Amy Rose

Amy Rose
'Sonic the Hedgehog' character
File:Amy 2006.png Amy Rose is Sonic's self-proclaimed girlfriend, she's with a red dress and red boots.
First game	Sonic the Hedgehog CD (1993)
Created by	Kazuyuki Hoshino (Sonic Team USA)

Amy Rose (エミー・ローズ, Emī Rōzu), once known as Rosy the Rascal, is a video game character who appears in many of the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games developed by Sega's Sonic Team. Amy Rose was created by Kazuyuki Hoshino (Sonic Team USA Art Director). She is a pink, female, anthropomorphic, humanoid hedgehog who plays the part of Sonic's self-proclaimed girlfriend. She has chased Sonic since her first debut in 1993, and has been trying to win his heart in everything from the series' animated TV shows to comics and games. She is the first female character introduced into the game universe and is also one of the most popular, coming in fifth place on an official popularity poll.

Like Sonic and other characters in the series, Amy is significantly shorter and lighter than humans her same age. To be precise, she is 12 years old, 90 cm (2ft 11in) tall, and keeps her weight a secret (much like the other female characters). She was described as being 8 years old in Sonic CD, but as of Sonic Adventure and onwards she has grown older (by 4 years). Also, with the addition of Cream the Rabbit, Amy seems to have found herself a sidekick similar to Sonic's own Tails (as implied by Sonic Battle, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Advance 3, and Shadow the Hedgehog). Her clothes are a red dress, a headband, 2 golden wristbands, and red boots.

The alias "Rosy the Rascal" is most likely a reference to her color, but it may even be a play on "Rosie the Riveter", a feminist character and national icon which represents the women that had to work during World War II when all of their husbands were drafted. The name is rather suiting as both characters are extremely tough and motivated females.

History

Original appearance

Despite her frequent use in Sega games (especially since the Dreamcast era), Amy was not actually created by Sonic Team. A prototype version of her appeared in the Sonic the Hedgehog manga published on September 23, 1992, and there she was literally "the girlfriend of Nikki (Sonic)", as the description translates. After that appearance, Sega took the character, and Kazuyuki Hoshino redesigned her for Sonic CD in 1993. It is said that she is always wearing a red dress and Converse-like running shoes.

In her first game appearance, Sonic CD (1993), Amy was introduced and kidnapped by Metal Sonic. Doctor Robotnik then used the time stones to set time back on the Little Planet. She had the nickname "Rosy the Rascal" at this point, and was named "Princess Sally" in the Western manuals to tie in with the cartoon, though all later games called her Amy. Being a Genesis-era game (though technically a Sega CD game), Sonic CD's plot was minimal. Amy's only personality trait was that she was a big fan of Sonic, and no real reason was given for her kidnapping besides as bait for Sonic. Though Sonic CD was released after Sonic the Hedgehog 2, it was in production at the same time, meaning that Amy has more or less been around as long as Tails.

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 seen since.

In 1998, Sonic Adventure thrust 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 that escaped Eggman and crashed into her. Like the other major characters in the series, Amy was redesigned significantly for this game. Her spines were redesigned into short hair being slacked down, and she now wore a red dress and red boots with a white stripe from the top to the tip to take advantage of her more mature 12-year-old form. She was given green eyes, the same eye color as Sonic had only in a lighter value. Somewhat oddly, in this newer design, Amy often appears to have a more of an 'hourglass'-shape to her body than many other females in the series (such as Blaze, Wave and Marine), despite the fact that she is canonically of a younger age than many of these characters.

She was an important supporting character in Sonic Adventure 2 because she had some of the most prominent roles and was playable in 2-player mode. When Sonic was kept in an island prison, with Tails' help she managed to free him. This happened to be one of the surprisingly many times Amy has saved Sonic rather than the usual opposite.

Amy was playable in Sonic Advance, but unlike the other playable characters, she could not spin and all her attacks had to be triggered.

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

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Amy Rose in Sonic Riders

Amy has appeared alongside Sonic and the rest of the cast in Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Riders, Sonic and the Secret Rings, and so on through the newer games. Her outfits have changed for certain games, such as the one she wears for Sonic Riders. She also appears in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, in which she has apparently given up her pursuit of Sonic and started a relationship with a new character named Dexter.

Sonic X

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Sonic and Amy from Episode 52 of Sonic X

Amy was also one of the main characters in Sonic X, an anime series which is the most recent of the Sonic the Hedgehog TV shows; her first ever appearance in a Sonic TV series.

