Charmy Bee

This article is about the video game character. For other uses, see Charmy Bee (disambiguation).

Oh flower, pretty flower, show your face and I'll sting you!

— Charmy Bee, Sonic Heroes

Charmy Bee (チャーミー・ビー, Chāmī Bī^?) is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is an anthropomorphic bee and the youngest member of Team Chaotix, a detective agency he helped co-found.^[6]^[7] Although he is a certified detective, this frivolous and scatterbrained bee is more akin to a mood maker who helps excite Team Chaotix and make his coworkers look professional.^[8] He is as well generally seen by others as his detective agency's entertaining and incredibly cute mascot.^[8]^[9] Regardless, he is an excellent flier and possesses a sharp stinger to boot.

Charmy's trademarks are his flight suit and helmet.^[3]^[10] Always flying around energetically and annoying his coworkers, Charmy is hyperactive, childish and loves more to play than work. However, his intuition is nonetheless an invaluable assist to the Chaotix Detective Agency,^[3] and he serves as a crucial part of their team.

Concept and creation

Charmy's first appearance was in the Sonic the Hedgehog serialized manga published by Shogakukan, but was later used for the games, in which he first debuted in Knuckles' Chaotix.

Appearance

Classic Charmy, from Knuckles' Chaotix.
Modern Charmy, from Sonic Art Assets DVD.
Charmy, from Sonic Channel.
Charmy in his "Honey" outfit, from Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.

Charmy is a small, yellow-and-black striped anthropomorphic bee with yellow-and-black striped antennae, translucent sky-blue wings on his back, and orange-amber eyes. He has exposed peach-colored skin on his muzzle and arms, a small black nose, and a silver stinger.

In terms of attire, Charmy wears an orange vest featuring a bee emblem on the left, a yellow zipper, and a white collar resembling that of a polo shirt. He also wears orange-and-white sneakers with black cuffs and yellow zippers, white gloves with similar cuffs, small black shoulder pads, and a black pilot's helmet adorned with a raspberry and two orange-circulated trims, along with orange and silver flight goggles featuring light blue lenses.

In Knuckles' Chaotix, Charmy had black eyes, a slightly longer nose, a yellow stinger, and a more pinkish tint to his skin. His striped torso was fully exposed, and he wore red sneakers with white details and laces, along with orange flight goggles featuring dark blue lenses and large red shoulder pads.

Personality

Good-shaped yet sloppy,^[8] Charmy is a hyperactive and scatterbrained funny kid.^[7]^[3]^[10] Not particularly clever,^[10] Charmy is the type of person who takes action first and asks questions later, often realizing his mistakes too late.^[3]

Charmy is curious, playful, always upbeat, and loves to fool around and crack jokes.^[9] As a child, he prioritizes play above all else (especially work), and he is often seen flying around energetically.^[6]^[8]^[3] When the team receives their first mission at the beachy Seaside Hill, Charmy can be heard singing "Sea, sea, sea" while hovering around. However, he works hard to support his teammates.^[7]

Not known for his temperament, Charmy is generally good-natured and light-hearted, rarely getting angry.^[3]^[10] When provoked, though, he introduces the source of his anger to his stinger and delivers a painful sting.^[6]^[3]^[10]

Due to his age, Charmy is not the most skilled detective.^[7] However, he is the life of the party, bringing cheer and a carefree attitude to the Chaotix Detective Agency^[3]. He is also very perceptive.^[7] Charmy's childlike innocence gives him a unique perspective that his older coworkers lack, allowing him to use excellent intuition and spot things that others may miss.^[3] Additionally, Charmy is great at coming up with ideas that no one else would consider.^[7] This makes him an invaluable member of the Chaotix Detective Agency. When puzzling cases arise, Charmy is always ready to help with his flexible mind.^[7]

It appears that Charmy has a fondness for money, much like Vector, as they both show excitement at the prospect of a handsome reward for their services in Sonic Heroes.^[11]

In the IDW Comics, Charmy is depicted as an immature, fun-loving kid. Hyperactive and beebrained, he loves to play and is always buzzing around. Despite this, he is very friendly, lighthearted, and cheerful. He also enjoys pranking others, as seen when he annoyed Vector for being wrong, and is quite gullible, easily forgiving and forgetting. This is shown when he befriended Dr. Eggman after he seemingly turned over a new leaf due to amnesia, while the rest of the team remained skeptical.^[12]

Because he is a child, Charmy prefers playing to working, and he is often disgruntled when called into action while engaged in his games. That said, he can still enjoy his work and often finds ways to entertain himself while on the job, even when fighting Badniks. He also loves anything related to flowers, whether they are flowers themselves or honey tarts.^[12]

Though young, Charmy is a very trusting individual who tends to see the good and fun in people, even when they are evil. He also has a strong sense of justice and is always willing to help those in need, regardless of the situation.^[12]^[13] However, he sometimes struggles to understand the rules of the world or the decisions of his friends, which can make him stubborn when pursuing his goals. He will refuse to listen to anyone if he believes he is right.^[13]

Powers and abilities

Although not particularly clever or strong,^[10] Charmy has proven himself to be a valuable asset to the Chaotix Detective Agency. Thanks to his wings, he is capable of flight.^[9] Unlike most other fliers and their Propeller Flying methods, Charmy can sustain flight indefinitely without his flying appendages tiring, as he is always seen buzzing around.

