Amy Rose as she appears today. Her appearance was changed from the original Sonic CD look in 1998, in the Dreamcast game, Sonic Adventure.
Amy Rose (Japanese: エミー・ローズ Emī Rōzu) is a young pink hedgehog character who is usually associated with the modern day Sonic the Hedgehog video game series created by Sega. She is 2'11" and 12 years old. Her birthday is September 23rd, when she made her video game debut. She has chased Sonic for well over a decade of games and has been trying to gain his heart in everything from animated TV shows to comics and games.
Personality
As a rule Amy is, for the most part, adolescent. Whenever the subject of Sonic is brought up, Amy starts to swoon. (Sonic, for the most part, finds these moments quite awkward.) She is a nice person, but when angered she isn't above using her Piko Piko hammer to resolve disputes. Her usual mood is cheerful and optimistic, but she can be erratic and even quite delusional. Even though most of the other team members think she is annoying and useless, she is quite powerful. Amy also has tarot cards, which she used to divine that Sonic is the true love of her life. She has excellent culinary skills, as well. Amy has a strong dislike for Rouge the Bat, and fights with her every time they meet.
Original appearance
Amy was not created by Sonic Team. The first incarnation of Amy appeared in the Sonic the Hedgehog manga published in 1992, and there she was literally "the girlfriend of Nikki (Sonic)", as the description translates. After that appearance, Sega took the character, and Kazayuki Hoshino redesigned her for Sonic CD in 1993.
Game Appearances
In her first game appearance, "Sonic CD", Amy was introduced and kidnapped by Metal Sonic. Eggman then used the time stones to set time back on the Little Planet. Next, Sonic challenged Metal Sonic to a race to save Amy and won. Amy was rescued and Metal Sonic was destroyed for the time being. She had the nickname "Rosy the Rascal" at this point.
Sonic and Amy (as her original character design from Sonic CD.)
Amy appeared again in Sonic Drift and Sonic Drift 2 to race with her friends in a Grand Prix. She was a playable character in the 1996 arcade game Sonic the Fighters. In 1998's Sonic R, Amy was the only character to drive a car--everyone else ran on foot (or in Eggman's case, uses his Egg Machine). Most of these games are available on the Sonic Gems Collection video game.
Sonic Adventure in 1999 thrust Amy in the spotlight. Her coif was redesigned, and she now wore a red dress and red and white boots to take advantage of her more mature 12-year-old form. She was given green eyes, the same eye color as Sonic had. (No official explanation was given for Amy's change in appearance, but in the Archie Sonic comic books, it was explained that she made a wish on the Ring of Acorns to become older.) She was playable and still had her weapon of choice, the Piko Piko Hammer. She also kept that weapon for Sonic Advance. At the end of Sonic Adventure, Amy decides that she needs to become stronger and more capable, and thus began to train herself.
A Mario Party-spoof named Sonic Shuffle was released for the Dreamcast. Amy, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles collect rings and other items while walking around on a boardgame surface.
She was a supporting character in Sonic Adventure 2, but she had an unlockable playable appearance in Sonic Advance 2, as well as the latest in the Gameboy Advance series Sonic Advance 3, in which she again teams up with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Cream. At this point, it seems that she is getting better, as she is no longer as slow as she was in the original Sonic Adventure. Amy also appears in Sonic Battle as yet another playable character.
In Sonic Heroes, she leads Team Rose, named after her. Amy represents the team's speed formation. She's accompanied by Cream the Rabbit and Big the Cat on a mission to impress Sonic, while Big wants to find his friend/pet Froggy (again), and Cream and Cheese want to find Cheese's sibling, Chocola. At this point, Amy's speed has gotten up almost to par with Sonic's, and she manages to catch up to him a couple of times. She plows forward with even more confidence this time, not having nervous reactions to her speed or attack abilities as she does in Sonic Adventure 2.
Amy will appear alongside Sonic and the others in the upcoming Shadow the Hedgehog game to try to convince Shadow to join their cause. Amy, in particular, needs Shadow's help to rescue Cream.
The Piko Piko Hammer
Amy Rose using her Piko Piko Hammer. (From Sonic X.)
The preferred weapon of Amy Rose is the Piko Piko Hammer, a large hammer or mallet. She uses it in all of her attacks. The hammer may have been created to differentiate her abilities from Sonic’s, as they are both hedgehogs, or it could be a reference to a common running gag in Japanese anime, in which a girl pulls out a huge hammer from thin air and hits a perverted boy. (Ranma ½'s Akane is the archetypal example of this.)
The hammer has several powerful abilites, including the power to create tornados. Amy is also able to conjure multiple hammers, allowing her to continue attacking even if she's lost one.
Abilities
- Amy's choice of weapon is her Piko Piko hammer.
- In the SA2 2-Player, Amy can use Storming Heart, Speed-Up, and Amy Flash.
