Sonic Channel

Sonic Channel (ソニックチャンネル, Sonikku Chan’neru) is an official Japanese website for the Sonic the Hedgehog series published and maintained by Sega. Launched during E3 2005,^[1]滝沢修. セガ、「ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ」が携帯電話で復活「ソニック」のポータルサイトも開設. GAME Watch. 19 May 2005. archived 12 June 2013. Japanese. Archived version the site serves as a central hub for official Japanese news, character information, game details, downloadable content, fan submissions, and exclusive artwork related to the franchise.

The website is known for its expanded series information and recurring character profiles, as well as its downloadable calendars, wallpapers, icons, coloring pages, and other themed materials. It has also hosted original stories and artwork features, including cover stories, Otherworld Comedy, Calendar Comedy, and Sonic PICT. Sonic Channel was redesigned in late 2015 for its 10th anniversary and again in early 2025 for its 20th anniversary.

Overview[edit]

Sonic Channel features official updates and information related to the Sonic the Hedgehog series, including news about games, events, television projects, merchandise, music releases, collaborations, and other franchise activity. The site also provides downloadable materials such as calendars, wallpapers, icons, coloring pages, paper crafts, and stationery, alongside fan participation features such as fan art, screenshot submissions, and community-themed activities.

A major part of the website is its collection of character and game information. Sonic Channel maintains profiles for many recurring characters in the franchise, with details such as names, species, gender, height, weight, likes, dislikes, special abilities, personality traits, goals, media appearances, and selected game appearances. It also includes a history section listing many games in the series, with summaries, screenshots, release information, genres, supported platforms, player counts, purchase links, and official website links where available.

Sonic Channel is especially known for its original monthly artwork. The site has featured three main forms of recurring artwork: Calendar, Wallpaper, and Sonic PICT, with Calendar and Sonic PICT being merged as of 2025. In recent years, the calendar-style artwork has gained attention for its accompanying stories and fan participation features.

In 2021, Sonic Channel published calendar artwork by Yuji Uekawa, featuring Sonic alongside different characters, with Japanese stories written by Eitaro Toyoda. In 2023, Toyoda returned as the writer of Otherworld Comedy, a series in which characters, including some chosen through public polls, were placed in unusual situations and settings. The 2023 calendar artwork was illustrated by Tomoko Hayane. In 2024, the monthly calendar feature continued as Calendar Comedy, also known as Tell us, creators!, with Hayane once again providing the artwork. Like the 2023 feature, secondary characters were selected through public polls, but the written-story format shifted toward fan participation. Contributors submitted their own short stories based on the monthly artwork, with five winners receiving badges and selected entries being discussed and expanded upon by Toyoda and KIKUZO, also known as Yuichi Kikuchi, Sonic Channel’s webmaster. The format continued into 2025, with the major change being the removal of public polling and the use of game screenshots instead of original character artwork for the prompt images.

The website formerly included a collection of browser-based games. Some were based on existing titles, such as Shadow the Hedgehog Flash, while others were original games created for the site, such as Sonic the Broad Jump. Earlier versions of Sonic Channel also included twenty-five jigsaw puzzles based on character artwork from the website, which remain associated with the older version of the site.

Although Sonic Channel is widely followed outside Japan, the website has not received full official English localization. A machine translation option is available, but its accuracy has often been criticized, especially for story and lore-related material.^[2]@E_Toyoda39 on Twitter. 20 March 2023. accessed 6 May 2026. “Hello!
The translation tool you used translates "次元" into English as "dimension," which is unfortunately incorrect. The word "次元" here means Level, Tier, or Class. It describes the fact that Metal Sonic can continue to grow as long as it competes with Sonic.
Thanks! :D”^[3]@E_Toyoda39 on Twitter. 21 December 2023. accessed 6 May 2024. “Recently, I have been using machine translation services more and more. But my impression is that the translation accuracy on topics such as games and manga is less than 70%, even including AI translation.
I was surprised to see this Google translation. :D”

Sonic Channel also hosts a monthly livestream known as Sonic Red Lantern, a late-night broadcast featuring Sonic Channel staff and recurring guests such as Tomoya Ohtani. The program is streamed through the Japanese Sonic YouTube channel and social media accounts, with staff discussing recent Sonic-related releases, merchandise, community posts, artwork, and other monthly topics over food and drinks. Broadcasts usually take place during the final week and a half of each month. Sonic Red Lantern is often preceded by another stream focused on Japanese merchandise news, partnerships, brand ambassador segments, and Sonic gameplay, making the pair broadly comparable to the Sonic Official livestreams produced for the United States.

