i always assumed Sonic’s eyes were green because they contrasted with the rest of his design, and the fact that red/green/blue are the primary colors of light
I've only seen RGB called primary colors with computers. Magenta, Cyan, and either Yellow or Green are what I've seen be called the primary colors of light as well as the primary colors for printers. And Red, Blue, Yellow are the primary colors for paint. Where did you get that red/green/blue are the primary colors of light?
@@Hutch2Much I had to see for myself and light goes RGB not RYB since ... [Cntrl V] ✓ RGB is what monitors use for colors because monitors give off or “emit” light. The distinction here is that RGB is an additive color palette. The more color you add to it, the brighter it gets. Add all colors together, you get white. That's crazy I never would have known that
I've honestly never cared about Sonic's eyes and thought the debate was stupid. I do like the perspective you gave as to why people weren't jazzed about it though. Really *opened my eyes.* In general I think green's the best we could've gotten.
@@urtooslow4415 It's even worse when you consider the fact that no one actually cared when they changed Sonic's design for Sonic Adventure. People only decided that green eyes were bad when Sonic 4 was announced and everyone just assumed that the black eyed design was coming back and overreacted when it didn't!
My headcanon is that due to sonics exposure to chaos energy his eyes became green by defaulf and his eyes become red when he is super since he is overflowing with chaos energy like shadow
I prefer the green eyes, but what I find interesting is the fact people are having discussions about Sonic's eye only. The classic version all had black eyes. Tails' eyes being blue, Knuckles being purple, why are people not talking about these? I think it's a pointless debate as it's not going to change anything. Things change and update, and honestly eye colours just make all the designs pop~
Because Sonic is the titlular main character and the only one the edgier '90s fans care about ("eWwW TaIlS WhAt a gRoSs kIdDiE NoT CoOl tHeRe sHoUlD OnLy bE SoNiC!1") and saying "green eyes" is simply easier than saying "colored eyes"-which is actually redundant as even the classic designs had colored eyes, albeit very faintly, in certain promo illustrations-and in any case it's generally understood to be a blanket term. That answer it?
I thought the green eyes were added to modernize the character because the classic design wouldn’t fit with what they were going for in Adventure and I agree
Pretty much this. They simply added a bit of detail to make him more presentable in higher detail environments. Sonic's final movie rendition did basically the same thing to make him presentable in a real-world setting. Boom Sonic did the exact opposite and added detail where it wasn't necessary while putting sonic in a less realistic environment.
@Pink Morales The athletic tape and scarf don't really do much besides make the design look busier. They could have done the same but with functional gear and made a much better design. Tails' boom design, on the other hand, is pretty good because the goggles and utility belt are more in line with his character traits.
Colored eyes add more depth to the character with adding to the color theme while not actually making major changes. Green connects Sonic to nature more and the way the eyes stand out fit with his attitude. Purple eyes give Knuckles give a mysterious feel and possibly royal feel, saying that there so much history connecting him to the ancient echidnas. Tails blue eyes give him a theme with Sky and connect him to Sonic more, I also like that it gives him a more humble feeling which worked great with Adventure series (the only correct way to present Tails's personality). Black eyes just give an old cartoony feel that doesn't fit as well and makes the characters seem softer.
Tails also always had an aesthetic connection to Sonic through his shoes: similarly styled to Sonic's but less loud and more smartly strapped (on the ankles instead of across the top of the foot). But Adventure 2 made Tails TOO humble if you get me; it was the start of him falling ever farther behind Sonic for no good reason besides forcing overly separate identities on the characters and making Sonic untouchable. And Amy's eyes also being green works as she's basically Sonic's wannabe girlfriend.
Perfect explanations. Wanna elaborate on that attitude point and mention the fact that most, if not all of Sonic's attitude is delivered through the eyes. Having a strong contrasting color like green does such a great job bringing attention to the eyes. In regards to Knuckles, the purple directly contrast Sonic's green so it adds to the fact that all of Knuckles color scheme directly contrast Sonic's. Genius character design
I mean, Ash Ketchum had black eyes for the longest time before artists eventually established he had brown eyes. I think the same thing is with Sonic, updating the look for a new audience...
@@CarbonRollerCaco No it’s not? Late to the party here for sure, but Ash didn’t have brown eyes. AT ALL. It’s the same thing as Sonic. They updated the design.
@@jodonthesith7172 Ash has had brown eyes since the Kanto series. In the animation sequence where it zooms in on his face especially his signature footage of throwing a pokeball, it shows the brown in his eyes. That clip has been used since the first episode. Ash normally being shown with black eyes isn't from the color being omitted but from the limitation from that choice in art style except for scenes that allow for those extra details to show.
I still believe Boom becoming the mainline design was the original intention, they just backpedaled due to the backlash. Do people not remember Modern being called "Legacy Sonic" for a time?
@@loiiysailor1177 you take sonic, mess up his hair, slice his gloves and shoes so he has to cover them with bandages, stretch him, then put shit around his neck
I prefer the green eyes. Aside from the fact that green is my favorite color, l think giving the characters colored eyes makes them feel more real (ignoring characters with red, yellow, or purple eyes), because real people don't have black, colorless eyes. I get that they were going for a classic cartoon look with the black eyes though, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I also think different colored eyes makes each character's design more colorful and unique. Plus, it allows for little design details like how Sonic is blue with green eyes, and rivals like Jet or Scourge are green with blue eyes. Also, definitely agree with what you said about updating the artstyle and model for sonic renders.
Definitelly agreed with all you said. Besides, I just want SEGA change somehow your shoes' form for the hot dog cozi thing. In my vision, she should be very cool to your aesthetic in general.
I like the change for the green eyes. Gives Sonic this more edgy look, a more determined, almost aggressive aura of coolness, much in line with what was first intended by Uekawa, with the graffiti-styled art and the long, bendy limbs. Plus, as much as it's a reference to Green Hill, I'd much rather say it's a reference to Sonic's nature-loving roots; Sonic, since his first game, is trying to protect his planet from Eggman, who in turn tries to control it and dominate it for his own benefit. The green eyes reflects this detail on top of spicing up the design with great contrast with the red shoes and the darker fur. It demands your attention when you look at the artworks and I really like it!
