I don't remember when Sonic swore, but I sure do remember when Shadow did

It should be noted that this actually ISN'T the only time Sonic has sworn. In "Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)", depending on what path you take through the story some paths will have Sonic say the line "Damn, they got away! Don't worry, I'll chase 'em down."

"Basically, Sega wanted to make sure people were surrounded by Sonic at all times" Sega: *Everything the light touches, is our hedgehog* "And so, Sega decided to try and promote Sonic in a big way" and a few years later, the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series became a thing, a match made in heaven because boy are the Wii games a lot of fun. Especially the Winter Games/Vancouver 2010 edition. The Dream Short Track and Dream Snowboard Cross courses and music slap

About the « japanesse voice actors saying english words » it’s actually more frequent than most people would assume, a lot of anime and even video games have a character saying english words here and there in japanesse, most of the time it’s to emphasize an emotion (like a character saying « die » when said person is pissed off) or for fun, and Sonic is no exception.

Actually Sonic himself says “damn” in his first cutscene in Shadow the Hedgehog, and is the first character to say the word. Which means that if you don’t die before the first cutscene, it means that chronologically, Shadow learned the word from Sonic.

I love how everyone says Vandalize is the main theme, even though it is the ending theme, funny for me at least.

Ah yes the sequel to "Remember when Mario SWORE?"

i remember watching the JP version of sonic X and being baffled when sonic just outright said shit. it was hilarious.

6:16 Sonic also says damn in Shadow the Hedgehog "Damn they got away, leave them to me I'll chase them down"

Theres also the line "Kickin' ass fast puttin on a show" in his world from Sonic 06, but I guess people just forgot about that one for some reason lol

Honestly, if any video game mascot character were to swear, I think it'd be Sonic. Isn't he like canonically 15?

Actually, a BIG part of the reason why Sonic sometimes uses Engrish in the Japanese versions of Sonic media is because his voice actor is/was an English teacher in Japan! And what about when Sonic said in Shadow the Hedgehog “Damn, they got away!”?

Mario: It's not a person's color that counts, it's the kind of person they are inside Sonic: *F the pain away, my bed is in ruins* When it comes to Sonic animated shows in English, Sonic Boom is truly a work of art. The writing is the chef's kiss.

Just imagine sonic dropping an F-bomb when Dr Eggman released all his robots 😂

Sega be like: "If you want to hear Sonic swearing in-game, then you have to pay one of our £100M annual subscriptions to support our development team."

5:37 "wheres that damn fouth chaos emerald!"

5:23 “*whistle* greeaat 😜😜”

5:28 what it actually sounded like: Hello everybody! My name is Sonic, and I'm gonna show you how to play with Knuckles! You made it! You got it!

I remember watching a KZfaqr named Jimmy Here and he said that we need a Sonic game where the characters just drop f-bombs none stop and I totally agree

Unbelievable how a person can go this in depth on such a little line and somehow, in their research, not come across the actual explanation that's not even hard to find. That said, you were pretty close: Yes, the script called for the Japanese word kuso, but it was Junichi, not the writer, who ad-libbed the English translation. After the anime had gone overseas, Junichi got an email from someone higher up that said something like, "Sonic said it!" And it was then that he realized the mistake.

Oh no. Someone swore again?!

Sonic actually said "Shit" a few times in Sonic X. 😂 As for Sonic Frontiers I would've respected them more had they kept the original lyrics tot he song intact. See, in Japan, Sonic is seen as a hothead who plays punk and rock music. Also plenty of Japanese people know full well what "Shit" means and that it's "naughty". 😂 You should check out the Gintama episode where Gintoki says "Fuck" and "Fuckinaye" repeatedly. It is hilarious. Not just because he's swearing though.

i always find it strange how japanese media sometimes just interjects with english, that and how anime is often much more permissive of swearing. each of these contexts sort of make sense here, but putting them together like this just feels extra weird.