Parts of Sonic Channel have been treated as connected to the wider game continuity. Ian Flynn stated on the BumbleKast podcast that, to the best of his knowledge, Sonic Channel material such as the Cover Stories, Calendar Comedy, and monthly photos were canon.^[4]Live Q&A + Disastrous Puns! | BumbleKast LIVE! for March 27th, 2023 - Ian Flynn Q&A Monthly Stream (29:14). YouTube. 25 March 2023. accessed 6 May 2026. “Ian Flynn: To the best of my knowledge, the Sonic Channel material is canon.” Later game material, including Shadow Generations, has also referenced Sonic PICT artwork. Otherworld Comedy, however, was later stated by another lore manager to not be canon.^[5]https://x.com/MisterCrits/status/1922768179329142851

History[edit]

Sonic Channel was launched during E3 2005 as Sega’s official Japanese portal for the Sonic the Hedgehog series.^[1]滝沢修. セガ、「ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ」が携帯電話で復活「ソニック」のポータルサイトも開設. GAME Watch. 19 May 2005. archived 12 June 2013. Japanese. Archived version The site was created as a central online source for Japanese franchise news, game information, character material, downloads, and other official content related to Sonic.

Over time, Sonic Channel expanded beyond a basic news and information portal. It became a regular source of character profiles, downloadable wallpapers and calendars, fan art themes, community participation features, and original artwork projects. Older versions of the site also hosted browser-based games and jigsaw puzzles based on Sonic Channel artwork.

The website received a major update in late 2015 for its 10th anniversary. It was redesigned again in early 2025 for its 20th anniversary, bringing changes to its layout and content organization. Following the 2025 redesign, the site’s game history section was revised, with crossover titles such as the Mario & Sonic series removed in favor of mobile games and other spin-offs.

Stories[edit]

Sonic Channel has hosted several recurring story and artwork features, ranging from comic-style promotional material to monthly illustrations with accompanying written or user-submitted scenarios. These features often expand on character interactions, seasonal themes, and lighthearted situations outside the format of the main games.

Sonic Comic

Sonic Comic refers to comic material published through Sonic Channel, including game-related comics and special promotional works. Some of these comics are tied to specific game releases, such as comics created for Sonic Colors: Ultimate and Sonic Forces, including Sonic Forces: Stress Test.

Cover stories

The 2021 Sonic Channel cover stories featured monthly artwork by Yuji Uekawa, usually pairing Sonic the Hedgehog with another character. Each illustration was accompanied by a Japanese story written by Eitaro Toyoda, giving the artwork a short narrative context.

Otherworld Comedy

Otherworld Comedy was a 2023 Sonic Channel story feature written by Eitaro Toyoda. The series placed Sonic characters in unusual settings and situations, with some featured characters chosen through public polls. The accompanying calendar artwork was illustrated by Tomoko Hayane.

Calendars

Sonic Channel has released recurring calendar artwork as part of its downloadable and monthly artwork features. In recent years, these calendar illustrations became closely tied to story-based features such as the 2021 cover stories, Otherworld Comedy, and Calendar Comedy. As of 2025, the Calendar and Sonic PICT formats have been merged.

Wallpapers

Sonic Channel regularly publishes downloadable wallpapers featuring official Sonic artwork. These wallpapers are made available in different sizes, including desktop and mobile formats, and have featured work by artists such as Yuji Uekawa.

Sonic Pict

Sonic PICT is a recurring Sonic Channel artwork feature. By 2025, the Sonic PICT and Calendar formats had been merged, with Sonic PICT descriptions and related narrative material placed under the site’s Side Story section. In 2026, artwork by Yui Karasuno continued to serve as the monthly Calendar and Sonic PICT artwork.

Nurie (Coloring Book)

The Nurie section contains printable coloring pages based on characters from the Sonic series. These pages are part of Sonic Channel’s downloadable content and allow fans to print and color official line artwork.

Lettersets etc.

Sonic Channel has offered downloadable stationery and related printable materials, including writing paper, bookmarks, and other themed items featuring Sonic characters.

Icons

Sonic Channel has also hosted downloadable icons, including icons created for Sonic 2020, made available for fan use.

Current website contents[edit]

Main page

The main page of the Sonic Channel website serves as a hub for the rest of the site. It highlights the latest and upcoming game releases, recent news, special pages, merchandise, wallpapers, and links to the latest video posted on the Sonic Japan YouTube channel. The page also provides access to recent fan art and screenshot submissions, usually covering the last two months of themed entries.

