: https://archive.is/VGygT
1 –
Fly the Bat was for “Sonic Adventure”, correct? Was the idea for him seriously considered for the game?
フライ・ザ・バットは『ソニックアドベンチャー』用でしたね？彼のために作られたアイデアは、開発中に真剣に検討されたのでしょうか?
https://twitter.com/snowwood_/status/1729062726159474997
2 –
The Bat character in the first art is from the SNES game called “Astro Go! Go!”. If that is who you’re referring too.
https://twitter.com/RealNackyWeasel/status/1729083872577749317
3 –
Yes.Hai❣️ARIGATOOOOOHHHH🙇♀️🙇👍👍👍
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1729091526364635200
This is a point I didn’t bring up until now but it’s worth mentioning the bat character in Astro Go Go was named Fly High.
https://archive.org/details/UchuuRaceAstroGoGo900dpi/Astro%20Go%21%20Go%21%20-%20Manual/mode/2up
During my session of asking questions to Okano he had brought up that the bat character was inspired by Sonic. For clarification I asked him if that meant he was referring to Fly High as his comment was talking about KAZe beforehand. This is what he said
ごめんなさい。”任天堂より”という表現は少し違います。
たぶん任天堂陣営とハル研はずっと好きだろう、しかしKAZeで働いていた頃にgenesisで受けた衝撃を思い出したんですね。
それはソニックだったりシャイニングフォースでした。実際に蝙蝠のキャラクターはソニックに影響を受けて考えたんです🦇
Sorry. The expression “more than Nintendo” is a bit different.
I’ve probably always liked Nintendo and HAL, but I remember the impact that Genesis had on me when I was working at KAZe.
It was Sonic or Shining Force. The bat character was actually inspired by Sonic
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1738052909617795117
「Astro Go! Go!」のコウモリのキャラクターはソニックからインスピレーションを得たと言っているんですか?
Are you saying that the bat character in “Astro Go! Go!” was inspired by Sonic?
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1740100871651004663
はい、影響は受けています。
私はKAZeで働いていた頃に、休み時間にソニック2を遊んでいました。家にはメガCDがありました。
KAZeは元ナムコで源平討魔伝を作った中潟さんが中心でした。私は仕事そっちのけで遊び過ぎて、中潟ディレクターに怒られた思い出があります…😅
Yes, I am influenced by it.
I used to play Sonic 2 during my breaks when I worked at KAZe. I had a Mega CD at home.
KAZe was led by Mr. Nakagata, who was formerly at Namco and created Genpei Toumaden. I remember being scolded by Director Nakagata for playing too much instead of working…
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1740544973387522333
He would write an additional comment bringing up an amusing anecdote involving Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima
私はソニックCDには感心しました。
ソニックチームに入ったばかりの頃に中裕司さんに、「何が一番好き？」と問われて2とCDと迷いました。
それで「ソニックCDです。」と答えたら、中さんは苦笑いしました。大島直人さんは嬉しそうでした。私は誰が何を作ったかは知りませんでした😅
I was impressed with Sonic CD.
When I first joined Sonic Team, Yuji Naka asked me, “What do you like most?” and I had to choose between 2 and CD.
When I answered, “It’s Sonic CD” Mr. Naka smiled bitterly. Naoto Oshima seemed happy. I didn’t know who made what
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1740545651090546753
Anyways, Okano would reiterate that he was given no requests to make new characters
私には新しいキャラクターの依頼は無かったんです。😊
I didn’t have a request for a new character.😊
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1729094806075551892
In one thread response he mentioned that one of the sketches with Fly was influenced by Tim Burton’s Batman.
1 –
Hello? Scrapped Sonic character? And he looks like an absolute goober?
https://twitter.com/TylerJ_1021/status/1729389195029041177
2 –
This was a personal drawing. I think he is pretty crazy like me.🤣💦👍👍👍
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1729393106079133857
3 –
So what exactly was his deal? Was he just a little something you made up, or is there more to him that never got used (role, backstory, etc.)? I just find these kinds of unused characters so fascinating.
https://twitter.com/TylerJ_1021/status/1729394008508756426
4 –
Thank you. This is heavily influenced by Tim Burton’s Batman.😋
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1729400403824144418
In a third batch of posts Okano showed concept art that was for Adventure.
納戸のスケッチたち公開3
01、02 ソニックADVビックの家
03、04ソニックADVテイルスの家
Sketches of storage room released 3
01, 02 Sonic ADV Bic’s house
03, 04 Sonic ADV Tails House
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1731996742395035905
https://ia904609.us.archive.org/26/items/okano-tweets/86-3rd_Batch-Adventure_Concepts-Additional.png
ビック
Bic’s house
↓
ビッグ
Big( The Cat)’s
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1732061359595237829
05、07 テイルス
06、08 ソニック
スケッチを見ると、ソニック3 Dの仕事をソニックADV開発中に描いてますね。
05,07 Tails
06,08 Sonic
Looking at these, I’m drawing Sonic 3D blasting work during Sonic ADV development.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1731999317672763554
You can see it looks like there is a sketch of Amy behind since it looks like her shoe is visible
It looks like there is a never seen before sketch of Sonic surfboarding behind it
There was some actual Christmas artwork of Sonic for Adventure but it looks like this one did not get finalized by Uekawa. The closest artwork to this sketch is likely this one:
You can see a sketch of Eggman behind as well
There seems to be another sketch of Sonic behind
09 エッグマン
10,11,12ソニック
私は他にも沢山描いたが、使われなかったなぁ。🤣
09 Eggman
10,11,12 Sonic
I drew a lot of other characters, but they weren’t used.🤣
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1732001403244270048
There is a sketch of Tails behind this one.
With this Eggman sketch and that other sketch of Tails both looking like their modern redesigns but then seemingly being repurposed into their classic designs for 3D Blast, someone asked just to be sure if these sketches were made first. He answered that they were originally going to be for Adventure.
当初、ソニックADV用に描きました。結果は、ソニック3Dブラストに使いました〜😊
I initially drew it for Sonic ADV. However, the result was used for Sonic 3D blasting.😊👍
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1732011992360288765
Quote Tweeting –
ああ、このエッグマンのアート！3Dブラストサターンで見たことあるけど、このアートワークはアップデートされたデザインだね！どっちが先？
Oh, this Eggman art! We’ve seen it on the 3D Blast Saturn, but this artwork is an updated design! Which comes first?
https://twitter.com/snowwood_/status/1732002688433537145
This really explains why that 3D Blast artwork looked like a hybrid of the Classic and Modern design.
Here are the rest of the sketches that were a part of that post
There looks like a sketch of Sonic playing hockey behind it
This has been flipped for a better view of it
Remember that tweet where Okano mentioned drafting two of the artworks specifying by showing they were the DJ and skater ones?