Ngl, I thought you would mention the archie story of Sonic just being thrown into a dimensional hell of an adventure and just appearing back home with green eyes at the end. LOL.
10:38 I TOTALLY AGREE. Ever since secret rings the renders have looked the same and ever since colors the models have looked the same, not a redesign needed but just newer proportions, make him more expressive instead of going the American sonic route and having him do the same stupid smile in every picture, sometimes modern sonic renders have different expressions but that 30th Anniversary render looks so familiar, the smile reminds me of that one generations render. The shading on the new renders are bland and the models have been the same looking since 2010, can we have some variety, back then, every sonic game had its own style of renders and models but now it feels like the renders and models have been the same.
I also agree. Every time I see stuff from the 2010s with Sonic expressing something other than that corporate/cocky smile, (comics, animated shorts, even Boom) it feels so... weird lol. Don't make emotions non-existent, Sega!
Actually there are very subtle changes to Sonics modern rendered design. If u look at unleashed and forces, you’ll notice that sonic is a lighter shade of blue, and his quills are shorter in forces
*sigh* The older promo pics by Naoto Ohshima REALLY needed to show the ACTUAL classic eye colors better. But Aaron Webber just wants the whole series to be a meme madhouse and will attempt to distract from class at every turn.
I think the green eyes look prettier, the various colored eyes all do across the main cast! Also damn dude that audio quality got a major upgrade, sounding a lot more crisp 💟
Honestly, I can see an origin for this; After exposure to the raw energy of the Super Emeralds, Sonic's body absorbed a fraction of Chaos Energy into his very being, this allows the usage of the homing attack, the lightspeed dash, and the ability to utilize Chaos Control to a limited degree in his base form. Or something like that.
West Side Island still needed repair after S3&K. I don't regard Hyper Sonic as canon to that game specifically since it would technically still require the Master Emerald to be in place, but Sonic after having gone Super could still enhance the Emeralds' healing power. Since it's suggested he's closely tied to Chaos, some of his latent power could've been drawn out by the Emeralds.
An interesting theory, but that doesn't explain how the other characters got their coloured irises. That's always the problem with trying to come up with a canonical explanation. Both the Archie and Fleetway comics seemed to have made this mistake. It's also a little odd that Archie felt it necessary to give an explanation for the art style change, when their art style was constantly changing due to different artists.
While the color of his eyes doesn’t matter that much to me, I do admit that the colored eyes for the characters of the Sonic series gives each of them unique character features and greater range in their facial expressions.
Chaomix: makes a video relying on the modern-classic split universe theory Tails, the Absolute Chad, dropping a huge lore drop while streaming on TailsTube: Many people think that they are from separate universes, but actually, they’re just Sonic but from 2 different times
While I like Modern Sonic's design more I like both Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic equally because it's Sonic the Hedgehog. Modern Sonic is meant to carry the series going forward (wither if games like Sonic 06 and Sonic Forces are bad or if Sonic Adventure 1 or Sonic Colors is good). Mario Fans didn't act like this when Mario had blue overalls and red shirt going forward instead of having the red overalls and blue shirt. heck look at Zero from the Mega Man series and how he looked in Mega Man X1, Mega Man X2 though Mega Man X8 and the Mega Man Zero series it's still Zero
I’m late too the party but I feel like Classic Sonic can be cool too. Personally I believe the coolest Sonic has ever been was during the animated intro for Sonic CD.
When I started seeing artwork and teasers for Adventure, I thought the design looked really cool. Like you said, the character was growing up with me. I have room in my heart for both versions of the character.
My head cannon is that all mobians go through an eye color change as they grow up. When they're babies their eyes are just black, but when they age up into a kid their eyes gain color. It's kinda like how human babies can be born with blue eyes, but then when they grow up their eyes change color because now their body's producing more melenin. This head cannon would explain why Sonic isn't the only character to have an eye color change. All the other characters (such as Tails, Knuckles, Amy, the Chaotix) also developed different eye colors because that's just the norm for mobians. This would also explain why we never see adult mobians (like Vanilla) with the classic style eyes. Sonic Generations shows us that younger Sonic's and younger Tails' eyes were actually black. It's not just an art style change, at some point their eyes literally changed color.
The way I see it, Sonic would just look strange with the modern design and black eyes. Black eyes felt like a hardware limitation, so now that the design is more complex, why not add more detail? Also it looks better.
Couldn’t agree more about the current design being stale. I’ve never liked it. The renders from the story book games and unleashed are cool because of his attitude. But Colours onward is just lifeless. He’s just there. If they want to keep using this style, then give him back his attitude. But to fix it all, have a new art style. A blend of the adventure era and pre colours. That could very well be the best style for sonic if they provide him with enough attitude and dynamic poses. Because let’s me honest, sonic works as a dynamic character. Standing there wagging a finger just doesn’t hit right. Even Mario in odyssey has more attitude and style than sonic does in forces
I don't care about the eye color BUT I really really appreciate you saying that it's ok to discuss it and people shouldn't hate on discussion about minute things
8:15 There's not just two iterations of Sonic. What made modern Sonic and classic Sonic separate was how they look different, act different, talk different, and even play differently from each other. Sonic in the Dreamcast era (1998-2004) had Ryan Drummond as the voice actor, knew when to take things seriously, looked MUCH different from modern Sonic, and the games that Dreamcast Era Sonic is in don't have the boost.
The fact that those people fought over Sonic's design is just ridiculous. Sonic, no matter if it's Classic, Modern, Archie, what ever, they are still Sonic! Even then, goo video! ^^
Green Eyes was the first time it clearly happened mid-canon, and not a lot of people get how eye color works IRL, so it came off as needless and tryhard at best and canon-rending at worst. Plus it came with a voice change and normal humans, and those ESPECIALLY pissed off the Western cartoon fans who wanted Jaleel White and a SatAM-esque canon.
Where's the early days of sonic? where's the black eyes?! NOT THIS GREEN EYED RAT. -Nostalgia Blind Sonic Fan. honestly, i don't exactly care what color his eyes are.
