Sonic the Hedgehog has had its ups and downs over the years, but mostly downs in the 2010s. In particular, a big low point was 2014’s Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, which was critically panned. But the decade also gave rise to one of the most highly acclaimed Sonic games ever, 2017’s 2D Sonic Mania. At Anime Expo 2026, Sega celebrated the franchise’s 35th anniversary by hosting a panel called “Sonic the Hedgehog Animated Shorts: A Frame-by-Frame Retrospective,” which detailed how Sonic Mania came to be and its impact on reviving the franchise.
Sega strategy director Aaron Webber moderated the panel and explained that 10 years ago, mainline Sonic games simply weren’t meeting the expectations that Sega had hoped for. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was critically panned, and the Sega San Francisco office was downsized with the move to Los Angeles.
The sentiment on social media wasn’t exactly positive either. Trolls on Twitter said some harsh things, like that “Sonic was never good” and that Sega should “just let Sonic die.” But instead of wallowing in despair, Sega went on a social media spree, leaning into memes like Sanic and interacted with fans by answering their questions.
However, Sega knew deep down that game production needed to improve, so it brought in designer Takashi Iizuka and artist Kazuyuki Hoshino to help out. One of the first projects that was pitched to Iizuka was from Christian Whitehead, who previously worked on ports and updates of older Sonic games.
“I had asked him to come over and share this prototype of a project that I really believe in, and I knew, if we can launch this thing, it’s going to be amazing for Sonic,” Webber explained. Webber was actually really afraid at first, because after Whitehead pitched his project, Iizuka sat in place, didn’t say anything, and just walked out of the room.
The sharp tension in the air lasted for about ten more minutes, until Iizuka came back into the room, grabbed a whiteboard and wrote two words on it: “Sonic Mania.”
Going all in on animation
Sonic Mania eventually became one of the best-selling and well-received games in the series, credited with reviving interest in the Blue Blur. Sega wanted to expand on it with the definitive version, Sonic Mania Plus, and it included more content as well as a physical release. Additionally, Sega revealed an animated short series called Sonic Mania Adventures.
Animator Tyson Heese said that while the team wanted to create more animations, Sega had told them that due to budgets and time constraints, there were limited options. Basically, they would either have to do it all in black-and-white sketches or in pixel art animation. Naturally, when you get offered to do your own first Sonic show, you want to go all out. So the team stuck in their heels to create a real cartoon, and thus Sonic Mania Adventures was born.
Since then, Sega has developed more animated shorts to promote and accompany its upcoming games. All of the mainline games have received one, including Sonic Superstars: Trio of Trouble, Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Divergence, and Sonic X Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings. Even spin-off games such as Sonic Racing: Crossworlds got one too. Alan Wan, co-founder of Studio Giggex, worked on Dark Generations and the Crossworlds animations.
“The other thing that made Sonic really special, is Sonic Team because they really took a lot of creative chances that a lot of franchises probably wouldn’t,” Wan explained. “They’re also really open to letting creators come into this sandbox.”
To end the panel, Sega unveiled a new animation, Sonic the Hedgehog: Memories and Beyond, to celebrate the franchise’s 35th anniversary. The action-packed trailer shows Sonic and his friends facing off in a brutal battle against Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic. So far in the trailer, we’ve seen Sonic himself, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy Rose, and Rouge the Bat joining the fray.
It’s a really cool fight scene with plenty of sharp and detailed animation. But not much context behind it. Fortunately, at the panel, Sega gave us a background summary: Dr. Eggman wants to upgrade Metal Sonic into the ultimate fighting machine by stealing Sonic’s life data and harnessing the power of the Chaos Emerald.
There was no release date confirmation for the animated short, or any new game announcements. But I loved how combat-heavy the Memories and Beyond short was. If it’s some secret tie-in to the next Sonic game, I’d totally be down for that. I’m all for seeing Sega take another stab at the action-adventure genre. Hopefully it’s not a stinker like Rise of Lyric was, though.