Retro Replay Retro Gaming History, Reviews & Emulation
Dr. Eggman is a feminist. That’s the assessment of the North American Sonic Heroes manual, which introduces him as “a romanticist, a feminist, and a self-professed gentleman.”
Quite a character reference for a man whose usual response to a setback is to build a larger robot. The mustache says supervillain. The biography says he would like a moment to discuss how unfairly the mustache has been portrayed.
Self-professed is doing some excellent work here
That last qualification deserves an employee-of-the-month award. Nobody else has signed off on the gentleman part. Eggman has simply assessed the situation, consulted Eggman, and come back with a glowing recommendation.
The rest of the biography isn’t blind to the problem. It acknowledges that his nicer qualities are hard to detect through the laughter and declarations of world domination. This is the sort of reference letter that begins with outstanding technical qualifications and ends with a discreet request not to give the applicant access to heavy machinery.
Consider his introduction in Sonic the Hedgehog. You break open his robots and little animals jump out. It’s a memorable way to establish a villain, and a difficult first impression to overcome with a particularly thoughtful paragraph in the instruction booklet.
The Eggman public-relations department has a challenge
By Sonic Adventure 2, players could take control of Eggman and stomp around in his armed walker themselves. There’s real pleasure in charging up a lock-on attack and watching the machinery do its work. You can see why he keeps building the things. You can also see why nobody has asked him to supervise the neighborhood watch.
Then Sonic Heroes comes along with its three-character teams, and the manual quietly hands the recurring villain a surprisingly polished personal statement. Romanticist. Feminist. Gentleman. Presumably “frequently loses to hedgehog” was left off to keep it to one page.
There is a localization wrinkle beneath the joke
The printed English description is real. Its wording also has a possible explanation beyond Eggman having an unusually eventful reading list. Ace Linguist’s analysis points to the Japanese word feminisuto, which can describe a man who acts chivalrously toward women as well as a feminist. Similar wording appears in Eggman’s official Japanese Sonic X biography, rather than the Japanese Heroes manual. That’s context for the English line, not proof of exactly what its translator intended.
Still, the English booklet put those words beside that face, and the result is magnificent. Eggman would probably insist that his empire offers equal opportunities. Everyone gets the same opportunity to obey Eggman.
Sources
- Sonic Heroes North American GameCube manual, original Sega/THQ booklet preserved online, for Eggman’s character biography. The article includes the reader-supplied marked excerpt.
- Ace Linguist: Dr. Eggman, genius, gentleman, feminist? (2019), for the linguistic analysis and comparison with Sonic X.
- TV Tokyo: Sonic X character profiles, the official Japanese profile using the word feminisuto.
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