3:36 "I can see his eyes! I should never have seen Dr. Eggman's eyes! I know they're blue now! I should not know that!" -ClementJ64 I'm sorry if that's been done before, but I couldn't resist. :)
Yay, another video from Chaomix! *LESS GO!* Chaomix can I say something? Why is it that before Sonic had black eyes (everyone knows that) and when he turned Super/Hyper Sonic, he had green eyes. Then when Sonic's look changed: Sonic got green eyes and when he turns Super, he gets red eyes! I like Sonic and it doesn't matter if their eyes are just black or green! I love him just as he is!
Aside from the origin of those green hill eyes, I think overall it fits his modern look. You want him to be seperate from his old design? A dip of color wouldn't hurt. But I guess it did for the rest.
Brightly colored eyes come off as less "intense" than fully or mostly solid black eyes to some, many don't understand that real eye colors aren't always fixed, either, and the new eye colors came with other things that pissed off the SatAM fans in particular, thus the Adventure Sonic characters were rationalized as different from even the incarnations in the older games. If hashtags had been around in the '90s, NotMySonic would've been a trender around Sonic Adventure's release. And the modern designs weren't originally supposed to be taller than the classic ones, just more athletic. The "taller" thing only became canonized with Generations.
As a child I use to associate green eyes sonic with the thought of him coming from a reboot series. The adventure era never really referenced the past games, it felt like a different character that’s probably why I wasn’t as much of as fan of modern.feels like a different continuity.
Tbf the Adventure games referenced quite a bit from the Classic games. Certain stage motifs, lore (building off of Angel Island), plot points (like Knuckles being tricked again) etc. I guess I see what you mean tho. It does feel different.
Sonic Adventure lore was based off Sonic 2 & Sonic 3 game manuals. Sonic 2 manual tells a story about an ancient civilization, which used the magic stones to prosper, but one day sined and was almost completely destroyed by the gods. Sonic 3 manual says Angel Island was created by the gods from the parts of the islands echidnas lived on. In Sonic Adventure one archeologist states that the ground from the fallen Angel Island is very similar to the ground from the Mystic Ruins. Also one kid on the street mentions that Sonic has saved Angel Island and Little Planet. Amy remembers Sonic CD as well, so as Tails remembers the way he met Sonic (from the Sonic 2 manual).
Great video, Chaomix. For me, the green eyes isn't a problem. Same thing with other Sonic designs. But they should just stick to one and change it 10 yes later or so.
As someone who grew up with the Classic games but still enjoys games from basically every era of the franchise, the only time I was ever put off by the use of the Modern Sonic design was specifically regarding Sonic 4. When I heard there was going to be a Sonic 4 and it'd be a 2D game like the classic Genesis titles, my mind immediately went to Mega Man 9 and 10. Same art style, same gameplay, but with new stories, levels, and adventures. What we got was... basically the opposite of that. Modern Sonic design, new art style, but what was essentially a direct repeat story with recreations of old zones, enemies, and bosses. They kept the stuff they should've changed, and changed the stuff they should've kept.
Those first three seconds were all I needed to know that this video is more than worth my Like. I don't know, man, the Instant Transmission gag is just the easiest way to my funny bone. [Edit] To engage with the video a bit: I personally really enjoy Sonic's green eyes, and I really like the variety of eye colours amongst the series cast of characters (Knuckles' purple eyes look so great on him). Sonic's black eyes definitely work best for his Classic incarnation, though. I personally think that every change to Sonic's design from S3&K to Adventure 2 (and onwards, I suppose) were logical progressions of his design language - they all made a lot of sense in different ways, even if the green eyes actually come from the desire to simply reference Green Hill Zone (which is crazy if it's true). Great job making an interesting and substantial video on yet another topic that I never knew I wanted discussion on, Chaomix. Keep up the grand work.
7:11 I like the boom design quite a bit, it just has a bit more to it than sonic usually has. The simplicity of sonic is great too, but if youre gonna go simple, may as well go all the way back to classic sonic. The modern sonic just seems like an odd middle ground to me now.
11:05 Just saying that the Generations model is just the Unleashed model with some additional shoe textures. Actually, the last time that we had an original and unique Sonic model was '06 (I'm not counting SR and BK, they're the same), every game after Unleashed reused its model with the same skeleton, even Colors. Games after Generations just shorten him 🙄
I've been a sonic fan for almost 20 years and I have never legitimately seen anyone argue over Sonic's eye color. I'm just aware it's a thing. Frankly I think it's best that generations and forces just explain that they were just two different sonics from different dimensions.
I kinda understood why some people despised the green eyes so much even if I thought the hate was ridiculously excessive sometimes, but canonically making classic and modern Sonic separate characters from separate dimensions is something that I've never agreed with and never will, and to date I haven't seen a single person who's really happy about this. Like, as far as I can tell the decision was made because apparently classic fans despise modern Sonic so much that they want classic Sonic and the whole classic era to be completely disassociated from modern Sonic somehow, yet I've never seen anyone arguing that it was a great decision or anything, because I don't think classic fans care too much about lore details anyway. Is it so difficult to have classic Sonic just be an alternate design used for more classic-styled games like Mania? Without pulling off the whole "Sonic from another dimension" BS they've been trying to push as of lately? Specially since classic Sonic can just shows up in a modern game like Forces anyway so that makes it even more pointless.
Sonic is Sonic to me. Classic, Modern, black eyes, green eyes. They're all the same. It was SEGA that saw the divide in the fandom and fed into it by the dividing the character into two. It started with Generations, but at least back then they established Classic was just Modern when he was young, so they weren't technically separate. But now he's "that Sonic from another dimension." The separation has become this official canonical thing, and it doesn't look like there's any going back, as much as I wish they would.
I have a theory. In the games before sonic's adventure, he was just a child. As he got older, it became clear that his eyes are green. *But hey that's just a theory!*
While the chaos exposure is really plausible, my headcanon for the change in design is like the creator said - the character grew up. Idk maybe change in eye color come with age, we don't know their biology. (Also goes with my age theory of how classic sonic is much younger then adventure sonic, and adventure is younger than modern (12->15->18).
Headcannon: Sonic wears green contact lenses to shield his eyes from the wind while running when he got older and faster (Yes I know this Headcannon doesn't r really make sense if you think about it)
Personally, I prefer the green eyes simply because they're a pop of colour that's quite effective at drawing your attention to his face. As with Knuckles' purple eyes(probably one of my favourite parts of Knuckles' modern design), I think it's a good contrast that gives Sonic more expression than the full black ones do. I still think giving green eyes to classic Sonic is a bad idea though, because it doesn't work as well with the design of him. Let's just hope SEGA never does anything stupid like that.
