The aim of this site is to offer scanlations of rare Sonic the Hedgehog manga. Here is a basic overview of the various Sonic manga from 1991-1994. If you have anything to add, drop me a line at:
Sonic Story Comic (1991)
These small comics were included as a bonus with the Japanese "Mega Drive Fan" magazine back in 1991 (the first was in the July edition), to promote Sega's then brand-new flagship-game-to-be: Sonic the Hedgehog. They are thus one of the earliest non-game accounts of Sonic's backstory available to the general public. Three issues were released, each featuring 13 pages (except vol.3 that had 9 pages of comic and 4 pages of text story). The creator of these is not credited. Notable is the cameo by Sonic's band, which includes Vector the Crocodile, making this his first offical appearance as well.
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Shogakukan's Study Magazines (1992-1993)
"Shogakukan no Gakushuuzasshi" is a series of study magazines/manga anthologies that combine learning with fun. There are six editions, each targetting its specific elementary school grade, from grade 1 to 6. These often featured video game related content, and Sonic has made an appearance in all of these at some point between 92-93.
Kenji Terada developed the original concept, and the first "Sonic the Hedgehog" comic story was done by Sango Morimoto and published in the April Issue of Shogaku Ninensei (2nd Grade). The main character was a meek hedgehog boy by the name Nicky, who everytime he wished he was stronger would transform into his cocky Sonic the Hedgehog alter ego, who went on to fight evil and those who had wronged him as Nicky. Nicky himself was not aware of this transformation, neither were any of the other characters. Apart from Eggman and Tails from the games, other characters included Nicky's family and friends, notable is his girlfriend Amy who inspired the later video game counterpart, and Charmy Bee, who became a game character as of "Knuckles' Chaotix" in 1995.
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Later on, Sonic manga appeared in Shogaku Ichinensei (1st Grade), Shogaku Sannensei (3rd Grade) , Shogaku Gonensei (5th Grade) and Shogaku Rokunensei (6st Grade). As for Shogaku Yonensei (4th Grade), despite for a long time being claimed to be the source of this mysterious manga by Sonic fans, it did ironically NOT have any Sonic manga at all, but instead had illustrated text stories featuring Sonic. These text stories had a different title to set it apart from the manga; "Sonic no Daibouken" (officially translated as "the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog").
What can be confusing is that these different stories follow their own plotlines. They were not intended to be read simultaneously, rather if you were in 2nd grade you were expected to only read the Sonic comics in the 2nd grade magazine and so on. All stories were developed from Kenji Terada's concept, but the actual manga stories where done by a number of different people. Besides Sango Morimoto there were Hirokazu Hikawa, Yoshihiko Ochi and Mitsuo Kimura. They all seem to have interpreted the basic plot and characters in their own way, and each had their unique art style, adding much variety to the stories.
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Corocoro Special & Extra Issues (1992-1994)
That Sonic featured in 6 monthly magazines obviously wasn't enough, as a Sonic manga eventually surfaced in the bi-monthly Corocoro Comics Special and occasionally in other Corocoro "extra issues" such as the Spring break and Summer vacation editions. As Corocoro Comics is also published by Shogakukan, maybe it's not that surprising. This manga was also called simply "Sonic the Hedgehog", and like the ShogakuXnensei series it was based on the concept of Kenji Terada, thus it included Nicky and most of the other manga-only characters. All Sonic manga that appeared in these books were done by Kouichi Tanaka. It ended in 1994, making it the last offical Sonic manga for a long time. The next manga, Chousoku Sonic, didn't come around until 2002 and it too ran in Corocoro Comics Special (not in the regular Corocoro Comics as Sonic fan sites often claim).
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