In Sonic X, Amy is Sonic's fan, friend, and love interest, although Sonic does not often return her feelings. As with her game appearances, her long-term goal is to get him to notice her. She gets mad at Sonic's impatience and aloof attitude, which occasionally are so bad that she is driven to violence. However, she really does care about him. Her personality in the anime is similar to the personality of her in Sonic Adventure.

Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)

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Amy Rose when upgraded to her older form in issue #80

In the Sonic the Hedgehog (comics) Amy was the same age as depicted in the original games. In a flashback it was shown Amy tried to become a part of the Freedom Fighters but was denied by Sally Acorn. Amy accused Sally of the reason so she `won't get closer to Sonic` however the true reason was that Amy was far too young at the time (as she was only 8 years old) and did not have the experience like Tails had. However, during the Sonic Adventure Adaptation she 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 still had no fighting experience. A year later when Sonic returned to Mobius, Amy was awarded a medal and became a Freedom Fighter by Sally, who thanked her for her service to help the Freedom Fighters; Amy was overwhelmed by happiness that one of her wishes came true.

Amy is the cousin of Rob O' the Hedge (a thinly veiled homage to Robin Hood), who sends her to live in Knothole as things get tough in their homeland of Mercia. Echoing her introduction in Sonic CD, she was captured by Metal Sonic but saved by Sonic the Hedgehog in the landmark issue #25. She fell head over heels for Sonic, but remained distant out of respect for Sally Acorn. After Sonic and Sally's breakup in issue #138, Amy has begun to show her love for the hedgehog once again.

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 she. 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 (the others being Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and NICOLE). 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 now lives in New Mobotropolis.

Sonic the Comic

In the UK publication Sonic the Comic, Amy first appeared in a two-part story where she was 'arrested' by Dr. Robotnik's Trooper Badniks for the criminal offence of association with Sonic (she had been saying she was his girlfriend). While annoyed at the fact she had been lying about them being an "item," Sonic still had a duty to rescue her and did so, but to his horror realised that she was now a fugitive and would have to stay with the Freedom Fighters.

Amy's character swiftly matured as the comic went on and became one of the most valuable members of the Freedom Fighters, especially due to her expert marksmanship with her crossbow (which she created herself). The notion of a love interest in Sonic was, for the most part, underplayed and one of the comic's writers, Nigel Kitching, revealed he saw it partly as Amy just trying to annoy Sonic. Several times, Sonic would be left exasperated by either civilians assuming the two were dating (which Amy would play along with) or her playing up the crush - because of this, when trapped on the Miracle Planet with her, he faked being lost for two days.

She appeared often in strips, with a few solo stories by Lew Stringer where she saved the day without the others noticing. She constantly showed pragmatism and quick-thinking: in the story "Plasma" in #78, she both worked out how to defeat the villain and let Sonic believe he had as she knew that, as a symbol of hope for Mobius, "it's important that they think it's him who saves the day!". She also took a second-in-command role, taking full control when Sonic was absent or transformed into Super Sonic; when Sonic was lost in the Special Zone, she led the Freedom Fighters until he returned in #100. At a later part of the comic's life, Amy would be mostly written by Lew Stringer as a straighforward adventurer and had a long series of back-up strips teamed up with her best friend Tekno.

Nigel Kitching originally planned for Amy to be more of an irritant for Sonic, influenced by 1930s/40s "Hollywood screwball comedies" like It's a Wonderful World, but while still being a capable fighter. ("But what Amy was not and never was some weak soppy character who swooned over Sonic like a silly little girl. Well, she did but we were never quite sure if she just doing it for a laugh.") However, Deborah Tate wanted the character to be of a role model for girls, as she was the only female regular character at the time, and dictated that she be more sensible and mature.

Sonic X: The Comic

Amy Rose's appearance in the Sonic X comic is similar to the one in the Sonic X anime. In this comic book version her and Sonic's relationship developed more closely, Sonic even took her on a date for Valentines Day (though this was due to the fact that he lost a bet to Knuckles). However after the date when Amy asked Sonic if they would go on a date again, Sonic answered with: "Maybe"

Sonic : Adventures

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

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Amy Rose as she appears in "Sonic Adventures: Dans Les Griffes De Robotnik"

Personality

Amy's character is 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. Because of her pure heart her character has often been used as the series Ingenue.

Upon being asked by Sega.com if Sonic and Amy will ever get married, creator Yuji Naka said that "there will hardly be any chance, I bet. Amy will continue to pursue Sonic all the time, but Sonic will not ever get married. I think so, because I cannot picture the image of Sonic that he is married and has his children! Also, I feel it is a more Amy's style to always chase Sonic."