Well now we can finally see how the two sketched versions look like
This has been flipped for a better view of it
13 キャラクター
14 #バーニングレンジャー
15 #サンバDEアミーゴ 初期案
アミーゴは決めかねてますね…この後、上川さんと話し合って、顔が四角い猿になりました。
13 character
14 #BurningRangers
15 #SambaDEAmigo 1st Proposal
After, We talked great Uekawa-san & became a square monkey.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1732007109330440369
That was certainly a treasure trove of concept art that Okano was really generous of to reveal to us. It had taken him a long time to reveal the spider girl art and then all this other never before seen material but it sure was welcoming.
He admitted he was rather hesitant to publish any of this
どうもありがとうございます。
私は公開を迷ってました。理由は著作権と著作人格権の間だからです。 😊
Thank you very much.
I was hesitant to publish these. The reason is that it is between copyright and moral rights.😊
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1730463313015005580
Quote Tweeting – From this thread: https://archive.is/4wAaC
these illustrations are incredibly detailed, neat stuff!
eggman on the overhead train reminds me of half life.
https://twitter.com/autismonaut98/status/1730449236624380068
Anyways that’s all the involvement Okano had with this game as far as I know. While Sonic was given his modern redesign there were still remnants of his Classic design in some parts of the game. The 1UP icon still has the Classic design:
The mission objective cards that are used for Tails levels also show this classic Sonic in full.
(@MainJPW) noticed that this model seems to have been the same one from that image shown at the Sonic Adventure Music Experience event.
https://twitter.com/MainJPW/status/1052800026718740480
They even point out how the running animation with the model is the same as the one in the actual game.
https://twitter.com/MainJPW/status/1052803050254032896
The Sonic themed pinball section in the Casinopolis level used Classic Sonic artwork:
Here are the textures for this section:
https://www.textures-resource.com/pc_computer/sonicadventuredxdirectorscut/texture/526/
The larger Sonic image at the bottom of this textures sheet looks like it was taken from one of Uekawa’s artworks as shown earlier in that Sonic Jam guide:
Outside of the game there are also remnants of Classic Sonic. Here are storyboards for the opening cutscene where Sonic is drawn with that design.
These were apparently drawn by Kazuyuki Hoshino and they were sourced from the book Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works by Simon Parkin:
https://readonlymemory.vg/shop/book/sega-dreamcast-collected-works/
These storyboards could have been made before the redesign but there could also be the possibility that he was drawn in the Classic design because it was much simpler and quicker to do. Also outside of the game are small sketches illustrated for the tutorial that appeared on Sonic Adventure‘s website.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190809164651/http://sonic-adventure.com/hints.html
From that link click on the section that says “SONIC FOR BEGINNERS”. Out of the seven pages for hints only five have these types of sketches.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190809155710/http://www.sonic-adventure.com/beginners.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20190811052006/http://www.sonic-adventure.com/beginners_point_2.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20190809160314/http://www.sonic-adventure.com/beginners_point_3.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20190811051907/http://www.sonic-adventure.com/beginners_point_5.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20190811043452/http://www.sonic-adventure.com/beginners_point_6.html
Not only were there remnants of his Classic design in this game but there was also specifically remnants from Sonic Jam that were also within.
To start off, here is a model of a spring from Sonic Jam that was apparently found in the files as reported on The Cutting Room Floor and Sonic Retro.
https://tcrf.net/Sonic_Adventure_(Dreamcast)#Misc
http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Adventure/Hidden_content#Models
In the Sky Chase level the model of both Sonic and Tails on the Tornado airplane have them using there Jam models.
Well they can’t be seen properly but when faced forward it’s a lot more noticeable.
Here is another angle of them:
This image was taken from here:
https://fyeahsonicthehedgehog.tumblr.com/post/663891722577821696
Here is a close up look at the models:
Image edited and taken from here:
https://twitter.com/MainJPW/status/1266200221924687872
Earlier pictures of this level even shows when the models had no alterations to them.
This image was from Sega Saturn Magazine Vol. 26 (9/25) 1998 Page 40
https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File%3ASSM_JP_19980925_1998-26.pdf&page=42
Here is a much clearer image:
The reason for its much better quality is because this image was given out as a part of the material for the press. Frank Cifaldi, who is a video game preservationist, says that this image among others were taken from a batch that was originally from Sega’s Gamers Day 1998 event:
https://twitter.com/frankcifaldi/status/725091416007950336
The rest of the album is here:
Footage from the Tokyo International Forum VHS shows the Jam models used during the second part of Sky Chase where the Tornado transforms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEriV_g_Glc&t=1159s
Timestamp: 19:19
This little remnant was only ever present in the Dreamcast version of the game. The DX re-release has it so that the Sky Chase segments are consistently using the model that is used throughout the rest of that version. Here is a comparison:
Images taken from here:
It looks like some of the model animations from Jam were carried over to Adventure as well as this video illustrates this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtSAIyXJUdE
Title: Sonic Jam – Sonic World / SA1 Similarities by SPEEPSHighway
Upload Date: December 14 2016
This next thing isn’t from Jam but it is still worth mentioning. The texture from the last special stage in Sonic 3D Blast‘s Sega Saturn version was reused in the Twinkle Park level. However, from what I can see it doesn’t look like it is an exact match across both games as there may have been some alterations to it.
Screenshot from this video:
Screenshot from this video:
After Adventure was released Okano described in the Fanbyte interview how he was assigned to make the art for 3D Blast and how he felt about this.
“After Sonic Adventure’s release wrapped,” Okano says, “I naively became a ‘shadow’ during the ‘new Sonic’ work. Frankly, I was young and thought ‘ahh… I blew the biggest opportunity of my life.’ However, I was abruptly called by both Yuji Naka and Kazuyuki Hoshino.” Okano was presented with the opportunity to draw the cover for the upcoming Sonic 3D Blast Saturn port (known as Sonic 3D: Flickies’ Island), a Japan exclusive release.
“At the time, I thought this was my consolation prize for losing the Sonic Adventure contest. However, when I think about it now, the ‘rarity and added value’ of me drawing it my own way they spoke of has been admirably recognized by fans.”
“I’m surprised people from North and South American know about this,” he adds. “This is very interesting. Perhaps this is the best reward after all?”
https://archive.vn/E91fw#selection-573.0-613.149
Asides from the art previously shown here for the game there were also some wallpapers that were presumably unlocked when the disk was inserted into a PC:
Wallpapers were sourced here:
After this his next involvement would be with the development of Sonic Team’s Samba De Amigo. Not being as familiar with this game, it looks like he faced a similar situation for the credit given to his artwork as he explains that it was once more done by both him and Uekawa.
A left illust drew by Uekawa -san,right illust drew by me.Can you understand these difference?The character of SANBA DE AMIGO is drown by two artist😊
https://web.archive.org/web/20211228021025/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1123214655076196354
In samba de amigo, Uekawa-san performed art direction of my character design. The illustrations ware made by two artists. The wall paper is so, too. These are some creations with the memory that I made.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210825163705/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1169613601482522625
It was said, “I liked it, & you described” the cover of Segasaturn magazine and illustration of sonic 3D from Naka-san & Hoshino-san. The character design of Samba de amigo is my work. I ‘m mistaken for most Uekawa-san of my work. I’m understands it. It’s OK🙆♂️
https://web.archive.org/web/20210613023012/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1167044493733875712
Okano described his experience with making the art for this game in the Game Developer/Gamasutra interview.