There's also the fun fact that the main character from Dying Light is voiced by the guy who voices Sonic in several games, and if you pitch up his Dying Light dialogue juuuust slightly, you basically have yourself several instances of Sonic dropping all kinds of profanity. You're welcome.

Sonic actually does swear in Shadow the Hedgehog. He say “Damn they got away! Leave it to me I’ll chase them down.” If you fail the hero mission in lethal highway.

Another example in more recent years is in the second live-action movie. In the Seattle chase scene at the beginning, Sonic straight up says “Holy crap!” When he gets distracted driving, and later in the same scene there’s a close one when Sonic says “Holy sherbert!”

I vividly remember being a lot younger, seeing Sonic X (the Japanese dub but with English subtitles) on Hulu, and watching the first 2 episodes. I later told my mom what I saw in episode 2. I said "Sonic said the s-word" or something, and my mom was like "he said stupid"? So I said, "no, the s-H-word", and she said "he said shut up"? So I started crying because I was a little kid, and barely managed to say, "nOoOo, the s-h-I-word!" I remember the expirence to this day, it's hilarious thinking about it.

This apparently happens a lot in anime. I've been watching most anime shows new and old for 10+ years now. It started with InuYasha and those hilariously funny 4Kids dubs. I've gone back and watched a few of them in the original Japanese audio with English subtitles. It's pretty funny to notice the little details like the changing of a word or phrase to make it fit better for American children/adults.

Fun Fact, the Spotify upload has the uncensored audio, but the censored lyrics.

If I recall, Sonic does ABSOLUTELY say 'damn' at least once in Shadow the Hedgehog, but then again so does nearly everyone else. It's so casually thrown out there that it makes me imagine that in Mobius it's not a swear word but just another deity name like 'Chaos' or 'Gaia' or 'Iblis'

There's actually another time in season 3 where Sonic says "Damn!" in plain English. The Japanese version of Sonic X is truly something else if you grew up with the 4Kids dub.

3:33 Pftt-. . ' *He got me with the replay's* 😂

Sonic has actually swore way more times than this, he cussed in Shadow the hedgehog and in the Japanese dub of other Sonic games too(even in Sonic Adventure he says "damn it" in engrish)

4:00 I mean, damn is still a curse word. In the southern parts of America, it's treated equally as bad as sh¡t, and b¡tch is even worse

2:52 fun fact, Sonic X was actually a more huge success in France

5:59 I always assumed it just repeated the word "hot pocket" over and over again

He also swore mildly in SA2, or at least, is quoted as swearing. In the background music of one of Knuckles' levels he's quoted as saying "You're damn right, Knuckles." In his defense, Knuckles was in fact damn right.

Judging by what I've seen over the years, I believe Sega in Japan makes Sonic say English words because they want him to feel like the American character trope seen in anime. (Terry Bogard and Chibodee Crockett are good examples of this trope.) Those types of characters usually swear in English from time to time, so it doesn't surprise me that Sonic did it too at some point.

5:47 In this case, it was a localization thing, he just says where's that fourth chaos emerald in the Japanese version. In fact, a lot of the swearing said in Shadow's game was localization stuff, and in the case of Sonic swearing, this is not uncommon in the Japanese versions.

Isn't Sonic's Japanese voice actor also an English teacher?

Fun fact, In Sonic boom rise of lyric there where scraped voice lines of sonic where he almost says "sh* t", but he transitions it to him saying "shoot". He says "Oh shiii-oooot!" There was also a scraped line of Knuckles saying that they pissed Eggman off.

I didn't even know there are two versions of the song. It's pretty amazing that Sega listened to the original version and decided, "yep, let's use this song". I'm glad they used the song because it's probably the best vocal Sonic theme I've ever heard even with the bad language entirely removed.

Another time a swear word was used is in the song ‘his world’ from the 2006 game. It said ‘kicking ass fast’ which is a mild curse, but still interesting!

Lol, I feel like I know too much random sonic trivia when I already knew exactly where this video was going and what points your were going to bring up.