Sonic looks good with green eyes, I think this is the best color Sega could have gone with. If they gave him brown eyes his color scheme wouldn't be as bright and popping. The bright color scheme suits him since it shows that he's energetic.
What if the reason why he has green eyes is because of him transforming into super sonic too many times and that is the reason why he's eyes became green
Designer 1999: fans of the games are getting older, so we made the designs more mature Sega 2010+: Fans of the games are full grown adults with their own financial access.. so we're going to write games for toddlers loool
When it comes to character design, the eyes are often one of the most expressive parts of the face. It would make very little sense to update Sonic's look and NOT update the eye color, especially since they were going for a more mature look in the redesign. Now, with that being said, there's no need to pick a side--it's perfectly fine to like both for their own merits. I like the black eyes because classic sonic appeals to my childhood. And I like the green eyes because they make modern sonic more visually appealing. Everyone wins.
i always thought the green eyes was to make Sonic look like a representative of the earth since Eggman's shtick was distorting the planet and its inhabitants. Blue quils (water), green eyes (grass, forests/land) if his shoes were brown/tan and white, he'd have the earth's color pallet
I just asked my mom's boyfriend which design to use if sega allowed me to reboot sonic and shock of all shock he chooses modern green eyes as opposed to classic and black eyes.
You know in the early 2000s all the "y2k" styled characters in japan had that kind of eyes, oval shaped and with pupils, and also that artstyle sonic adventure has, thick lines and the weird poses
4:35 I believe it’s because the Chaos in Sonic.T.C is different then the one in the game’s as he’s actually a fish, idk. Edited: He’s also “actually” evil unlike in Adventure 1 were he’s just an angry mutated Chao.
I always thought (besides it being a design upgrade) that his eyes were green due to the whole hinted at underlying lore about Sonic being a sort of incarnation of some kind of Chaos-like (or counter-chaos?) being to counter the giant water noodle. There's murals in Adventure that depict him fighting off Chaos, and I do remember that being some theory I read when I was much younger. I thought it was neat, but also his eyes being a reference to Green Hill is very endearing.
Let me know what you think about Sonic's green eyes! Do you prefer them over the classic black eyes?
ayo wasgud mr mix
Yup. And second.
I really don't care. Both of them are great.
Classic
I personally don't care they are just eyes
i always assumed Sonic’s eyes were green because they contrasted with the rest of his design, and the fact that red/green/blue are the primary colors of light
I've only seen RGB called primary colors with computers.
Magenta, Cyan, and either Yellow or Green are what I've seen be called the primary colors of light as well as the primary colors for printers.
And Red, Blue, Yellow are the primary colors for paint.
Where did you get that red/green/blue are the primary colors of light?
@@hazelv.a.7976 uhh, literally the first search result in Google
@@Hutch2Much then it’s cap
@@Hutch2Much I had to see for myself and light goes RGB not RYB since ... [Cntrl V] ✓ RGB is what monitors use for colors because monitors give off or “emit” light. The distinction here is that RGB is an additive color palette. The more color you add to it, the brighter it gets. Add all colors together, you get white.
That's crazy I never would have known that
RYB are primary, OGP are secondary according to the Color Theory.
I've honestly never cared about Sonic's eyes and thought the debate was stupid. I do like the perspective you gave as to why people weren't jazzed about it though. Really *opened my eyes.* In general I think green's the best we could've gotten.
I also think that people complaining over a design change(modern sonic) is very fucking stupid. I mean.... WHATS WRONG ITS JUST A DESIGN CHANGE
@@urtooslow4415 It's even worse when you consider the fact that no one actually cared when they changed Sonic's design for Sonic Adventure. People only decided that green eyes were bad when Sonic 4 was announced and everyone just assumed that the black eyed design was coming back and overreacted when it didn't!
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Agreed
As a kid I thought that Sonic eyes were always green but Sonic Team just forgot to make it green in Sonic 1
Broke: Arguing about Sonic's eye color
Woke: Arguing about Sonic's eyelid color
Even more woke: shoewear
@@gamingnubs7628 Ultra woke: Shade of blue
@@jamiegioca9448 omega woke: backspike size
@Nhakunk God Tier Woke: Shade of green eyecolor.
@@stellaviewer9849 Legend tier woke: Best friends
My headcanon is that due to sonics exposure to chaos energy his eyes became green by defaulf and his eyes become red when he is super since he is overflowing with chaos energy like shadow
Me too
I love that headcanon!
What about all other characters
@@petra080171 I was about to say that. Well, neither of the two comics bothered to explain that either I think.
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I prefer the green eyes, but what I find interesting is the fact people are having discussions about Sonic's eye only. The classic version all had black eyes. Tails' eyes being blue, Knuckles being purple, why are people not talking about these? I think it's a pointless debate as it's not going to change anything. Things change and update, and honestly eye colours just make all the designs pop~
Because Sonic is the titlular main character and the only one the edgier '90s fans care about ("eWwW TaIlS WhAt a gRoSs kIdDiE NoT CoOl tHeRe sHoUlD OnLy bE SoNiC!1") and saying "green eyes" is simply easier than saying "colored eyes"-which is actually redundant as even the classic designs had colored eyes, albeit very faintly, in certain promo illustrations-and in any case it's generally understood to be a blanket term. That answer it?
@@CarbonRollerCaco tf
People just want something to bitch about
@@SoDoesTobi fr
@@SoDoesTobi For a series that started out with artwork so surreal and vibrant you think they’d welcome the green
I thought the green eyes were added to modernize the character because the classic design wouldn’t fit with what they were going for in Adventure and I agree
Pretty much this. They simply added a bit of detail to make him more presentable in higher detail environments. Sonic's final movie rendition did basically the same thing to make him presentable in a real-world setting. Boom Sonic did the exact opposite and added detail where it wasn't necessary while putting sonic in a less realistic environment.