I got to work on Samba de Amigo. The game had a rough demo and a 1-sheet design document when I saw it. I thought to myself… this is definitely gonna sell. Shun Nakamura was in charge of the project, and at the time people were assigned to games by higher ups, and didn’t get to decide what games they wanted to work on. But I kept going over to Nakamura with my ideas, saying “how about this?” I got scolded by some bosses of other teams for that.
But in the end I got to do character design for the game, which was a huge hit in arcades, and got two versions on the Dreamcast. I guess you could say it’s my personal masterpiece. The art director gets the credit for the character design, but it was me – I hid in the shadows like a ninja. I even got invited out by vice president Hisashi Suzuki, to the frustration of my team. It was a pretty rare opportunity to eat high class eel while talking casually with the vice president!
The game got a lot of magazine coverage, and I’ll never forget the first time I saw it in a game center. When I saw someone take a 100 yen coin out of their wallet and put it into the machine, I swallowed hard wondering how it would go. You never get to see people’s faces when they play your games if you’re making console games, so that was a really priceless moment for me. Seeing that person’s 100 yen coin go into the slot I knew it’d be a hit. And, well, I did get a bonus!
In all I feel like the Dreamcast was Sega’s attempt to appeal to a broader audience. It may not have been as “cool” as the Genesis, but after hearing that the Wii may have been inspired by Samba De Amigo (in fact, I got an email from Iwata after its release), I think the Dreamcast was ahead of its time.
https://archive.ph/TzGCa#selection-2389.16-2401.304
That last paragraph raised my interest as he mentioned that he got an email from Iwata after Samba’s release so during my session for asking questions I brought this up to him. Here’s all that he said
1 –
インタビューで、岩田からメールが届いたとおっしゃっていたのを覚えています。
I remember you mentioned in an interview that you received an e-mail from Iwata.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1735728362436415583
2 –
はい。私と岩田さんは頻繁では無いですが、年賀状とメールどちらもやり取りしていました。サンバDEアミーゴを称賛して頂いたのは年賀状です。
中さんを通じて彼が一度ソニックチームを訪れた事がありました。メールは、「当日は、知らなかったので話しかけずにごめんなさい」と出しましたね〜。
Yes. Mr. Iwata and I exchanged both New Year’s cards and emails, although not often. Samba DE Amigo was praised in a New Year’s card.
Through Mr. Naka, he visited Sonic Team once. I sent an email saying, “I didn’t know you that day, so I’m sorry for not talking to you.”
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1735839762882388311
3 –
彼からの返信は「話しかけてくれれば良かったのに！」みたいな内容だったと思います。
…消してしまったかもしれませんが、ここに彼への想いのポストが残っています。
想いと呟きは 「okanotion」「 岩田さん」で探すと少し出てきます。
I think his reply was something along the lines of, “You should have talked to me!”
…I may have deleted it, but the post of my feelings for him remains here.
If you search for “okanotion” and “Iwata-san”, you will find some of my thoughts and murmurs.
https://buhitter.com/search?q=thankyouiwata
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1735844507630051420
4 –
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1735845910385762483
A quote tweet to this tweet
空の上では相談役と けっこう楽しくしてらっしゃるかもね＾＾ #岩田社長ありがとう #ThankYouIwata
You might be having a lot of fun with your advisor in the sky ^^ #Thank you, President Iwata #ThankYouIwata
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/621261514331131904
I wrote to Okano sending him the video made by the Youtube channel “Gaming Historian” about the life and career of Satoru Iwata. He would reminisce about Iwata in a response
YouTube チャンネル「Gaming Historian」が作成した岩田聡に関するビデオをご覧になりましたか?
岩田選手のキャリアを伝えるとても素晴らしいビデオです。
Have you seen the video about Satoru Iwata created by the YouTube channel “Gaming Historian”?
This is a great video that tells the story of Iwata’s career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4cJh2YgrKE
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1736453438114762841
素敵な映像ですね。岩田さんがカービィ のモデルでは？なんて噂もありましたが、神田のフロアにいらした姿を今も思い出します。お菓子を常にパクパクたべながら話すんです😊
子供の頃にNESでピンボールを遊んでいて、私が最初に入った会社KAZeも代表作がデジタルピンボールでした。
ご縁を感じます。
That’s a nice video. Is Mr. Iwata the model for Kirby? There were rumors like that, but I still remember seeing him on the Kanda floor. We talk while constantly eating sweets
When I was a kid, I played pinball on the NES, and the company I first joined, KAZe, also had a digital pinball game.
I feel a connection.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1736635493318860988
After all this Okano would have less involvement with games with his last major role being for Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg from 2003 credited as one of the “Field Designers”. Also in that same year of 2003 Sonic Adventure DX: Directors Cut was released. He didn’t work on this version but it still worth mentioning this game for one thing. For whatever reason there was a slight redesign to Sonic where only his eyelids were changed from his flesh color to the blue color of his fur.
I don’t have a better way of showing a comparison at the moment so I made a screenshot from a video which was sourced here: https://archive.ph/23GOG
This would be how it would look from then on. No explanation has ever been given for this. It’s also worth mentioning that the Sonic Advance games, while having a practically unified set of sprites all throughout, did actually make the effort to add on this design revision to the sprites of Sonic Advance 3 since it was released in 2004.
As for Okano, during this period his name would only ever be mentioned under the credit of “Special Thanks” with his final credit being one of these for Sonic Rush in 2005.
In 2006 he would leave SEGA to go independent and do freelance work. Apparently he specified that he left in June 2006 and was involved with the demo version of Sonic and the Secret Rings right before he left.
1 –
ドリームキャストUS発売20周年記念でインタビューを受けました。トリを飾らせて頂いてます。ありがとうございます。 #dreamcast #ドリームキャスト
I was interviewed to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Dreamcast US release. I’m the third person to be featured. Thank you. #dreamcast #dreamcast
Quote Tweeting-
https://web.archive.org/web/20190925074403/https://twitter.com/necrosofty/status/1171140803378368513
2 –
ＡＭ２研にいらしたのですね。初めまして元ソニックチームの岡野と申します。
So you came to AM2 Lab. Nice to meet you, my name is Okano, formerly of Sonic Team.
3 –
ちなみに昔のCS2研、UGA後のソニチに在籍した瞬間もあります。
By the way, there was a moment when I was enrolled at CS2 Labs in the past, and at Sonichi after UGA.
4 –
湯田さんがみなさんより早く来られた後ですかね。私は06年の6月にWii「ソニックと秘密のリング」のデモ版を最後に退社しています。お目にかかれませんでしたね。
I guess it was after Mr. Yuda came earlier than everyone. I left the company in June 2006 after working on the Wii demo version of Sonic and the Secret Ring. I didn’t get to meet you.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190926221956/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1171548748343758848
In 2011 he would form Studio Okanotion. The name comes from as he would describe it, “Okano meets Notion”
https://archive.ph/nGlmT#selection-611.3-611.109
Also from his website’s “About” section:
The name of the company was coined from the English word “Okano’s Concept”. My pen name is OKN, which was my intranet screen name when I was working.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220327124449/http://www.okanotion.com/about_en.html
Satoshi Okano may no longer work at SEGA anymore but he certainly left an impact on the series by kickstarting the Modern redesign that has been set in place for the series ever since 1998. Meanwhile Yuji Uekawa is still at SEGA and is constantly creating new artwork. I’m no art critic so I will do the best I can to describe the following art for the next part.