Those are not the only cases of adult language within the Sonic franchise. In a prototype of Sonic Adventure 2, during the opening cutscene of the hero story one of the cops in the helicopter says "What the hell?". In the retail version this is cut to say "What the-?".

I was just binge-watching your videos and you launched a new one! Thank you!

0:39 oh hey that's me

top 10 retro video game characters who've sworn

There's another song example as well, for Sonic 06 "His World" has "kickin' ass fast" in like the first 20 seconds and the song is specifically reffering to sonic as well. Not the most extreme example but still interesting for the time

I'm not sure if it went down exactly that way, considering there was no Google translate back then. I'd imagine that the script writers had a book of common English phrases and exclamations and they just randomly picked stuff out of that. (it's also so weird hearing you swear with that wholesome voice. haha)

Sonic Rush Adventure actually has another example of adult language in one scene at the Pirate Island seal Marine say “bugger”, I don’t know if it’s considered a bad word in NTSC regions which is likely how it got through a children friendly game, but it is in the UK, fun fact because of this in the UK it was given the age rating 12+ The boss music isn’t swear the phrase is “rock it” although I can totally see why someone could hear it, as a kid I always thought it was “bucket” which does sound similar to a certain phrase, now that Frontiers music is out we all know they were just testing the waters

Everyone: "Sonic is for kids!!" Also Sonic: *shows scenes of violence, swearing, sexualization, and actual death*

Your videos are just incredible, the amount of research you put into creating such amazing content is astounding, and they always make for an enjoyable time, cheers!

Oh my god, we have a similar situation to the japanese "Kuso" in german as well! While we do have an "explicit" word for "shit", "Scheiße", we also have "Mist", which actually refers to manure and is used as a much more "child-friendly" swear word. So much so that it has even become the catchphrase of an incredibly popular figure from children's tv, Bernd das Brot, Bernd the Bread. He's a bit like Squidward in loaf form.

Also in his world from 06 in the first few lyrics there was the line Kickin Ass Fast

Thank You fir the new video! You are greatly appreciated Thomas! 🎉

"Remember when CJ swore" Surely this video would be hours long.

"Remember when Sonic swore?" Which time? The Knuckles rap in SA2 The Japanese version of Sonic X Shadow the Hedgehog The Zebrahead version of His World

i don’t go out of my way to comment on things but i really appreciate the work you put in to make amazing videos that keep us all entertained, thank you for everything man!!

Classic sonic is good boy he would never allow his music to have a no-no word in it

There was also the Theme song "His world" in Sonic 06, as it sweared only 1 time. I honestly feel like Sonic could still be a good mascot and Character even if his franchise swears a-little bit. But what can i say? It's Sonic.

always appreciate your videos Thomas! keep up the awesome work with this channel!

Love your videos dude, always teach me something i didn't know!

It’s rather curious to me how Vandalize caused a bit of an uproar for this considering the same happened back in 2006 with “His World.” The line being “Kicking ass fast…”

Fun fact: This isn't actually the first and only time where Sonic swears, since he said "Damn" in the Japanese dub of Sonic Adventure, in the Death Chamber rap in Sonic Adventure 2, and in one of the Shadow The Hedgehog routes (it's when you fail the hero mission on Lethal Highway if I remember correctly) But the thing that kinda got me the most is that also the word *hell* is used in some Sonic games: In Sonic And The Secret Rings when you get one of the Seven World Rings, there's a cutscene where Sonic says " *It might even open the gates of hell* ". The word is also used in the subtitles for the first hero story cutscene of Sonic Adventure 2.

Love the videos, Thomas. Keep it up!!!

Thomas, your channel is close to 500K subscribers!😀👏👏👏

Not really uncommon for Sonic to swear, at least in the Original Versions. Jun’ichi Kanemaru says “Damn, Shit,” etc all the time. Even in SA1. Sometimes in full English, In Sonic X, Sonic also said “Damn!” in full English, not Kuso, he legit said it in full English as well. Also Zazz in Lost World said something similar “Go to hell!” also in full English.

