I'd thought it was obvious all along, but - oh - the arguments I've had!

[flyboy_fox]

YES.

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In an interview with ThisIsMyJoystick.com, Yuji Naka has revealed that the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise was created with environmental themes based around the impact mankind is having on the world, but says he couldn’t speak about it back in 1991 because it was a touchy subject at the time. Naka instead decided to showcase his views in Sonic the Hedgehog’s video game world, with the villainous and polluting Dr.Robotnik/Dr.Eggman being the main representation of the concept.

“Dr Robotnik is a slightly radical representation of all humanity and the impact humanity is having on nature. In 1991, it was a very sensitive subject to talk about the environment and while I had my viewpoint, I did not speak of it. With Sonic, I was given an opportunity to express my views in a different way and did so, showing Robotnik using pollution and creating machinery which desecrates the environment and it is down to Sonic to change his ways.”
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It may seem like the most obvious in the world thing to many people, but I have been arguing this point forever. I have had countless arguments with people who can't stand the idea that the Sonic games were an environmental statement and that the theme was humans vs nature. Some people have gotten really rather upset with me for insisting that this was the original theme. I've been called a hippie, amongst other ruder terms, and scolded for trying to bring 'green politics' into a video game. I was accused of being 'brainwashed' by SatAM and trying to apply that show's much more 'obvious' message to the games.

But this WAS exactly what the early Sonic games were (and still are!) to me. A message, a warning, a statement.

Yeah, I kinda was a 90's hippie. Some of my favourite shows and books were the ones with the cheesiest themes. I adored Colin Dann's The Animals Of Farthing Wood for example, for the very same reason.

A lot of people got angry with me a few years ago on SSMB in a topic where I was trying to say that this was the overriding theme of the Sonic games. People didn't like that I was saying that the game had a stance against humans' effect on the world in general rather than just the actions of one man (Robotnik). They didn't believe me that Robotnik was meant to represent humanity as a whole.

Well, now Naka has stated it openly and I feel vindicated.

It may seem unimportant, petty even. But to me it's amazing to have him say outright what I've been arguing for years about the underlying theme of the first Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Comments

[carriepika.livejournal.com]

... wait. So people seriously missed that entire point? ... you're kidding me, right?

God.. come on, people! EVERYTHING in the 90s was about environmental awareness and statements about humans impact on the environment! That was like.. epic huge in the late 80s, early 90s! I was under no delusions about Sonic. For god's sake it was a world full of happy little animal people living in a pristine world with no technology until the ONLY HUMAN ON THE PLANET showed up and started destroying their homes and enslaving them with the stuff.

What else could that be? 8| Sheesh. \D

[flyboy-fox.livejournal.com]

Seriously. The DEBATES that I have had about this have been unreal. A lot of people felt that SatAM totally made up the whole 'environmental theme' to fit in with the cartoons airing at the time about pollution/technology/machines etc. One of the people I was arguing with absolutely detested stuff like Fern Gully and Animals of Farthing Wood and took it as a personal insult that I was saying her beloved Sonic had the same underlying message ^^;

I dunno, Carrie. I really dunno.

[inkedfeathers.livejournal.com]

Awww... ♥

I see the same thing in the Pokemon anime, but they make it quite obvious, since it came out nearly a decade later.

This is very, very sweet and quite heartening!

Isn't it kind of obvious, especially with all the major characters pretty much being cute and happy animals against a lovely, lush landscape, threatened by man and his machines?

[flyboy-fox.livejournal.com]

You'd THINK it would be obvious, but some people are just very averse to any 'real world politics' in their video games.

Part of it, I think, stems from the number of people who only know the modern Sonic games, in which normal 'everyday' humans are far more present and apparent, and the focus has moved away from pollution and environmental destruction (and there's no more rescuing little woodland critters from badniks/capsules for the most part).

But there are also people who just don't wanna see a link between Robotnik and humanity in general and can't stand to have people as a whole tarred with that brush. Their dislike for environmentally themed messages tints their glasses to a degree where they just won't accept that Sonic games are 'preaching to' them in any way.

It boggles my mind, but there you have it :P

[inkedfeathers.livejournal.com]

I will never understand why there are a bunch of people who think things like global warming is a myth or that any of this is political in anyway.

Here in Saudi, it's all taught as fact, supported by scientific research!

And yes, especially the parts about fuel and gas polluting the air.

You'd think we'd have MORE reason to hide it, but no, we're taught about it in our schools and it's part of our curriciulum.

I still can't understand those people...

I... only played the first Sonic games, so I wouldn't know much at all about the later ones. ^o^;

I once played a 3D Sonic game! Just a bit. Got bored. ^^;;

That's... pretty silly.

You got me there.

[overlord-mordax.livejournal.com]

This wasn't obvious to people? The hell?

[flyboy-fox.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised D:

[(Anonymous)]

anyone that couldn't see this was the point of the original games is stupid, or just blind. and boohoo people disagreed with you. get over it.

[flyboy-fox.livejournal.com]

It's always nice to feel vindicated when you've been locking horns with people over an issue. I'm only human; I like to have proof that I'm right :D

As for people being stupid or blind - I don't think that's it, really. It's more to do with seeing what you want (or not seeing what you don't want) to see in things because of your own bias.

Admittedly, I have bias too. Like I said, I was a big hippie-kid in the 90's ♥

[alycus.livejournal.com]

Huh, the fact you and Naka had to point it out tells me it may have had the most successful Green Aesop ever. (See here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreenAesop And yeah Sonic is listed there.)

It wasn't like Captain Planet, and that's good enough to me.

[flyboy-fox.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't feel that Sonic was ever obnoxious in the way the games made a point.

It wasn't called "Sonic The Eco-Warrior and the Evil Pollutant-Spilling Obese Human Who Enslaves Animals And Destroys Woodlands", yet it really did boil down to that in the end, no matter which way you slice (or spin-dash?) it.

But it was done in a way that was fun rather than preachy.

Can't miss the irony of a VIDEO GAME with a "Technology is baaaad" stance, though :P (Of course, Sonic CD was a bit more level about it, given that the ideal futures were ones in which technology was in harmony with nature rather than either removed entirely or used to obliterate the natural world ♥)

[gundamgreg.livejournal.com]

Hurr durr Sonic isn't allowed to have a lame-o environmental message in it because I like it and I'm above the age of 10.

Every other damn game that came out during that time was Captain Planet: The Video Game: Starring (insert attempt at a mascot here). Just because Sonic became a bigger hit than most doesn't mean it suddenly wasn't.

[flyboy-fox.livejournal.com]

+1 for common sense! :D

[way-past-cool.livejournal.com]

Finally. XD Not that it wasn't TOTALLY OBVIOUS. People who deny it now are either 'Eggman is good' proponents, or the ones who've jumped on the 'environmentalism is just left-wing propaganda!' bandwagon of recent years. But 'save the planet' themes were very big in the early 90s, and any 90s kid could tell you Sonic was part of that. n.n;