Self-proclaimed as the fastest insect in the world, Charmy was the first of his species to break the sound barrier (at 767 mph),^[5] making him nearly as fast as Sonic, who can also surpass the speed of sound. Charmy can fly so fast that he creates miniature vortexes dense enough to stand on. Despite his young age, the bee is quite strong in his own right; in Sonic Heroes, he was able to carry his team across large distances through the air on his own. He also possesses great reflexes and acrobatic abilities, allowing him to perform unique tricks and maneuvers mid-air, pull off various Spin Attack techniques at high speed, and easily grind on Grind Rails.

Charmy attacking an Egg Pawn with his stinger, from *Sonic Heroes*.

Charmy possesses a powerful stinger capable of delivering painful stings.^[6]^[3] With it, he can strike with enough force to pierce lesser Badnik armor, using both speed and agility.^[14] Beyond his stinger, he can also perform the Spin Attack, where he curls into a concussive ball or cutting disk, directing himself at his targets. With enough speed, he can shred or burrow through almost any material. Adept at using it, Charmy can execute various Spin Attack variants, including the Spin Dash, Spin Jump, and Homing Attack, for both ground- and aerial maneuvers.

As a member of the Chaotix Detective Agency, Charmy has some investigative skills, but he is not as sharp a detective as Vector or Espio. Among Team Chaotix, he is the tracker. His innocent nature grants him excellent intuition, allowing him to point out important details others might miss.^[3] These moments of insight occasionally make him the most valuable contributor to the detective work of the trio.^[15] He excels at following hunches and uncovering hidden objects.^[10] Charmy also possesses a mysterious talent that allows him to warp between flowers^[10] and activate bee-themed devices at will.^[16]

Thanks to his wings, Charmy can fly almost perpetually and is always seen buzzing around.^[17] He also has a sharp stinger capable of piercing even metal.^[18]

Charmy carrying his teammates to safety, from *Sonic the Hedgehog* #9.

Despite his small size, Charmy is surprisingly strong, able to carry both Espio and Vector through midair, though with noticeable effort.^[19]

Color Powers

Main article: Color Power

By harnessing different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Charmy can use specific Color Powers to transform into various forms, such as a drill, a laser, or even a planet, each with its own unique abilities. So far, Charmy has been able to transform into the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill, and Indigo Asteroid. However, these transformations require a steady supply of Hyper-go-on to be maintained.

Weaknesses

Charmy cannot go into the water. In addition, he can be too careless for his own good.^[9]

Despite being quite strong for his age, Charmy can get exhausted from carrying people for a certain amount of time.^[20]^[21] Due to Charmy's young age, he is very reckless and can end up in dire situations when not supervised.^[22]^[23]

Relationships

Vector the Crocodile

Charmy hugging Vector, from *Sonic the Hedgehog* #48.

Vector the Crocodile is Charmy's boss from Team Chaotix and he jumps at every opportunity to make fun of him, like calling him a fool during the Wisp incident for giving Sonic a clue that led to nothing. Thanks to his bad temper, Vector almost always responds to Charmy's provocations and is seen arguing with him most of the time, with Vector screaming at Charmy. Alternatively, Vector sometimes simply deals with Charmy by putting his hand over the face of the bee, especially when the Chaotix is in a hurry. They can also end up fighting over the smallest of issues; during Final Haunt in Expert Mode, the two would fight over who ate their pudding.

Despite his many arguments, Charmy really admires Vector. He has a habit of repeating Vector's statements and imitating him; when the new Chaotix customer during the Neo Metal Sonic incident promised to pay generously, dollar signs appeared in Vector and Charmy's eyes, even though Charmy is not known for worrying about money. In addition, Charmy usually takes Vector's side when there are differences within the Chaotix.

Due to his age, Charmy prefers to play than to work and calls Vector boring for not leaving him be most of the time. However, Vector has faith in Charmy and appreciates his skills as a tracker, even sending him to dangerous jobs from time to time, although he is fully aware that Charmy uses his time alone mainly for fun. On top of being coworkers, the Chaotix share a residence and Charmy is often referred to as one of his "boys" by Vector, showing a familial bond between the trio.

Vector acts as one of Charmy's supervisors, as well as one of his friends and mentors in the Chaotix. Despite this, he enjoys making fun of Vector when he is wrong, to the point where it annoys him. He tends to act quite rebellious under Vector's orders as a result of this. The pair have a good working relationship and Charmy does what he can to support the team. However, he has been known to question Vector's leadership when it conflicts with his own pure sense of justice and wanting to help others, which prompts him to try getting his own way.

Espio the Chameleon

Espio the Chameleon acts as a supervisor, as well as a friend and mentor, to Charmy. The bee does not take as much fun in annoying Espio as he does Vector so he tends to leave him be. Espio respects Charmy well enough as a detective and the pair have a good working relationship in their working environment. However, there have been times where Charmy has acted equally as rebellious to Espio as he has to Vector.^[24]^[25]^[26]

Shadow the Hedgehog

Charmy has exercised a more enthusiastic relationship with Shadow the Hedgehog, having demonstrated how much he respects and admires him by often saying how "great" Shadow is and why he looks at him as a role model. He is even shown helping Shadow with missions during the Black Arms incident.

Nite the Owl and Don the Rooster

Charmy hugging Nite, from *Sonic the Hedgehog* #74.

Vector! Espio! There's my favourite detective team. Ready to pick up radio's latest star?

— Nite the Owl, Sonic the Hedgehog #48

Like with the rest of the Chaotix, Charmy is good friends with Nite the Owl and Don the Rooster, who help them with some cases. They both sometimes even babysit Charmy whilst Vector and Espio are busy, even letting Charmy use their radio station equipment. The pair was helping the detectives on their investigation on Clean Sweep Inc., and eventually helped them on their fight against Clutch with Don helping to rescue the Detectives when they were held captive in the engine room.