Sonic says damn if you fail the hero mission in lethal highway from Shadow

Knuckles' theme from SA2 has this line: "wild and hungry, not a damn thing funny" Sonic's theme from Sonic 06 also has: "kickin' ass fast, putting on a show"

I JUST SAW YOU HIT 500K CONGRATS 🎉🎉🎉

Correction, actually: Sonic has sworn in the games too. In Shadow the Hedgehog (obviously) if you fail the Hero Mission in the stage Lethal Highway, Sonic will say "Damn, they got away! Leave it to me, I'll chase them down!"

Fun fact, the song that sounded like it was swearing in Sonic rush adventure was THE BOSS THEME.

Your videos are very entertaining. Keep up the good work!

It's great to see you made it to to 500k subs!

Y'know when I first heard about the clips of him swearing in X, I was really just expecting it to be "yeah, Kuso means sh-t in Japanese" and move on. But he actually said SH1T lol

5:53 I dont hear any swearing i just hear music

Really fitting that in the thumb nail Santiago (modern classic sonic) with a speech bubble saying banned

in sonic adventures 2, the song "death chamber", theres some banter between sonic and knuckles that eds with sonic saying "youre damn right knuckles"

sonic actually swore in Shadow the Hedgehog too, I think he's like, "Damn, they got away!" or something like that

5:42 In the japanease dub he says DAMN not as often. The overuse of swearing is because the trantlasion of This game is kinda awful.

Sonic also swore in shadow the hedgehog, specificly the line "damn! they got away!" in one of the missions. There also other instances of Sonic characters swearing, mainly in the Archie comics and maybe in the movies. But they never use anymore than a "damn" or "hell," and haven't sworn in the games since Shadow which was to my knowledge the only time they did so.

I love Vandalize. It's such a good song. Sonic introduced me to One Ok Rock. They are my favorite band now. Well, Shadow says damn all the time, and he gets away with it. From my childhood, I remember "damn not here" when he dies in Sonic Adventure 2.

6:10 Not true, if you fail the hero mission in Lethal Highway in Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic will say the d word.

1:51 haha, one

Don't forget in Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007) he says "It might even open the Gates of Hell."

I always thought the boss theme in Sonic Rush Adventure sounded more like "stop blocking". Then again, I once saw a compilation of every time someone said "fuck" and it eventually sounded like he was chanting "flocking blocking"

I love Junichi's Sonic voice

Off topic, but do you think the Kirby anime might have had a similar translation problem? I remember one instance in the sub particularly well where Escargoon built a robot version of himself, and when it ran into the wall, it dropped the f-bomb. Edit: I went back and found that episode. It's episode 78 of Hoshii no Kaabi, around the 7-8 minute mark.

In the swedish dubbed episode ''The adventures of Knuckles and Hawk'' in sonic X, in the bar/resturant scene where a bunch of guys gang up on knuckles the guy that lunges at knuckles actually says ''din lilla skit'' which mean ''you little shit''. I actually rewind it multiple times just to confirm it.

I thought I remember Sonic once saying "You damn crab!" when I was watching Sonic X as a kid.

Actually he did Swear in the 2nd episode of Sonic X the Japanese Dub were when he and Cream found out the Cameras had Laser Blaster he said “Sh*t Let’s Go!”

2:16 no way lol

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who thought that about Sonic Rush Adventure's boss lyrics.

Sonic swore on a another occasion i believe he said ''Damn! They got away leave it to me i'll go get them'' or something along those lines.

I'm not surprised Sonic would swear

Nahi i dont like mario but sonics the best 6:49

Was literally just binging your videos

Sonic actually says "Damn" in Shadow The Hedgehog if you fail the hero mission in Lethal Highway. Once the blackarms ship escapes he'll say "Damn, they got away! Leave it to me, I'll chase em down!"

Sonic X is literally my favorite Sonic show.