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@Pink Morales The athletic tape and scarf don't really do much besides make the design look busier. They could have done the same but with functional gear and made a much better design. Tails' boom design, on the other hand, is pretty good because the goggles and utility belt are more in line with his character traits.
@@GoldenGrenadier I really liked Amy's new outfit
Colored eyes add more depth to the character with adding to the color theme while not actually making major changes. Green connects Sonic to nature more and the way the eyes stand out fit with his attitude. Purple eyes give Knuckles give a mysterious feel and possibly royal feel, saying that there so much history connecting him to the ancient echidnas. Tails blue eyes give him a theme with Sky and connect him to Sonic more, I also like that it gives him a more humble feeling which worked great with Adventure series (the only correct way to present Tails's personality).
Black eyes just give an old cartoony feel that doesn't fit as well and makes the characters seem softer.
Tails also always had an aesthetic connection to Sonic through his shoes: similarly styled to Sonic's but less loud and more smartly strapped (on the ankles instead of across the top of the foot). But Adventure 2 made Tails TOO humble if you get me; it was the start of him falling ever farther behind Sonic for no good reason besides forcing overly separate identities on the characters and making Sonic untouchable. And Amy's eyes also being green works as she's basically Sonic's wannabe girlfriend.
@@CarbonRollerCaco I don't get you
Not to mention that it just looks natural, like, in 3D it looks weird to have no irises.
Perfect explanations. Wanna elaborate on that attitude point and mention the fact that most, if not all of Sonic's attitude is delivered through the eyes. Having a strong contrasting color like green does such a great job bringing attention to the eyes.
In regards to Knuckles, the purple directly contrast Sonic's green so it adds to the fact that all of Knuckles color scheme directly contrast Sonic's. Genius character design
@@CarbonRollerCaco Well, that, and that Amy was supposed to kinda be a female version of Sonic, when she was first created.
Seeing Eggman's 06 eyes from the front was honestly the biggest scare this years Halloween had to offer me. I prefer him keeping on the goggles.
he made me throw up 3 coins
“hyper-realistic eggman can’t hurt you”
hyper-realistic eggman:
I knew there were eyes behind his goggles in 06 but i don’t like him without goggles
Agree
I mean, Ash Ketchum had black eyes for the longest time before artists eventually established he had brown eyes. I think the same thing is with Sonic, updating the look for a new audience...
That was obviously just fleshing out details, not adding what wasn't previously there.
@@CarbonRollerCaco No it’s not? Late to the party here for sure, but Ash didn’t have brown eyes. AT ALL. It’s the same thing as Sonic. They updated the design.
@@jodonthesith7172 Ash has had brown eyes since the Kanto series. In the animation sequence where it zooms in on his face especially his signature footage of throwing a pokeball, it shows the brown in his eyes. That clip has been used since the first episode. Ash normally being shown with black eyes isn't from the color being omitted but from the limitation from that choice in art style except for scenes that allow for those extra details to show.
@@TheBlkKat I mean… Thanks. That’s a pretty interesting fact I guess.
I still believe Boom becoming the mainline design was the original intention, they just backpedaled due to the backlash. Do people not remember Modern being called "Legacy Sonic" for a time?
SO glad that didn't happen. Boom's designs hardly felt like an improvement over the Modern ones.
I don't like B Sonics brown scruff doesn't fit with blue red abd green
@@loiiysailor1177 you take sonic, mess up his hair, slice his gloves and shoes so he has to cover them with bandages, stretch him, then put shit around his neck
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I liked Sonic's design in boom, however I felt it was a design best suited to that branch of the Sonic-verse rather than the main cannon.
I prefer the green eyes. Aside from the fact that green is my favorite color, l think giving the characters colored eyes makes them feel more real (ignoring characters with red, yellow, or purple eyes), because real people don't have black, colorless eyes. I get that they were going for a classic cartoon look with the black eyes though, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I also think different colored eyes makes each character's design more colorful and unique. Plus, it allows for little design details like how Sonic is blue with green eyes, and rivals like Jet or Scourge are green with blue eyes.
Also, definitely agree with what you said about updating the artstyle and model for sonic renders.
Green really does compliment sonic
Definitelly agreed with all you said. Besides, I just want SEGA change somehow your shoes' form for the hot dog cozi thing. In my vision, she should be very cool to your aesthetic in general.
I’ve definitely seen people with black eyes so idk
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@@elmemearana asi es
When I was younger, I’ve always though Sonic got his eyes from getting more mature. And what I mean from that is puberty-
16's kind of late to hit puberty. And 8's kind of early in Tails's case. Then again, Sonic Shuffle.
Same
True. Plus I saw on the fandom that when Sonic got older, he developed green eyes
@@CarbonRollerCaco well that doesnt means games have to follow behind each other, there could be time inbetween
I like the change for the green eyes. Gives Sonic this more edgy look, a more determined, almost aggressive aura of coolness, much in line with what was first intended by Uekawa, with the graffiti-styled art and the long, bendy limbs.
Plus, as much as it's a reference to Green Hill, I'd much rather say it's a reference to Sonic's nature-loving roots; Sonic, since his first game, is trying to protect his planet from Eggman, who in turn tries to control it and dominate it for his own benefit. The green eyes reflects this detail on top of spicing up the design with great contrast with the red shoes and the darker fur. It demands your attention when you look at the artworks and I really like it!
Ngl, I thought you would mention the archie story of Sonic just being thrown into a dimensional hell of an adventure and just appearing back home with green eyes at the end. LOL.
In uk's Sonic the Comic, he gets the green eyes after being swallowed by Perfect Chaos... Lots of creative reasons!
He did
I did mention it lol
@@chaomix oh. Lol
"what's the deal with green eyes!?"
- Jerry Seinfeld
10:38
I TOTALLY AGREE.
Ever since secret rings the renders have looked the same and ever since colors the models have looked the same, not a redesign needed but just newer proportions, make him more expressive instead of going the American sonic route and having him do the same stupid smile in every picture, sometimes modern sonic renders have different expressions but that 30th Anniversary render looks so familiar, the smile reminds me of that one generations render.
The shading on the new renders are bland and the models have been the same looking since 2010, can we have some variety, back then, every sonic game had its own style of renders and models but now it feels like the renders and models have been the same.