Uekawa’s style has evolved and changed throughout the years starting off from Sonic Adventure 2 and the Sonic Advance games which still had the same type of shading from Adventure but with more standard posing and proportions with limbs that aren’t as bendy.
At the time for the development of Adventure 2 Okano was working on the Samba de Amigo games while Sonic Team was over in the United States. So Uekawa was the only one who did the artwork. This is likely why the Adventure 2 artwork lost that bendiness to it.
I don’t know about that. Because while Sonic Team U.S.A. was making SonicADV2 in the US, We ware making SANBA DE AMIGO series.😉
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1732668154550346087
Quote Tweeting – From this thread: https://archive.is/Qwxbc
I had the observation that if you were to combine these two characters, you would essentially have Rouge the Bat. Did these two characters play any role in the concept of her character?
https://twitter.com/FomTarro/status/1732637940050772239
Going further in to the 2000’s Uekawa’s artstyle would change and the Adventure style shading would be reduced. The poses would be more subdued.
The art he makes for Sonic Channel, which is the name for SEGA of Japan’s official website of Sonic, is also a lot more distinctive to anything else he has done and he only does these for the website.
http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/index.html
Initially it looked like his standard art style but he started to make art which had a rough sketch look to them by leaving in lines that should have been taken out.
In other art he has made there is a use of jagged, rigid lines. Here is one example which was seen on a Sonic and Puyo Puyo 2012 calendar collaboration which were in celebration of both series’ 20th anniversary in 2011.
The scanned image was by (@Linkabel) and the rest can be seen here:
https://archive.ph/5z76J#selection-3875.1-3874.3
What’s interesting about this calendar is that there was a fan art contest with the winning submissions being the ones that ended up in the calendar itself. Information was sourced here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210115062406/http://info.nicovideo.jp/seiga/sonic_puyo/
Here is another similar rendition using this art style for the Sonic Adventure Music Experience event which occurred in 2016. This is how it appeared on the CD cover for the music in the event.
http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Adventure_Music_Experience
Uekawa drew this comic cover for the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog Annual 2019 issue:
https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Annual_2019
Here is two wallpapers for the Sonic Channel that use this art style:
You can see more Sonic Channel wallpapers here:
http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/enjoy/wallpaper/
Line art for characters can be seen here:
http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/enjoy/coloring/
Uekawa also still utilizes the “Adventure” style shading on other pieces of artwork but his art style keeps getting revised. Here is his updated artwork in the Sonic Channel for Sonic’s bio.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220403192655/http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/character/sonic.html
Here is another one that was seen as a part of an announcement for merchandise.
If your curious here is the whole image:
It was sourced from here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210523054214/https://playbyplaytoys.es/en/collection/sonic-en/
This art was actually a part of a new set with more being seen on this poster celebrating the 30th anniversary.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210413074750/https://www.pyramidamerica.com/merchandise/.b/sega
Some of this new art seems to be updates of older art Uekawa made as (@SPEEPSHighway) made a comparison chart on them.
https://twitter.com/SPEEPSHighway/status/1396427775628689408
Uekawa also still does a different artstyle for Sonic Channel and it’s like an update of that rough sketch look shown from earlier except it’s like he has cleaned it up now removing the leftover lines. Here are two examples that were a part of a series of cover stories that were released monthly for the year of 2021.
If you would like to see the rest of the art for this series then go here and click on the “Show” option to show the full album under 2021:
https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic_Channel/Gallery#2021
This is all for Uekawa now but there is still two more miscellaneous things I would like to bring up. Here is a humanized version of Sonic that he made for the 2001 Tokyo Game Show expo.
Here is a photo of the artwork as it was seen at the actual event. It’s the one on the right.
https://www.deviantart.com/vhosoe/art/SONIC-in-TOKYO-GAME-SHOW-208494357
If you would like to see more humanized Sonic art then there is a term people like to use called “Gijinka” which you can learn more about here:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/gijinka-moe-anthropomorphism
Uekawa also made character mascots for SEGA SAMMY’s baseball club. A boy character named Rooter and a girl character named Viccy.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100821095535/http://athletic.segasammy.co.jp/character
From the earliest captures of the page above they look to have at least been around since 2010. There is an additional page which has more images of each character. Here they are compiled together.
https://web.archive.org/web/20101101154430/http://athletic.segasammy.co.jp/download/paint
It looks like Uekawa went back to earlier Ristar designs to create Rooter as can be seen with the head shape.
The official Japanese Sonic Twitter account even brings up this baseball club and shows art of Rooter.
So what has Okano been up to? He is still creating art in many forms and has an extensive portfolio which can be seen here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220412061937/http://okanotion.com/portfolio.html
For the games he has worked on you can check this section:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220327152240/http://okanotion.com/portfolio_game.html
In 2021, after 30 years, Okano would return back to the first game he ever worked on “Abarenbou Tengu/Zombie Nation” by creating new artwork for a Nintendo Switch and Steam re-release of the game.
Here is the website for the game:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220329174431/https://city-connection.co.jp/exciteng/en/
Here is the Steam page of the game if you want to buy it:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1603920/__ZOMBIE_NATION/
One notable thing he has done was in 2022 when he redesigned the bee mascot for a volleyball sports team. It was for the JTEKT Stings team. Here was the design before
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTEKT_Stings
Now here is the redesign he made for the mascot
Sure does look Sonic-like. The name of the mascot character is Stinbee.
Here is a page where he talks about the design
https://web.archive.org/web/20221031053034/https://i.fileweb.jp/okn/info/detail/38873
An image of a mascot costume is shown in that page as well
Even though Okano is no longer at SEGA he has done some artwork of Sonic as well. In 2019 he made this artwork for Sonic in order to celebrate the oncoming Reiwa era for Japan.
He made at least two tweets of this but they were both deleted and not archived. Luckily they were archived on an external website here with dates included:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210606182028/https://ja.whotwi.com/okanotion/tweets/hashtag/reiwa
They do have links to the tweets themselves which lead to each of them here:
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1123250717408411649
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1199268601229824000
From what I have researched the Reiwa era of Japan meant that there was a new emperor that was enthroned. The previous era, Heisei, lasted for about 29 years as it began in 1990:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiwa
The artwork did appear once again repurposed for the 30th anniversary of Sonic under his Freaky Highschool account which is an original series where he is in charge of the artwork for the characters in it.
https://twitter.com/FreakyHS_info/status/1407820305330962432
He would also reuse this fanart to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Sonic Heroes release
ハロー。
#ソニックヒーローズ 25周年おめでとう御座いまぁ〜す！㊗️🦔💙
Hello.
