Amy Rose, originally nicknamed Rosy the Rascal, is a fictional character in
Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games. She is a pink
anthropomorphic hedgehog with a cheerful, competitive personality. Amy
is known for her unrequited and obsessive love for the series' main
character Sonic. They have saved each other's lives on a number of occasions,
however, and are very good friends. During the series' early years, her
appearance changed several times. Amy debuted in the Sonic the Hedgehog
manga series created by Kenji Terada in 1992. Her first video-game appearance
was in 1993's Sonic the Hedgehog CD and she was first playable in 1994's Sonic
Drift. Amy has become one of the series' most popular and recognizable
characters, appearing in dozens of main-series and spinoff titles, several
comic book series, the anime Sonic X, and the computer-animated Sonic Boom.
She has received a mixed response from critics. Although some found her cute
and powerful, others criticized her for her voice acting and personality. She
has frequently appeared in Sonic merchandise.
Design and characteristics = Conception and visual design =
Amy is a 12-year-old, pink-furred anthropomorphic hedgehog girl created by
Kenji Terada for the Sonic the Hedgehog manga serial. She debuted in 1992,
wearing a dress and with her then-orange hair pulled into two ponytails. The
character was redesigned the next year for the Sega CD game, Sonic the Hedgehog
CD. Like the Sonic CD introduction Metal Sonic, an early grayscale concept sketch
shows her very similar to her appearance in the game. Her coloring was red at
first, except for a green shirt. The character had two other names in game
previews: Rosy the Rascal and Princess Sally. Amy received her present design,
with a red dress and boots, in Sonic Adventure.
Although the character was redesigned for the Sonic Boom video game and TV
series, these are not considered canonical. Matching Sonic Boom '​s shift
in tone, Sonic series newcomer Big Red Button Entertainment wanted her to be a
more capable character to stand out from Sonic and offset her frequent placement
on game sidelines. She became more "agile and graceful", able to perform
difficult physical tasks with ease. = Personality and abilities =
Amy has a cheerful, exuberant, driven, competitive and intuitive personality.
She is infatuated with Sonic the Hedgehog and spends much of her time
chasing him, making sure he is safe and demonstrating her affection. Although
Sonic does not reciprocate her feelings and is annoyed by them, he does not
dislike her. Former Sonic Team head Yuji Naka said that Amy was designed "to
always chase Sonic", and it is unlikely that they will ever get married.
Like most characters in the Sonic series, Amy can run at superhuman speeds
but not as fast as Sonic. She attacks foes with her ever-present signature
weapon the Piko Piko Hammer, with which she is very proficient in using. The
character also has supernatural skills. Appearances
= Video games = In Sonic CD, Amy falls in love with
Sonic. She follows him to Never Lake, where Metal Sonic kidnaps her and Sonic
must rescue her. When he does, Amy kisses him. Sonic defeats Metal Sonic
and Doctor Eggman, and then leaves with her.
In Sonic Adventure, after Amy complains about being bored a bird wearing a Chaos
Emerald necklace crashes into her. She keeps the bird safe from E-100 Alpha,
one of Eggman's robots. Amy later meets Sonic, and invites him to an amusement
park. Alpha reappears, imprisoning Amy and the bird on Eggman's airship the Egg
Carrier. Another Eggman robot, E-102 Gamma, orders Amy to give the bird to
him; she refuses, asking him why he wants it. He does not know, and changes
his mind when she tells him he is missing out on love. E-102 Gamma lets
them leave and, touched, Amy becomes his friend before she escapes into the
ship's interior. On the deck, Eggman confronts her and grabs the bird's Chaos
Emerald. Sonic and Gamma appear, and when Sonic tries to destroy Gamma Amy
defends him. Sonic agrees to spare Gamma, and Amy leaves with Tails. She
later sees a photo of the bird and its parents in its necklace. When Amy looks
for them in the jungle, she again finds the Egg Carrier. The bird's parents
emerge on the deck; Alpha appears, and injures Amy's bird. Amy destroys Alpha,
and waves goodbye to the three departing birds.
In Sonic Adventure 2, Amy rescues Sonic from imprisonment and asks him to marry
her but yet again Sonic refuses to. When she looks for Sonic, she finds Shadow
the Hedgehog after mistaking him for Sonic. Eggman attacks her with his mecha
and Tails defends her; she then spends much of the remaining game searching for
Chaos Emeralds with Tails and Knuckles. At the game's climax, Amy pleads with
Shadow to help her and the other characters neutralize a catastrophic
energy buildup at the space colony ARK. She reminds him of Maria Robotnik, his
friend on the ARK before her death, and he agrees to help.
