Amy Rose

Amy Rose
Sonic the Hedgehog series
Amy as she appears in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
First appearance	Sonic CD (1993)
Created by	Kenji Terada (Shogakukan) Kazuyuki Hoshino (Sonic CD) Yuji Uekawa (Sonic Adventure)
Voiced by (English)	Video games Lynn Harris (Sonic CD) Jennifer Douillard (1998-2004) Lisa Ortiz (2005-2010) Cindy Robinson (2010-Present) Anime Lisa Ortiz (Sonic X)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Video games Taeko Kawata (1998-1999; 2001-present) Emi Motoi (2000) Anime Taeko Kawata (Sonic X)
class=" infobox hproduct" style="float:right; width:264px; font-size:90%; text-align:left;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3"
Species	Hedgehog

|- |} Amy Rose (エミー・ローズ, Emī Rōzu), known earlier as Rosy the Rascal, is a video game character who appears in most of the Sonic the Hedgehog series developed by Sega's Sonic Team. She made her debut appearance in Sonic CD (1993). Amy Rose was created by Kazuyuki Hoshino and based on one of Kenji Terada's characters. She was redesigned by Yuji Uekawa for Sonic Adventure. She is a happy-go-lucky pink, female, anthropomorphic hedgehog who is obsessed with the series' title character and protagonist, Sonic, even going so far as to declare herself his girlfriend. She has chased Sonic since her debut in 1993, and has been trying to win his heart in everything from the series' games to animated TV shows and comics. She is also one of the series' most popular characters, coming in fifth place in an official popularity poll.

Like Sonic and other characters in the series, Amy is significantly shorter and lighter than humans her same age. She is 12 years old and 90 cm (2 ft 11in) tall. She was originally described as being 8 years old in Sonic CD, but as of Sonic Adventure and onwards, she has grown older. Also, with the addition of Cream the Rabbit, Amy seems to have found herself a sidekick similar to Sonic's sidekick, Tails.

Characteristics

Sega's game manuals for various Sonic games describe Amy's character as the bright and overly cheerful self-appointed girlfriend of Sonic. She loves soft-serve ice cream and hates boredom, has a natural initiative, and a strong competitive streak, but gets into trouble often. With her strong sense of intuition and great passion Sonic has difficulty escaping her. Amy is quite formidable with her "Piko Piko Hammer", a weapon with which her skills are second to none. Despite her claiming to be Sonic's girlfriend, Amy has faith in Sonic and never believes he will fail the world. Sonic also becomes more closer to Amy because of this.

Games

Amy as she appeared in Sonic CD

In her first game appearance, Sonic CD (1993), Amy was kidnapped by Metal Sonic. Doctor Robotnik then used the time stones to set time back on the Little Planet. She was named "Princess Sally" in the American manual of the Sega CD version in a tentative to tie in with the cartoon, though all the other versions of the game and later games called her mainly Amy Rose. Being a Mega Drive/Genesis-era game (though technically a Mega-CD game), Sonic CD's plot was minimal. Amy followed Sonic to Never Lake because she fell in love with him, and was then kidnapped by Metal Sonic and held hostage. Though Sonic CD was released after Sonic the Hedgehog 2, it was in production at the same time, meaning that Amy has approximately been around as long as Tails has.

Amy's first use of the Piko Piko Hammer was in Sonic the Fighters. This game used her "Rosy the Rascal" nickname as well, though it has not been used since, except in the Archie comics series, when used to describe her Moebius (aka Anti-Mobius) counterpart.

In 1998, Sonic Adventure put Amy in the spotlight. She is a playable character in the game and uses her weapon of choice, the Piko Piko Hammer, to defend herself during her quest to find the family of a bird (A blue Flicky) that escaped Eggman and crashed into her. Like the other major characters in the series, Amy was redesigned significantly for this game. Her quills were redesigned into a pageboy, and she now wears a sleeveless red halter-top dress held up by a white-trimmed halter strap with matching trim on the skirt and lined with a white slip, along with red go-go boots with a white stripe from the top to the tip to take advantage of her more mature 12-year-old form. She also wears white gloves and a red hair ribbon. She was given green eyes, the same eye color as Sonic had only in a lighter hue.

She was an important supporting character in Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) and was playable in 2-player mode. When Sonic was kept in an island prison, with Tails' help, she managed to free him. Later in the game, she ended up being held hostage at gun-point by Eggman, who threatened to kill her if Sonic did not quickly hand over a Chaos Emerald. She even talked Shadow the Hedgehog into helping the team stop the destruction of the Earth, as her sweet nature and insight of humans reminded him of the deceased human Maria Robotnik whom he befriended years ago (in Sonic X, it was Chris Thorndyke who reminded Shadow of Maria).