The bottom of the page includes links to related official social media accounts, including SonicStyles on Instagram, SONICMOVIECHANNEL on YouTube, and the Sonic Channel X account, where much of the site’s content is posted under @SonicOfficialJP. The top-left corner includes a quick link to Sega‘s Japanese website, while the top-right corner contains the machine translation option. A question mark icon links to general information about the website, the machine translation feature, and guidance on the fair use of Sonic Channel content.

Topic

The Topic section contains assorted official news related to the Sonic series. Its posts can be filtered through five categories: all, information, events, goods, sound, and collaboration. The all tab collects broader franchise news and major announcements, such as information related to the Knuckles television series. Information is the broadest individual category, covering general updates across the site, including story entries, monthly features, and gameplay-related releases.

The events category covers event-related announcements, including appearances at events such as Tokyo Game Show and information about Asia meetups. Goods focuses on merchandise and product releases in Japan. Sound covers soundtrack and music-related releases. Collaboration is used for crossover projects and partnership announcements involving Sonic and other companies.

History

The History section lists many games from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Games are organized under tabs by release year, with sorting options for ascending or descending order. Each entry includes a short description of the game’s story, an overview of its gameplay, screenshots, and general release details, such as title, Japanese release date, genre, recommended number of players, platform information, purchase links, and official website links when available.

Before the 2025 redesign, this section also included crossover titles such as the Mario & Sonic series. After the redesign, those titles were removed in favor of mobile games and other spin-offs.

Character introduction

The Character introduction section is divided into character profiles and a chronological overview of the series’ history.

Character descriptions

The character description section is split between Modern and Classic characters. Each side includes a relationship chart showing how groups and characters are connected to one another, including their relationship to Team Sonic and other characters on the chart.

Sonic Channel lists 49 character biography pages in total. Each profile includes a banner with 3D stock artwork and a short biography containing details such as Japanese and English names, species, gender, height, weight, likes, dislikes, and special abilities. Some characters, such as Sonic, Tails, and Blaze, have altered or missing fields compared to the standard profile format. The profiles also include short descriptions covering personality, goals, and other defining traits. More recent versions of the pages added media sections showing where characters appear in Sonic Channel material, such as Sonic Comic and the 2021 Cover stories, as well as lists of selected game appearances with brief descriptions of each character’s role.

The following characters have Sonic Channel biographies:

Modern

Sonic and friends

Bad guys

Classic

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Miles “Tails” Prower
• Knuckles the Echidna
• Amy Rose
• Dr. Eggman
• Metal Sonic
• Trip the Sungazer
• Fang the Hunter

Removed

As of the March 2025 update, the following characters have had their biographies removed from the website.

• E-102 Gamma
• Tikal
• Emerl
• Marine the Raccoon
• Sticks the Badger (still available as an option on the Fan Card creator)
• Eggman Nega

Sonic World Story

Sonic World Story is Sonic Channel’s official chronological overview of the main Sonic game world. It presents key events from the series in timeline order and functions as one of the site’s major lore resources.

Special

The Special section hosts many of Sonic Channel’s recurring creative features, including monthly wallpaper artwork, Tell us, creators!, Calendar artwork, and Sonic PICT. The section is also where descriptions and introductions for these recurring features are usually published.

The recurring monthly artwork often features major characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, Blaze the Cat, and Silver the Hedgehog. Other monthly slots are commonly given to recurring cast members such as Cream the Rabbit, Vector the Crocodile, Doctor Eggman, and Metal Sonic. In 2026, Yui Karasuno‘s Sonic PICT artwork continued as the monthly Calendar and Sonic PICT artwork, succeeding Tomoko Hayane‘s previous artwork, while Yuji Uekawa worked on the Wallpaper artwork. Tell us, creators! also continued to use game screenshots as prompts, as it had in the previous year, rather than new in-house artwork. Monthly commemorative artwork by Karasuno is also published through Sonic Channel’s social media accounts, although it is not featured directly in the section.

The Special section is divided into six main subsections.

Fan card

The Fan card feature allows users to create their own avatar using a template similar to the avatars seen in Sonic Forces. After creating an avatar, users are asked to fill in information such as their favorite character, favorite game, how they first encountered the series, their favorite part of the series, and their favorite Sonic Channel activity. Completed cards can be shared and viewed by other fans in a database.

Staff Column

The Staff Column section usually contains commentary on calendar and wallpaper artwork from Sonic Channel staff, including contributors such as Eitaro Toyoda and Tomoko Hayane. It has also occasionally included other staff features, such as collaboration material related to Fuji-Q Highland.