Congratulations on the 25th anniversary of #SonicHeroes!🎂🦔💙
https://twitter.com/FreakyHS_info/status/1740935840006881301
He must have realized he made a mistake with that post because it is not the 25th anniversary yet but rather the 20th. He would respond acknowledging the mistake
あ、20周年でした〜🫢💦
Oh!”20th” is right…🫢💦
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1740992103675769196
As it turns out Okano revealed that this fanart of Sonic was based on a figure of Astro Boy that he had.
このアトムを参考に学生服のソニックを壁紙にしてみましたよ😊
I tried to wallpaper the school uniform Sonic with reference to this atom😊
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1740938545903341798
That isn’t the end of him making new artwork though. In fact this would be rather minor to what he would make next. In 2020 the official Sonic social media account made a post with the hashtag #SonicRedraw which challenged people to redraw a certain frame from the fifth episode of the Sonic Mania Adventures web series in their own art style and they would have the chance for it to be featured by them.
Time for a #SonicRedraw challenge! Recreate this classic piece in your own style, and share it with us here this Friday for a chance to be featured!
https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/1272560762716696576
Here is a clip of where the frame comes from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HSc3ASFoG8&t=104s
Timestamp: 1:44
Here are five examples of the redraws that people did:
By GamingGoru
https://www.deviantart.com/gaminggoru/art/Sonic-Redraw-Challenge-846225722
By StarAmpharos
https://www.deviantart.com/starampharos/art/Sonic-Redraw-Challenge-845820817
By spacecolonie
https://twitter.com/spacecolonie/status/1274009835361775616
By ChrispyPixels
https://twitter.com/ChrispyPixels/status/1272682332068229120
By SpoonScribble
https://twitter.com/spoonscribble/status/1274013940666818563
Okano would participate in this challenge and even acknowledges the success of the Sonic movie within the same post as it had already been released at the time.
封切おめでとうございます！ちょっとだけ時間をかけて描いてみました。
Congratulations on the special first-run showing of the sonic movie. I drew sonic with this style after an interval of 22 years.🦔💙
#SonicRedraw #SonicTheHedgehog
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1274541893712408576
Not only did he make this but he also made more art when the second Sonic movie came out in 2022 and this time with the Modern design which as far as I know is the first time he has ever done it. Here are his posts that he made:
Congratulation success of #SonicMovie2
These are congratulatory fan art from me of a former official illustrator.
I present you desktop PC wallpapers & smart phone wallpapers.
Continue→
https://web.archive.org/web/20220417072736/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1515547498785361921
The phrase on this art is “Trill Blue is Back!”. What exactly does “Trill” mean though? In his next post Okano explains that this is another hip-hop slang for True and Real combined together. He also shows how this art would look like on T-shirts just as a concept though as he is not actually selling them. A small spelling correction was made for this post which I have included too.
And net are for SNS icons & fantasy Tshirts designs.
I wanna these goods.💙
‘TRILL’ means True and Real. It’s HIPHOP slang.
Back ground designs are’90s taste graphic and simple blue.
#SonicMovie2
https://web.archive.org/web/20220417043916/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1515550255177031687
net → next 💙🦔
https://web.archive.org/web/20220417045051/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1515552535271989255
He provided the new art he made in another aspect ratio this time to accommodate for SNS icons. From what I could find SNS stands for Social Networking Service. So in other words it means it is for social media profile icons.
However, he would notice that the images of the art he made weren’t in an aspect ratio that was wide enough to even fill his own screen.
Oh⁉️
Isn’t these wallpaper 16:9❓
…I’m sorry.
I update once again soon.😅
https://web.archive.org/web/20220418063116/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1515940815457165313
He would immediately remedy this by posting 16:9 versions:
These are 16:9 version for your desktop🙏
Not for sale 👍 #SonicMovie celebration💙🦔
TRILL means ‘True’ plus ‘Real’ that is HIPHOP slang🎤
https://web.archive.org/web/20220418070129/https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1515948472813297669
Okano would also post about this art under the aforementioned Freaky Highschool account.
こんにちは。
用務員さん (@okanotion) 昔ソニック描いてたんだって〜。
へ〜❣️
Hello.
A beadle (@okanotion) seems to have been drawing #Sonic before.
#ふりぃきぃ
#freaky_hs
Also from this account he would post a rough sketch version of this art in the three aspect ratios of before.
おはよう。
用務員さん(@okanotion)は時々こう言われる。
「清書よりラフが良いねぇ。」
これはオマケらしいよ。
Morning.
A beadle (@okanotion) sometimes is said this.
“Your rough is more attractive than making a fair copy.”
These are an extra.
#Sonic
#ふりぃきぃ
#freaky_hs
Ever since Okano came forward to take rightful credit for the artwork he made there has now been a new wave of fan art for his design of Sonic. Here are some examples:
https://twitter.com/Reddydraws64/status/1306247844072812544
Transparent Background Version:
https://twitter.com/LixesPrototype/status/1333466492239802374
https://twitter.com/Pepelogoo/status/1355321860305645568
https://twitter.com/indigotrance/status/1407715077873029125
This 3D model has actually been publicly released by its creator.
https://twitter.com/indigotrance/status/1428008792935919616
Here is the link to their website where the download can be found:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210823233003/https://indigotrance.neocities.org/menu.html
https://twitter.com/otop1_top1/status/1410092811668578305
https://twitter.com/CordRocker/status/1420441244006862849
https://twitter.com/Wanaholics/status/1456922590837190657
https://twitter.com/KingMist15/status/1517100467704184832
https://twitter.com/KingMist15/status/1517518661984133120
There was even a few fanart made of the spider girl.
Here are some that were made prior to Okano unveiling the full design. You will see that there were varied interpretations of the character.
https://twitter.com/keithjohnstack/status/1292962497297879046
Okano Comment:
You know all!💙🦔💙🦔
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1292973811172704257
If your curious what the “317 Days” means then the artist who made this was doing a countdown to the date June 23 2021 for the 30th anniversary of the Sonic series:
https://twitter.com/MoiraAunty/status/1296258935394099207
Okano Comment:
I love it💙🦔💙🦔
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1301459357498966016
https://twitter.com/MainJPW/status/1321948376934567937
https://twitter.com/DoodleDankk/status/1691954473428529325
Okano Response Thread –
1 – 🦔💙🦔💙&🕷️❤️
2 –
WHAT DOES THIS MEANN?????
(Glad you like it!)