Relationships

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is Amy's love-interest as she cares very deeply for the blue hedgehog and marvels at all his personal traits. Most often, Amy gets involved in the story while searching for Sonic or trying to find information about his whereabouts. She tends to plunge ahead at first glimpse of his figure, this prompting unusual confrontations as she embraced both Shadow the Hedgehog during the events of Sonic Adventure 2 as well as Silver the Hedgehog in Sonic '06, though the latter was dissolved as part of the storyline. Amy travels the world in pursuit of Sonic and won't hesitate to throw herself in the line of danger if it means protecting him. While Sonic appears to dislike her consistent approach of marriage, he values her as a very good friend and has been known to come to her rescue whenever she needs him. She is referred as "Sonic's ever cheerful love interest", in a page in the Special Book in Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Cream the Rabbit

Cream the Rabbit, Amy's best friend. Since Sonic Heroes, Cream and Amy are portrayed as best friends and they share a sister-like relationship, comparable to Sonic and Tails' brother-like friendship. This fact is strengthened by Sonic Advance 3, as when they are paired together, they are given the title "Team Jubilee" and serve as a female counterpart to Sonic and Tails' "Unbreakable Bond." The two also seem to frequent together almost completely throughout Sonic Battle, except when Emerl drags one of them away. Amy is also seen searching for Cream during the level Cryptic Castle in Shadow the Hedgehog which further suggests how much she cares for her.

Miles "Tails" Prower

Miles "Tails" Prower is a lot like a little brother figure toward Amy. Sometimes she is bossy with him and many other times, she is protective and defensive of Tails. Although, Amy will sometimes use Tails' close connections with Sonic to find out his whereabouts and/or some current events. Nonetheless, Amy and Tails are very good friends.

Knuckles the Echidna

Knuckles the Echidna is more of an associate with Amy than a good friend, only because they usually have the same enemy and need to work together. Aside from those events, the two will probably get into some kind of a dispute over what is going on. Nonetheless, they will save and help each other and can be considered as allies. In Sonic X, Amy sees Knuckles as a naive hothead, and their relationship is a bit more bitter.

Big the Cat

Big the Cat is the muscle of Team Rose, and an important member in the team. Amy sees that sometimes Big loses his courage, but she never lets him give up, because she knows that he is stronger than he looks.

Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog met Amy in Sonic Adventure 2 in an awkward confrontation when she mistook him for Sonic and hugged him. They met again on Space Colony ARK while the others were racing to the core of the colony to stop the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow initially intended to wait for the end to come, in course for the vengeance on the earth's people for the death of his only friend, Maria. However, Amy was able to convince him that life on the planet was basically good, thus Shadow remembered Maria's true last wish was to let all the people live good lives. He went on to supposedly sacrifice himself and was shown for the first and only time shedding a tear with only Amy as a witness. Since then Amy has apparently maintained a friendly attitude towards Shadow, even when his memory was not able to recall her after his return. During the events of Shadow the Hedgehog, Amy supported Shadow in Cryptic Castle and was heard cheering him on in both the Last Story and Expert Mode.

Silver the Hedgehog

Silver the Hedgehog immediately became friends with Amy in the intentions of searching for Sonic after a rather embarrassing first meeting, similar with her encouter with Shadow the Hedgehog. Unfortunately, when Amy saw Silver trying to kill Sonic, she without hesitation jumped in front of her love and protected him. Afterwards, she yells at Silver saying that Sonic would never do what he is accusing him of doing and angrily storms off. However, with Sonic dead at Mephiles' hands and the world distorted, the two put their differences aside to restore him. But once Solaris was defeated, all the events of their encounter were erased. So to this day, they have no idea of the other's existence.

Emerl

Emerl had a literal mother-son relationship with Amy, which she said "Hello, Emerl. I will be your new mommy!". In turn, Emerl responds "Mommy! Mommy!" After meeting the robot, Amy came to the assumption that Sonic was trying to tell her he got Emerl so they could start practicing raising a family together. Amy teaches Emerl boxercise and has him be her coach during her own exercise sessions.

Doctor Eggman (Ivo Robotnik)

Amy's main enemy is Doctor Eggman. They first met upon Eggman kidnapping her to use as bait for Sonic. Amy despises his machines and mechs and shows to be more violent and irritated against Eggman and his constant interference in the anime series Sonic X.