I also agree. Every time I see stuff from the 2010s with Sonic expressing something other than that corporate/cocky smile, (comics, animated shorts, even Boom) it feels so... weird lol. Don't make emotions non-existent, Sega!
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@@Austroid The smile looks obnoxiously douchey. Fitting for Meta Era Sonic.
100% agree
Actually there are very subtle changes to Sonics modern rendered design. If u look at unleashed and forces, you’ll notice that sonic is a lighter shade of blue, and his quills are shorter in forces
Ahh, the thumbnail really explains why Sonic had black eyes in the 16 bit games, he forget his contacts!
That's why he couldn't see that far ahead, he's near-sighted 😯
@@surgeeo1406 Imagine if "widescreen is non-canon" becomes another big controversy within the fandom.
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*sigh* The older promo pics by Naoto Ohshima REALLY needed to show the ACTUAL classic eye colors better. But Aaron Webber just wants the whole series to be a meme madhouse and will attempt to distract from class at every turn.
This is a pretty spooky episode chaomix
I think the green eyes look prettier, the various colored eyes all do across the main cast! Also damn dude that audio quality got a major upgrade, sounding a lot more crisp 💟
Honestly, I can see an origin for this; After exposure to the raw energy of the Super Emeralds, Sonic's body absorbed a fraction of Chaos Energy into his very being, this allows the usage of the homing attack, the lightspeed dash, and the ability to utilize Chaos Control to a limited degree in his base form.
Or something like that.
West Side Island still needed repair after S3&K. I don't regard Hyper Sonic as canon to that game specifically since it would technically still require the Master Emerald to be in place, but Sonic after having gone Super could still enhance the Emeralds' healing power. Since it's suggested he's closely tied to Chaos, some of his latent power could've been drawn out by the Emeralds.
@@CarbonRollerCaco Also possible, why can't Sonic Team hire writers as competent as us? I'm just spitballing ideas.
An interesting theory, but that doesn't explain how the other characters got their coloured irises.
That's always the problem with trying to come up with a canonical explanation. Both the Archie and Fleetway comics seemed to have made this mistake. It's also a little odd that Archie felt it necessary to give an explanation for the art style change, when their art style was constantly changing due to different artists.
Ok, can you explain for the other cast change in eye color
That's accurate as f.
While the color of his eyes doesn’t matter that much to me, I do admit that the colored eyes for the characters of the Sonic series gives each of them unique character features and greater range in their facial expressions.
Chaomix: makes a video relying on the modern-classic split universe theory
Tails, the Absolute Chad, dropping a huge lore drop while streaming on TailsTube: Many people think that they are from separate universes, but actually, they’re just Sonic but from 2 different times
I prefer modern sonic design because he feels cool and full of life while classic fedls like a cute kiddy 90s mascot which is not bad
While I like Modern Sonic's design more I like both Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic equally because it's Sonic the Hedgehog. Modern Sonic is meant to carry the series going forward (wither if games like Sonic 06 and Sonic Forces are bad or if Sonic Adventure 1 or Sonic Colors is good). Mario Fans didn't act like this when Mario had blue overalls and red shirt going forward instead of having the red overalls and blue shirt. heck look at Zero from the Mega Man series and how he looked in Mega Man X1, Mega Man X2 though Mega Man X8 and the Mega Man Zero series it's still Zero
I’m late too the party but I feel like Classic Sonic can be cool too. Personally I believe the coolest Sonic has ever been was during the animated intro for Sonic CD.
6:11 Don't forget that in Sonic X, where when he turns Super, his eyes are the color orange.
When I started seeing artwork and teasers for Adventure, I thought the design looked really cool. Like you said, the character was growing up with me. I have room in my heart for both versions of the character.
My head cannon is that all mobians go through an eye color change as they grow up.
When they're babies their eyes are just black, but when they age up into a kid their eyes gain color. It's kinda like how human babies can be born with blue eyes, but then when they grow up their eyes change color because now their body's producing more melenin. This head cannon would explain why Sonic isn't the only character to have an eye color change. All the other characters (such as Tails, Knuckles, Amy, the Chaotix) also developed different eye colors because that's just the norm for mobians. This would also explain why we never see adult mobians (like Vanilla) with the classic style eyes. Sonic Generations shows us that younger Sonic's and younger Tails' eyes were actually black. It's not just an art style change, at some point their eyes literally changed color.
The way I see it, Sonic would just look strange with the modern design and black eyes. Black eyes felt like a hardware limitation, so now that the design is more complex, why not add more detail?
Also it looks better.
No not really sonics eyes were always black from design standpoint
Choosing between modern and classic shouldn't be something to argue about sonic is sonic
Couldn’t agree more about the current design being stale. I’ve never liked it. The renders from the story book games and unleashed are cool because of his attitude. But Colours onward is just lifeless. He’s just there. If they want to keep using this style, then give him back his attitude. But to fix it all, have a new art style. A blend of the adventure era and pre colours. That could very well be the best style for sonic if they provide him with enough attitude and dynamic poses. Because let’s me honest, sonic works as a dynamic character. Standing there wagging a finger just doesn’t hit right. Even Mario in odyssey has more attitude and style than sonic does in forces
I remember someone said that they Refused to play Sonic Adventure solely because Sonic had Green Eyes
Which is the most bullshit reason ever!
Good they deserve a terrible life
Lol they don't deserve playing such a great game like SA1 for such a silly reason.
I don't care about the eye color BUT I really really appreciate you saying that it's ok to discuss it and people shouldn't hate on discussion about minute things
8:15 There's not just two iterations of Sonic. What made modern Sonic and classic Sonic separate was how they look different, act different, talk different, and even play differently from each other. Sonic in the Dreamcast era (1998-2004) had Ryan Drummond as the voice actor, knew when to take things seriously, looked MUCH different from modern Sonic, and the games that Dreamcast Era Sonic is in don't have the boost.
The fact that those people fought over Sonic's design is just ridiculous. Sonic, no matter if it's Classic, Modern, Archie, what ever, they are still Sonic!
Even then, goo video! ^^
Green Eyes was the first time it clearly happened mid-canon, and not a lot of people get how eye color works IRL, so it came off as needless and tryhard at best and canon-rending at worst. Plus it came with a voice change and normal humans, and those ESPECIALLY pissed off the Western cartoon fans who wanted Jaleel White and a SatAM-esque canon.