Amy is a playable character in Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic
Advance 3, platformers for the Game Boy Advance. With Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and
Cream, she frees animals from inside Eggman's robots to keep him from
building an empire. Although in Sonic Advance Amy's attacking power was
restricted by her inability to spin while jumping, this was changed in the
latter two games. She is a playable Team Rose "speed"
character in Sonic Heroes with Cream the Rabbit and Big the Cat. Worried about
Sonic, Amy finds his picture in a newspaper and joins Cream and Big to
look for their own friends: Cream for a Chao named Chocola and Big for his frog
friend Froggy. They travel through several stages before reaching the Egg
Fleet, another Eggman aircraft, where they find a mecha piloted by one of his
clones. When they defeat it, the clone dissolves into a puddle of liquid out of
which rise Chocola, Froggy and Sonic. Amy, Big and Cream help their friends
defeat the game's true antagonist, Metal Sonic, who locked Eggman away on his own
ship. Amy is a selectable racer in the racing
spinoffs Sonic Riders, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and Sonic Free Riders. In
Sonic Riders, she participates in a racing tournament to keep an eye on
Sonic. When Eggman shows up to steal the Treasure of Babylon Amy hops aboard his
hovercraft, which flies off into the distance. Sonic arrives at the base
where Eggman is holding Amy hostage, using his hoverboard to stir up a dust
bowl and recapture her and the treasure. She is uncharacteristically furious at
his recklessness for charging at Eggman. In Zero Gravity Amy shows Sonic a
strange item she has found, the Ark of the Cosmos, which the Babylon Rogues
rival gang believes she stole. She disappears from the gang and is later
found, helping them find the Ark of the Cosmos with information she overheard
from the Rogues. Team Rose returns in Sonic Free Riders. Although the team
arrives late at a tournament they can still register, and Amy is delighted
face Sonic and his team. They later battle other teams, with Amy insulting
Vector for his incompetence and obsession with money.
Amy has non-playable roles in a number of other game plots. Her attraction to
Sonic is useful to Cream and Blaze the Cat in Sonic Rush, since they are also
looking for him. In Shadow the Hedgehog Amy appears at a castle level to ask
Shadow to help her find Cream, who has not returned. In the game's final story,
unlocked after the player reaches the rest of the endings, Amy admiringly
cheers Shadow on. In the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game, she mistakes Silver the
Hedgehog for Sonic; when he tells her he is looking for someone, she insists on
helping him. When Silver attacks Sonic, Amy finds them and blocks Silver's way;
he escapes, and Amy yells at Silver. She rescues Elise from confinement. In Sonic
Lost World, Amy and Knuckles care for forest animals while Sonic and Tails
rescue the animals' friends. The Deadly Six control one of Eggman's machines to
drain life from the world; Amy and Knuckles die, but are brought back to
life when Sonic and Tails replenish it. Amy appears in cutscenes to flirt with
Sonic in other games, including Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations and the
Nintendo DS version of Sonic Colors. In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood,
her playable character pretends to have a boyfriend to make Sonic jealous; her
success depends on player input. In Sonic and the Black Knight Sonic agrees
to a date with Amy before he is whisked into the world of King Arthur, with an
alternate version of Amy as the Lady of the Lake.
She is a playable character in a number of Sonic spinoffs in several genres,
including the fighting games Sonic the Fighters and Sonic Battle; the racers
Sonic R and Sonic Drift, and the party title Sonic Shuffle. She is also planned
as a playable character in Sonic Boom, a platformer. Amy has also appeared in
games outside the series: Sega Superstars titles, including Sega
Superstars Tennis and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing; Mario crossovers and
as a collectible trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
= Comics = Amy is a major character in the Sonic
the Hedgehog manga. She is the girlfriend of protagonist Nicky, whose
alter ego is Sonic, and is unaware that they are identical. Antagonist Anton
Brooke is also attracted to her; he kidnaps her a number of times, forcing
Nicky to become Sonic and rescue her. In Sonic Adventures, a 1994 two-issue
French comic book published by Sirène, Doctor Robotnik uses Amy as bait to lure
Sonic. When Sonic, Amy and Tails fall into a pit of lava, they are saved by a
giant ring which transports them to a different location.
In the Sonic the Hedgehog series from Archie Comics, Amy learns about Sonic
from folktales in her home kingdom of Mercia. She admires him, and tries
several times to join the Freedom Fighters; however, she is rejected
because of her age. She sends Sonic fan mail, but Eggman intercepts it and
kidnaps her. Sonic rescues her and Tails, and they leave for the city of
Mobotropolis. Although Amy continues trying to join the Freedom Fighters, she
is still rejected; when she wishes on an ancient artifact to become older, her
immature mind gives her away. She helps the group defeating a number of powerful
enemies, however, and is admitted after defending a fort from Eggman and his
robots. Amy continues to pursue Sonic, seeking
out combat training so she can rival his abilities, and continues rescuing
friends with the Freedom Fighters from Eggman and other antagonists. She joins
Freedom Fighter subsidiaries—notably the Team Fighters, which includes supporting
characters Antoine D'Coolette and Bunnie Rabbot and with whom she rescues Sally
and a number of echidnas from Eggman and his army of robots. In the crossover
spinoff series Trouble on Two Worlds, Amy battles Dr. Wily and other Mega Man
antagonists with Sonic and Mega Man. She was a major character in Sonic the
Comic during its run from 1993 to 2002. Amy is arrested early by two of Eggman's
robots for associating with Sonic when she claims to be his girlfriend.