Rouge the Bat

Rouge the Bat also seems to hold a rivalry with Amy as demonstrated in Sonic Battle. This conflict seems to revolve around their opposite views and differences in age. Rouge sees Amy as being a young love-struck hedgehog who does not understand maturity, while Amy perceives Rouge as being an unscrupulous bat who is only interested in herself. While there is friction between the two, they seem to be able to tolerate one another and even show support for each other as in Shadow the Hedgehog when Amy relieved Rouge's concern for Shadow's well-being after the final battle in the Last Story.

E-102 Gamma

E-102 Gamma is perhaps the only machine of Dr. Eggman's that Amy sees the good in. When she was in Eggman's custody in Sonic Adventure, she convinced it to let them go, and defended it when Sonic almost destroyed it.

Zero

Zero is a more direct enemy of Amy, spending most of Sonic Adventure chasing her throughout her levels to recapture the bird that was travelling with her. She managed to destroy it in a final battle on the downed Egg Carrier.

Abilities

As with all the other hedgehogs of the series, she can run somewhat fast, and has been seen to roll into balls just like Sonic. She also can occasionally use the homing attack and can also change to become invisble (as shown in Sonic the Hedgehog). Notably, she has never had access to any known form of super form in any media.

Amy also has tarot cards. She has been seen using them before her transformation to her older self. They have not been seen since then. She has been able to successfully tell the futures of Knuckles, Sonic, Tails, and unknown to her Shadow and Rouge. She apparently helped Sonic and Tails in battle by predicting Eggman's robots' movements and finding his weakness.

Amy in the beginning was always seen as the damsel in distress. However, lately she has been seen helping, supporting or even protecting her friends. With her Piko Piko Hammer, tarot cards and strength she has come into a more strengthening feministic role. She is now unafraid to step into battle, especially if she's protecting Sonic or Cream. Even without her hammer, Amy has a few martial art skills.

The Piko-Piko Hammer

Amy Rose using her Piko Piko Hammer. (From Sonic X)

Also known as the Love Hammer in Sonic Battle in-game, Amy's Piko-Piko Hammer is based on a popular Japanese toy of the same name. They are common in Japanese comedy, where a person is often hit with the toy hammer, producing a loud "piko" sound. In western countries, it is known as a "squeaky hammer" or simply "toy hammer". In the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the Piko-Piko Hammer is Amy's weapon of choice. She usually uses it to defend herself and her friends, but she will also use it to threaten her friends if they annoy or anger her.

The Piko-Piko Hammer has several powerful abilities, including the power to create small tornadoes. Amy is also able to conjure multiple hammers, allowing her to continue attacking even if she has lost or thrown one. The hammer first appeared in Sonic the Fighters, where it appeared to be a toy squeaky mallet, which squeaked comically when it struck an enemy. By the time the hammer next appeared, it appears to be very hard indeed and instead of squeaking, it makes a distinct, less squeaky piko-piko sound. She can also change the size of the hammer and its capabilities.

In the anime Sonic X Amy seems to be able to pull the Piko-Piko Hammer out of thin air multiple times such as in during the situation at the end of the 2nd season of the show when Doctor Eggman was disrupting everyone late at night: Amy threw her hammer at Doctor Eggman, severely denting his airship, then pulls out another and continues to throw them consecutively.

Voice actresses

TV Shows

• In Sonic X (2003), she is voiced by Lisa Ortiz.

Video Games (US)

• In Sonic CD (1993), she was voiced by Lynn Harris when she yelled "HELP!"
• From Sonic Adventure (1999) through Sonic Advance 3 (2004), she was voiced by Jennifer Douillard. Doullard's voice clips were recycled for Sega Superstars Tennis.
• In Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) and other present games, she is currently voiced by her Sonic X voice actress, Lisa Ortiz.

Japanese

• Her Japanese voice actress is Taeko Kawata, but in Sonic Shuffle, Emi Motoi took over Amy's role.

Theme songs

The games feature a few theme songs related to Amy. "My Sweet Passion" is a funk/pop song, while "Follow Me" is a pop rock song.

• Sonic Adventure/2 - "My Sweet Passion". It is sung by Nikki Gregoroff.
• Sonic Heroes - "Follow Me". This theme is shared with Cream and Big, but it focuses almost entirely on Amy. In one point of the song there is a remix to a part of My Sweet Passion. It is sung by Kay Hanley.

Notes and 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
• Amy at Sonic Channel
• Sonic City Amy Rose
• Amy Rose Concept: "Mobius" (REAL Character Profile)