Her first playable appearance in a 2D game was in Sonic Advance (2001). Her gameplay was significantly different to the other characters as she did not immediately go into a spin attack when jumping. She later appeared as an unlockable character in Sonic Advance 2 (2002) (where she had the spin attack ability) and as a main character in Sonic Advance 3 (2003).

In Sonic Heroes (2003), Amy leads Team Rose. She represents the team's Speed formation. She is accompanied by Cream the Rabbit and Big the Cat on a mission to impress Sonic, while Big wants to find his friend Froggy and Cream and Cheese want to find Cheese's sibling, Chocola, all the while inspiring the whole team, cheering her friends on.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Amy appears in Cryptic Castle urging Shadow to rescue Cream who wandered inside and didn't come out. And, no matter if the player has Shadow do the Dark Mission, Normal Mission, or Hero Mission, Amy will support Shadow in the battle against Egg Breaker. In the Final Story, Amy is frozen along with the rest of the cast, and cheers on Shadow after he defeats Devil Doom.

In 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy is chasing Sonic yet again. When she finds him, it is revealed she found Silver instead. When Silver tells her he's looking for someone, Amy helps him find Silver's target, unaware that Silver is trying to kill Sonic. After traversing Dusty Desert, Silver finds Sonic and attacks him, but Amy prevents him from killing Sonic. She yells at Silver for trying to kill Sonic, and doesn't believe him when he says that Sonic is the Iblis Trigger. She then runs away, much to Silver's despair. She traverses through White Acropolis to save Sonic in the Final Story. Amy has had playable appearances in Sonic Riders (2006), Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007) and most of the newer games. Her outfits have changed for certain games, such as the one she wears for Sonic Riders, which consists of deep pink sweatpants and a deep pink tunic with red-and-white sneakers. She also appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008).

She appeared as a playable character in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (2008) for the Nintendo DS, the first Sonic RPG. In this game, Amy indicates that she has a boyfriend, but if the player chooses the right things to say to her, Amy reveals in the end that she was lying to make Sonic jealous.

In Sonic Unleashed (2008), she fails to recognize Sonic in his were-hog form though after he saves her the whole incident is explained by Professor Pickle. She then proceeds to help the professor to help Sonic. Sonic has the option of agreeing to take her out on a date in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. She appears in a video at the end of the game Sonic and the Black Knight (2009), not believing Sonic's story about his Arthurian adventures and claiming that he made it up as an excuse for missing their date, she also features Nimue, the Lady of the Lake in which she explains Sonic about the sacred swords and tells him how to use the power. She then tricks Sonic by disguising herself as a little girl with her powers and requests that he slay a dragon, but she tricked him for his own good. In the end of the game she helps Sonic to beat Merlina along with the Knights of the Round Table and agrees upon Sonic's title for being King Arthur.

She is a playable character in all three Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games installments. Her outfits in these games are: a hot pink tunic with black leggings and red-and-white sneakers, a pink parka with black tights and pink boots, and a red-and-white bikini with red slippers. She's also an unlockable character in Sega Superstars Tennis.

She appears in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. She rides a pink car similar to her vehicle in Sonic Drift and Sonic R, and uses her Piko Hammer as her All-Star move.

She also appears in Sonic Colors in the DS version, but she is only in a few cutscenes. Like all the other cameos, she gives Sonic a set of missions so that she is impressed by Sonic's moves. She even tries tricking Sonic from a picnic to a date but later fails as Sonic was busy fighting a robot.

Amy appears in Sonic Generations where she is seen attending Sonic's Birthday party. However, she was kidnapped by the Time Eater, but was later saved by the two Sonics. She is seen near Chemical Plant, and is also seen in certain missions.

Amy appears in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed as a playable character.

Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)

In the Sonic the Hedgehog (comics), Amy was the same age as depicted in the original games. In Archie comics during the Sonic Adventure adaptation, Amy makes a wish on the Ring of Acorns, which caused her to grow physically older, reaching the age of 12, while maintaining her childish mindset and making her appear to be something of a ditz. After this, Amy once again requested to join the Freedom Fighters, but was denied again by Sonic, who told her having an older body is not enough, she still had the mentality of an 8-year old and no fighting experience. A year later, when Sonic returned to Mobius, Amy was finally allowed to join the Freedom Fighters after being awarded a medal by Sally as thanks for her service in helping the Freedom Fighters.

Amy undergoes combat training with the former Dark Legion soldier Julie-Su. When Julie explains that Amy should want this training to better herself rather than to impress Sonic, Amy replies that she does want to better herself so that no one else will be more worthy of Sonic's affection than her. While not the first to discover it, Amy was the first to oust Fiona Fox for cheating on Sonic with Scourge, enraged that anyone would play with Sonic's emotions so cruelly. She serves as the flower girl at Antoine and Bunnie's wedding, and, not long after, is one of the few to avoid capture during the destruction of Knothole. While initially distraught, she immediately takes part in the rescue mission; with her hammer, she and Knuckles destroy the Egg Grapes and free several captives. After the escape, she is shown supporting Rotor, whose back was injured during the initial attack. She would go on to help Sally save Sonic from Mammoth Mogul.