3 –
This art is highly speculative. It’s great! I made this little poster at the time, envisioning Spider-Girl. This art fits that image perfectly.😁👍
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1696401386601386239
https://twitter.com/DoodleDankk/status/1691954671718379826
https://twitter.com/ArtyuhDiana/status/1691989814353055785
Additional Response:
1 – She got the Honey dress 👀
https://twitter.com/RadiantBlayz/status/1691990257728671796
2 –
in a way yes haha
I love her dress style
https://twitter.com/ArtyuhDiana/status/1692256331778912708
Okano Comment:
Oh,wow🦔🔵 This is great your imagination🦔🔵
Saikoh❣️Arigato❣️
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1700342228361847023
Now here is some fanart made after Okano’s unveiling of the full artwork of the spider character
https://twitter.com/MoiraAunty/status/1727653665849131163
https://twitter.com/AdamisFox/status/1727697095560134826
https://twitter.com/zoemossart/status/1728145296079589758
https://twitter.com/pepmorenopoha1/status/1729666536984412262
That fanart post above also had a fanart of Fly the Vampire/Bat
There isn’t as much fanart done of Fly so here is what I was able to find
https://twitter.com/SparkyArts94/status/1729256558515908988
https://twitter.com/SirNoveltyMan/status/1732232476553084932
If you ever do create fanart of Okano’s design then you have a good chance that he will actually see it and make a comment along with it. Here are some instances where he does so:
Thank you!Your art is so cool👍🦔💙🦔💙
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1333524024488456193
Your pixel art is splendid! It is very cool. Wow❣️ I am glad. It is very kind of you. This is revolution.👍💙🦔😊
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1355327994928058376
Great great🦔💙🦔💙👺❤️
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1456937705791635456
It’s not guaranteed he will always see it but like I said the chances are high that he does. So go on ahead artists make more out there and he shall see! If you would like to see more fanart then I have compiled them over here along with the comments Okano made for each of the ones that I could possibly find to accompany them:
https://zedm256.wordpress.com/2022/06/17/okano-sonic-fanart/
So why did it take so long for Okano to step up and take credit for what is rightfully his and get rid of the mix up for Uekawa’s art that had persisted for years? Well as he admits, he is a rather shy person.
Thank you very much for your advice. I knew that these sonic became various products and fan art. However, I hesitated about talking about one’s past. I’m a shy person🤐
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1169265465731895296
Responding to this from (@greenknight9000)
It was you who drew it? Wow!! I never thought I’d see the artist after all these years.
I remember seeing this artwork on my Windows 98 Desktop Wallpaper, and among other things, with the occasional bootleg toy or product (but that’s to be expected. Hahaha)
https://twitter.com/greenknight9000/status/1169263961411391490
I’ll leave off with some final encouraging words from Okano that he said in that Fanbyte interview:
“Even if the spotlight doesn’t hit you, be patient. Even after 10 ~ 20 years, there will be times when the spotlight misses its aim. Even the ‘shadow’ becomes sunny. There’s no futility in life. You are the one that makes it interesting.”
https://archive.ph/E91fw#selection-681.67-685.237
AFTERWORD
This is the section where I will give my own thoughts, opinions, ramblings, etc.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the great folks over at Sonic Retro who are very knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff as I learned practically everything from that site. This thread in particular is what kickstarted my interest into this topic:
In particular the post by (@Pengi) which provided sources to some of Okano’s tweets. This lead me to dig even deeper into this and read the interviews he did along with combing through more tweets he made which had additional information:
https://archive.ph/CsMQv#selection-4539.1-4538.4
I’ve seen (@Pengi) around on those forums and they always drop some great trivia on things I didn’t know so I just want to say you are amazing in that regard!
I would also like to thank (@Vertekins) for taking the time to translate a few bits of the text that I could not translate with Deepl after I asked them if they could possibly do it. You can check their Tumblr blog here:
https://greenyvertekins.tumblr.com/
All the tweets that I have screencapped can be found here compiled all together if you just want those for future reference:
https://archive.org/details/okano-tweets
An image directory for them can be found here which has them as a list:
https://archive.org/download/okano-tweets
I personally think it makes accessing each image much more quickly and conveniently. Just skip over the files that have the word “thumb” on them as they are smaller versions of the original images.
A zip folder file of all the tweets can be downloaded here:
https://archive.org/compress/okano-tweets/formats=PNG&file=/okano-tweets.zip
NOTE: CLICKING ON THIS WILL CREATE AN AUTOMATIC DOWNLOAD
Here is a list that has sources to all the tweets:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220617033855/https://pastebin.com/U0fiFLnB
Initially I hoarded a lot of the links for the sources in a huge Google Docs document where I store all the miscellaneous links I come across on the internet. If I find something interesting enough I will save them there. It’s not just Sonic related by the way it’s practically anything I come across. However it started to get to a point where I had to create a separate document for easier access to the sources. I created that separate document on January 17 2021.
At first I was writing this article itself in that document but the page count started to get too high to the point where I realized I should start moving my writing into this WordPress website. The first 40 pages are the writing and the rest of the pages were all just links to sources. If you must know I stopped writing on Google Docs at the part where I showed the different Modern Sonic designs that were shown at the 25th anniversary event at Joypolis. For a refresher it’s this image:
So basically everything past this image was no longer written on the Google Docs document and the writing was then moved and then finished on WordPress instead.
Well after all this I have to say it was fun to learn all about who Satoshi Okano was and the art style he created for Sonic. I hope more people learn about him and his contributions to the series. I was one of those people who thought his art was by Uekawa because of how similar it was so it was enlightening to find out it was someone else who made them. I have always particularly loved the art style used for 3D Blast as it looked like a mix of Classic Sonic with the proportions of the Modern design.
Something I found in my research of Okano that I didn’t think fit in the article but is still worth mentioning is that he has also expressed that he would be interested in drawing Amy as well in an official capacity as he never had the opportunity to do it before:
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1428575452264689668
Okano also had some very interesting choices with the musicians he mentioned in that Fanbyte interview too.
“My inspirations were…the Adidas tracksuits RUN DMC wore in their 1988 photoshoots, Flavor Flav’s clock and glasses, De la Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers lyrics, Björk, Underworld, and other music, music videos, and artwork like that.”
I recognized De La Soul since their track The Magic Number was used as the credits music for the movie Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Sonic 3 actually uses a RUN DMC track as a sample. In Launch Base Zone there are vocals that say “Go!” and it was found that this came from the track Peter Piper from RUN DMC.
Okay so I had gotten into Björk thanks to the movie Leon: The Professional using one of her tracks and I just thought I should share my new found discovery of her music by recommending some of my favorite choices:
Joga, Bachelorette, Isobel, It’s Oh So Quiet, Army of Me, Hyperballad, Venus as a Boy, Pagan Poetry
Maybe I’ll convert some of you into listeners as well…
I don’t know where else to put this so I’ll write it here, do you remember the brief part in the article where I mentioned EmuEmi? Well Okano drew some art for Emi. He created a character based off herself called Emiga
https://twitter.com/TheEmuEmi/status/1742522247271874606
Alternate version:
https://twitter.com/TheEmuEmi/status/1742958856710545528
https://twitter.com/TheEmuEmi/status/1743300615214924248
Okano shows just how great and friendly he is with fellow Sonic fans. Speaking of which, I would like to share my experiences that I have had with Okano ever since this article’s release.
After two months of my article being published it actually got to the attention of Okano himself in August 2022. It started from a chain of events. He had retweeted some fanart made by (@YaBoiShyy) that was in his style.
