Sonic X’s “Metarex Saga” To Finally Air In Japan

Remember Sonic X? Of course you do. It was a syndicated rerun staple here in America for over a decade, until Sega summarily pushed it off the air to make room for Sonic Boom. Well, it’s back! In Japan, at least. Sort of.

The original 2003 run for Sonic X was slated to be 52 episodes, culminating in a finale where Sonic and his friends finally get a chance to return to their home dimension (after they had been stuck on Earth). And for Japan, that’s all it ever was. However, 4KIDS, who dubbed Sonic X for America, considered the series enough of a success that they funded another 20-something episodes, effectively a third season, that was referred to as “The Metarex Saga.” In it, Sonic reunites with old friends and makes new friends in a journey across the galaxy to stop the evil Metarex robots from killing entire planets.

The thing is, the Metarex Saga never actually aired in Japan. It aired in America of course, and elsewhere overseas, like France. But never in the country it was produced in. Thanks to Sonic Retro user Mendinso, we now know that’s about to change.

Starting in January of 2020, Sonic X will be returning to Japanese airwaves as a lead in to the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie, and with it, it will finally air The Metarex Saga in Japan for the first time, more than 15 years after its production. It will do this through Kids Station, a subscription TV channel dedicated to family-friendly content like Pokemon, Detective Conan, live action programming, and even the Japanese dub of Paw Patrol.

Now, there are some unknowns, as Mendinso points out:

It looks to be that they will start in January 2020 (apparently it’s not 100% clear if this is airing the first set of episodes as well but we’ll see), though Kids Station changed their layout recently, so they don’t list the months ahead of air dates like they used to. So we’ll need to wait a little closer to confirm this, but appears to be the case for now.

Basically, it’s possible this will be the complete run of Sonic X (Episodes 1-78), but it may also be just The Metarex Saga (53-78). It’s currently unknown whether Sonic X will be returning to the airwaves in any other way, but it’s worth mentioning that dubbed episodes of Sonic X are available to watch on the official TMS Youtube channel, divided up in to Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3.

New hopes come with this Kids Station Sonic X airing, as some international releases of TMS Anime are missing end credits sequences. This leaves much of the production work behind The Metarex Saga a mystery. It’s something that’s become increasingly important to the burgeoning “Sakuga” fan base, where people are starting to follow the output of specific, individual animators. Presumably, a Japanese airing of The Metarex Saga will include a proper credits sequence, revealing once and for all what names were behind the show all those years ago. Some are extending hope that we may even get new Opening and Ending theme music.

Wouldn’t it be funny if this somehow lead to Sonic X also coming back to American airwaves, ushering in another decade of eternal syndication? Your move, Sega of America.