Why Does Super Sonic Look Like A Super Saiyan?

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 introduced Super Sonic to the world 1992. Just one year before that, the Super Saiyan form had debuted in the Dragon Ball manga. The resemblance was immediately noticeable among fans, and for good reason.

Sonic creators Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima are both big Dragon Ball fans, and this short video takes a quick look at some of the homages they put in the series. Super Sonic is the standout of course -- especially with his high power level from the Chaos Emeralds.

The most recent appearance of Super Sonic, as of this video, is in Sonic Frontiers. That game is available now on pretty much every platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Follow FrameWork on Twitter

Follow Tony on Twitter

Follow FrameWork on Instagram

Follow Tony on Instagram

Follow FrameWork on TikTok

Follow FrameWork on Facebook

Sources:

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - All 7 Chaos Emeralds [JoeyMetalman]

Interview with Yuji Naka, Yasushi Yamaguchi, Naoto Oshima, & Hirokazu Yasuhara [Schmupulations]

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) - Super Sonic in first Zone - no cheats method - 720p 60fps - No comment [Jerzku'sGames]

Interview with Yuji Naka [Sonic Magazine]

[matthewgrant]

You forgot about Shadow being Sonic’s Vegeta

[DavidZakuzaRyutashi]

Trunks' Japanese Voice actor also voices Silver... So what more proof do you need? 🤣

[eex]

Yes, at first it was just an extra that made reference to Dragon ball but over time it became something iconic of Sonic until it became the Super Sonic that we currently know in Sonic Frontiers with new abilities that make it clear that it is no longer just a reference

[MidosujiSen]

There's no need to make a case for Silver, it's been confirmed for ages that he was directly based on Trunks.

[HxHDRA]

Art imitates art, and the world grows ever more beautiful

[DJNeoncat]

It's crazy that super sonic from sonic adventure up to now always had red eyes, but at some point during Akira Toriyana's early concept of Super Saiyan Goku, he gave Goku Red eyes, but it made Goku looked a bit evil, so he decided to change it to green instead.

[sgf]

That concept art of Super Sonic goes HARD

[cobaltprime]

And they went all in on it with Frontiers.

[-FauzanUSSJB-]

1992
"Hello dbz do you mind if i take some concept of super saiyan form?"

"Yes you can sonic."

2016
"Hello sonic do you mind if i take some concept of hyper form?"

"yes you can DBS."

[soul]

I'll never forget during a questioning at a con or something. Someone asked what happened to Hyper Sonic. And one of the people answering, I forgot who. Literally said they wanted to "avoid" any more similarities to another big franchise.
Which is funny now since only now with Ultra Instinct does Hyper have any similarities.

[killerqueen]

Silver is literally trunks...he's actually the inspiration

[AkagamiTcg]

Knowing Toriyama, he probably forgot about it lmao

[CormDaCrow]

Super Sonic is super sajain
Silver is Trunks
The special fields are King Kai's planet
And then the chaos emeralds are the dragon balls.

[ballorafuntime]

People wanted Goku in smash, but we already got him since brawl.

[KilosFoxo]

"You could even argue silver has the same goal as trunks"

That's explicitly stated

[Khyon]

Piccolo and Knuckles are both Loners that come from an ancient Tribe that has something to do with the Powerful Artifacts in Question.

[Rael]

The first time I played sonic 3 was shortly after the super saiyan episodes were released in English. I remembered telling my friend that sonic can go super saiyan

[DJAngel_]

Oh sorry I was collecting the blue spheres at target

[greenlightning]

Well classic sonic games used a lot of pop culture references in the games such as the death egg dbz michal Jackson and Litterally tons more but that’s one of the things that made sonic so interesting back in the day

[FinalHopeTrio]

Another fun fact: the higher levels of Super Saiyan also came AFTER Hyper Sonic, despite the devs saying otherwise.