I decided to make a comment linking my article so (@YaBoiShyy) could read it as I had been sharing my article with any person I thought would be interested. Initially I had also unintentionally tagged Okano into the response since if you respond to a post off of someone’s retweet they will also be added on to the response as well. So in the part of the post that says “Replying to” it also had Okano’s username.
After noticing that I added him to the response by mistake I deleted my tweet and reposted it again this time without him being added to it. He may have seen my initial version of the tweet or something because he would then actually respond to my post.
1 –
Allow me to introduce Yuji Okano Sonic!
https://twitter.com/YaBoiShyyy/status/1551707116645269504
2 –
Love how you replicated the art style of Okano’s Adventure submission design. I have actually written an article about Okano and the designs he made for Sonic. If you want you can read it here but please make sure to let the images load first:
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1554307936830332929
3 –
Oh❣️my😳
I thank you very much🙇🏻♀️🙇💖✨💞✨💕✨&💙🦔
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1555205001085358080
I have to admit I wasn’t too sure in sending him the article in the first place so I was surprised to get a response from him. I wrote back to him in Japanese.
なんと、お返事をいただけることになりました。
あなたにとって英語は第二言語だと思うので、翻訳ソフトを使って日本語で話しかけようと思います。
記事の全文は読んでいただけましたか？英語なので、読んでいただけるかどうか不安でした。
What a pleasant surprise to hear from you.
Since I know that English is a second language for you, I will use translation software to speak to you in Japanese.
Did you read the full article? Since it is in English, I was not sure if you would read it.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1555347779727376387
He would then respond in a quote tweet. Here is where he mentions that he actually read it.
おはようございます。私は昨日の深夜にあなたの記事に気付きました。
読み終えた頃には朝の2時になっていました。私はお気楽に見えますが、根本はネガティブな性格です。
しかしあなたやSNSにいる皆さんのおかげで、私は最近幸せを感じています。ありがとうございます。
心から感謝しています💙🦔🙇
Good morning. I noticed your article late last night.
By the time I finished reading it, it was 2AM. I may look easy-going, but I have a negative personality.
But thanks to you and everyone on SNS, I’ve been feeling happier lately. thank you.
I am sincerely grateful
*I must reiterate in case you have forgotten, SNS means Social Networking Service. In other words that means social media
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1555353998378430464
1 –
夜中の2時まで起きて記事を読み終えたとは、すごいですね。あなたは、ソニックシリーズのためにしたことのために、新たに見つけたすべての愛と感謝に値します💙。
私の記事を読み、共有していただき、本当にありがとうございます。
It’s amazing that you stayed up until 2AM to finish reading the article. You deserve all your newfound love and appreciation for what you’ve done for the Sonic series.
Thank you so much for reading and sharing my article.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1555590382003552256
2 –
こちらこそありがとうございます😊私は幸せ者です💝✨💙🦔
Thank you very much, I’m a happy person
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1555695343957729280
3 –
そして、このお返事を読んで、とても嬉しくなりました😊。
And reading this reply made me very happy.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1556055475753566208
Since I had just gotten into Björk at the time I decided to have a conversation about her with him. Here is where I first mentioned the fact that “Me Company” did the European cover for 3D Blast.
1 –
ところで、[Fanbyte]のインタビューで、何人かの音楽プロデューサーを挙げていましたが、その中で私が一番好きなのは[Björk]です。彼女の音楽を初めて聴いたのは、1994年の映画[Leon]でした。
彼女の曲で好きなのは、”Joga”と “Pagan Poetry “です。
By the way, in the [Fanbyte] interview, you mentioned several music producers, but the one I like the most is [Björk]. The first time I heard her music was in the 1994 film [Leon]. My favorite songs of hers are “Joga” and “Pagan Poetry”
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1555592816620863488
2 –
なんと偶然にも、3Dモデルを作る会社があり、彼らが作ったのは、ビョークのアルバム用と、ソニックのヨーロッパ版3Dブラストの表紙用でした。彼らはまずクレイモデルを作り、それをコンピュータにデジタル化することから始めます。
Coincidentally, there was a company that made 3D models and they made one for Björk’s album and another for the European cover of Sonic 3D Blast. They start by making a clay model, which is then digitized into a computer.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1555594188317761538
3 –
また、イギリスの「i-D」という雑誌では、ソニックとビョークを特集していました。これらの表紙はカッコイイと思います。90年代、この2人が本当に人気があったことがよくわかりますね。
Also, the British magazine ” i-D ” featured Sonic and Björk. I think these covers are cool. You can clearly see that these two were really popular in the 90s.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1555594640803467264
この二人はPOP ICONでしたね❣️私も輸入版と日本版のi-Dを購読していました。
These two were POP ICON❗️I also subscribed to the imported version and the Japan version of i-D.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1555700059458527232
I still very much love this image I had put together. I love that both of these covers have them winking and the color palettes of pink and blue on each of them. The Sonic one was from January 1993 and the Björk one was from September 1994.
この一連のアートを作るクリエイターは有名でした。日本でもたくさんのフォロワーがいました。
The creators of this series of art were famous. He had many followers in Japan.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1555699197868773376
An additional conversation:
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1556070528699342849
Okano actually posted about the Sonic Retro forum thread I made about my article
まさかソニックレトロに詳しく経歴が載るなんて❣️ありがとう。ありがとう。
No way my bio would be on Sonic Retro.👍Thanks for finding me🙇
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1555215644391456769
He would also post providing a link to my article as well
これは’ソニック’というコンテンツを知るとても面白い記事です。時間のある時にどうぞお読みください。💙🦔
This is a very interesting article about the content of #SonicTheHedgehog. Please read it when you have time.💙🦔
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1555328131782754304
1 –
他の人が見られるように投稿してくれてありがとうございます。また、私の記事をあなたのバイオに追加してくれたことに気づきました。それもありがとうございます。
Thanks for posting this for others to see. I also noticed that you added my article to your bio. Thanks for that as well.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1555589114694705155
2 –
勝手にプロフィールに入れてごめんなさいね🙇🏻♀️🙇😅💦
Sorry for putting it in my profile without permission.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1555695071650926592
3 –
それは大丈夫です。私の記事をあなたのプロフィールに載せてもらっても結構です。👍
あなたがそうしてくれることを、実はとても光栄に思っているんです。
That’s okay. You are welcome to put my article in your profile.
I am actually very honored that you would do so.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1556048646377963522
Yes, that’s right! Okano would put a link to my article in his profile bio. He used Bitly to shorten the URL link.
It is as the URL link of English article 02: bit.ly/3d6HpBG
If you notice he would also give me a “Follow” as well.
声を大きく言う人と、私のように沈黙していた人。それは自由です。しかし私の存在はあなたたちによって広まっています。本当にありがとうございます。❤️👺
Some people say it out loud, others like me who were silent. It’s free. But my presence is spread by you. Thank you very much.💙🦔
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1555723139924905984
Quote Tweeting – From this thread:
https://archive.is/LwHLR#selection-997.0-1012.0
あなたのことを書いたスレッドを見ていたなんて、驚きです。あなたがソニックシリーズに貢献したことを、もっと多くの人に知ってもらいたいと思います。
I am surprised that you saw the thread I wrote about you. I wish more people knew about your contribution to the Sonic series.
https://archive.is/o/LwHLR/https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1555586744862515202
1 –
あなたの作品とソニックシリーズへの貢献を、もっと多くの人に知ってもらいたい。という思いから、あの記事を書きました。
時間を割いて返信し、私とのこれらすべての会話に参加していただき、ありがとうございます。
I want more people to know about your work and your contribution to the Sonic series. That’s why I wrote that article.