3:48 Ngl, I thought Uekawa's reasoning for the green eyes would be "it looked cool!" Honestly never knew it was a ref to Green Hill Zone. 😮
I can't even start to imagine the outcry if Mario or Zelda fans had been that much passionate.
Where's the early days of sonic? where's the black eyes?! NOT THIS GREEN EYED RAT. -Nostalgia Blind Sonic Fan.
honestly, i don't exactly care what color his eyes are.
Honestly i didn't know there were any conversations about sonics green eyes in the fandome so thanks for bringing it to my attention (i guess)
3:36 "I can see his eyes! I should never have seen Dr. Eggman's eyes! I know they're blue now! I should not know that!" -ClementJ64
I'm sorry if that's been done before, but I couldn't resist. :)
Chaomix always comes up with the wackiest thumbnails and I love it.
Yay, another video from Chaomix! *LESS GO!*
Chaomix can I say something? Why is it that before Sonic had black eyes (everyone knows that) and when he turned Super/Hyper Sonic, he had green eyes. Then when Sonic's look changed: Sonic got green eyes and when he turns Super, he gets red eyes!
I like Sonic and it doesn't matter if their eyes are just black or green! I love him just as he is!
I like to think that sonic's eye color changed as he aged, along with all his other friends.
Aside from the origin of those green hill eyes, I think overall it fits his modern look. You want him to be seperate from his old design? A dip of color wouldn't hurt. But I guess it did for the rest.
I care as much about the color of Sonic's eyes as I do the color of his arms.
I don't
I never understood why people bashed on modern sonic. I mean hes just sonic with green eyes and a taller version of him
Brightly colored eyes come off as less "intense" than fully or mostly solid black eyes to some, many don't understand that real eye colors aren't always fixed, either, and the new eye colors came with other things that pissed off the SatAM fans in particular, thus the Adventure Sonic characters were rationalized as different from even the incarnations in the older games. If hashtags had been around in the '90s, NotMySonic would've been a trender around Sonic Adventure's release.
And the modern designs weren't originally supposed to be taller than the classic ones, just more athletic. The "taller" thing only became canonized with Generations.
@@CarbonRollerCaco kk
As a child I use to associate green eyes sonic with the thought of him coming from a reboot series. The adventure era never really referenced the past games, it felt like a different character that’s probably why I wasn’t as much of as fan of modern.feels like a different continuity.
Tbf the Adventure games referenced quite a bit from the Classic games. Certain stage motifs, lore (building off of Angel Island), plot points (like Knuckles being tricked again) etc. I guess I see what you mean tho. It does feel different.
Sonic Adventure lore was based off Sonic 2 & Sonic 3 game manuals.
Sonic 2 manual tells a story about an ancient civilization, which used the magic stones to prosper, but one day sined and was almost completely destroyed by the gods.
Sonic 3 manual says Angel Island was created by the gods from the parts of the islands echidnas lived on.
In Sonic Adventure one archeologist states that the ground from the fallen Angel Island is very similar to the ground from the Mystic Ruins.
Also one kid on the street mentions that Sonic has saved Angel Island and Little Planet. Amy remembers Sonic CD as well, so as Tails remembers the way he met Sonic (from the Sonic 2 manual).
Funny because what you though of as a child is kinda true now since Classic Sonic and Modern aren’t even the same character anymore officially.
Great video, Chaomix. For me, the green eyes isn't a problem. Same thing with other Sonic designs. But they should just stick to one and change it 10 yes later or so.
As someone who grew up with the Classic games but still enjoys games from basically every era of the franchise, the only time I was ever put off by the use of the Modern Sonic design was specifically regarding Sonic 4. When I heard there was going to be a Sonic 4 and it'd be a 2D game like the classic Genesis titles, my mind immediately went to Mega Man 9 and 10. Same art style, same gameplay, but with new stories, levels, and adventures. What we got was... basically the opposite of that. Modern Sonic design, new art style, but what was essentially a direct repeat story with recreations of old zones, enemies, and bosses. They kept the stuff they should've changed, and changed the stuff they should've kept.
Those first three seconds were all I needed to know that this video is more than worth my Like.
I don't know, man, the Instant Transmission gag is just the easiest way to my funny bone.
[Edit]
To engage with the video a bit:
I personally really enjoy Sonic's green eyes, and I really like the variety of eye colours amongst the series cast of characters (Knuckles' purple eyes look so great on him). Sonic's black eyes definitely work best for his Classic incarnation, though. I personally think that every change to Sonic's design from S3&K to Adventure 2 (and onwards, I suppose) were logical progressions of his design language - they all made a lot of sense in different ways, even if the green eyes actually come from the desire to simply reference Green Hill Zone (which is crazy if it's true).
Great job making an interesting and substantial video on yet another topic that I never knew I wanted discussion on, Chaomix. Keep up the grand work.
Personally I love the design with the green eyes. It looks cooler
To be honest, I really like that Chaos design
To be honest it would make sense if it was contacts. I don't really get why the comics made it Chaos energy or something it just feels unnecessary.
7:34 thats just what happens when you use twitter
in my family our eyes turn green after many decades as we get older, made sonic relatable growing up.
7:11 I like the boom design quite a bit, it just has a bit more to it than sonic usually has. The simplicity of sonic is great too, but if youre gonna go simple, may as well go all the way back to classic sonic. The modern sonic just seems like an odd middle ground to me now.
boom sonic is slightly overdesigned from the excessiveness of the athletic tape, so I usually smooth it out to keep the look but not remove them
I feel like the reason it was never explained in the games is because design change really isn’t canon, there are some instances where it is though.
that fact i was listening to rock music at 6:50 made it look even better
Love the transmission reference to your older videos
11:05 Just saying that the Generations model is just the Unleashed model with some additional shoe textures.
Actually, the last time that we had an original and unique Sonic model was '06 (I'm not counting SR and BK, they're the same), every game after Unleashed reused its model with the same skeleton, even Colors. Games after Generations just shorten him 🙄
And tbf the unleashed/generations is basically just a slightly modified heroes design
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Green eyes sonic killed my family.