- Amy can spindash and somersault in almost all the games.
- Amy can use tarot cards.
- In Sonic Adventure, when Amy acquires the Warrior Feather, she can use the Spin Hammer attack.
- Amy can use her hammer to propel her into the air.
- In Sonic Heroes, Amy can use Tornado Hammer, Propeller Hammer, and Flower Festival.
- In Shadow the Hedgehog, Amy can homing attack and punch.
Love Life
Amy's love life is Sonic the Hedgehog. Ever since Sonic had rescued her, she has fallen in love with him and been trying to win his heart ever since. She constantly asks him to marry her and sometimes thinks that they're a couple. She doesn't care a thing about any differences they have, such as that in most storylines he is 4 years older than she is. If anybody shows any interest in Sonic, Amy may think that person is going after her 'boyfriend' (as seen in Sonic X with Cosmo). In Sonic Rush, Amy appears to try and keep Blaze the Cat away from Sonic. Apparently, since Blaze is a year younger than Sonic, Amy sees her as a threat.
In Sonic the Comic, Amy does not marry Sonic and is not mentioned at all. However, this is only a possible future for the comic book and therefore, may not happen. In the Archie comics, Amy has a crush on Sonic, but doesn't try to get close to him as he is dating Princess Sally. However, when they broke up, Amy started putting the moves on him, thinking she now has a chance.
Like the other girls of the Sonic universe, Amy is placed in fanon pairings with characters such as Tails and Shadow, and on occasion, Knuckles. Of course, Amy's only interest in the real continuity is in Sonic, making these incredibly unlikely.
Sonic X
Amy is currently appearing as one of the main characters in Sonic X, an anime series which is the latest of the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons.
In Sonic X, Amy is constantly pursuing Sonic, trying to get him to notice her. She often gets angry, as Sonic's impatience and aloof attitude drive her to violence. However, she really does care about him. Amy grows to understand Sonic more as time goes by, even learning the reason he loves to run when she uses a racecar to travel at sonic speed. She also tries to help him with things, including making a bracelet of shells so he won't drown.
Despite Amy's dedication, she can be a bit of a pain. Several times, she has been separated from Sonic, and runs up and throws her arms around him when they reunite. This can lead to trouble, as Sonic is unable to react to a threat while in her grip. She also gets into trouble on several occasions for running off after him. She also bawls without pause when he disappears for a long time, which can bother others around her.
Despite his annoyance at her antics, Sonic does care about her. He has promised to go on a date with her, and even gave her a flower after a particularly long absence. Amy had also once dressed up so beautifully that it left him speechless.
Archie Comics
In the Archie Comics, Amy is the youngest member of the Freedom Fighters, and has a crush on Sonic which he tends to ignore. Amy is the cousin of Rob O' the Hedge, who sends her to live in Knothole as things get tough in their homeland of Mercia. She falls head over heels for Sonic, but remained distant out of respect for Sally Acorn.
Originally, Amy was the same age as originally depicted in the games. However, she later makes a wish on the Ring of Acorns, which causes her to grow physically older, reaching the age of 13-she's really 10. Amy's skill with her hammer is not decreased, and she is one of the Most Wanted enemies of Dr. Eggman.
Sonic The Comic
In the UK publication Sonic the Comic (STC), Amy first appeared in the 2-part story "Girl Trouble", where she was kidnapped by Dr. Robotnik's Trooper Badniks for the criminal offence of association with Sonic (she had been saying she was his girlfriend). While angered at the fact she had been lying about them being an "item", Sonic still had a duty to rescue her and did so, but not before Robotnik transformed himself into a new, more despicable form (that is to say, the writers of the comic decided to alter Robotnik's appearance so it matched up with the cartoon series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog).
In the first 6-part Sonic story in STC's history, "The Sonic Terminator", which was based on Sonic CD, Robotnik had Metallix kidnap Amy as bait for Sonic, so that Metallix could then destroy both of them on the Miracle Planet. Sonic eventually defeated Metallix but was stuck on the Miracle Planet for the rest of the month with Amy, until it reappeared in the skies over Mobius. During a later mission to the Miracle Planet, Amy commented that Sonic had gotten lost an awful lot during that month. Sonic replied that that was just what he wanted her to think; he'd actually been hiding from her!
For a long time, a running joke was that a character - either friend or foe - would make a comment to Sonic about how he and Amy were a couple, which would result in Sonic immediately going on the defensive, enraged that anyone could even dare to think he had feelings for her. Amy occasionally used this to her advantage to get a rise out of Sonic, when she recognised a pattern emerging in his behaviour.