Thank you for taking the time to respond and participate in all these conversations with me.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1556062565532311558
2 –
こちらこそ〜🙇🙇🏻♀️✨謝謝❣️
My pleasure~ Thank you!
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1556070855079182336
Some time later in May 2023 the Youtube channel “Did You Know Gaming” uploaded a video about Sonic Adventure facts and they mention Satoshi Okano for one segment.
Here is the part in the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lotSSbCK_BI&t=246s
I had decided to make a tweet linking my article on their Twitter account post of the video
1 –
NEW VIDEO: Sonic Adventure 1 & 2
We take a look at a few exclusive facts from Sonic Adventure’s development, as well as an unsung developer who changed Sonic forever
Watch here:
https://twitter.com/didyouknowgamin/status/1654203761571553280
2 –
Always glad to see whenever Satoshi Okano is mentioned. I have written a very detailed article on him which goes more in depth about his contributions. All info is sourced.
Check out his Twitter account (@okanotion) as he drops new art and info at times.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1655267615869218819
He would make a quote tweet about their post
Thank you for collecting your various information. That pretty right trivias are soooo wonderful.🦔💙
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1655362431487705090
He would also comment on the actual post as well
Thank you, I’m very grateful.🦔💙🙇♀️🙇
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1655366183082926084
Out of curiosity I asked him if he saw the video because I tagged him in my response
ねえ、私が彼らの投稿の下にあなたのTwitterのユーザー名を言及するコメントを書いたので、あなたはこのビデオを見つけましたか？
Hey, did you find this video since I wrote a comment mentioning your Twitter username under their post?
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1655643067028848640
He would answer that he did see that video because of me
はい。そうです。いつも気にかけてくれてありがとう。ビデオは早口なのディテールまではわかりませんが、ショーンのblogは読んでいるみたいですね。
Yes. That’s right. Thank U 4 always caring me. The video is fast, so don’t know the details, but he seems like reading Sean’s blog.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1655684039226056704
1 –
はい、彼らは [Sean Aitchison] による [Fanbyte] インタビューを使用しました
Yes, they used the Fanbyte interview by Sean Aitchison
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1655760212148592640
2 –
ビデオがあなたについてほんの短い部分しか話していないので、彼らがもっと深く掘り下げることができたらよかったのにと思います。 しかし、彼らがあなたのことをまったく言及しないのではなく、あなたのことを認めてくれたことをうれしく思います.
I wish they could have dug deeper, as the video only talks about you for a very short part. But I am glad they acknowledged you rather than not mentioning you at all.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1655760276195536896
3 –
本当に本当にいつも
ありがとうございます。
心から感謝しています。
🙇🙇♀️🦔💙🦔💙🦔💙
Really really always
Thank you.
I am sincerely grateful.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1655769833429176325
4 –
彼らが作成したビデオを楽しんでいただけたでしょうか。
そしてリプライありがとうございます！ 💙
I hope you enjoyed the video they created.
And thank you for the replies!
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1655777404818800640
5 –
はい。
こちらこそ、ありがとうございます😊🦔💙
yes.
Thank you very much
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1655830352169177088
I bring up these conversations from May 2023 because Okano would actually then send a Direct Message (DM) to me thanking me for the work that I have done and likely from all the times that I send the link for my article to others so they can also know about his work.
1 –
Thank you so much for always doing your best. I really respect your observation eyes.
2 –
Also, I really appreciate you using your time for that. Thank you very much😊🙇🙇♀️
3 –
岡野さんこんにちは！ ダイレクトメッセージで連絡をくれてありがとう
Hello Okano! Thanks for reaching out over Direct Message
I had initially wanted to send him a DM first but it looks like he did it before I did. I was quite surprised. I just send him fanart that either involves Sonic Adventure or that is done in his design. I don’t try to ask him questions over DM because I would rather have any information that he says be publicly viewable.
Here is an instance where I had shown him a 3D model of the DJ Sonic artwork done by (@_OreoArt_) where he would then make a quote tweet about it.
1 –
This CG is evolving the Sonic drawn by me and geat artist Uekawa-san. That’s the coolest❣️🦔💙
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1657643793431269377
https://twitter.com/_OreoArt_/status/1594344818292842496
2 –
ダイレクトメッセージで送らせていただいた後、気に入っていただけてよかったです。
また、作った人もあなたの投稿に返信していることに気づきました。
I am glad you liked it after I sent it to you via direct message.
I also noticed that the person who made it also replied to your post.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1659351478002130947
Here is the response by (@_OreoArt_)
i’ve always been a big fan of how sonic looked during this time, i’m really happy to know that you like my interpretation of him!!
https://twitter.com/_OreoArt_/status/1657750667400806403
3 –
可能な限り、「ソニック アドベンチャー」に関連したファン作品、またはあなたのアート スタイルに沿ったファン作品をダイレクト メッセージで共有しようと思います。
Whenever possible, I will try to share fan artwork related to “Sonic Adventure” or in line with your art style via direct message.
https://twitter.com/zedm256/status/1659351735763124224
4 –
本当に本当に
ありがとうございます🙇♀️🙇🦔💙
I really really really
thank you very much.
https://twitter.com/okanotion/status/1659361838491123714
Here is the message where I showed him that model and then his response
1 –
ソニック アドベンチャーの DJ アートワークに基づいて誰かが作成したこのクールな 3D モデルをお見せしたいと思います。
I’d like to show you this cool 3D model someone made based on the DJ artwork from Sonic Adventure.
2 –
凄いですね❣️教えて頂きありがとうございます。
It’s amazing ❣️ Thank you for letting me know.
With all that being said the last person I want to thank is…YOU!!! The person reading this. If you managed to read through all of this, including this afterword, then thank you so much for taking the time to do so.
Zed's Writings 
This was an amazing read, finding out about such an influential figure in sonics history was so fascinating and your research was incredibly extensive. Thank you for all your work on this, great job!
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Thanks for your response! It really was interesting to find out more about Okano and what he did for the Sonic series.
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This was a super interesting read! You did a phenomenal job pulling together all this information, and the time and effort it must’ve taken really shows. Thanks for sharing this with all of us :)
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Thanks for responding! It did take over a year to collect all this information together as Okano kept on constantly posting new information that I had to write down. Be sure to keep an eye on this article periodically since I will update it whenever more new information arises. I’m thinking of making a separate changelog to write down what additions and changes I have done to the article itself. Perhaps I will link to that at the top of the article so people can see the revisions I have done over time.
I will be writing about more things in regards to Sonic and other topics I find interesting enough to write about as well so be sure to stick around or I will find a way to notify you whenever I write a new article.
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