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It seems like Sonic the Hedgehog and Inugami Korone are truly super-best friends! After a series of successful video game collaborations and regional promotions, the Japanese VTuber has once again partnered with SEGA to produce a short four-panel comic in aid of the company's "Fast Friends Forever" initiative. In the comic "Return to Sender", the YouTube personality "demonstrates the explosively positive way of working together with friends," according to the Sonic social media post. We do like how fun and expressive it is, even in doodle form. You probably don't need any kind of introduction to who Inugami Korone is, but just in case SEGA has provided a handy Q&A with the online virtual celebrity as well. Enjoy!

Tails is a Vtuber now, apparently! Via an announcement on Twitter, SEGA has revealed “TailsTube,” a new “informative” web series about all things Sonic. This series will be hosted by a Vtuber avatar of Tails voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey. Beyond what’s revealed in the tweet, not much else is really known about the show. Will there be announcements? Interviews? Game presentations? We’ll just have to see. You can check out the brief announcement video below. The show will launch sometime next week. This isn’t the first time Sonic characters have become vtubers. Last year, SEGA of Japan turned Sonic into a vtuber for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. Tails later joined him in a stream in December. This is the first time this will be done in English, though.

If you hadn't caught it, the official Sonic YouTube channel teased bringing the Sonic Vtuber models stateside in the form of a Tails "streaming" series, TailsTube. The first episode premiered today, and it came with some answers to a longstanding question in the modern franchise. Tails lays out the nature of how Sonic & co. are able to hang out with both human people and anthropomorphic animals. The world represented in the games contains a number of major continents (such as the ones featured in Sonic Unleashed) and many, many smaller islands (like West Side Island, which Tails reminds the audience he's from). It's also stated that the human people and animal people settle in different places: This pushes against previous theories and statements that the anthropomorphic animal characters live on an entirely different world from the human characters that appear from Sonic Adventure through Sonic Unleashed (though it doesn't give clear guidance on the split between "modern" and "classic" Sonic quite yet). It should come as no surprise that the show itself was workshopped by Jasmine Hernandez (production manager), Tyson Hesse (animator), Ian Flynn (writer), Mike Cisneros (licensing manager), and Aaron Webber (strategy, studio/community relations), given the amount of direct detail given to a long-standing fan question. Though the whole unified world thing was the biggest bombshell, the video contained several other questions and references to savor: Q&A immediately kicks off with a SATAM reference: Sonic gives his old chestnut, "Let's do it to it." The checkerboards and loop-de-loops in the landscape are naturally occurring formations, as far as Sonic and Tails know. Why does Sonic use a racecar? "Because it's cool." Neither Sonic nor Tails know the origins of the Chaos Emeralds, nor does Sonic always have a consistent way to find them. It's also unclear if Tails can become Super Tails outside of the Classic series, given his reaction to Sonic discussing his Super Sonic form. (I'm sure some will argue times when Tails has gone super haven't been canonical versions of those stories, but trust me when I say I'm not the person to spend that time and energy convincing.) What's Sonic's relationship to Amy? Well, she "is just a really good friend." Tails reacts with skepticism. One message sent by a "viewer" uses a Tangle the Lemur avatar. So hey, not saying the IDW comics will play a role in the games, but they're at least fair game to reference beyond the mobile game! Among the little details on Tails' Mac-like desktop, the screen looks like his handheld Miles Electric computer seen from Sonic Unleashed onwards, complete with handle. It runs on chaOS with a little Omochao icon, and Sonic-styled parody icons of major applications in the tray (as well as a Chao transfer terminal). Icons on his desktop include his Tails Heal card from Sonic Battle, and folders titled "Extreme Gear Concepts," "Tornado 3," and "Chao Dinner Recipes." There's some unknown person in the lineup of human characters. The rest are directly taken from existing Sonic Unleashed concept art; however, this woman does not appear in that game, and is drawn in a slightly different art style than the Unleashed concept art characters. In a Twitter reply, Flynn alludes to knowing who she is, but doesn't provide any other context. If the Sonic marketing staff wanted to ensure people would continue following this YouTube series, they sure did start strong, between confirming vague bits of the Sonic brand bible and seeding small mysteries into it. The video was a brief and cute delight, even to a cold, jaded, fan like myself who long abandoned any interest or concern about the concept of "canon." And through its run, I think we can all hope for an answer to the biggest Sonic mystery of them all: which characters did they actually see fit to invest Vtuber models and voice acting time for? Thanks to @josiahblaze for the Ian Flynn tweet, and site writer @nuckles87 for additional research.

If you haven't been paying attention to YouTube in the last couple of years, you might be interested to know that there's been a bit of a trend - particularly in Japan - towards creating content using virtual hosts instead of real people. Even the Sonic social team has got on board recently with its TailsTube series. Now, SEGA Japan has launched its own VTuber called Usaki Rin, and one of the first things the company got 'her' to do was to sing Sonic Adventure 2's "Escape From The City". Because, of course it did. This cover of the iconic City Escape theme, which features a cool new arrangement by Jun Senoue, was actually posted a couple weeks ago on Usaki Rin's standalone YouTube channel - and is itself a full version of a song originally performed back in February during a 'SEGA New' livestream. But the Official Japanese SEGA Twitter account has only just got round to posting it, so we've heard it, and now we're obliged to share it with you, ensuring that there is truly no escape from hearing the vocalised tones of our new Kawaii Overlord. If watching animated big-chested ladies bopping to SEGA music is your thing, you can subscribe to the Usaki Rin channel by heading here. Via Twitter (S/O Tracker_TD)