Later, she travels with Sonic to Moebius (the Anti-Universe version of Mobius) to find help to stop Scourge. However, Rosy the Rascal, a Moebius version of Amy, was all that was available. Unlike Amy, she hates Scourge and wants to destroy him. She used the Ring of Acorns to make herself older so she'll appear as more of a threat to Scourge. However, the transformation had a few side effects, which made Rosy insane. Her character design resembles her look from Sonic CD. Eventually, Sonic defeats Scourge and she goes back to Mobius, leaving the fate of Rosy unknown. She then goes on to help Sonic in the ultimate battle against Eggman, even attempting to comfort him after Sonic shows sign of guilt towards Eggman's mental breakdown.

Sonic the Comic

Amy makes frequent appearances in the British publication, Sonic the Comic. Whilst initially representative of her Sonic CD counterpart, i.e. head over heels in love with Sonic, she later became a more active member of the Freedom Fighters, and she has been generally less amorous towards Sonic. She wears a grey sweatshirt and carries around a crossbow used to attack badniks. She generally kept her hairstyle from Sonic CD, though as of the online continuation of the comic, her hair is based on her Sonic Adventure look, and she wears a variety of outfits from story to story. Her backstory is similar to that of Sonic's in British publications, being that she was once a brown coloured hedgehog. However, after being rescued from one of Robotnik's machines by Sonic, she became pink. She generally pairs up with Tekno the Canary to solve problems around the universe.

Sonic Adventures

Two French-made comic books published by Sirène were released in 1994. Amy appears in the first volume Sonic Adventures: Dans Les Griffes De Robotnik, where she is kidnapped by Robotnik as bait to get Sonic. This version of Amy had the same design as in Sonic CD.

Reception and impact

Amy has received mixed opinions from critics. Jeff Tozai of the Huffington Post expressed interest in getting "more Amy Rose" from the Sonic series, such as a game starring her and Tails, in an article critical of the series' direction overall. IGN's Lucas M. Thomas stated that "one of the coolest things about [Amy] is her enormous, walloping hammer" that is often used for comedy in the series, and expressed hope that she would be playable in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. She has been described as cute by Alex Huhtala of Computer and Video Games and staff of Sega Saturn Magazine. However, Jem Roberts of the British Official Dreamcast Magazine called her a "little-pink-dog-type-thing."

Amy's personality has been described as annoying. Thomas East of Official Nintendo Magazine ranked her as his third least favorite Sonic character and stated that she "really isn't an interesting character" and is "annoying". Ranking her third lowest on a similar list, Jim Sterling of GamesRadar simply wrote "Total bitch" in contrast to several paragraphs each for other characters on his list. Justin Towell of the same website found her to be a "whiny, annoying brat" in Sonic Adventure. Patrick Farren of What Culture called her "one of gaming's most irritating females" and criticized how she "contacts Sonic seemingly just to bag him." In contrast, Roberts called Amy "kind-hearted", but also found her "intolerably whiny". Criticism has also been leveled at her voice in Sonic: Lost World; Rogers and Farren both compared it to Minnie Mouse's. More generally, Towell and Mean Machines expressed displeasure at her introduction in Sonic CD.

Some writers have criticized developers' treatment of Amy as a female character and analyzed her implications on gender representation in video games. Staff of Electronic Gaming Monthly found her pink coloring and tendency to run away from danger to be stereotypical, implying that this was common among Japanese-created female characters. In her series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, feminist blogger Anita Sarkeesian cites Amy as an example of the "Ms. Male Character" trope, in which female characters in games with male protagonists often resemble those protagonists, but with stereotypically feminine features added. Likewise, Alice Bonasio of the Huffington Post sees Amy's pink hair as a way to emphasize her femininity and create a simple, easily definable character archetype "for girls". Sarkeesian also singles out Sonic CD and its re-releases as an example of the gaming industry capitalizing on player nostalgia to justify portraying female characters as helpless without being criticized.

Amy is one of the series' most popular characters: she came in fifth place in an official Japanese popularity poll in 2006, after Sonic, Shadow, Tails, and Knuckles. Her likeness has been used in numerous toys, action figures, and other merchandise. Notably, one line created in 2010 reflected her Sonic CD design rather than her modern one. As one of many references to 1990s culture, Amy and Sonic appeared in the Simpsons episode "That '90s Show" on a billboard promoting abstinence: Sonic is shown proposing to Amy with the caption "Sonic the Hedgehog says wait until marriage."

References

• In addition to information taken from the Sonic the Hedgehog games themselves, the instruction booklets of the US and Japanese versions of the games were also used as references for this article.

External links

• Sonic Central official character profiles
• At Sonic's Channel
• Amy Rose at the Internet Movie Database