4:47 "The chaos water somehow makes its way into Sonics eyes." Somehow? bruh his eyes are like 50% of his head its pretty obvious how it happened
This is something i rlly wanted to know in the franchise lol thanks for explaining to us and making the video :)
I always figured sonics eyes being green was a result of using the chaos emeralds to go super soo much.
Have a Happy Halloween Y’all!🎃
In my opinion, Sonic just grew up in SA1 and got eye-contacts to help him see better.
Nice new icon. I have red eyes and have never even had black.
I've been a sonic fan for almost 20 years and I have never legitimately seen anyone argue over Sonic's eye color. I'm just aware it's a thing. Frankly I think it's best that generations and forces just explain that they were just two different sonics from different dimensions.
I kinda understood why some people despised the green eyes so much even if I thought the hate was ridiculously excessive sometimes, but canonically making classic and modern Sonic separate characters from separate dimensions is something that I've never agreed with and never will, and to date I haven't seen a single person who's really happy about this. Like, as far as I can tell the decision was made because apparently classic fans despise modern Sonic so much that they want classic Sonic and the whole classic era to be completely disassociated from modern Sonic somehow, yet I've never seen anyone arguing that it was a great decision or anything, because I don't think classic fans care too much about lore details anyway.
Is it so difficult to have classic Sonic just be an alternate design used for more classic-styled games like Mania? Without pulling off the whole "Sonic from another dimension" BS they've been trying to push as of lately? Specially since classic Sonic can just shows up in a modern game like Forces anyway so that makes it even more pointless.
Sonic is Sonic to me. Classic, Modern, black eyes, green eyes. They're all the same. It was SEGA that saw the divide in the fandom and fed into it by the dividing the character into two. It started with Generations, but at least back then they established Classic was just Modern when he was young, so they weren't technically separate. But now he's "that Sonic from another dimension." The separation has become this official canonical thing, and it doesn't look like there's any going back, as much as I wish they would.
I have a theory.
In the games before sonic's adventure, he was just a child. As he got older, it became clear that his eyes are green.
*But hey that's just a theory!*
8:04 is perfectly in sync
While the chaos exposure is really plausible, my headcanon for the change in design is like the creator said - the character grew up.
Idk maybe change in eye color come with age, we don't know their biology.
(Also goes with my age theory of how classic sonic is much younger then adventure sonic, and adventure is younger than modern (12->15->18).
Hotdog shoes < Soap shoes > Metal shoes
Sega just buy the brand so you can use soap shoes permanently.
Headcannon: Sonic wears green contact lenses to shield his eyes from the wind while running when he got older and faster (Yes I know this Headcannon doesn't r really make sense if you think about it)
3:53 I had an ad interrupt the video, and when it did, I jumped because the noise was a little creepy!
5:30 weird moment LOL
Hey sonic? Why your eyes are green
Sonic:
Ummmm, puberty
3:14 why is he going to perish me
This is way more interesting than I thought! Very good video!
Personally, I prefer the green eyes simply because they're a pop of colour that's quite effective at drawing your attention to his face. As with Knuckles' purple eyes(probably one of my favourite parts of Knuckles' modern design), I think it's a good contrast that gives Sonic more expression than the full black ones do. I still think giving green eyes to classic Sonic is a bad idea though, because it doesn't work as well with the design of him. Let's just hope SEGA never does anything stupid like that.
that’s exactly why I like the green eyes
Since when does green represent “seething rampage”? To me, it represents kindness or jealousy.
Is "The Exhilarating Lore of" going to be a long-running series on this channel?
Greens-Eyes Blue Hedgehog, is that a rare Yu-Gi-Oh card?
Now we need to talk about his eye lids randomly changing color in SaDx but not in regular Sa
Why do people even care about Sonic’s Green eyes? They’re just FUCKING EYES?!
3:45 I didn't need to see this today. I didn't need to know it exists.
Instant Transmissioning into the battlefield in a discussion is a power move already
I have to watch later, but this thumbnail, it's just too good...
Sonic looks good with green eyes, I think this is the best color Sega could have gone with. If they gave him brown eyes his color scheme wouldn't be as bright and popping. The bright color scheme suits him since it shows that he's energetic.
What if the reason why he has green eyes is because of him transforming into super sonic too many times and that is the reason why he's eyes became green
And he got older
Designer 1999: fans of the games are getting older, so we made the designs more mature
Sega 2010+: Fans of the games are full grown adults with their own financial access.. so we're going to write games for toddlers
loool
When it comes to character design, the eyes are often one of the most expressive parts of the face. It would make very little sense to update Sonic's look and NOT update the eye color, especially since they were going for a more mature look in the redesign. Now, with that being said, there's no need to pick a side--it's perfectly fine to like both for their own merits. I like the black eyes because classic sonic appeals to my childhood. And I like the green eyes because they make modern sonic more visually appealing. Everyone wins.
i always thought the green eyes was to make Sonic look like a representative of the earth since Eggman's shtick was distorting the planet and its inhabitants. Blue quils (water), green eyes (grass, forests/land) if his shoes were brown/tan and white, he'd have the earth's color pallet
I just asked my mom's boyfriend which design to use if sega allowed me to reboot sonic and shock of all shock he chooses modern green eyes as opposed to classic and black eyes.
Oh he did an Abra you guys. He did an Abra at the beggining.
You know in the early 2000s all the "y2k" styled characters in japan had that kind of eyes, oval shaped and with pupils, and also that artstyle sonic adventure has, thick lines and the weird poses
wow someone got a whole 12 minutes over an eye color,masterpeice
4:35
I believe it’s because the Chaos in Sonic.T.C is different then the one in the game’s as he’s actually a fish, idk.
Edited:
He’s also “actually” evil unlike in Adventure 1 were he’s just an angry mutated Chao.
The green eyes are pretty cool, as much as the black eyes are cool, they seem soulless imo
I always thought (besides it being a design upgrade) that his eyes were green due to the whole hinted at underlying lore about Sonic being a sort of incarnation of some kind of Chaos-like (or counter-chaos?) being to counter the giant water noodle. There's murals in Adventure that depict him fighting off Chaos, and I do remember that being some theory I read when I was much younger. I thought it was neat, but also his eyes being a reference to Green Hill is very endearing.