Annoyed, Sonic rescues her and realizes she is a fugitive and must remain with
the Freedom Fighters. Amy becomes a valued member, frequently fighting with
a bow and arrow. She occasionally saves the day without Sonic, once leading the
Freedom Fighters in his absence. Unlike most other Sonic media, Amy's love for
Sonic in Sonic the Comic is shallow. = Animation =
Amy is also a major character in the 2003–2006 anime series Sonic X.
Attacking one of Eggman's machines, Sonic triggers Chaos Control and sends
him, Amy, Tails and other characters from their world to Earth. On Earth,
they befriend a human boy, Chris Thorndyke and his family and friends;
Amy particularly likes his maid, Ella, who teaches her to cook. She frequently
tries to woo Sonic and his discomfort angers her. In one episode Amy makes a
seashell bracelet, which Sonic graciously accepts; shortly afterward he
saves her from drowning, and she returns the favor when one of Eggman's robots
holds him underwater. Sonic also rescues Amy from Eggman's creations on other
occasions. She sometimes flares up at Sonic, attacking him when she realizes
that he has tricked her into acting insane. The second season opens with
arcs based on Adventure and Adventure 2, where Amy reprises her role in the
games. During the first and second seasons Amy and her friends—often
without Sonic—are frequently together, capturing Chaos Emeralds from Doctor
Eggman and adjusting to their celebrity status on Earth.
The series moves to outer space for season three, when the animal characters
return to their world. Early in the series she and Cream befriend a
plant-like creature, Cosmo the Seedrian, and they are frequently together. Sonic
is kidnapped by the Metarex, plant-based robots, and Amy destroys one to rescue
Sonic from drowning again. She continues her adventures with the gang, looking
for scattered Chaos Emeralds and defeating Metarex. In one episode Amy
nearly wins Sonic's heart with an alien race's love magic, but Tails and Cosmo
trigger the magic before Sonic arrives; while their existing affection for each
other increases, Amy yells at them. During the show's climax, Amy jumps to
save Sonic from the Metarex's watery planet. She is knocked unconscious by
the impact, but Chris saves them both. Cosmo fuses with the planet, forcing
Tails to destroy her to save the galaxy, and Amy, Cream and Tails sob in despair
as the other characters solemnly watch. Amy and Cream later bring Tails some
snacks to cheer him up. Amy Rose is also one of the five main
characters in the CGI series Sonic Boom, along with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and
the new character Sticks, the latter of whom she is best friends with. Her
personality has been changed into a stronger, more independent role, being a
natural-born leader and the backbone of the team. Her romantic feelings towards
Sonic are kept intact, with a notable change being that she actively keeps her
crush on him a secret, even from Sonic himself.
Reception and impact Amy has received a mixed response from
critics. Jeff Tozai of the Huffington Post expressed an interest in "more Amy
Rose" from the Sonic series in an article critical of the series' overall
direction. IGN's Lucas M. Thomas wrote, "One of the coolest things about [Amy]
is her enormous, walloping hammer", and hoped she would be a playable character
in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Although Amy was described as cute by Alex Huhtala of
Computer and Video Games and the staff of Sega Saturn Magazine, Jem Roberts of
the British Official Dreamcast Magazine called her a
"little-pink-dog-type-thing." The character's personality has been
described as annoying. Thomas East of Official Nintendo Magazine called her
his third-least-favorite Sonic character, saying she "really isn't an
interesting character" and is "annoying". Ranking Amy third-lowest on
a similar list, Jim Sterling of GamesRadar simply wrote: "Total bitch".
On the same website, Justin Towell called her a "whiny, annoying brat" in
Sonic Adventure. Patrick Farren of What Culture called her "one of gaming's most
irritating females", criticizing the way she "contacts Sonic seemingly just to
bag him." Jem Roberts called Amy "kind-hearted" but "intolerably whiny".
The character's voice has been criticized since Cindy Robinson took
over the role, with Rogers and Farren comparing it to Minnie Mouse's. Towell
and Mean Machines expressed general displeasure at her introduction in Sonic
CD. The developers' treatment of Amy as a female character and its implications
for gender representation in video games have also been questioned; the
Electronic Gaming Monthly staff found her pink coloring and tendency to run
from danger to be stereotypical and common in Japanese-created female
characters. The character has been used in Sonic
merchandise, with a 2010 toy line reflecting her Sonic CD design instead
of her modern one. Exemplifying the culture of the decade, Amy and Sonic
appeared in the Simpsons episode "That '90s Show" on a billboard promoting
abstinence: Sonic proposes to Amy with the caption, "Sonic the Hedgehog says
wait until marriage." See also
Gender representation in video games Princess Peach
Princess Zelda References
External links Sonic Central official character
profiles Amy Rose at the Internet Movie Database