As the comic went on over the years, Amy's character matured greatly to the point where she was unrecognizable in terms of character compared to her game counterpart. She became one of the most valuable members of the Freedom Fighters, especially due to her expert marksmanship with her crossbow. The notion of a love interest in Sonic was, for the most part, underplayed. It was even hinted that Johnny Lightfoot, one of the team's best fighters, was in love with her (something writer Nigel Kitching later admitted was completely intentional), though this was later dropped since it was never properly developed. Her appearance was also changed, likely to symbolise how her personality had matured- she was most often seen wearing combat trousers and a white T-shirt that often had a different slogan or picture on it, ranging from "Girl Power!" to a Christian cross. When Sonic Adventure was released, her hairstyle was altered to reflect the games, but her clothes didn't change.
At a later part of the comic's life, Amy spent most of her adventures teaming up with Tekno the Canary as they both travelled through time and space to save a vast selection of an infinite number of dimensions, even visiting Earth. These strips were, like all but the main Sonic ones, dropped to make room for reprinted strips in later issues. Interestingly, though, Lew Stringer, who became sole writer on the comic for a while, gave Sonic a similar set of adventures in the main strip, at the request of the editor. When Nigel Kitching was brought back as sole writer for the comic's final non-reprint story, a new editor was in place and the character of Tekno was not used despite Amy's longstanding friendship with her, as Kitching preferred not to use Stringer's own created characters.
In the aforementioned final story, which was based on Sonic Adventure, Amy seemingly got "lost in the shuffle", so to speak. There were a vast number of characters and plot points that needed to be used and only 10 issues to do it in. The most important thing Amy did during this story arc was save Knuckles the Echidna's life when he had a fit of hysterics when he had to jettison the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald to avoid them being absorbed by the Chaos beast, leading to the Floating Island falling from the sky. Wanting to "go down with the ship", Knuckles was convinced otherwise with the help of Amy and an iron bar she knocked him out with!
No new stories were written after issue 184, so Amy's STC persona was not further developed until after the comic was cancelled following issue 223. However, she has made several appearances in STC Online, the online continuation of the comic which, while written by fans of the original, has received acclaim from the original writers, so it can be logically explained that STC Online's Amy is the "official unofficial" continuation of her character development.
Quotes
- "Sonikku no Baka!" ("Sonic, you idiot!" in Japanese)
- "You're not Sonic...who are you?!" (Sonic Adventure 2)
- "Gotcha, my darling Sonic! This time there's no way outta marrying me!" (Sonic Heroes)
- "If I tell you, will you marry me?"(Sonic Adventure 2)
- "Where did Sonic go? He's such a brat sometimes." (Sonic Adventure 2)
- "I hate you! You guys always leave me behind and have all the fun!" (Sonic Adventure 2)
- "Give up, Sonic. This time you're mine. (Sonic Heroes)
- "Sonic! You can't hide from me now! I know you're here! My cards tell me you're here!"(Sonic Battle)
- "Wait a second... Sonic left our precious Emerl all alone. I wonder if he's trying to tell me something... Or maybe he's challenging me to see if I can protect him from Eggman. As a mom, I failed to protect him from Rouge. But, I won't let him down. I'll prove I'm a good mommy. And if I do... Ahhh Sonic, I will be the perfect bride!- Ohh shoot, Emerl! Where are you honey!?"(Sonic Battle)
- "You filthy trash! What are you doing here?! Go back to where you came from or you'll get smashed, stomped on, and turned to ashes!!"(Sonic Battle)
- "Why can't you just leave us alone, already? Shadow, bring him down!" (Shadow the Hedgehog)
- "Just leave the robots alone!" (Shadow the Hedgehog)
Voice Actors
- In Sonic X and the games beginning with Shadow the Hedgehog, she is voiced by Lisa Ortiz.
Trivia
- When Sonic CD was released in America, Amy's name was replaced with "Princess Sally" as a tie in with the cartoon, even though the two characters were quite different.
- According to the Japanese manual for Sonic CD, Amy's nickname is "Rosey the Rascal". This name is kept as her title in Sonic the Fighters.
- She is considered as the most popular female character of the Sonic franchise. Despite being at a young age, Amy is considered very attractive by many male fans. At the same time she is one of the most liked among the female fans.
- Many people have wrote lots of fanfics of Amy and Sonic being together. Some writers have her pair up with others, including Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, even Rouge.
- In the Archie comic series, she has a cousin named Rob O'Hedge from the Kingdom of Mercia.
- Amy looks very similar to Sonia the Hedgehog, Sonic's sister from the less popular series Sonic Underground. Amy and Sonia are both pink female hedgehogs.
- Yuji Naka, creator of the original Sonic games and head of Sonic Team, has mentioned that Amy will probably never get to be with Sonic, as having Sonic marry and settle down would ruin the series. A humorous flash movie on Newgrounds plays off of this. In the movie, Sonic admits that he's always liked Amy, and is about to pop the question when Knuckles arrives. Without the slightest dithering, Knuckles informs Sonic that if he asks Amy to marry him, then SonicTeam will fire them all immediately.