On 20 June 2025, a new corner titled Sonic Channel Broadcasting Station began. Hosted monthly by KIKUZO, the program was created to deliver useful information related to #Sonicatsu and help fans enjoy Sonic-related activities.

Downloads

The Downloads section collects several types of downloadable Sonic Channel material. Its wallpaper section contains Sonic Channel wallpapers released over the years, offered in formats for desktop and mobile use. The icon section contains downloadable icons created for Sonic 2020.

The calendar section works similarly to the wallpaper section, but focuses on calendar artwork, including calendar versions of some wallpaper illustrations. The coloring book section contains printable coloring pages featuring a wide range of Sonic characters. The paper craft section includes printable crafts that can be assembled, including one based on the Tornado. The stationery section contains printable items such as character-themed writing paper and bookmarks.

Side story

The Side story section is used for artwork features with narrative material attached to them. It currently includes Sonic PICT descriptions alongside stories from Calendar Comedy and the 2021 Cover stories.

SNS video/distrubution

The SNS video distribution section collects videos made for social media. These include the “How to Draw” series hosted by Hayane and Yui Karasuno, which provides step-by-step guides for drawing Sonic characters. Other videos, such as segments following the adventures of a Sonic plush, are also found in this section.

Game content

The Game content section focuses on special media and artwork created for Sonic games. This includes comics produced for titles such as Sonic Colors: Ultimate and Sonic Forces, including Sonic Forces: Stress Test.

Fan gallery

The Fan gallery contains fan art and screenshot submissions organized around monthly themes. Sonic Channel’s official X account announces these themes about a month in advance, giving creators time to prepare their entries. The themes often match seasonal topics or events, such as Halloween in October or autumn in November.

The screenshot side of the gallery works in a similar way, with users submitting screenshots from Sonic games that match the monthly theme. Selected entries are shown on the first day of each month with comments from the design team. Winners receive collectible Sonic Channel badges based on characters from the franchise.

The Fan gallery page also includes monthly prompts and submission calls for Calendar Comedy and Tell us, creators!. Like other Sonic Channel categories, the page is divided into multiple sections so users can switch between fan art, screenshots, Tell us, creators! submissions, and prompt listings.

Current prompts

June 2026

Tell us, creators! – Sonic & Knuckles – (15 May 2026 – 31 May 2026)

June 2026

Fan art – Wishes – (20 May 2026 – 20 June 2026)

Screenshots – Sonic Forces – (20 May 2026 – 20 June 2026)

Gallery[edit]

Trivia[edit]

• Although the monthly characters featured in Sonic Channel artwork are usually not fixed, some characters appear in certain months more often than others.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog usually receives artwork in June, as it is the month of Sonic’s birthday.
  • Miles “Tails” Prower often appears in January, or within the first three months of the year, possibly alluding to his role as Sonic’s first companion in the series.
  • Amy Rose commonly appears in February, likely because Valentine’s Day falls during that month and because of Amy’s association with love.
  • Blaze the Cat tends to appear in November, possibly because Sonic Rush was released during that month.
  • Silver the Hedgehog has frequently appeared in April in recent years. This may relate to his love of nature, as April is often associated with spring in the Northern Hemisphere. He has also appeared often in holiday months such as October and December.
  • Shadow the Hedgehog, and occasionally fellow Team Dark member Rouge the Bat, often appear in October or during the autumn months, likely due to Halloween and the darker tone often associated with Shadow and Team Dark.
  • Doctor Eggman and his creations, including Metal Sonic, Orbot, and Cubot, often appear in October for similar seasonal reasons, or in December, possibly alluding to the idea of them serving as the year’s “final boss.”
• Despite the release of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG – Life in Sonic’s World, which gave titles to some Sonic PICT artwork, some pieces received different titles when they were uploaded to Sonic Channel in 2024.

References[edit]

Related Sonic Wiki Articles

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG – Life in Sonic’s World

Sonic PICT

Related Sonic News

SONICPICT July 2026 Calendar “Cream & Cheese’s Rainy Day Welcome”

June 22, 2026

Sonic 35th Anniversary Pop-Up Shop Brings New Merchandise and Exclusive Stickers to Osaka

June 12, 2026

Introducing the June Sonic Channel wallpaper♪

June 5, 2026

Sonic Channel Celebrates Sonic the Fighters’ 30th Anniversary With New Honey the Cat Artwork

May 29, 2026

SONICPICT June 2026 Calendar: “Eggman and Sage Shopping Scene”

May 25, 2026